The modern world is unthinkable without our intensive use of Internet services. Messengers and social networks, programs for video conferencing and mail ... Just do not mention! By the way, if you recall how the history of the World Wide Web began, you need to remember just the same email.
However, in recent years, the importance of this method of communication has been increasingly underestimated by many, but in vain. After all, it is the mail most often tied to gaming services, Internet banking services and accounts on social networks. So a frivolous attitude to your mailbox is fraught with very unpleasant consequences.
The fact is that today almost any active user is a tempting target for all sorts of network fraudsters. Think this is just a big exaggeration?
Do you think that if you do not own any large and profitable business, the attackers will not even look in your direction? Alas, this is not so. Real addresses, friends on social networks, bindings to all kinds of services are an excellent product for which it is easy to find generous buyers. From this article you will learn about what to do if you have hacked mail.
Who needs your unfortunate mail and why?
We have already noted that many do not attach any importance to their mailbox at all, since they do not consider it attractive for attacks by third parties.
Letâs give a simple example: can you imagine how the owners of spam sites lack "clean" mailboxes from which you can send another batch of informational garbage?
Their own addresses are constantly banned, and therefore they are willing to buy stolen mailboxes. In addition, your address book will be very useful to them: whoever it is, but all of them will soon be bombarded with âletters of happinessâ. However, spammers are at least relatively safe.
Much more unpleasant are those individuals who deliberately break mailboxes, gaining access to your friends lists. Often they are excellent psychologists, and therefore have every chance to pull a lot of money from gullible people ...
What to do first?
If you notice that letters that you did not send begin to appear in your mailbox, and your friends report strange mailings on your behalf, immediately change the password. The general rule is this: if you hacked mail, you can not hesitate a minute! Change your password urgently, contact support, and in extreme cases - contact your friends and let them know that you no longer control your mail.
And now weâll take a closer look at the most popular E-Mail services, paying special attention to the rules of behavior in case of breaking your mailbox.
Hotmail from Microsoft
More recently, a company from Redmond conducted a real crusade against hackers and bots in Hotmail. So, a complete analysis of the behavior of the owners of the boxes was carried out, after which warnings were sent to the ârisk groupsâ asking for an early change of passwords. According to the management of Microsoft itself, at least 1-2% of all users of this mail system lose their accounts due to the actions of hackers.
How to return your account back if the mail was hacked? This is quite realistic, but you should remember the passwords from the backup box, which you must have specified when registering.
The recovery procedure is as follows: a special code is sent to the alternative address, you enter it in a special field on the site, and then answer the code question that was set during the initial registration of the account. If everything goes well, you will be able to enter a new password, gaining access to your mail back.
And if you foolishly abandoned your backup address long ago? Then it will be harder. By contacting the Hotmail technical support service (available on their website), you will speak with the operator. If you can convince him that you are the owner (having answered a secret question including), then again the control over the box will be returned to you. Keep in mind: if hackers cracked the mail more than 24 hours ago, you can not fuss, since the protest has expired.
If everything is okay with your mail on Hotmail, itâs better to immediately go to your account settings, and then put there a two-step identification using the password sent to your phone (as in Internet banking). This will almost completely protect your password from hacking.
Gmail from Google
If you canât get into your Gmail inbox, then immediately click on the âCan't access your account?â Button located at the very bottom of the page. After that, you will be transferred to another address where there is a noticeable round button "My account has been compromised." After that, you will have to remember which alternative email addresses and phone numbers you provided during registration.
Here's what you need to do if you hacked mail. How to return it if you do not remember the answers to these questions?
In this case, you will have to fill in a hefty questionnaire. There are a lot of questions, so if you really own the account, you can prove it. By the way, pay attention to official Google messages : the company may well warn you in advance that someone is trying to pick up (or already picked up) a password in your mailbox.
Service from Yahoo
Of course, this service is far from being so popular in our country, but if you live in the USA, then you may well have this box.
If you hacked e-mail from this provider, immediately go to the official website. In the window that lists the most popular Yahoo services, select "Security." In the window that opens, click on the "Contact Us" button, fill out the appropriate form and send it to technical support. Practice shows that in most cases it is possible to regain control of the account.
