If you have recently received an email apparently from your own email address which claims your email password has been hacked, your account has been infected or you have been filmed in a compromising situation, you are not alone. We have recently received numerous reports of this type of spam and received many such emails ourselves demanding bitcoin. Here are our tips on how to handle it with ease and change your email password in cPanel for peace of mind.
Don’t Panic
Firstly, it is likely that the email has not come from your email address but is a spoof. It is surprisingly easy for spammers to use a fake “From” address on the spam message to make it appear that the message came from your own email address. If you are still concerned, there are some simple steps to follow for peace of mind.
Scan Your Computer
If you are still concerned the first thing to do is scan your computer and/or other devices for viruses or malware. We recommend using both a reputable virus scanner and a malware detector such as Malware Bytes. Follow any guidance this software offers to fix any problems that are detected. It’s important to do this first as in the event that your email password has been compromised. you need to remove the threat before changing the password. Otherwise, the new password will be gathered by any virus and the problem, if it is indeed present, will re-occur.
Change Your Email Password in cPanel
Follow the guidance in our Knowledgebase article on how to change your email password in cPanel. Once you have changed the password on cPanel, remember to update the password on all devices which use the email account in question.
Need further assistance or want more security?
Contact us for further help. Our colleagues in the Cloudstream Technology group include experts on cyber security and we can provide enterprise class security solutions for your email, storage and all business IT requirements.
If you’re concerned about email spam that seems to have come from your own email address, don’t worry. Take simple action and change your password in cPanel