Hotmail account hacked!!!

[bassist118]

I been getting e-mails sent from myself to others sent off both my Hotmail account and Yahoo mail account... Luckily they seem to have failed but its happend a few times now, not sure what to do I don't really want to delete the accounts as they're linked to jobs I'm applying for and the thousands of websites to do with trainz.....

Cheers Guys n Gals



Andy

 

[clam1952]

Run an antimalware and virus scan to remove anything on your PC then Change the passwords.

They may not have actually been hacked, just made to look like they are coming from your accounts. You can usually tell from the email headers.

 

[NikkiA]

I been getting e-mails sent from myself to others sent off both my Hotmail account and Yahoo mail account... Luckily they seem to have failed but its happend a few times now, not sure what to do I don't really want to delete the accounts as they're linked to jobs I'm applying for and the thousands of websites to do with trainz.....

Cheers Guys n Gals



Andy

While I would agree with checking settings and tightening up your security, making sure you're malware free, etc...

It's important to realise that returned (aka 'bounced') MAILER-DAEMON emails don't necessarily mean you have been hacked. It is incredibly trivial to forge email headers, to the point that if your email is on a list of email being sold to spammers anywhere, or you have a common or common-like (ie, name@popular-domain) address, then it's almost guaranteed that somewhere there will be someone spamming with your address forged as the 'from' line.

Most of us that run email on our own domains have to deal with massive volumes of such bounced email - my spam filters catch hundreds and thousands of spam, much of which is rejected emails from 'faked from' emails sent elsewhere. And I know it's not actually me that's sending them, because I run a tightly locked down email server and keep an eye on logs for hints of anything awry.

So if quick malware scans, and checking the IP logs (there should be a 'which IP addresses have I logged on from recently' style button on the hotmail page somewhere), show nothing suspicious, then don't get too paranoid or freaked out.

 

[bassist118]

Thanks Nikki and Malc... It just worried me a bit because it bounced back saying it was also forwarded to people in my contact list including jobs I have just recently applied for (at least I now know that it wasn't because of dodgy e-mails I havn't got any interviews lol)

Thanks again all

:Y::Y:

Andy

 

[itareus]

This happens to most users of Hotmail. The best "cure" is to change your password to something that automated systems will find hard to break e.g. "9w6NN2M5bB1f3hh345asgster" - the only problem is remembering the thing!

 

[JCitron]

This happens to most users of Hotmail. The best "cure" is to change your password to something that automated systems will find hard to break e.g. "9w6NN2M5bB1f3hh345asgster" - the only problem is remembering the thing!

Excellent point!

It's easier to take a word and munge it into a password.

Take a word that's between 6 and 12 characters, so try something like Railroad. Turn it into R8ilr0ad~1.

I always throw a ~1, or some other symbol on the end of a password if I can. There are also some systems too that don't allow anything but the basic alphanumeric characters, so you have to deal with what you've got to work with.

The automated systems get confused over symbols, so this is another level of protection.

John