Password Unknowingly Changed.

[Tilly2]

Bare with me here, please.

After a very stressful three hours, plus a long, sleepless night, I have finally got Mr T's email password sorted out.

When he tried to log in yesterday, it would accept his log in details. It took an online chat and telephone conversation with the BT customer service chap to get it sort of sorted out.

It turned out that Mr T had received two emails in the last three days telling him that his password had been changed. He hadn't done anything, he rarely looks at his emails, so, can anyone tell me how this has occurred? How did someone else change his password?

[Tilly2]

Bear^! I haven't had much sleep!

[Svejk]

Never heard of that happening but I'm no computer buff. ;)

[Svejk]

Meant to add, they must have had their (presumably good) reasons.

[Old_Geezer]

Darn I wish you'd put the correction in earlier !
The lodger's complaining now.

[Tilly2]

Are you expecting a BA for that, Svejk?

It did make me laugh, though.

[Tilly2]

Well, the password was changed and he had no idea what the new one was.

[Old_Geezer]

Sounds weird. Maybe some BT employee hit the wrong button and reset a customer's password and failed to correct it when they tried to ?

In any case I think I'd consider changing all my passwords just in case. Probably not necessary but ...

[Tilly2]

To add to the irritation, his BT account was closed down due to 'unusual activity'

So, I've had to sort that as well, I am sooooooo, stressed!

[Old_Geezer]

Put some smoothing music on (loop), and go have a nap on the sofa.

[Tilly2]

I wish I could, OG. Unfortunately, I have lots to do, including changing all our passwords.

I'll have an early night, tonight.

[Tilly2]

Any other thoughts on this, please?

[Old_Geezer]

Not really. Either a service provider problem or someone got your husbands password somehow and used it to try to take control. In any case, change password. Scan PC(s) for viruses and malware to be sure. Trust it is now a past issue.

[Tilly2]

Thank you. OG. x

[VHG]

Many of us use the same password on our emails systems and we do for logging on to web sites.

So suppose your email address is [email protected] and the password for logging on to your email is "football".

Now suppose when you register for a web site you use the same email and password, so to logon to say Amazon you also use [email protected] with a password of football.

So every time you logon to that web site you are "giving away" your email and password combination.

Now we can trust Amazon, but suppose you register for a less trustworthy web site.

You register for a dodgy web site with [email protected] with a password of football.

Now the owner of that web site has your email address AND email password.

So now they can log on to your email system and do whatever they like (order stuff from Amazon and so on)

As a MINIMUM you should use a different password for your email address as you do for logging on to web sites.

If possible you should use as many different passwords as you can, though this can sometimes be impractical, but at least make it as difficult as you can for scammers and hackers by varying your passwords and changing them as often as you can.

[jno]

hang on, they change his email password - then notify him by email? How's that supposed to work?

[Tilly2]

Thank you, VHG. A very helpful response.

I do use lots of different passwords but Mr T tends to stick with one e mail address and one password. I'll let him know.Thanks again.

[Tilly2]

He had two emails from BT telling him his password had been reset, jno. He knew nothing about a new password.

[HansUrbancka]

Hi Tilly... I got your call to me via sandy's thread.

Would I be right in guessing that Mr.T is using a Yahoo e/mail account which was provided by BT.?

It is my view that someone, somehow, discovered Mr.T's password and altered it. It is strange that the criminal altered the password when he/she already had the means of access to the account.

Then BT discovered 'unusual activity' and took the step of cancelling the account; in the knowledge that the real Mr.T would react when he couldn't gain access to his e/mails.

Hans.

[Tilly2]

Thank you, Hans. Another very helpful response.
We have been shaken this and will know better, in future.

[HansUrbancka]

G'afternoon Tilly......You didn't say if Mr.T is using BT Yahoo Email.

If he is and (in your words) 'he rarely looks at his emails',it would suggest to me that he wouldn't miss Yahoo. You could get him to change to another e/mail provider.

I have a BT email account with Yahoo but only use it if I want what is tantamount to a 'throw away address'. In fact I find it problematic, because every time I use it my computer freezes for a minute or two. Most annoying because I am unable to correct the fault; which says a lot for my Computer knowledge.

Hans.

Hans.