Virgin Media Community

[notarobot]

there are so many people experiencing their email account being locked over the last few weeks.

Apparently being locked by VM due to suspicious activity is the main reason...but why are there so many cases at the moment ?

How are hackers getting access to people's email accounts? 

[apcyberax]

most likely front forcing weak passwords.

[BrianY]

Not even the team in the security centre will disclose, I just had notice of suspicious activity on one day?

[timbo57]

Clearly some widespread hacking has taken place.

Fraudulent activity too place on my Amazon account as a result of an auto forwarding address set up for all Amazon emails. This auto forwarding rule was not visible on my account so not sure how this was set up. This took place in May but my email account was only locked last Friday - I was then told why by email which I obviously couldn't read because my account was locked!

[ravenstar68]

Personally my thought is if you've got an account like an Amazon account, you should always enable two factor authentication anyway, either with Google Authenticator app on / text sent to - your mobile.  The same for any critical accounts that support 2FA.

I'll admit that VM's password does look weak, although if you use a password manager and a random password - even with the current password length etc, it can still be fairly secure.  I did have to bite my fingers earlier to stop me replying to a poster (possibly a troll) who wanted logging in made easier.

At the end of the day accounts are only as secure as users make them.  I've seen some passwords which are anything but secure, trust me names like birmingham123 or Hannah97 (both made up but I have seen similar) - wouldn't take a hacker long to breach.

Tim

[timbo57]

Good advice which I have followed - still don't understand how an auto forward can be set up and not be visible to the account holder though.

Tim

[用心棒]

In webmail the auto-forward rule does not filter which messages it forwards on; anything arriving in the Inbox is forwarded. If only Amazon emails were being forwarded then it was likely done with a redirect rule which would be listed under ≡, Setting, ▸ Email, Filter Rules

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[notarobot]

Yes Timbo57...exactly the same happened to us  ... hence the question.

There has to be more to this than just random spamming and hacks as there are so many people affected here..

  Wife's account blocked on 17th June...got access back on 20th...only to discover the Amazon frauds + thousands of spams (?) signing her  up for accounts and news letters all over the world.  

VM informed us that the redirect was added on 26th May !!!   without our knowledge.

Amazon refused to let us have access to the account or to block or close the account because the criminal had added 2 step authentication ...so we couldn't change the password or log on.

Bank cancelled card...Amazon now chasing us for the money from the transactions.  Unable to speak to anyone at Amazon + customer service guys on online chat are unable to do anything ...apart from sympathize !  

We have responded to Amazon emails in detail but are only getting automated response email + repeated request to pay for the transactions via some other card.

Its all a bit of a nightmare !

PM me if you wish to discuss further or compare dates etc.

In my view there is some sort of organised hacking and fraud going on here...It may be that VM is unaware of this, but as other have suggested the limited password security may not be helping.

I would really like to think that behind the scenes VM has a team busy investigating the source of all these suspicious activities that is causing them to lock access to mailboxes.