Email Hijacking

Char236

New Email
My Hotmail account has been hijacked and spam sent to everyone I've ever emailed. What can I do about it?
 

Char236

New Email
Thanks. I've changed my password and secret question/answer. Do my email contacts have to do anything - they received emails from the hijacker. Are their email accounts at risk as well?:thanks:
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Don't click any links or reply to any email addresses in the email.

Hopefully your friends and family all know that you're not stranded in Europe at a bus stop needing money or whatever the scammer sent out from your account. Tell them to delete the emails.

If you did not do it already maybe sending everyone an email one time so they know what happened would make sense.

Do you have any idea how the scammer/spammer got your password? Did you reply to an email or web page asking for your password or asking you to confirm your account details? If you don't remember doing something like that you should also scan your computer for spyware. I have spybot, stopzilla, malwarebytes, and superantispyware installed.
 

Char236

New Email
I have no idea how they got in. I'm a full-time student, so I've been doing research on the internet for school but that's all. I don't use Facebook, Twitter, or anything like that - I don't give out any information and don't open anything I'm not sure of the origins. I've asked my friends to stop sending me jokes but some still arrive - guess I'll have to stop them all. I've been told the email was an advertisement for Viagra and it went to my professors from two years ago - everyone I've ever sent an email to. Guess I have a lot of apologizing to do. Now I'll have to figure out how to get the virus out. Thanks for your help. This really is a wonderful service you provide!
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Are you using your own computer or are you also logging into your computer from a shared public computer at the school too?
 

Char236

New Email
No, I'm only using it in my home. I don't log in to it at all at school. No idea how this happened. I think I have a virus too because my computer is now almost non-functioning. I've spent all day trying to figure out what to do. I tried running Malewarebytes but got an error message: Error code MBAM_ERROR_LOAD_DATABASE (0,7) - whatever that means. I'm going to run Spybot now and see what happens.
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Can you do a system restore back to a point before the problem started?

Make sure any important files you have are backed up to a thumb drive or something just in case.
 
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