What to do if your email's hacked

Posted by Sean on August 15, 2012
  1. Start with changing your password on your account. As with any scenario, the primary step is to stop any harm. This will resolve most issues, depending on how your account was compromised.

  2. Add a fake email address to your list of contacts: [email protected]. This email address will probably be the first contact alphabetically in your address book, therefore will become the primary recipient of a spam email from a hacker. You will receive a mail failure notice as soon as any e-mail to this address isn’t delivered. This is often also a fast means of checking whether or not ever-changing your password on your email account worked.

  3. Update and run your antivirus program on your PC such as AVG, Kaspersky, Norton, etc. (I do not recommend McAfee due to past experience) to make sure your PC isn’t infected.

  4. Write to everybody in your contact list and make them aware that your email was hacked and warn them to not click on the link of the previous email:

  • Make sure to send email your contacts by using the BCC line of your email so you’re not sending out people’s non-public email addresses to others. (Put your email address within the To line.)

  • Only send your message to 10 contacts at a time, so your warning email doesn’t find yourself in their Spam folders.