Hackers have my email address advice

[sleep15783]

Someone is constantly trying to hack into my email address. I am getting constant emails for the last couple of weeks and I have checked a website that basically shows my email address has been pawned. I have updated all my passwords/made sure two step verification is on via the app etc.

I have had this email address for over 15 years. It is not going to be an easy task to remember every place I need to change my email address for. Has anyone had this experience before do they eventually hack in or give up?

I am thinking of setting up a new email address and gradually moving everything to this one. Rather than it being a panic. But there are so many things linked to my account it seems a massive task.

If you've tightened security you have to ignore the emails for a bit until they give up. Another good practice is to go through your emails/junk/spam and cancel all those email subscriptions you have/contact the companies and request a GDPR data removal.

Not a lot more you can do once they've got your details. You've done all the right things.

You email will be widely known, update everything which you have done will keep you safe. It happened to me and some others I known sorted almost its self, be reassured.

Search your inbox for "unsubscribe" and unsubscribe everything, make a list and then you know what you have to change.
Set a reminder on your calendar to change the password every month.
Ignore spam emails asking for money.

Good luck!

The exact same thing has happened to me and over the same time. I have changed my password to a really strong one and have also set up two factor authentication for logging in. Like you, I have had this email address for 15 years, so am reluctant to change it, as I would no doubt forget to tell someone important like hospital or doctors. I will change my password regularly to something equally strong. I too checked a website to see if my email address had been leaked and it had, but this was a few years ago and the emails with passcodes have only started a couple of weeks ago.

No advice, but sympathy.

Be careful with the Unsubscribe feature. A lot of the spam emails are fired at random to see which email accounts are actually live. They do not give a toss about GDPR so rather than unsubscribing you, they will be selling your address as a verified Live email address.

This.

Best thing to do (but a nightmare time wise) is to via their websites and find their GDPR policy and email them directly requesting a full GDPR data removal. Only one company I've done this with has been really shitty and came back with a response from their legal teams!

Just be extra vigilant for a few months.

Your email address has most likely been part of a "package" sold online. The hackers will.use this "package" for a few months to establish the "live" accounts from the dormant/dump ones. Eventually the "package" will be replaced with a new one and you will stop being the target.

Most important thing is to get your password secure. Go to "howsecureismypassword" and try a few combinations. You need a minimum of a few hundred thousand years, anything less is not strong enough.

Try using three random words. Something like "chairdoorfirealarm" gave seven quintellion years when I was messing about with it.

I agree with @AutumnDragon - avoid the unsubscibe feature. That merely confims to anyone unscrupulous that you have a live account which they can then target.

I have an incredible long and randomly generated password on my (junk but still oft used) email address. Plus two step authorisation. I’ve had it since the internet began and I use it for most things where I know it’s going to get passed on and sold on. I receive about 4 or 5 single use codes every day to my second and rarely used email address. I hate it. It makes me nervous. But I live with it and won’t be changing it.

How do people remember their passwords? I never write mine down, I rely on a formula, but they aren't coming out as very strong.

Where a string password is needed, I choose a song and the password is the first letter of the the first ten words of the song. Then I have a number at the end (e.g the year I was born). If I want to write it down, I only need to write down the name of the song.