Virgin Media Community

[smeggybowler]

Hi,i have been informed by a cashback site that my email has been compromised, I have changed my email account password but when i log in there are no emails in the account.have checked forwarding and nothing in there,any ideas please.

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

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@smeggybowler wrote:

when i log in there are no emails in the account.have checked forwarding and nothing in there,any ideas please.

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Well, the obvious assumption of course is that the hacker has deleted them. Their main objective was probably to delete the emails that related to their fraudulent activity,such as the cash back site. However they may just found it easier to do a "Select all" and delete everything.

The hacker will almost certainly been selective in which emails were forwarded so as well as checking for auto forwarding in your account you also need to check for rogue "Filter rules".  The filter rules option appears in the same menu as auto forwarding.

If the missing emails are not in your "Trash" folder then they are gone for good I'm afraid, VM do not keep backups.

However, if you manage your emails using an email app on your phone or an email client such as Outlook then you may still have copies there.

Unfortunately, changing your password is not enough to make your email account secure. You must follow all the advice here; https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-mail-my-email-has-been-hacked .

The hacker may well have accessed other online accounts as well, so you also need to check your credit card and bank accounts for any fraudulent activity as well as your online accounts such as eBay and Amazon. 

Finally, you would be well advised to set up a new email account with a dedicated email provider which will give you a higher level of security than VM's basic email service offers. Gmail and Outlook.com are the market leaders but there are many others.

Coenoby

[smeggybowler]

Thanks,I've sent test emails but nothing comes through,it seems the email account is dead

[albob]

only a suggestion -- change your email password back to the original password and see what's there ?

[smeggybowler]

Hi, tried that  but it will not let me change the password. Just called virgin and they said the emails have been deleted 

[coenoby]

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@smeggybowler wrote:

Thanks,I've sent test emails but nothing comes through,

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So did you check filter rules as I suggested? The hacker may have set up a rule or rules to forward incoming emails or even to simply delete them as soon as they arrive.

"it seems the email account is dead"

Clearly not if you were able to log in and see that there are no emails there!

Coenoby

BTW changing the password is not going to help you at all as far as the missing emails are concerned. Check for rogue filters and disable them, that's a more likely solution.

[smeggybowler]

Yeah,checked all the filters everything seemed ok,called virgin media and they said all the emails have been deleted.they are looking into it

[coenoby]

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@smeggybowler wrote:

called virgin media and they said all the emails have been deleted.they are looking into it

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Sorry, but I had to chuckle when I read that. It's like finding you have water pouring down the wall of your living room and when you get a plumber in he says "You've got a water leak upstairs"!  If your emails are no longer there they must have been deleted, what other explanation is there?

Personally, I think the bigger mystery is this statement you made earlier:  "I've sent test emails but nothing comes through". Did you mention that to VM? 

Did you get any error messages back when you sent the test messages by the way?

The obvious causes are:

1) there is an auto forward set in the account

2) There is a filter or filters set in the account to remove incoming emails

However, you have said you already checked for those and there is nothing set up.

Another possibility is that for some reason  the test messages you have sent to the account have all been classed as spam and the spam setting in the account is set to "Reject all Spam messages".

That is a real long shot but you could check that by following steps 1 to 4 below.

Coenoby