AOL Passwords hacked from iPhone

Lawrence

Quite right! The email actually came from an address with a Samoan domain name!

I found the thread you mentioned on the DMARC site and its good that this problem has been made aware to the technical community - hopefully there will be a fix?

I contacted AOL Email Help and got the bland "reset password" reply - useless!

Is there anything else I should do with this rogue email? Report it as spam?

Just report it as spam. I don't think there's anything that DMARC can do about this, as there is nothing in the header to take action on. The domain probably has a valid SPF and/or DKIM signature. It would be helpful if email client apps were less helpful, and would display the entire FROM field instead of just the sender name; then you could see immediately that it wasn't from who you think it was from.

As I suspected from the start, DMARC does not solve the problem of spoofed email addresses; it just adds additional burden to site operators who legitimately resend email (such as mailing lists). There is too much money to be made using spoofing for the perps to give up easily; no matter what solution providers try there will always be a workaround discovered pretty quickly, just as there was for SPF and DKIM.

The best solution is to educate users and provide some helpful hints. Gmail, for example, adds a warning to any incoming email where there is conflicting information in the header. Why don't all ISPs do that?

I have had a similar problem,but for me it weirder I changed my passed once and I had recently changed it again. Due to some one hacked my AOL account and changed the password and this was due to me using the iPhone 5 Mail app. And it was sending emails to old emails that don't work no more and I'm receiving emails from sites I don't go on no more. So I was wondering how would I stop this from happening,

Jazzimus_Rider32 wrote:

do you know any free software that might help protect my emails from it happening again.

I guess you didn't really understand what you were told then. There is no software free or otherwise to protect your iPhone since there is no malware that can harm you iPhone in any way unless you jailbreak it. Your email password was found in some other manner. Either you responded to a phishing request or somebody broke into your AOL account on the server.

Jazzimus_Rider32 wrote:

i did understand what he meant so i asked if he knew any free software to protect phishing for my email on PC ingernal

The only "software" that can protect you from phishing is called common sense. In order for phishing emails to get any information from you, you have to click on a link and give them information. If you get any emails asking for you to update a password or a credit card or similar sensitive information, do NOT click on any links in the email. Type a known good link into your browser and check your settings from there. Contact the business by phone or email (again, by using a known good email address) and ask them if they made such a request. And, if anyone sends you an email asking for bank account information so they can send you 9 million dollars, delete it. 😉

An e-mail account is not something that can be protected by software running on your computer. Think of it this way... suppose you keep some money hidden in a lockbox in a shed in your back yard. Now, suppose that someone has found it and figured out how to open it. Will installing an alarm system in your house help? No, because the money isn't in the house, it's in the shed.

Your e-mail resides on an e-mail server (analogous to the shed). E-mail accounts are often hacked through attacks of varying kinds on the server, and that means your computer and your iPhone are not involved. To prevent these kinds of attacks, use a strong password (longer is better) on your e-mail account, and if your e-mail provider offers any additional security measures for logging in to your account, such as two-factor authentication, use it. Change your security question answers to something nonsensical. (For example, "What is your mother's maiden name?" "flapjack skyscrapers")

Another way that your e-mail can get hacked, as has been pointed out, is if you fall for a phishing scam. There is no software on Earth that can reliably protect you against phishing scams... you simply have to use your own "filters" by training yourself in skepticism and secure treatment of e-mails... notably, being cautious about clicking links in e-mail messages, and more so, cautious about providing sensitive information on the page that an e-mail link takes you to.

