Try resetting your password
The first thing you should try to do if your email account has been hacked is to reset your password. When you first enter the site, click the link that will take you to the area where you can reset it. Hotmail: Forgot your password?
Yahoo: I can’t access my account
Gmail: Can’t access your account? link.
Check your security options
Regardless of which email provider you are using, you should ensure that you have an alternate email address and security questions. You will need to log into your email account. There will be a link to check your account settings. In this area, you will be able to change your password, add an alternate email address, and check your security questions. Note: Please remember that a confirmation email will be sent to your alternate email address. You will need to confirm that is your account. Please ensure that you are not choosing security questions that anyone who has an idea of you will figure out. You want to select the ones that will be hard for even your own mother to come up with. Yahoo! has the additional security where you can add a sign-in seal. This seal is a word or an image that you have chosen that lets you know that you are actually on your sign-on page. These are the steps to add one:
However, the sign-on seal is only for the computer you are currently on. Yahoo! should think about having the sign-on seal appear regardless of the computer you are on. Financial institutions have used sign-on seals as an additional security layer for years, and it doesn’t have to be specifically on one computer.
I can’t get access to my email account at all
There are times that you still can’t get into your email account. Maybe the person who hacked into your account already moved quickly and changed your password, alternate email address, and security quetions. What can you do then? You will have to work with your email provider’s Customer Support to get the problem resolved. For Hotmail, you have go through numerous prompts before you able to access their Customer Support to fill out a form: For Yahoo! Mail, it’s a little misleading if you try to use the My account may have been compromised option when resetting your password. The best way is to go directly to Yahoo! Help, and click the Report Abuse link. You will be taken to the form where you can have someone from Yahoo to contact you. For Gmail, it’s very quick and simple to get some assistance. Click the My account has been compromised radio button. A link to the account recovery form will appear. Out of all three services, Yahoo! seems to provide the most security, and make it easier for you to get access to your email account, if you need to. Hotmail seems to be a little difficult to navigate, and Gmail is a little too easy for anyone to get into your email.
