Compromised Account SMS Text Messages

[Jonobloke]

Hello. I am having the same issue, this has randomly started a couple of weeks ago and I need to unlock my account and reset my password daily and sometimes multiple times per day 

I suspect that this is a particular malicious party who is trying random passwords each day not in the expectation of accessing my account but purely to cause it to be locked and to cause me inconvenience

You mentioned that it may be possible to ask someone to try to establish which IP address is trying to access my account. How do I go about doing this please? 

Thank you for your help 

[sizzleme]

Hi there,

In my case, it was resolved only by BT technical staff intervening - there didn't appear to be any malicious activity but the exact cause is still unknown to me. 

@Christopher_G  and @Peter_W were kind enough to contact the relevant parties at BT and it was resolved within a couple of days.

I'm assuming that you have gone through the steps outlined in this thread, such as enabling 2FA (if not already enabled), changing your password to something secure (long random string containing numbers, lower & uppercase letters and special characters)?

If you have done all of that, then I suspect your issue is the same as that one that I was experiencing.

One thing of note: if & when BT resolve your issue and inform you that they believe it to be working as expected, when you first login afterwards, you will receive the message saying your account has been compromised.

However, for me at least, that was the last time the message was received. I also needed to update the mobile number (change it back) for the account - as BT must of needed to change in order to provide the fix.

Many thanks to @Christopher_G  and @Peter_W for assisting me with this. Much appreciated! 

[Christopher_G]

Hi @Jonobloke 

We'll do our best to help.

Have you set up 2FA and changing to a super-secure password, like @sizzleme suggested?

If you continue to get these messages, let us know and we'll see what we can do to help.

Chris

[Jonobloke]

Good afternoon Chris

Many thanks for your very quick reply, especially at the weekend

to answer your questions 

Yes i have set up 2 factor authentication

When this first happened i used a very long and complicated password however as i have received almost 20 alerts in the past two weeks it simply isn't practical to try to do this every time and then to enter this new super long and complicated password into multiple devices. 

So I have used a password which has not been used on other sites and is more than 15 characters with upper case, lower case and numbers and i vary this each time i get a new alert. 

I have had a BT email account for more than 25 years now and this has never happened before, as I said in my previous message, i think i know who is doing this and the reasons

Any assistance would be very helpful 

Many thanks

[Jonobloke]

Thank you for replying, yes i have done this and continue to receive multiple alerts

very pleased your issue was resolved 

[sizzleme]

While it's certainly possible someone is attempting unauthorised access to your account, it did not appear to be the case for issue I was experiencing.

Just as with your situation, the account was working for a long time (many years) without issues.

It's also worth removing any email clients, such as Outlook (if you are using any) - to ensure that this isn't triggering anything. For example, if an email client is continuously attempting to retrieve email using the old or otherwise wrong credentials, this could be responsible for locking your account.

The password as you've described it may be ruled out as a cause.

Have you changed your account type from a BT broadband subscriber to the free "Basic" email tier? This was a *possible* cause for my issue.

[Christopher_G]

OK, thanks @Jonobloke 

I've messaged our Email team asking them for some advice. I'll post back here, when I get a reply from them. It should be during next week.

Chris

[Jonobloke]

Thank you very much.

[Christopher_G]

Hi @Jonobloke 

Thanks for your patience. The email team have taken a couple of steps from their end, that should stop this from happening.

Let us know if it continues please.

Thanks

Chris

[Jonobloke]

Thank you very much for your help

Is it possible to find out whether this was just some weird technical issue or if someone was trying to access my account?

I ask because i am going through a divorce and last year i found out that my ex to be was intercepting emails to my solicitor. That it no longer possible but i wondered if they were trying to access my account. 

There are some other bits i am sharing with the police about their behaviour and wondered if i should add trying to hack my email account to the list

Once again thank you for your help