HI.

im having an issue with my aol account as well. i have been a long time member of aol over 10 years now. i got a message while signing

in my email saying there have been unusual activties on this account please change your password. So i continued but i couldnt remember

what email account i kept as my alternative email because i have only one other email and it kept telling me it was incorrect, and when i tried

putting my other information it was also wrong i dont know if it was changed or i just cant remember what it was, i tried everything!!! peolple have

been getting spam mail from me now.

i contacted AOL first by phone waited forever but no answer. then i emailed them and i got a response yet it was unhelful because i told them

exactly what i am telling you and their help was giving me a link to go and reset my password !!! lol how is that helpful when im explainimg to them

i tried that and it wasnt working due to the fact that i cant remember the answers or it has been changed. Anyway i sent a longer email and never got a response back!

i asked a tech guy to help but he couldnt find a solution. i would be very happy if i can just get back into my email but if that is not possible

i just want to deleted my account permanently with all my contacts and emails deleted i dont mind at this point. because its really frustrating. Is that an option in my situation?

please someone help me 😟

This is an AOL issue, and not something we can help with. If you cannot log on to your account to change the password normally, and you cannot reset the password because you don't have all the required information, only AOL can help you.

Unfortunately, it's possible that they won't be able to help you, for security reasons. After all, think about it from their point of view... if you don't know key information about the account, how do they know you're actually the owner of the account? If you are able to talk one of their techs into resetting the password for you without providing adequate identifying information - and I'm talking about information that couldn't be obtained by someone stalking you online, from your Facebook page or public records or the like - then that represents a very serious security problem, and you should move away from AOL and to a more secure e-mail provider as quickly as possible.

Aysha84 wrote:

exactly what i am telling you and their help was giving me a link to go and reset my password !!! lol how is that helpful when im explainimg to them

i tried that and it wasnt working due to the fact that i cant remember the answers or it has been changed. Anyway i sent a longer email and never got a response back!

😟

You've gotten your answer. If you can't reset your password because you forgotten your security answers, that's the end of the story.

Imagine this: You hire a security guard to protect your house. You give the security guard explicit instructions to only allow people inside if they have the key, and if they do not have the key, they have to answer a secret question, and the answer is 'banana'.

One day, you lose your key. You can't find it anywhere. So, to get access back to your house, you go to the security guard, who asks you the secret question, and you can't remember what you told him the answer was. Now, he's got a photographic memory. He will never forget the answer (he even has it written down in his pocket). So, the security guard is doing EXACTLY what you told him to do.

Now, is it the fault of the security guard for doing EXACTLY what you told him to do, or is it your fault for losing your house key and forgetting your secret answer?

PROTIP: It's YOUR fault.

no they didnt just send me a link. it was a proper email explaining how to reset my passwords.

i emailed them through the aol website.

Aysha84 wrote:

i know its obviously not their fault at all. (i never said it was ---> TJBUSMC1973)

thank you thomas_r for you polite response 🙂

Sorry, but I'm not inclined to hold someone's hand and soothe them when they haven't taken any personal responsibility for protecting their account, either by making sure they know their recovery information, educate themselves on how to avoid phishing scams, etcetera. The internet is not a new invention. It's been around for a while. There are literally thousands of resources available for you to learn how to protect yourself online.

Additionally, you having an issue with your AOL password is an AOL issue. I have no idea why you're even bothering to post on the Apple Community Forum. Why, exactly, did you think that this forum is an appropriate place to get support for an issue with your AOL account?

I wasn't referring to the email you got from AOL explaining how to reset your password. I was referring to the message you said you got that said there were suspicious activities on your account. Here, in your own words:

"i got a message while signing

in my email saying there have been unusual activties on this account please change your password. So i continued but i couldnt remember

what email account i kept as my alternative email because i have only one other email and it kept telling me it was incorrect, and when i tried

putting my other information it was also wrong"

THAT message was a phishing message, and all info you entered there was stolen. THAT is why it was marked incorrect; it most likely WAS correct but the people phishing for your info marked it incorrect so they could steal it from you. You've been duped.

Lawrence. I really appreciate your help.

Guess I just need to hope the bots will stop sending spam soon. No point in deleting the address.

Thanks

Check out https://twitter.com/AOLSupportHelp. There are a ton of other users complaining about the same problem. I hope AOL is doing something about this..

BTW in doing my research it seems it is the heartbleed bug and that Yahoo and GMail have also been infected. Hopefully the Security community is at work combatting this issue