Email hacking

[hounds4]

Yes my account was hacked.  We have active Norton 360 Antivirus.  We only use Verizon website to send and receive emails.  We do not use Outlook, etc. to link.  I think you need to step up your security to prevent this type of thing from happening.  Everything that was sent out was apparently to bogus email addresses, because I received undeliverable notifications for all of them and had to clean up not only my inbox, but the sent box as well.  What is your procedure for handling this besides suspending my outgoing emails?  When I searched your Help function yesterday to get some answers, there were none. 

On 03/26/12, abuse@verizon.net wrote:

Re:  Outbound email access suspended

Dear Verizon Online Customer,

This email is to alert you that we temporarily disabled your ability to send email using your Verizon Online (verizon.net) email account. This will not affect your ability to receive email, just your ability to send, and we expect your account's sending feature will only be disabled for about 24 hours.

We had to take this action because we detected that your account was used to send email in a manner that violates the Verizon Online Email Policy. We understand that you may be unaware that your email account is being used in this way, and ask that you follow the precautionary recommendations below. If you inadvertently sent email to more than 500 recipients in an hour, please see our email policy link at the bottom of this email.

As a precaution, and to hopefully keep this situation from continuing, there are several actions that we urge you to take immediately:

1. Update your anti-virus definitions. If you do not use anti-virus software and anti-spyware software, we strongly recommend that you purchase such software or use one of the free virus scanning services on the Internet. Anti-virus and anti-spyware products are available from Verizon Online and many other security software providers.

2. Scan your computer for viruses and spyware and keep your software up to date. Some viruses will install software which can grab your saved passwords and use them to send spam. Spyware can be installed onto your PC by a virus or by clicking a link on a malicious website. As with viruses, spyware may grab your passwords and use them to send spam. The best way to protect your computer and your personal information is to keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware software definitions up to date and to scan you computer frequently.

3. Change the passwords on your email and other online accounts. It is generally a good idea to change your passwords periodically. Changing your password once per month will help protect you from others who abuse accounts.

If you require assistance, please call Verizon Online Technical Support at 800-VERIZON (800-837-4966).

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Sincerely,

Verizon Online Abuse Team
Verizon Online Email Policy

[somegirl]

1. This is a peer-to-peer support forum. If you want to get a message to Verizon, you should contact them directly via one of the options on their Contact Us page.

2. Probably the best thing you can do is follow the directions in the message you posted. Change your password (and secret answer) to something new and secure, run a virus scan with a fully updated Security program on every computer you check your mail from.