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My email has been hacked by a nefarious group and changing the password does not work.

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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A nefarious non-English speaking group has hacked my Thunderbird account and sends messages to me from my own email address. Every time I have changed the password they have discovered the new password immediately. I tried using the Master Password and they discovered that, as well.

I have had my computer cleaned professionally twice and they did not find the source of the problem. I like Thunderbird because I know how to use it to send email messages to a group. Do I need to find a completely new email client to get rid of this problem?

A nefarious non-English speaking group has hacked my Thunderbird account and sends messages to me from my own email address. Every time I have changed the password they have discovered the new password immediately. I tried using the Master Password and they discovered that, as well. I have had my computer cleaned professionally twice and they did not find the source of the problem. I like Thunderbird because I know how to use it to send email messages to a group. Do I need to find a completely new email client to get rid of this problem?

All Replies (2)

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It is more likely that they have not hacked the account, but are only abusing your email address.

Do not ever respond to any of those emails as that will prove to the nefarious person that the email address is alive and useable.

If you are aware of this because you are getting bounced back emails from people you never sent any messages to then you will discover they get bored after a while and stop.

Some people have been doing this and using threats with the sole intention of extracting monies. Do not respond to these types of emails nor provide monies.

Unfortunately, you cannot stop people doing this. But it is a good idea to send emails to your contacts stating someone is abusing your email address and that they will know the email is from you when it has your signature. Create a signature for your outgoing emails and use it.

Suggest you give the section 'Signatures stored in files' some consideration.

If they had hacked your account and know about your password then they would be sending via your account and it is also likely they would have accessed your webmail account and changed the password just to be a pain. In which case you would not be able to access your account nor send emails. The most likely way of getting a password would be using keylogger malware. If concerned: Start computer in 'Safe Mode' and then run a full scan.

Recommend you delete the emails and then compact the folder to fully remove hidden marked as deleted emails.

  • Right click on folder and select 'Compact'

Advise you never 'Forward' amusing emails as you have no control if those emails get forwarded on nor whom may end up receiving the email and the sender may not have removed your email address.

Do not automatically allow Thunderbird to 'show remote content' as images can include malware etc. Some images may only be a pixel in size and you would not see it.

Never post your email address in any public forum.

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Changing to a new email client or only using webmail will not resolve this.