Hacked Email Accounts

[shipitgood]

I got an email yesterday from a family member's email addy, it was a phishing email.

I called them up to let them know and to change their password etc, when they logged on it turned out they had a lot of "returned email- could not be send to sender emails".

It was a Yahoo account.

It's happened to them before.

Is there anything that can be done to protect their account outside of changing the password?

[Longines]

It may not have been hacked.

Spammers send a million emails out, all appearing to come from LonginesMum@wherever.xxx. This means the thousands of bounced mails returns end up clogging my Mum's email account rather than the spammer's as he doesn't want his connection blocked with them all.

It looks like my Mum is a spammer and her account has been hacked whereas in fact she's just been unlucky and the spammer has picked her address at random to be his next fake "From" address.

[kinboshi]

As Longines said, it might just be someone 'spoofing' the email address, and they haven't actually hacked the account.

However, to make your yahoo email account more secure, I'd advise using two-step authentication anyway:  https://help.yahoo.com/kb/activate-sign-in-verification-sln5013.html

Same goes if you've got a gmail account or any other really.  Two-step verification increases the security of an account by a considerable amount.  It means you need two things to get into the account - something you KNOW (the password), and something you HAVE (your phone, for example).

[shipitgood]

Cheers.

The message was sent to a good number of people on their contact's list, presumably everyone on the list.

To do that, would seem somebody has been in the account?

It's just weird.

The message was "you have a knew what's app message, click here to view it".

Thanks for posting the link Kinboshi, i'll let them know and that should sort it.

 

[Graham C]

We're getting loads of dodgy emails every day at work at the moment, I don't think there's been a time when I've seen as many.  Most of them seem to be from companies sending us an invoice for work or a few cunning ones say that they've attached a bacs payment :rolleyes:   I guess in these hard times even dirty email scumbag hackers/scammers struggle a little so up their game.

[tikay]

We're getting loads of dodgy emails every day at work at the moment, I don't think there's been a time when I've seen as many.  Most of them seem to be from companies sending us an invoice for work or a few cunning ones say that they've attached a bacs payment :rolleyes:   I guess in these hard times even dirty email scumbag hackers/scammers struggle a little so up their game.

I've had a bunch of those lately, too, but I don't open them now, for fear of what it might do.

[kinboshi]

Cheers.

The message was sent to a good number of people on their contact's list, presumably everyone on the list.

To do that, would seem somebody has been in the account?

Yes, that sounds right. 

Bet thing to do is to change the account password immediately and setup the two-step verification.

It's just weird.

The message was "you have a knew what's app message, click here to view it".

Thanks for posting the link Kinboshi, i'll let them know and that should sort it.

The link probably tries to install some malware/virus on the person's computer.  Most people won't click or install anything, but they only need one or two to do so, and it can be quite lucrative for them.

[Knottikay]

As a Purchasing Manager, a lot of my suppliers prefer to email invoices rather than 'waste' paper by printing them and sending them via post. I obv then print them anyway!

We have got a good IT Manager here who keeps on top of the scam emails in general. However, some do slip through but are normally spotted and deleted.

Make sure you add to block list once email is sent to your junk bin.