Yandex Mail
So we got to the Dutchman with Russian roots, the Yandex company. The mail of this provider is used by millions of people not only in our country, but throughout the world. It is not surprising that hackers are actively "stealing" accounts on Yandex.
Russian gamers will surely recall the unpleasant history of the massive withdrawals of Steam`a accounts tied to the boxes of this company. So what to do if Yandex-mail has been hacked at you? In principle, the procedure for restoring access is not much different from those described above.
If you canât get through authorization, go to the âForgot your passwordâ link. You will be transferred to a special page where you have to specify the details of your mailbox, enter the control numbers and click on the "Next" button.
After that, you will be asked to provide information about the alternative mailbox or phone number that you specified during registration. Please note that the number of attempts is limited. After a certain amount of incorrectly entered data, the account may be completely blocked for change. This is done in order to prevent attackers from gaining access by simply sorting out phone numbers.
And if you hacked Yandex-mail, but you definitely donât remember the address of your mailbox?
The company honestly warns that you will most likely not be able to regain access. However, you may well try to do this by contacting the technical support service, where you will be asked to fill out a special form according to the established model.
Mail.ru Mail
This provider definitely needs no introduction. Just a couple of years ago, almost every second mailbox in our country was registered on this domain. Today its popularity has somewhat decreased, but the corporation certainly does not have to complain about the lack of users.
If you hacked the mail "Mile", then you will have to do almost all of the same operations that we described in the previous case. First, use the "Forgot Password" button. You answer a long-forgotten secret question (we hope that this is not the case in your case), after which we get approval to change the password.
If the focus fails, you will have to write to technical support and try to convince it of its correctness. It all depends on you and your knowledge of your own inbox.
Service from Rambler
Once the trees were taller and the grass was greener ... In those days, Rambler search engine was very popular among the few Internet users in our country. Not surprisingly, mailboxes were eagerly registered on his domain.
Time passed, the service became worse and worse. Many completely abandoned their accounts. But sometimes it turns out that the box was tied to something very necessary, and some attacker (or yourself, if you completely forgot the password) is guilty of losing access to it.
In a word, they hacked the Rambler mail ... Well, it will have to be repeated again, since the recovery procedure again does not differ in any kind of original approach.
First, the already known button âForgot your password?â, Then - communication with technical support. I would like to note that in this case she is quite benevolent. If you know at least something about your own mailbox, you will surely be able to regain access to it. But what to do if you have hacked into mail that you have not used for a couple of years? Alas, in this case no one can help you.
To prevent this from happening at all, you need to take at least basic measures to protect your account.
Prevention
If you donât want to be in a situation where hackers have cracked the email address on which you have âtied upâ electronic payment services and other important things, be sure to install an antivirus.
Yes, the advice is frighteningly banal and hackneyed to huge holes. But from this (unfortunately), it does not become less relevant. Many people still think that viruses will never start on their computer anyway, and the Trojans at this time successfully steal passwords, forwarding them to interested parties.
Secondly, make the rule not to follow the links that came to you in letters from unknown recipients. Yes, even if the letter came from your friend, but he obviously could not write anything like that, it is better to delete it right away.
Soul Engineers
Unfortunately, there are no limits to human stupidity. Many people quietly open letters from unfamiliar addresses, launch .exe attachments with obscure programs, follow links in letters in English, although they donât understand a word in them. But even this does not look so wild as the behavior of the most âgiftedâ part of users.
There is more than one known case when hackers âcrackedâ Yandex mail after its owner sent the password for it. It turns out that itâs enough to introduce yourself as the âpostal service administrationâ so that naive people themselves will lay out all their secrets.
A little bit about passwords
Remember: no one under any circumstances has the right to require your password from the mailbox! Regardless of which domain the letter came from, do not write anything to scammers, do not send them any information. Immediately notify the technical support of your email service about the incident, attach screenshots of the letter. In this case, there is a good chance that the sender will be immediately blocked.
We hope that now you will not panic if your mail has been hacked. How to restore access to it, you already know!