Hacked email

[Winterdene]

Hi, 

I’ve recently been locked out of an active email account (blueyonder). It first started by emails demanding money and threatening to steal information and share etc. I didn’t respond and deleted, without clicking on any links. Then password reset requests linked to this account started to come through and where able to change the related site passwords. I’ve been on holiday for the last two weeks and my phone wasn’t on for emails. I’ve tried to access and can’t receive any incoming emails. Also tried to change my password for the email account but can’t, and when prompted to send link to email address nothing is coming through. 
I was an existing virgin media customer several years ago, but not sure if I have an active account still. 

Is there any way I can get this resolved please? 

Kind Regards, 

Lee. 

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

---

@Winterdene wrote:

I was an existing virgin media customer several years ago, but not sure if I have an active account still. 

Is there any way I can get this resolved please ?

The thing is that Virgin Media email accounts, (whether @VirginMedia.com. @ntlworld.com or @blueyonder.co.uk)  were not issued as standalone email accounts. They were only issued as part of a broadband package / contract. 

According to the Terms and Conditions of those broadband contracts, 90 days after the customer terminated that  contract VM should have deleted any email accounts linked to it. In reality it seemed that VM often did not do that. As a result lots of people simply carried on using these "orphan" email accounts for years.

If you have currently have a VM broadband contract, then the Forum Team (VM staff who support this forum) may be able to help you.

However, if there is no live broadband contract in the background then all VM staff can do is to get the email account deleted for you to stop it being used by the hackers.

If the password for the account no longer works, then the only way you can try to recover it is by using this Forgotten Password link https://www.virginmedia.com/my-virgin-media/forgotten-details/password  Sadly, recent changes VM have made to the security on their email accounts means that is unlikely to work for old accounts such as yours. I suspect you may have discovered that already.

Have you tried accessing the email account via VM's webmail service on their website? Here's the link for that https://mail2.virginmedia.com/  . If you have only tried accessing the account via an app on you phone it would be worth trying that.

If you cannot access the account via an app or webmail and you no longer have a VM broadband account there is not much you can do to retrieve the situation other than to get VM to delete the email account to stop the hackers from using it.

One of the Forum Team will contact you via this thread in the next day or so.

Sorry I cannot be more helpful.

Coenoby

[Winterdene]

Thanks for the reply.
I did try the links, but can’t get any incoming Mail for a password reset .
I will wait for a reply from the team to see if I can get the account shut down. 
I wasn’t aware that about the 90 days closure of account, and have been using it for years. 
Cheers. 

[coenoby]

---

@Winterdene wrote:

Thanks for the reply.

No problem.

I did try the links, but can’t get any incoming Mail for a password reset .
I will wait for a reply from the team to see if I can get the account shut down.

Just to let you know, the VM password reset process does not involve VM sending out an email link but I guess you are referring to password resets on your other online accounts.

Coenoby

---

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @Winterdene 

Thank you so much for you r post and welcome to the community forums, it's great to have you here.

I am so sorry that you are facing this issue with your email and a big thank you to our community for their help so far. 

I would be happy to look into this with you via a Private Message. I will pop you a PM across now, please keep an eye out for the envelope at the top of your screen alerting you to a new message.