Anyone have experience with getting their email account hijacked?

[Guttercat]

I think my only recourse is to delete the account altogether. It's my main email addy, and almost everything is tied to this account...financial stuff, forums, online shopping accounts, etc.

Yesterday I received an email from a friend. Noticed also that this email was CC'd to several people who are legitimately part of their contact group. So of course I thought nothing of it. When I opened the mail, it was obviously spam, with objectional content.

So, I go to my spam filter account (which I almost never open), and see several emails that look like they're generated by me, and have my actual name on them as the sender. They have objectional content as well. And, one made it past spam and into my actual account. Totally looks like "I" sent it out.

Anyone else dealt with this experience?

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

My yahoo mail account, which is my primary personal account, was hacked a year or so ago. I changed the password and it has been ok since.

Susan

 

[shawnrohrbach]

I think my only recourse is to delete the account altogether. It's my main email addy, and almost everything is tied to this account...financial stuff, forums, online shopping accounts, etc.

Yesterday I received an email from a friend. Noticed also that this email was CC'd to several people who are legitimately part of their contact group. So of course I thought nothing of it. When I opened the mail, it was obviously spam, with objectional content.

So, I go to my spam filter account (which I almost never open), and see several emails that look like they're generated by me, and have my actual name on them as the sender. They have objectional content as well. And, one made it past spam and into my actual account. Totally looks like "I" sent it out.

Anyone else dealt with this experience?

Susan's solution works, as well as deleting the account. Try and crate a series of passwords that are as we say in the biz "hardened" which means they are 12-16 characters using one or more capital letters, small letters, numbers and special characters. Rotate the passwords, modifying them a little bit each time they are used. Do the rotation every 45 days or so.

 

[Guttercat]

Thank you. Will do and see if this solves the problem. Hopefully I will not have to delete the account.

Had a similar issue some time ago, but the spammer did not have my actual name as the sender on the email, only the account username.

This time around, they do. Yikes!

 

[osborn99]

Been hacked 3 times which led me to believe I have spyware installed. Just went to factory settings to get rid. Check your computer with a virus software.

 

[Guttercat]

Been hacked 3 times which led me to believe I have spyware installed. Just went to factory settings to get rid. Check your computer with a virus software.

Thanks for the reply Osborn (and all).

I do run and update a couple of anti-spy/malware programs with some regularity.

It would seem the more one uses their computer for daily living, the more one is left wide-open to all sorts of chicanery.

This latest intrusion is just one more "bother" in an already hectic life. Grrrrr.