E-mail keeps getting hacked

[pilates]

Someone is hacking in to my email and sending spam emails to my contacts. Everytime this happens I change the password and then 4/5 weeks later it happens again. I don't want to have to change my email address as would cause great upheaval. What can I do it is very annoying? I'm with BT.

[tribpot]

What kind of passwords are you choosing? Have you tried a stronger password like a long string of text made up of numbers, letters and symbols? (You can use an app like Keeper to generate strong passwords for you).

Have you followed the instructions on BT's help page?

It's also possible your address is being spoofed, the emails aren't actually coming from your account, just made to look as if they are. This is harder to deal with because obviously the hackers aren't in your actual account. (This might also explain why password changes aren't keeping them out). You'd need to get someone who received spam from you to look at the email header for information; I'd follow the BT instructions above and then set up a second email address somewhere else. List this new email address as a contact in BT Yahoo and then at least if/when it happens again you will be a recipient and can take a look at the emails in more detail.

[pilates]

Thanks.

If I find out my email address has been spoofed, how do you deal with that?

[TwoLittleTerrors]

Or maybe you have a key logger or Trojan running on your computer? Have you scanned it with some good antivirus software?

[mrsmilkymoo]

This has been happening to me with an old hotmail account too. Like you I've changed the password several times but to no avail. Please share if you find a solution!

[pilates]

I have an imac and thought they were bomb proof.

[prh47bridge]

No, iMacs are not at all bomb proof. Despite claims to the contrary they are as full of security holes as Windows PCs. The only sense in which they are more secure is that less malware is written for them. Windows is the most popular operating system so that is the one malware authors target.

It is possible your email address is being spoofed. If that is the case I'm afraid there is nothing you can do about it. However, as your contacts receive these emails I suspect your iMac has been infected with malware that is generating these emails. If that is the case changing your password will have no effect.

Try installing some good antivirus software and running a full scan. There are some decent free options available.

[stayathomegardener]

Hi,I have had a similar thing with BT.
Email password changed without warning by BT to protect me as spam emails were being sent to old contacts.
Spoke to BT and changed my password,immediately someone in Germany tried to change it again,half my email were lost and now receiving fake emails headlined - find missing emails,retrieve lost emails etc and must get 20 messages a day in spam all titled to be relevant to me purporting to be from genuine contacts.

So annoying,you can report to BT as fishing, I can look up the address if you like and I now hover over anything to check the address before I open it.

[stayathomegardener]

Watching with interest.

[pnutter]

Happens to me too ..annoying

[HidingFromDD]

I have the same problem with btinternet. it's def not malware (I work in infosec). It started happening around the time they were making changes to their access/merging with yahoo. Like you happens every 5 - 6 weeks, despite regular password changes.

I'm just gradually changing all email to gmail instead (pita but had no problems with them)

[lazydog]

It's highly likely that your email account was only compromised the once, and that would be when they harvested your contacts. I bet you'll find (if you can examine the headers on one of the subsequent spam emails "from" you) that they're not actually originating from your account - i.e. the spoofing scenario mentioned in other replies. Absolutely nothing you can do about it (other than warning people to check that they only open emails from your actual email address - not ones that originate from a different address, but have your name associated.) Since the spammers are not using your account, changing passwords will make no difference at all.

[prh47bridge]

other than warning people to check that they only open emails from your actual email address

Spoofed emails will be from the OP's actual email address. That is the whole point of spoofing. It won't just have the OP's name attached, it will say it is from the OP's email address.

An expert can tell if an email is spoofed by checking the information in the internet headers (part of the message properties in Outlook). Most people wouldn't know how to interpret the headers.

[pilates]

Thanks everyone for your replies.