Big E Mail Problems

[Gipsy]

It looks as though we've got problems with our E Mail. We use AOL web based mail, and until yesterday have had no problems. Since then someone/something has hacked into our Email, and sent mail to our entire address book. The process has also happened again today.
Really hope you knowledgeable guys have some suggestions.
We access our email via iphones, 2 macs and 1Pc. Many thanks for your help.

 

[CuzGS]

I would go for a google email address. It's free , decent security and interfaces well with iPhone iPad etc. It also allows you to use outlook as your mail programme which others will charge you for if you do the ms office thing.

Highly recommended, I never use my ISP address as each time you change it's a new email address, use your AOL to get on line and google mail is my advice, hope that helps / makes sense

 

[Grey Beard]

It looks as though we've got problems with our E Mail. We use AOL web based mail, and until yesterday have had no problems. Since then someone/something has hacked into our Email, and sent mail to our entire address book. The process has also happened again today.
Really hope you knowledgeable guys have some suggestions.
We access our email via iphones, 2 macs and 1Pc. Many thanks for your help.

I think if your computer is sending emails to everyone on your address book, then you will have some sort of virus or trojan on your system.

Run a virus check, if necessary from within safe mode. AVAST, AVG, Malwarebites, etc. Also I think Microsoft has some free antivirus security software on it's website you can use to clean up the PC

Grey Beard

 

[jumperboy]

I agree with both above...

 

[Gipsy]

Thanks guys. Running avast on the pc at the moment. As for G mail. we've got three gmail addresses for different used, one for our blog, and it looks as though the bastard has got onto the blog!

 

[Gipsy]

Trojan found on PC and deleted, and so far AOK. Many thanks.

 

[Grey Beard]

Trojan found on PC and deleted, and so far AOK. Many thanks.

Glad you got it sorted!

Grey Beard

 

[littleredrooster]

..... We use AOL web based mail.....
Really hope you knowledgeable guys have some suggestions......

Therein lies a great source of potential problems. Get rid as soon as you can; anything with the letters AOL is almost guaranteed to give grief. DAMHIK

 

[carinatauk]

A number of AOL email users have experienced this, including myself.

In general, no-one reported seeing a trojan, virus or keylogger on running the various antivirus software [although I doubt this]

The only way that was seen to work was to change the password and personal question information for each user. I also deleted my mail lists.

I guess AOL may have been hacked, a bit like Gmail. AOL haven't admitted to this as a problem. Gmail have a two stage entry system, if you want to use it

 

[Gipsy]

A number of AOL email users have experienced this, including myself.

In general, no-one reported seeing a trojan, virus or keylogger on running the various antivirus software [although I doubt this]

The only way that was seen to work was to change the password and personal question information for each user. I also deleted my mail lists.

I guess AOL may have been hacked, a bit like Gmail. AOL haven't admitted to this as a problem. Gmail have a two stage entry system, if you want to use it

Thanks for the information. The Avast scan picked up the Trojan, but obviously missed it in ' real time ' mode. The password was changed as per suggestions. Already have several Gmail addresses so will have to consider changing over to one of them.

 

[Grey Beard]

Thanks for the information. The Avast scan picked up the Trojan, but obviously missed it in ' real time ' mode. The password was changed as per suggestions. Already have several Gmail addresses so will have to consider changing over to one of them.

I used to use AVAST free version but I think that doesn't scan scripts - Java in real time, so you are not protected against this sort of virus. But AVAST will detect it in a full scan mode. Probably would be OK with the paid for version (or just disable JAVA).

Grey Beard

 

[-Andy-]

A number of AOL email users have experienced this, including myself.

In general, no-one reported seeing a trojan, virus or keylogger on running the various antivirus software [although I doubt this]

The only way that was seen to work was to change the password and personal question information for each user. I also deleted my mail lists.

I guess AOL may have been hacked, a bit like Gmail. AOL haven't admitted to this as a problem. Gmail have a two stage entry system, if you want to use it

I've had this happen to me a couple of times now on my old Hotmail account. It didn't seem to matter how complex the password was, and there was never any sign of a trojan etc (of course that doesn't mean there wasn't one). In the end I deleted my hotmail address book to stop friends/family being spammed and moved everything over to Gmail.

I now use a password manager to generate strong passwords for all my accounts and I never use real information in the "secret question" bit of account signups. Instead I have a long, randomly generated string of characters that can't be guessed at; apparently the Hotmail account was getting hacked by using the secret question bit, rather than the password.

As for Gipsy's several gmail addresses, I assume you want to keep these accounts separate, but if not then you can have a 'master' gmail account and then get the others to forward the email to the master address. If you use a mail client, such as Outlook or Thunderbird, you can set this up to reply using the address the email was sent to, rather than the master. Or if that's too complicated then just subscribe to all the accounts in Outlook.