Email hacked

dewdrop

I know very little about email apart from sending and receiving messages.Recently some of my friends to whom i send mails received very nasty stuff purporting to come from me. I know you are not supposed to open any thing unless you know the sender but in this case they knew me. because of this i suppose they thought it was ok to open whatever was in the message. My son has changed my password..in the past i tended to leave this open by clicking "remember me". i assume this is unwise. would deleting my contacts be advisable. what puzzles me how anyone could succeed in using my name to send the nasty messages. I use some free anti virus AVG i think. any comment would be appreciated.

CrackisWhack

Was it a hotmail account?

Torqay

dewdrop wrote: »

what puzzles me how anyone could succeed in using my name to send the nasty messages.

Just because someone received an from your email address, it doesn't necessarily mean your account was "hacked". It doesn't require much much knowledge to fake someone's email address and send mails anonymously through open SMTP servers.

dewdrop wrote: »

would deleting my contacts be advisable.

Why would you want to delete your contacts? Just change your password.

CrackisWhack

Torqay wrote: »

Just because someone received an from your email address, it doesn't necessarily mean your account was "hacked". It doesn't require much much knowledge to fake someone's email address and send mails anonymously through open SMTP servers.



Why would you want to delete your contacts? Just change your password.

how would they be able to use your contact list then?

dewdrop

I am using Yahoo uk. thanks for the replies

PogMoThoin

dewdrop wrote: »

I am using Yahoo uk. thanks for the replies

Change your password, and not just for the email, for every single site you use this password. You should never use the same password on any two sites, they all must be unique. Take 20 minutes out and teach yourself a system, it's worth it.

Torqay

CrackisWhack wrote: »

how would they be able to use your contact list then?

Did everyone in your contact list get these fake mails or only a selected few?

Anyway, the damage is done and PogMoThoin is right. I recommend a password safe, something like KeePass which you can use portable on a USB stick (or LastPass if you prefer an online solution). These have the ability to randomly generate maximum strength passwords. All you need to remember is the master password. Do make a regular backup of the database.

nemesisdg

Pop a couple of number and symbols and capital letters into your password too.

If you have kids then don't leave your PC session open. If you can create a log-on for each person using the PC this would also help.

If your son changes your password again you could always do the same to his Facebook password........ Maybe even post some hilarious childhood stories...... Just kidding.

dewdrop

Thanks for all the advice. Is there any need to change my email provider..i.e. change from Yahoo to say Hotmail or does changing my password which i have done prevent a recurrence.

Torqay

dewdrop wrote: »

Is there any need to change my email provider..i.e. change from Yahoo to say Hotmail

Not really, if you're happy with Yahoo! Hotmail no longer exists, it was changed to Live Mail and only a few days ago Microsoft have introduced their all new webmail service outlook.com (which looks pretty sleek, IMO).

dewdrop wrote: »

does changing my password which i have done prevent a recurrence.

The stronger the password, the better.

RUCKING FETARD

Torqay wrote: »

Not really, if you're happy with Yahoo! Hotmail no longer exists, it was changed to Live Mail and only a few days ago Microsoft have introduced their all new webmail service outlook.com (which looks pretty sleek, IMO).



The stronger the password, the better.

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