A client contacts you to say she’s received the oddest e-mail from you.
No, your reply, you’re not in London and you didn’t send her that message asking for help. But you can see in your sent folder that she and dozens of other people on your contact list have been receiving messages from you that you never sent.
Your e-mail has been broken into. What should you do?
If you can still get into your e-mail, the fix is easy. Here’s what to do:
- Change your password. Make sure the new password is long and strong—that is, it’s at least 8-10 characters, it includes some uppercase and some lowercase letters, some numbers, and some special characters like #@%&*, and that it does not contain a name or a word found in the dictionary. See this post on our sister blog on how to remember tough-to-crack passwords.
- Examine your signature and your auto-responder message. If you have a signature that automatically pops in to every message, take a look at it to make sure no rogue links or spammy messages have been added to it. If you use an automatic reply message when you’re on vacation or out of the office, check that too.
- Scan your computer for viruses. Finally, do a complete virus scan to make sure your computer has not been infected.
If you’re locked out of your e-mail, click the link as if you’ve forgotten you e-mail. Look for the password reset message in your backup e-mail, answer your security question, and then reset the password in your primary e-mail. Be sure to go back and change the password on your secondary e-mail as well. Choose new security questions and answers for both e-mail accounts and also check the signature and auto-responder message on both accounts. Don’t forget to run a virus scan once your e-mail accounts are secure.
For advice on what to do to make it tougher for hackers to break in and easier for your to regain control of your account if they do, see this post on our sister blog.
