blueyonder email unavailable, but i still receive emails through phone.

[adamjs]

Hi i got an email sent apparently from myself, saying that they have hacked my email, they have given me the password i use for it. but when i try to go on laptop to change password on virgin it says its unavailable, but i am still receiving emails to the account on my phone but cant change the password on it. they are asking for $400 bitcoin? and they will not destroy my phone they said they have put a trojan on my phone. as you can tell i dont know much about this computer stuff apart from turn it on and off. tried many times to change password and getting so frustrated at not getting anywhere with virgin on whatsapp, is it possible for them to do this or is it just a email trying to fool people and how the hell do they get it as if i sent it from my email and nothing is in sent box or did they delete it.

most confused here and thanks for any help given.

[Graham_A]

@adamjs First thing to say is that you have received an almost certain scam email intended, as you suggest, to scare you.  Unfortunately it is easy for miscreants to send emails looking as if they have come from your own account.

As to the problem you are having changing the account password this may indicate an issue with the email address.

Is it part of your current VM broadband account?  Blueyonder emails are from the Telewest days before they merged with NTL and changed name to Virgin Media.  Have you had the broadband account continuously during the time since Telewest?

[adamjs]

hi graham thanks yes it is linked to my account but, i left virgin for a few months to bt after connection issues, but then swapped back this was back in feb. it worked through all the time i was away, and even now it still gets email but to my phone. tried to log into email on laptop to change password and it keeps saying unavailable. the email only gets used for job sites and nothing important. its just dont want to lose it to some pillock lol.

[goslow]

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@adamjs wrote:

hi graham thanks yes it is linked to my account but, i left virgin for a few months to bt after connection issues, but then swapped back this was back in feb. it worked through all the time i was away, and even now it still gets email but to my phone. tried to log into email on laptop to change password and it keeps saying unavailable. the email only gets used for job sites and nothing important. its just dont want to lose it to some pillock lol.

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If you log into 'My Virgin Media' do you see the email address in question listed as one of your email accounts from within MVM?

The description of the email content requesting bitcoin is a common scam template.

If, however, they have included your email/password it is possible that your information has been made available in a data leak at some point in the past.

Have a read through this recent similar topic which may help explain in more detail

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Security-matters/A-PLAGUE-OF-SPOOFS/td-p/5113530

If you inspect the to/from details of your email you may well find that the display name shows your name but the email address behind the display name is not yours (may be real-looking or may be random nonsense)

You should check your email address on the 'Have I Been Pwned' website which is mentioned in the above link at message #2 .

If you have used that same email/password combo for other services/sites/logins you should change them all to unique and secure passwords for each site.

[Graham_A]

@adamjs Thanks for the update.  If you didn't explicitly ask for the email account to be moved to your new VM broadband account then it is very likely that it is now in the 'orphaned' category.  That would explain why it is coming up as unavailable. The email address should have been closed 90 days after you left in February.

The VM forum team should be able to advise further when they reach this thread.

[adamjs]

virgin send me emails at this address also it is on the contract, just looked at contract and it was dec i went back with virgin not feb. i've had password reset emails sent to it from them to get into my virgin account. but still getting emails on my phone as i have never logged out on it.

[Paul_DN]

Hi adamjs,

Thank you for reaching out to us in our community and welcome back, sorry to hear you no longer have the ability to change your Email password although you still receive Email to your phone and that this may have been hacked.

As advised if the Email wasn't exported to your new account when coming back to us we may not be able to do anything other than permanently delete it however I will be more than happy to have a look into this for you.

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

Regards

Paul.