Email Hacked

[slobberychops]

My email has been hacked and I have sent an email with a dodgy link to
everyone in my address book.

Can anyone tell me what the protocol is? Should I set up another email address? I have some documents saved in my email that I dont have elsewhere, is it safe to save them to my laptop?

Any advice would be really appreciated!

Change your password and send a warning email to everyone in you address book so they don't open the message that was sent out. If your password us the same for other sites change it for those too. Happened to me recently! Hope this helps.

Thanks oldyork have done this now :)

Are you sure that the e-mail messages were sent out using your actual e-mail account ? Only ask because some past malware would take a list of e-mail addresses off your PC (in the days when Outlook or Outlook Express was on pretty much every Windows PC) and copy it away to a spammer's website (or server space they had nicked!)

The messages may show your e-mail address but might not have been sent via the mail service you use. Just a week ago, I had a message supposedly from my sister on Live.co.uk (MS Hotmail service) but actually it came from South America and didn't go through the Microsoft servers at all.

I'd agree with oldyork about changing passwords (ideally have a different one for each site you use - I have several dozen passwords) but also scan your PC with anti-virus software such as the 'house call' service of Trend Micro, and use (say) *> AVG Free

Finally, it might not even be your machine which has suffered an attack, but a close relative, or friend, where many contacts could be in common.

A client of mine once had mail reported to have been sent by a person who didn't exist - it was a name made from one person's surname and another person's first name and no one could be sure how it happened but the IT guy and I checked every machine at the offices and got staff to check laptops and home PCs "just in case". No-one owned up to having had a virus but it may well have been one of the directors not wanting to admit his home machine was the cause of the problem (maybe he went to some dodgy website!)

The email was sent to everyone I have ever sent or received an email from in the 10 years I have had the email address (including ex boyfriends ). It happened right after using my dad's laptop so he did a scan, but I guess I should scan mine too. My dad wouldn't have had these people in his machine, it had ex colleagues, employment agencies I have used etc.

How on earth do you keep track of your passwords?!

There are apps that will keep track of your passwords. I use KeePassX. It wil also generate random, hard to guess passwords for you. I try to have at least 16 characters, including symbols, for high value sites.