Email Hacked Details Changed

[rosedale]

My Father-In-Laws email has been hacked and all of his contacts have been emailed trying to get gift cards. The standard scam. 

We have gone in to try and reset the password but it seems that the hacker has created a gmail address that is a copy of his btinternet.com email and set it as his backup account.

e.g. email is example123@btinternet.com

and the new backup copy is:
example123@gmail.com

The mobile number seems to also have been changed as it is the same other than 1 digit. 

I am not sure how to reset his password with the backup email being changed to a fake one and the mobile number being incorrect. Does anyone know how to solve this issue.

[gg30340]

You will need to log onto his MyBT and check his "recovery" email address and phone number and if it has been changed you will need to change it.

You should do this first otherwise the hacker will be notified of any changes.

You will also need to change his MyBT password.

You will need to log onto his email account and check in the settings that no "forwarding" email addresses or "rules" have been set up in the account.

Have a look at this link which cover most things.

How can I tell if my email account is no longer secure? | BT Help

You should inform his contacts that his email account has been compromised and that they should treat any emails from him with caution.

Unfortunately you can not "un-steal" his contact list so now that the hackers have those details they can use them at anytime in the future. 

You should also contact and inform his bank and any other company that he uses with that email address and change his password to those companies.

You may find that the best option is to stop using that email address and get set up another email address and start using that.

[rosedale]

Thanks for your reply @gg30340 

Annoyingly I cant login to his My BT as the hacker has changed the password:

and I cant reset due to the new fake backup gmail and changed backup number.

My father-in-law is no longer a paid BT internet customer so I am not sure they will offer support for a free service (understandably). 

[gg30340 · Accepted solution]

If he is no longer a BT customer his email account will have been downgraded to a free BTMail Basic email account.

BT should still offer help and assistance with it however you will need to have your father present when you speak to them so that he can give permission to BT for you to act on his behalf.

Call BT 0330.1234.150.

[rosedale]

This worked! Thank you. 

After being on the phone for a while and confirming his identity BT changed the password. 

I then added 2 factor authentication https://www.bt.com/help/security/two-step-authentication

which I think means he will need to get a message through to his phone to change his password. 

This hopefully will reduce the chance of this happening again