I received a "delivery failure" notice for a message that I never sent. This delivery failure email included the sent message, so I was able to see that it had been sent to about 10 email addresses that I had most recently sent legitimate email to. I confirmed with a few of those people that they did receive that message, although it did not appear in my Sent folder. I would never have know about it had I not received the delivery failure notice. The sent message was clearly SPAM aimed at getting recipients to click on a link.
I DO NOT keep a "contacts" list or an addressbook., so it seems to me that someone hacked into my account and was able to examine my "sent" emails to get a list of recipients.
I have changed my email password but am not sure what additional measures I need to take to prevent this from happening again and to ensure that my email is adequately protected. Again, my case seems different because it does not involve "stealing" a list of contact or an addressbook.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
My son had a similar situation on 12/3 and it sent out naked pictures.
Still possible you have a virus on your machine. Is your Antivirus up to date, and have you done a scan?
Did you look at the headers of the spam to see if it looked like it was coming from inside verizon (or worse from your machine).
Its possible your mail was harvested at one of your recipients. Considering using BCC (blind CC) if you send to lots of people and don't need everyone to know who you sent the message to.
Thanks for the helpful reply. I didn't send any batch email, and certainly nothing that included all the recipients of that email.
I think our antivirus is up to date, but then again I thought it was up to date when this happened. I did scan the machine after I received the email. How do I look at the header to determine whether it came from my machine? All I can tell is that the email appeared to originate from my email address, and even included my name in quotes, which is included with all legitimate email from me.
After having run virus scan and changed my Verizon webmail password, I just want to know what other steps I need to take.
Hello,
I am having the exact same issue. I have removed the contacts from my address book and still the **bleep** are sending emails in my good name. Have you been able to restore you email security?
I know I do not have a virus, so that is not an issue.
Regards
Paul
This has happened to my verizon email account as well (began on 12/23). I scanned for virus (none) with McAffee and changed my password. I think the messages I'm still seeing may be from a few days ago (failed delivery attempts). Should I change the outgoing mail port (email settings) from 25 to something else. I was on the phone w/ verizon support last night and they said I did not need to do that.
As far as changing ports, it is a good idea to follow the latest instructions to change the two ports and activate SSL. Particularly important if you are using a laptop and are not always using a Verizon Network
It will help prevent someone from catching your password when you launch your email app, as well as preventing some one from seeing the content of your emails.
My email was hacked yesterday and whatever miscreant did it has sent out a link to some some dispicable and disgusting material. I am outraged that such a thing has my name on it. I spent a lot of time on the phone with Ken, the tech guru, who reset my account , gave me a temporary password for 24 hours, and I established a new password today. Hopefully that will be the end of it. Thank you, Ken, for the help. I do not know if any other action is required, as my computer checked OK after I ran a suite of antivirus and malware programs. Additionally, the Northeast apparently had some server problems last night which precluded me from logging into my account at all; I even tried different computers. Ken was able to log in from his location for the reset. The two problems were not related, but nonetheless the coincidence of the events had me pinging off the walls for a while. I do not know if one of the automated features, like Home Agent, would have been able to reset the account, as Ken explained that sometimes these miscreants create a new password of their own which locks out the rightful owner. I guess time will tell. A secondary account seems like a prudent option.
I am having the exact same problem. Spent 1 hour on phone this morning with Verizon. They were no help. Solution may be to dump this e-mail address and start anew. However, I was told by the "helpful" Tech rep today that I could not change my e-mail address 🙂 Very bright person 😛
It is very hard but not absolutely impossible to get Verizon to change your primary Email account. Usually not worth the trouble to go through the hoops it takes to get to someone who can do it.
However it is easy to create a secondary id for your email. And start using it for all your email. Even if you get Verizon to change your Primary id, I suggest you use a secondary email. Then if you have problems with it you can just drop it and set up a new secondary.
One bad thing about email protocols is that it is very easy for anyone to pretend they are anyone else. Absolutely no access to your password is and no hacking to your email on Verizon servers is needed. They just need your email address. Some services that you might use even do it legitimately so that messages they send out for you will reply to you rather than to them. Spammers and Phishers do not care and do it all the time.
As of January 5, I too am experiencing this problem of returned and undeliverable emails. I am on a Mac and use Mac Mail. I did have my contacts list on the Verizon email account and it was all these old email addresses used by the hacher, not my current contact list. This suggests that my account was hacked at the Verizon email level and not on my computer. Also, it was a secondary email address used for resumes and job applications. If anyone finds an answer, please post it here. Thanks.
I had the same issue this week. Was unaware of this thread so I started one called "Compromised Contacts."
An old "sent file" that was left on the Verizon web site months ago was hacked and all the contacts were sent spam.
Since I see that several people have this same issue, and I cannot see a meaningful response from Verizon, my solution will be to switch to gmail to send mail when I travel. It's a pain, but should be more secure.
My email got hacked last night. Verizon what are you doing about this?
I also have been getting failure to deliver email that I never sent.
Some were hotmail address???
Please figure out what is going on....
this is happening to me also!!!! someone is sending phishing emails to my my contacts. it says it is sent via verizon mobile. i do not have a verizon mobile account!! Do i need to cancel my verizon internet to get this resolved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I too have been hacked. Looks like Verizon does not have a Handel on security. I Switched over from a cable company which I had for over 10 years, never did this happen. I am constantly updating virus and firewall apps.
My particular situation was some one sent a mass email to all my contacts. After the first time (Yes It happened twice) I removed all my contacts and it appeared to happen again.
I do not even use the Verizon account anymore. Good old Gmail, or my Old email which is still active after 6 months, Nice.
Verizon is horrible!
I was hacked yesterday. An inappropriate email followed by a second email was sent to all my contacts from my secondary email address that said "verizon webmail'. I changed my password. Do I need to do anything else?
Just got hacked this morning - someone is now sending my Verizon contacts spam using my email address as the "sent from". Since I only use my Verizon email account as a pass-through (since it does not support IMAP, but gmail does), I'm going to delete all my Verizon contacts. I've also changed my password. This might not help, as the "cat is out of the bag", but what else can I do? This is embarrassing. Is this a security failure on the part of Verizon??
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
