Email address hacked.. need advice please

[#1]

I've started receiving ransomware type threats from some pleb who has managed to get the password for my primary Plusnet email address.

Can someone tell me how to change the password for my email account please?

Thanks, Rob.

[#2]

@homeagain How do you know they have your password? If you want to change it though, it will be by changing your password for your  Plusnet account.

[#3]

His ransomware email has my password in the script

[#4]

So changing my Plusnet account password changes my email password as well?

[#5]

For your primary email address, yes.

[#6]

Cheers Jab , I'll give it a go.

[#7 · Accepted solution]

Reset email password

If you are not able to login to the email address using webmail, then it is likely that your email address has been identified as being compromised and has had its password changed. Where email address passwords have been changed to protect the integrity of the service, the Plusnet account password is left unchanged.

Which ISP are you with, Plusnet or one of the other / legacy vISPs?

Plusnet / Force9 / FreeOnline users can only change the password on the DEFAULT email address by changing the password on the user ACCOUNT through the user portal. You can change the password on a secondary mailbox using the Manage My Mail options in the user portal.

Brightview users (Madasafish / FreeNetName / GlobalNet / IC24 / ICScotland / Dialstart / Totalise) logging into webmail should use their full email address. Use the MAAF user portal to update the password on the default email address (change the account password) and use this MAAF guide to change the password on a secondary mailbox address. If you cannot recall the account password, you will need to contact support ... because the account password change process sends an email to the mailbox you cannot now access.

DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD AGAIN for that would allow the continued exploitation of the account. The new password should be cryptic and not one used before.

Note that changing the account password will change the password used for logging on to the relevant user portal. If your email service is NOT a retained legacy service (one associated with a retired internet service account), then the password required by the router to connect to the internet will be changed too. If the router is a Hub Zero or a Hub One supplied by Plusnet it should update automatically. If not, you will need to log into the router, drop the connection, change the password yourself and reconnect.

On the assumption that the email address password has been compromised, I strongly recommend that wherever you have used that email address / password combination as access credentials to services such as Amazon, Netflix, eBay etc., that you also change the passwords on those service as well.

[#8]

@homeagain ,If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest checking your e-mail address at haveibeenpwned.com 

It lists all the known hacks where accounts have been compromised - not all will have captured your password or other personal data, so don't panic even if your address is listed there.