We have had a few people who have had their email accounts hacked. This is most likely done through the use of keyloggers on one of the systems from which they have accessed their email account.

The average hacked account will have a message sent out which states the owner has gone out of the country on business and has landed themselves in a world of trouble, requiring money they do not have. It will ask for money from their loved ones (on their email address list), and ask that the money be sent to x or y account overseas. Once this money is sent, it is GONE FOREVER.

With the portability of email access these days, there is no way to be sure which computer gave their information away, however, if they would like to be certain that their main computer is clean, we will be happy to do a full malware scan for $145.

If your account has been breached, you should change your email password by calling the provider over the phone. If this is impossible, or impractical, you should wait until your main computer is clean, then change it using that computer, and never enter your credentials into another computer unless you know for a fact that it is clean. You should do this with any credentials you have used, be it email, login details, account information, etc, to prevent virtual identity theft.

If you have any identifying information about the incident, please save this. All the law needs is your account number, the hosting company (yahoo, hotmail, etc.), and the time which it was accessed. With this, they can get the IP, and address of the offending individual. If this is within the states, they can then prosecute. Contact your local PD for additional information.

There ARE methods of obfuscateing IP addresses, so if the criminal is smart, they may have done this, making it harder to impossible to find them.

Regards,
Brandon

Lead Technician
The Computer Hospital