Old NTLWORLD Email account Hacked

[JonnyJJ]

Hi,

I have 2 old NTLWORLD email accounts going back to early 2000’s. They are both still used and are active. I’ve not had Virgin broadband for a few years but the accounts remain active.

One of the email accounts has been hacked and I can’t get help when I ring as I no longer have an account with Virgin. Can anyone suggest how I can change the password on the hacked account? I’m happy for the accounts to be deleted after I’ve gotten emails I need.

thanks

[coenoby]

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@JonnyJJ wrote:

Can anyone suggest how I can change the password on the hacked account?

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To answer your question, you can use the 'Forgotten password' option that Virgin Media provide. Use this link  https://my.virginmedia.com/forgot-details/password and enter your ntlworld  address as the username.

However, if you get the "Unable to find your username" error, it probably means that VM have, or in the process of, deleting the email account because it is no longer linked to a live broadband account. Sadly, they never seem to give any warning before doing that.😕

As you have probably already realised you need to prepare for both your ntlworld accounts to disappear at any time.

Coenoby

[JonnyJJ]

Yep, says account not recognised. I’ve not been with Virgin for 15 years but email has been active, no warning at all. I think it has something to do with the Spam and Abuse system being updated (see mods top message on the email forum).

I have emails I need to access.

[jem101]

It would seem likely that whatever changes have been made to the email system has triggered a general clean up of old accounts which really should have been deleted years ago. Possibly coincidental but more likely related is the big increase of users saying that their email is now inaccessible even though they are current customers. What I suspect may well have happened is that their email addresses were never properly associated with their accounts and so effectively are 'orphaned' just as if the customer had left VM.

On of the forum team should get to this thread and offer to help out although what they can do may be limited if you are not a current customer. There is the distinct probability in view of the error message you are getting that the mailbox is question has already been deleted and in that case there is no chance at all of it being recovered. If you have any other working email addresses, then you need to plan for them to also vanish in the near future and take the opportunity to back up any required email and start the process of moving to a new address.

[coenoby]

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@JonnyJJ wrote:

 I think it has something to do with the Spam and Abuse system being updated (see mods top message on the email forum).

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I suspect not.

When VM lock an account following suspected security issues that results in the 'Mailbox is not available.......try again in an hour" error message and resetting the password often resolves that.

There does not seem to be any pattern as to when VM delete old email accounts that are no longer linked to a VM broadband account. That has been an issue since I have been using the forum and over the years there have been lots of posts similar to yours long before the latest "Spam and Abuse' issue raised its ugly head.

As I said earlier, VM rarely if ever give any warning before closing an old email address.

Coenoby

[JonnyJJ]

If I send an email to the address in question, it doesn’t bounce back, which makes me think the account has not been deleted.

[coenoby]

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@JonnyJJ wrote:

If I send an email to the address in question, it doesn’t bounce back, which makes me think the account has not been deleted.

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It certainly suggests that the mailbox still exists so there is a slight ray of hope.

However, the "We cannot find the username" error when you try to reset the password suggests that VM have closed your online Webmail account and that may well mean the Forum Team will be unable to help even if they wanted to.

As Jem101 advised, one of the Forum Team will contact you via this thread.

Coenoby

[JonnyJJ]

Anyone think Ofcom would help me out on this?

Seems very unfair they can lock me out of my email account without notice after 15 years.

[Alex_RM]

Hi JonnyJJ,

Thanks for posting and welcome to our community 🙂

I'm sorry to hear you've some issues accessing your email account, you do need to have an active broadband account in order to use the email service, they are usually removed after 90 days.

Sometimes if the email address is in constant use it can be missed, we do go through and do a clean up and as such, any email address no longer associated with an active account are deleted and removed.

I've popped you over a private message to get a few more details from you (purple envelope, top right hand corner) to see if this is some thing I can help with, I do need to the set the expectation however that I may not be able to.

Alex_Rm

[JonnyJJ]

Cheers Alex. I’ve responded to your message.