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My business email account was hacked! Lesson: check your "sent" folder

by Dana_W
19 replies
I went to log in to my yahoo email, which I use for most business email.

I got a message that my account appeared to have been compromised. So when I logged in, just for the heck of it, I checked my "sent email" folder and saw that, starting Sept. 2011, there had been several batches of hundreds of emails sent out to people that I didn't know, containing what appears to be spammy links. (Didn't click on the links.) It happened most recently on March 5, as far as I can tell. It seems to only happen every few months.

I don't know why Yahoo notified me today that my account appeared to have been compromised - not sure what tipped them off.

I have NO idea how this happened! I am the only one who uses my computer. I do have a wireless router - not sure if that increases my security risk somehow.

So, I went and checked all of my other email accounts and thank God they were fine.

I also changed my Yahoo email password. Hopefully that works. I'm tempted to just cancel the account completely.

And in the meantime, I urge everyone to check all of their email accounts "sent mail" folders, to make sure your email account hasn't been blasting out spam without your knowledge. I'm very lucky my account wasn't used to spam friends or family or clients, just weird random email addresses.
#account #business #check #email #folder #hacked #lesson
  • Profile picture of the author Ben Gordon
    I would recommend you use your own domain for business emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author theimdude
    My advice to you is to use a email of you own server or gmail. I have had so many customers of mine had there yahoo accounts hacked and it appears to be easy to hack yahoo. gmail seems better but you own email is the best.

    A friend of mine got his yahoo hacked. He kept a list of +- 300 friend/business email contacts on his account. All those were send some real bad email about him which was not true and he had to explain to everybody what happened
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  • Profile picture of the author WhiteDove
    Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.
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    Dianne
    WhiteDove
    War Room Member

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  • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
    Point taken - no more Yahoo for me! I'm tempted to just close the account - it's clogged with spam anyway.

    But how would someone hack into my account?
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    • Profile picture of the author Kal Sallam
      Originally Posted by Dana_W View Post

      Point taken - no more Yahoo for me! I'm tempted to just close the account - it's clogged with spam anyway.

      But how would someone hack into my account?
      I am assuming you gave out your info somewhere on an "unsecured Page"
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    • Profile picture of the author Ben Gordon
      Originally Posted by Dana_W View Post

      Point taken - no more Yahoo for me! I'm tempted to just close the account - it's clogged with spam anyway.

      But how would someone hack into my account?
      By hacking. The question you're asking is basically like going up to the US Military and asking them who they're planning to attack. You won't get the answer.

      If you really want to know about hacking you need to go to a knowledgeable hacker and ask him yourself; I'm pretty sure only few in this forum would know (unless it's something obvious like a keylogger or through wifi connection), and either way it would take a whole course to explain it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
    Actually, I suspect a lot of Warriors have the knowhow - never underestimate Warrior Forum members! Not saying they would do it - just saying there are a lot of computer geniuses on this site.
    What's confusing me is that I have never given my password to anyone, and I never click on links that are contained in emails, and I am the only person that uses my computer. I am not aware of anything that I've done that would make me vulnerable to someone gaining access to my email account.

    I actually may look into how people do that, just so I'd have a better idea of how to protect myself in the future.
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  • Profile picture of the author ShawnSells
    Dana, thats too bad. I had same thing happen to me, and it was a Yahoo account. They did the same thing right away: started sending emails, asking people in my phone book for money! Almost funny, as I coudnt get any money out of them, what makes the thief think he could?!
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  • Profile picture of the author zaco
    Wow whats going on with emails and domains Hijacking.. anyways I wrote a step by step guide today on how to protect your self from such issues even if your pc/laptop gets compromised..nobody will gain access to your account EXCEPT U, even if you use your own email and u r pc gets hacked then there is nothing u can do.. the only way to protect it is by following those steps..

    Here is the post on the warrior forum:

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...step-step.html
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  • Profile picture of the author Samrath Gupta
    Hi,

    There are many ways to hack someone's email accounts and Hackers know most of them!

    If a hacker wants to hack you then you will never know that you are hacked! If we will know and understand everything then there will be no difference between us and hackers

    Take your general precautions as well as Ask Uncle Google " How to protect Email Account "

    Good Luck for next time

    Regards
    ~Sam~
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    • Profile picture of the author traderfx
      Hey Dana,

      Yeah, I had my personal email hacked recently too. I can only imagine how much worse to have business email hacked, heck it's the lifeblood of our companies.

      A trick I learned is periodically change your password, every month or couple of weeks. More and more hackers are cracking into email accounts.



      -Mike
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      • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
        I'm adding that to my list!

        1.) Don't use Yahoo email
        2.) Check my "sent mail" folders daily
        3.) Change password frequently.

        Originally Posted by traderfx View Post

        Hey Dana,

        Yeah, I had my personal email hacked recently too. I can only imagine how much worse to have business email hacked, heck it's the lifeblood of our companies.

        A trick I learned is periodically change your password, every month or couple of weeks. More and more hackers are cracking into email accounts.



        -Mike
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        • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
          Dana,

          Not just Yahoo. This is a big problem for Hotmail, Gmail and AOL, too. I get a few of these every day from similarly compromised accounts, and they're from all the free webmail services.

          Most of mine are from old subscriber addresses, so I know who to warn. Seems they start with the addressbooks and then scan emails themselves. I haven't seen any evidence they upload address lists, but that would be a simple extra step.


          Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author megawarrior
    Use complex passwords (e.g. mix uppercase, numbers, etc) and don't have a 'master' password for multiple sites. Make sure all of your of 'important' accounts have unique passwords each, so if one gets hacked, the hacker can't get access to your other accounts as well. Also, make sure you don't log-in when using an unsecure computer (e.g. at a cybercafe), since data can be easily intercepted.
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  • Profile picture of the author paul_1
    all this trouble could be avoided by regularly scanning your PC using superantispyware --it also removes all cookies everytime you scan...
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  • Profile picture of the author Myri
    Dana, Yahoo is having poor filters and not great protection, is not good for a business account, better close your account and inform your list about your new email.
    Yahoo, Google, AOL, MSN are the most attacked by hackers, better have a business account using the email provided by your host.
    Also create and use email aliases.
    Have a password as mentioned by MEGAWARRIOR.
    Do not mention your email for "contact me" on your web pages, use a contact form to avoid being picked by spammers (they use robots, etc).
    Success.
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  • Profile picture of the author dsouravs
    yahoo acts got hacked easily...
    i have lost 2 of mine during my college days...i use gmail these days.
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    • Profile picture of the author RJS7
      Very True I have lost one myself.
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