Hacked email - need advice

[StephMK]

So I get a call from DH this morning - bad news, my email sent a message to the few people on my contact list. He sent them all a message right away not to open the link sent because it looked funny. It was sent before I was even awake but looks like it came straight from my hotmail.

I forwarded it to msn spam & msn abuse & let them know. I was able to log in fine. I went back later & am now unable to enter my account because a message says - you have tried to log in too many times with an incorrect name or password. I don't know if msn shut it down based on my email or the scammer was trying to get in. In any event, it allowed me to change the password but still does NOT let me enter.

** Since I was not the one that entered too many wrong passwords to cause that message, I'm hoping the scammer can't get in either so at least my saved emails are safe from view.

So how worried do I need to be & is there any chance of getting back in there? I am just sick because while I cleaned it out a few months back, I still had some password emails in there for shopping sites, etc. and some pics from friends & family and our bank statements get sent to that account. Do I need to worry or is my worst problem the fact that my email account is probably gone for good?

I ran a full system scan on our computer but is there anything else I should do? Should I be worried about hotmail or the whole computer system?

 

[Stacieb]

THIS HAPPENED TO ME IN mAY.. gO BACK INTO YOUR ACCOUNT AND MAKE SURE THEY DIDN'T LINK AN OTHER EMAIL TO THAT ACCOUNT. tHEY DID TO MINE AND CHANGED MY PASSWROD.

 

[StephMK]

THIS HAPPENED TO ME IN mAY.. gO BACK INTO YOUR ACCOUNT AND MAKE SURE THEY DIDN'T LINK AN OTHER EMAIL TO THAT ACCOUNT. tHEY DID TO MINE AND CHANGED MY PASSWROD.

UGH! How did you tell they linked it to another email? I can't get in to look but I"ve still got DH's email he received. I fixed my post, despite changing my password, the email is still shut down & I get the message I've tried too many times to enter. Hoping MSN either shut it down to prevent further damage or the scammer couldn't get back in. Of course, I still worry how he got in in the first place.

So what did you do?

 

[bumbershoot]

The wife of my stepdad had her hotmail hacked a few months back. She had a nasty nasty virus on her computer, and was offline for a couple weeks trying to get her computer all nice and shiny-clean. I would go further than just the system check you did....cccleaner is a website to really clean the computer, and there are other sites that I'm sure others will help with to make SURE that virus is off, if that was the cause.

 

[jsmith]

so.... just because your account is sending out emails-especially with links-it does not mean you have been hacked-in fact its quiet unlikely-unless you have a very simple password that is simply too much work-the more likely scenario is that you have a virus on you computer that uses your address book to send links to the virus writers site-this is extremely common-and the virus replicates its self and sends itself with the link so it can use the next persons address book as well. The bad password message is probalby generated because you reported it to msn et al and they locked you out. Two solutions-run a good virus scan-and a mal ware dector-unforunately you many have to set up new email acccounts-you will need to contact the provider to determine that.

 

[2bearsmom]

This has been happening with my sister with her yahoo and hotmail accounts...."she" sends out mass emails with a link for meds from Canada only she didn't send them. Very frustrating.

 

[Debbie-TN]

This happened to me a few months ago. Someone sent an email to all my contacts for a Viagra ad. It went to all my church friends. It was so embarrassing. My daughter emailed me as soon as she got it and told me to change my password. I did and haven't had a problem since then. I don't automatically log on any more either. I sent an email to everyone and explained what had happened.

 

[mom2val]

My yahoo was hacked last month and they added in a signature line for a candian pharmacy specializing in male enhancement. I was horrified! It sent out auto responses to every email i recieved. BFF's dh is a computer tech guy and he said it was definately hacked bc and someone had to manually change the response and add the signature. Besides being embarrased by the emails.... no other damage was done. I chnaged my user names and passwords on several things afterwards though just to be safe.

 

[polineedyan]

I had my old yahoo account hacked. It started when each time I logged in, it would say "messenger cant login because youre already logged in on another device." Then, I got a confirmation email in my yahoo, that my myspace password had been changed..Then came the confirmation email from PAYPAL that I had transferred 100 Euros to the account..Ick.
Off to the bank, stopping payment, closing checking account, closing PAYPAL, etc..nasty..

 

[beachgrl001]

This has been happening with my sister with her yahoo and hotmail accounts...."she" sends out mass emails with a link for meds from Canada only she didn't send them. Very frustrating.

this happened to me a few weeks ago. It was sending viagra ads to all the people in my address book. I took care of it by changing my password.

 

[jennyf2]

Same thing happened to me last month. All I had to do was change my passwords & I haven't had a problem since...

 

[StephMK]

Thanks for the replies. I still can't get in so I think that account might just be lost. Annoyed because I had just finished transferring all my emails to that account because we closed our cox account last month. I think I"m going w/gmail. One of my professors highly recommended it as a secure option.

There is very little support w/hotmail, I was not aware of that. From what I researched online, once the account is shut down, there's little chance to get it back.

Anyone recommend a good malware option? We have Norton Internet Security & I did not see anything unusual come up under Hijack This or Ad-aware. Thanks!

 

[EKW]

I had this happen with my yahoo account. I contacted them and was told that what is happening is that someone sends you an e-mail, you open it, and it steals your contact list!

I REALLY think it is the Orlando Smiles contest from Mousesavers list of contests that hacked my account. I got messages from my virus protection program that there was a virus on the game itself. Then, they sent me an e-mail and, like an idiot, I opened it!

Here's how I dealt with it: I deleted all my contacts from that account (yes, this is a pain) and I have changed my password there every couple of weeks since this happened...just in case.

This virus started going around late last winter.

I told all my friends that I will never e-mail them from that account again...I opened another account with another provider for that.

What a pain!

p.s. I found out about this when my teenage son sheepishly asked him why I was sending him ads for male-parts enhancement, All the junk mails the hackers sent were for a Canadian pharmacy!

 

[benolathe]

p.s. I found out about this when my teenage son sheepishly asked him why I was sending him ads for male-parts enhancement,

That's really funny. I'm sure he was quite confused why you were sending him those emails.