Change Email Password when not a member of Plus Net?

[#1]

I know that this sounds confusing but I have been hacked and need to change my email password - this is the history...

1, I have a globalnet.co.uk email address - Globalnet shut down years ago but my email address was then handled by 

2, Asmadasafish - who shut down over a year ago and the account was then taken over by 

2, Plus Net

The problem is that I don't have access to the member centre to change my email password! I can't seem to start an account for just email services and therefore can't change my password - a real catch 22 - can someone please help me? The hacker has sent me an email (This is a huge scam!) SHOWING my password and threatening to reveal film of me watching a video on a porn site which is actually funny especially as I don't watch porn sites and have tape over my camera anyway. There are more serious implications though if he just tried to steal my email address...

[#2]

Moderator's note:

Topic moved to 'Email' to raise its profile.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Read about this scam a few weeks back. Utter rubbish. Still if they have shown your actual password (Not sure how they'll have got that), usually you use the forgotten password link on the member centre log in page-before you actually log in.

I'm not sure it'll work through the Plusnet version if you're technically a fish customer, but there's a reset webmail password on that page too-which would double as the email password. Try madasafish.com and look at the top right. The page itself is pretty dead but that function still seems to be there.

[#4]

Thanks very much Kdog. I had been to the madasafish site but everything I clicked seemed to take me to plus so following your advice meticulously I actually found the right things!! Yes, I see lots of scams which I ignore but when they are showing your password it does send a little shiver down your spine.

If you go to haveibeenpwned .com it can tell you if your email address and password have been hacked and where from. Mine had been breached in 6 places including Adobe and Linked in so it's best to change fairly frequently which is obviously not what I've been doing.. 

[#5]

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@nixlyn1 wrote:

If you go to haveibeenpwned .com it can tell you if your email address and password have been hacked and where from. Mine had been breached in 6 places including Adobe and Linked in so it's best to change fairly frequently which is obviously not what I've been doing.. 

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I wish mine was only 6...

That being said, quite a few years ago when the Adobe hack hit the news I took the time to go through every password I had set (and could remember) and changed them all to be totally unique. Changing all the passwords took me a few days work but I believe in the end it was well worth the time as any hack will now only possibly compromise that one account and not hundreds (I have around 800 saved passwords).

Using a password manager (I currently use Bitwarden but there are loads, many of which are free and offer mobile sync apps too) I now try and set long (30-50 character) complex and totally random passwords. This also helps as I only need to remember 1 password now. I also enable 2 factor on any account that supports it, using Authy to save all of these and have a sync to various devices (Bitwarden offers this for £10 a year but then I have the password and 2FA code in the same place, so not as secure).

[#6]

I use lastpass and it gives you a 1-click change passwords on all saved sites option. It takes a little bit of time to go through but it works and I have changed my password across 100+ accounts using this method.

[#7]

You would think that after my experience I might be keener but the truth is that whilst all my online payments stuff is pretty secure I don't really care enough to change every other site that I've joined over the years. Probably have trouble remembering them all to be honest. The amount of work involved is just not worth it. Plus you're never really 100% secure anyway. Finally, I have very little money so again not much to lose. 

[#8]

I can see that requesting a password would work on the master login credentials for FreeNetName but if you had additional mailboxes, as I do, you cannot reset your email password in the same way as it is not recognised.  I have tried to login with my FreeNetName credentials to the PN MyAccount but they are not accepted and despite a search in this communit and a lengthy chat with a very helpful support team, I am currently still not able to change passwords on my mailboxes associated with my FreeNetName account. I am also very unclear about whether with the change over to the PN mail system whether we will still be stuck with 8 character alpha numeric with no security on POP access.

I too received one of these SPAM emails and the password displayed was my password from a few years back and which I changed while the options were still available.

The issue has been escalated within the PN email support team so when I get a solution I will post it here for everyone.

[#9]

Sorry to hear that @bobmanekshaw

You won't be able to log into the member centre on the Plusnet website with your FreeNetName logon as it's a different system.

You'll need to go to the Madasafish login page here and log in.

Once you've done this you should have a option such as 'Manage my Extras'

If you head here you should be able to reset the passwords for your additional mailboxes

[#10]

thanks @MatthewWheeler - I found the option from the main account summary page under:

Internet extras

Check your monthly usage or set up your newsgroup access details and static IP address.

You can then find the 'manage additional mailboxes' option and the password change. Unfortunately, the code on the page is set to check for passwords up to 8 characters long and alphanumeric - In this day and age of spam, nutters, and bots, that's not really cutting it for internet security especially when the PN passwords and email systems (that we are now using) don't have that limitation. Can we not get this sorted out guy and gals?

[#11]

Hi @bobmanekshaw,

Thank you for your feedback about the password options and security for these accounts. I will pass this on for you however I am unable to confirm if/when this might change, I'm afraid.