Have you received an email from someone you know with a message similar to the following :Hello,
I need a favor from you, Do you have an account with Amazon?
Regards,
This has now happened to a couple of our shedders.
The sender's email account has been hacked, the password changed and a redirect
put on the account so that all the sender's email is automatically forwarded on to
an account which the hacker has set up.
This means that the person hacked no longer gets any of their emails and they cannot get into the account because the password has been changed.
MEANWHILE :-
The hacker now sends out an email to any email address they can find in the hacked account's contacts or emails.
The email sent out will be similar to the one mentioned above.
If a recipient responds (believing it is coming from someone they know) they will then tell you
that they are having a problem (usually with their payment account or credit card) and need to
buy some vouchers for someone's birthday or something.
For instance, £200 of amazon vouchers, which they then want you to email to an email address
they give you (for the person who's birthday it is).
This, of course, is an email address that the hacker has access to. So, if you receive such an email, don't reply but try to contact the person it is suppose to be from (but not using that email address, remember any reply goes back to the hacker) by text or a different email address if they have one.
If it's your account then contact your email supplier to get the account back and change the password and redirect setting.
TO PREVENT THIS HAPPENING, change your password now to something more complicated and if possible switch on two factor authentication (this will make it more difficult for a hacker to change your password without you knowing and without a confirmation code which will have been sent to your phone or another email you have previously set up.
Good luck and stay Cyber Safe.
Steve Redrup.
Stephen Redrup (SMSN Co-ordinator)
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