Orphan Email account hacked

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am a former Virgin Media customer.

After leaving Virgin, my @virginmedia.com email address stayed active and I have been using it as a backup email address.

Due to a recent Gumtree data leak, my virgin email address and password have been leaked and the address has now been compromised.

Someone has logged into the email address and has send an email to myself threatening me and requesting bitcoin.

I have changed all my passwords for my online accounts and other email addresses, but I cannot change the password for the virgin media address as I can only log in through 3rd party email apps. 

Idealy I would like the email address deactivated and deleted.

I have tried to ring virgin but they haven't been helpful at all.

Hope anyone can give me some advice.

Thanks

Skydiver82

[coenoby]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hope anyone can give me some advice.

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One of the Forum Team (VM employees who support this forum) will catch up with your post in the next day or so. They will contact you via this thread and can arrange for your old email account to be fully deleted.

It seems that when VM "delete" an orphan email account they often just remove access to the webmail account but leave the mailbox itself still able to receive emails. That gives rise to the problem you are seeing.

Just one final point. You say :

"Due to a recent Gumtree data leak, my virgin email address and password have been leaked and the address has now been compromised.

Someone has logged into the email address and has send an email to myself threatening me and requesting bitcoin".

From what I have read the data available from the Gumtree site was the GPS location, full name, email address, and postcode of Gumtree users but not their passwords.  In any event, your VM email password is held by VM not Gumtree, so it could not have been leaked by Gumtree.

Was your blackmail email along these lines https://www.antivirus.com/2021/11/27/blackmail-and-sextortion-emails-what-to-watch-out-for/ ?

If so, those scammers do not have access to your email account but they routinely spoof (fake) your email address as "proof" they have more information about you and more control over your devices than they really have.

Having said all that of course, it is better to get that old VM email account fully deleted. 😉

Coenoby

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I thought it might have had something to do with the gumtree leak, as my google password manager came up with a warning that my gumtree details have been leaked. And as the passwords were the same for the gumtree and the vm account I assumed that this is how they got in. But as you said, it might be unrelated. 

The blackmail was similar to the link you posted. I know they have nothing on me as I don't perfom any sexual acts in front of my webcam and I use a webcam cover anyway. Still I am feeling spooked by the message and want the vm email account deleted.

Skydiver

[用心棒]

Whilst waiting for the forum team to respond do consider updating your password strategy and not reusing / sharing passwords; see Credential stuffing to better understand how miscreants exploit such leaks and password reuse / sharing.

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[Paul_DN]

Hi Anonymous,

Thank you for reaching out to us in our community and welcome back, sorry to hear your Email from a former account has been compromise, we are able to permanently delete the email address however aren't able to offer any further support as we have limited access once the account associated is closed.

So I can help further I will send you an invite into a private chat, once received please click on the purple envelope to accept.

Regards

Paul.