How to Protect Your Hacked Email

When you receive an email from a “store” or “person” containing links, read it carefully. When you receive an email, check out the sender first. Make sure it’s a valid email address and not one very similar. Many emails look and feel just like an email from an actual store, but in reality, they contain links that give hackers access to your email information. Maybe the links send a virus to spread through your computer instead, either way, you clicked on the pesky link and now it's too late. What's worse, you don’t even know your email has been compromised. Be on the lookout for bad grammar, misspelled words, and incorrect spacing and capitalization.

You need to regain access to your account as soon as possible, which may be even harder if the hackers changed your password. Use the “forgot my password” tool offered by the email provider to reset your password and get back into your account. They’ll ask you security questions, or ask for a backup email address.

Because you’ve been hacked, you need to change your password- don’t pick an easy one. We recently compiled tips to creating a good password here (link to password blog). Remember to make your password a mixture of upper case and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.

Once you regain control over your email, make sure the hackers did not change any settings, especially your backup email address or forwarding email address. You don’t want them to have access to any part of your email address or contacts.

One thing most hack victims don’t think to do is kick out current active logins. While it should automatically sign out any logins that aren’t signed in under the same password, this is a good habit. Simply click on “details,” “last account activity,” and finally, “sign out all other sessions.” This may vary by email provider.

This is also a good time to set up two-step verification for logging into your email. This way only you can log into your email because you'll need a second password in the form of a security code sent from your email provider directly to your phone.

Lastly, let your friends know your email was compromised. Send out a mass email letting them know if they received a suspicious email from you to delete it. It's a good idea to have a subject line that lets them know you were hacked.

Has your email been hacked? Let us know of any other tips in the comments below!