Email Hacked

[miranda2]

Why does my bt internet email address continually get hacked - I change my password regularly, but it makes no difference... junk emails get sent to all my address book... when I contact BT they are always very surprised and say they will sort it, but there is never a resolution.

Thanks - any suggestions gratefully received.

[licquorice]

Your email isn't continuously being hacked.

If it was ever hacked once and your address book was 'stolen' it can never be 'unstolen'.

Think of it in terms of a burglar entering your house and stealing a paper address book, he has those addresses for ever, nothing you can do to prevent him using the information I'm afraid.

[Anonymous]

If the spam your contacts are getting appears to them to be coming from you then you could create a new email address and telling your contacts to create a rule which automatically deletes emails coming from your current address

[miranda2]

Thank you - this is really useful information - shame BT customer service don't know these things and can explain, rather than say they'll fix the problem for you and just want you to change your password thinking that will fix it...

However I think I have been hacked more than once, as at least one person who got a spam email from me I haven't had their address for very long... or do these hackers have life-long access to my address book even though I keep changing my password?

Thanks again

[miranda2]

Thanks for that... such a shame that I'm stuck with this for ever. I think I could ask people that I know really well to have a rule, if we could work out how to do it!!, but not all those "acquaintances". It's a weird one, people get really really upset about this happening and now I'm a bit sad that I can't fix it easily. I'll definitely use a different email address from now on.

Again it would be really useful if BT customer service knew these basic things, and not try and fob you off with promising they'll fix it for you...

[Anonymous]

Creating a rule in an email client (Outlook, Thunderbird etc) is real easy but the method varies depending upon which client you're using. I always refer to my mate if I need information, his name is Google and he knows everything 😉

[Andy_N]

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@miranda2wrote:

Thank you - this is really useful information - shame BT customer service don't know these things and can explain, rather than say they'll fix the problem for you and just want you to change your password thinking that will fix it...

However I think I have been hacked more than once, as at least one person who got a spam email from me I haven't had their address for very long... or do these hackers have life-long access to my address book even though I keep changing my password?

Thanks again

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Hackers can't possibly have "life-long" access to your address book unless your own (or indeed other contacts) have security issues.

When your contacts appear to get spam "from" you - is this your name showing in the spam email - and not actually your correct email address?

It's not always "your" issue with security, people you send emails to could themselves be compromised in some way (malware, virus etc).

[licquorice]

To clarify, hackers will have life long access to the addresses that were in your contacts list at the time of the hack, they won't have access to any you have added subsequently.