Password on my main home email has been changed

[#1]

At some point yesterday the password on my main home email has changed so I can't access emails.  I did not change it and can't get through to customer services. How do I change it again so I can access my emails?

[#2]

Hi @RoseyT 

A warm welcome to the forums.  Why do you think that password has changed?  Many email programs will report nearly an connectivity error as a "password failure" ... even before any attempt to pass credentials has been made.

Can you log into the the mailbox using webmail?  See http://webmail.plus.net

When you say "main home email" address, do you mean your DEFAULT Plusnet email address?  If yes, have you changed your account password?  The password on the DEFAULT mailbox follows that of you account password.

[#3]

Thanks for your reply

I usually connect via Mail (MAC), I get an error message asking me to enter account password, when I do it says unable to verify....

When I go into my Plusnet account the old password works, but when I go into my main home email address (same password), I can't get in. I'm assuming that is my Default one. I have another webmail mailbox with the same user name but a different name prior to the @, and a different password, that works so I can send and receive emails on that mailbox, so I have used that one to verify my account here.

I have had both the account, email address and password for many years with no problem.

[#4]

Hi Townman

Further to the message above I have just explored further and my main default one is ok, its one of my mailboxes that I use mostly and call my home email address that has had the password changed.

[#5]

Hi Townman

Further to the message above I have just explored further and my main default one is ok, its one of my mailboxes that I use mostly and call my home email address that has had the password changed. It had the same password as the default one and also my account one.

Hope that helps?

Many thanks

Rosemary

[#6]

Hi Rosemary,

The first thing to do here is to verify that you can log into both mail boxes using webmail.

To log into the default address just use your username.

To log into a secondary mailbox, use username +Mailboxname

Unless your default mailbox has been compromised it’s password will be the same as your account password.

If you cannot get into the default mailbox using webmail, you can change the mailbox password by logging into the user portal and change your password from there.

If you cannot get into a secondary mailbox you can change its password via the manage my email options in the user portal.

When you can effect a login to the mailboxes using webmail, return to trying the same on the MAC.

[#7]

Thanks, I've managed to change it now and all working.  Looks like it was Plusnet that changed it as when I managed to download the emails again there was one from them warning me of a possible compromise of my log in credentials and the need to change it.  Helpful of them! (Not). How can I get that email if they've changed my password?

Should I now change my default account password to protect the account?

[#8]

Hi Rosemary,

I've had this matter under a SU discussion with the back room support staff.  It is logistically a difficult space.

If a user has not added an additional notification email address (useful if one loses access to the primary address) AND it is the notification email address (in this case the default one) which has be come compromised ... then there is a catch 22 situation.

PlusNet's action is essential to ensure the protection of the email services we all share.  Just a single email address being seriously abused could be enough to get the whole of any email platform black-balled as a source of SPAM, so action needs to be swift.

Clearly notification that something has happened needs to be sent ... but if the mailbox which has just had its password changed, is the only one listed on the account ... where else could such a communication be sent?  Note that if a user in this situation were to have logged into the user portal, there would be a blue notification box that there was a new ticket on the account, which would explain things.

If the default email box password has been compromised, as it was also the account password, one should also consider the account to be equally compromised.  Changing the account password will also change the password for the default mailbox (again).

As advised before, if you have used the mailbox name and the same password elsewhere for accessing other services, it is IMPERATIVE that you change passwords there too.

Personally I use the combination of the email catchall and a unique email address for third party signups (e.g. netflix.service@ amazon.account@ facebook@ ) each with their own password.  Yes it is a pain, but it prevents the compromise of one email address and password opening up the whole of your on-line presence to widespread abuse and potentially financial loss.

[#9]

Thanks for your reply and useful advice.  However I did have another mailbox email address with a separate password that continued to be operational so Plusnet could have used that.  I also did log into my account when trying to find out what had happened and didn't see a blue notification box.  I also tried to ring them and apparently thats not possible due to the virus, nor is the chat.  So how can we get any answers?

I have been with Plusnet since they were a friendly small start up in Sheffield, and really did have good customer service where you could talk to a human easily.  Alas since they have been part of BT they have been useless.

[#10]

"I did have another mailbox email address with a separate password that continued to be operational so Plusnet could have used that"

These are not manual processes - they are automated and will report to the contact email address or impacted email address depending on how configured.  If the impacted email address is the contact email address, there is no random automation which can find another email address on an account (if such exists at all) to send the notification to.