Signs your email account has been hacked
Sometimes it is obvious: friends tell you they got a strange email from your address, or you cannot log in anymore because the password no longer works. Other times the signs are quieter, like emails in your sent folder you never wrote, or a "someone tried to sign in" alert from a country you have never visited.
Any of these is worth acting on right away, even if you are not sure yet how serious it is. Acting quickly is more useful than figuring out exactly how it happened first.
- Contacts received strange or spammy emails from your address
- You are suddenly locked out of your own account
- Sent folder shows messages you did not write
- A login alert from a device or location you do not recognize
What to do right away
The most important first step is changing the password from a device you trust is clean, since a hacked account is often tied to a device that has a problem too. If you can still get in, do this immediately rather than waiting until later in the day.
After that, check the account's recovery settings. Hackers often quietly add their own backup email or phone number so they can get back in even after you change the password. Removing anything you do not recognize there is just as important as the password change itself.
- Change the password from a device you trust, right away
- Check recovery email and phone number for anything unfamiliar
- Review any auto-forwarding rules that could be sending copies of your mail elsewhere
- Send one calm heads-up to close contacts so they know to ignore strange messages
Protecting the accounts that shared a password
If that same password was used anywhere else, banking, shopping, social media, those accounts are at risk too, since a hacked password often gets tried across many sites at once. We help you figure out which accounts need a new, different password and get that done without it becoming an overwhelming project.
Going forward, we set up two-factor authentication on the accounts that matter most, so a password alone is not enough to get back in even if it leaks again somewhere down the road.
How to book
Call (615) 852-5565 Monday to Saturday from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Tell us what happened and what you have already tried, and we will walk through securing the account and anything connected to it.
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