My Account keeps sending out spam

Question

I, too, have reached the end of my tether with BT.
Almost every month, around the 28th/29th, my BT account sends out hundreds of emails to recipients whose details are stored on a very old contacts list. The messages contain links like this: http://directlenderpaydayloans.com/hvrykj/wpxajnsjhzetukayxqjilmvsqdvvulbynpgyicsc
Many of the recipients are important professional contacts and I am finding this incredibly frustrating - and humiliating, as the logical assumption is that I have somehow triggered these emails. The fact is I rarely visit BT and am desperately trying to wind down my BT email account.
I now want to close the account and remove any trace of that old contacts list that must be lurking somewhere within BT's systems.
Has anyone else experienced this appalling phenomenon?
John

Answer 1

Welcome to the forum. It sounds as though your email account was hacked at some time. If the hackers harvested your contacts list, they now have the details and even closing the account won't prevent them continuing to use the addresses or making it appear that their messages are still being sent from the account. If the messages are being sent by or on behalf of a genuine company it might be possible to take action against them to put a stop to the use of information obtained illegally.
You wouldn't be alone in having your BT Yahoo! account hacked - Yahoo!'s vulnerability is a major reason why BT are in the process of migrating customers to a new BT Mail service (a process which alas is not without a fresh batch of problems for some).
At the risk of appearing to be wise after the event, it's never a good idea to keep personal information in the cloud in my view. Ask the celebs who are finding their intimate photos scattered on the internet.
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