6 Things You Should Do When Your Email Gets Hacked

Getting your email hacked can happen to any of us, and it can be alarming. The most popular way people realize that their email has been hacked is when a friend or family member lets them know that they received a strange email from them.

Email hackers target the public to take money from them fraudulently. One popular way they take people's money is by getting unauthorized access to your email account and sending an email to your contacts. The email may state that you are on vacation overseas and suddenly need help and money – and could they please send money right away to the mentioned account?

Unaware that it wasn't really you who sent the email, and because it seems like a legitimate email from you, some contacts do send money to the fraudsters.

If you ever recognize that your personal email has been hacked, do these six things to mitigate risk:

1. Change your email password right away – Log into your email provider's web mail portal and go to your account settings. Typically, there is a Security section where you have the option to change your password. Choose a new, strong password that does not resemble the previous one.

• If you no longer have access to the account, use the 'Forgot Password' option to create a new one and recover access to your account.
• If you used this password in other sites/accounts, change those passwords, as well, and don't use the same password in multiple sites.