Recover Hacked AOL Email Account: Today, the techniques like 2-step verification and app authentication make our AOL email account safer than ever before. But, hacking is still a dark reality that troubles a lot of users on a daily basis.
No matter how aware you are and how hard you try to keep your account safe, hackers can still find a way to breach the security of your AOL account. However, there is nothing to panic about because it is very easy to recover a hacked AOL email Account.
If you are an AOL user and unable to sign in to your AOL email account even after entering the correct password then you might be a victim of hacking. Go through this post, if you don’t how to recover a hacked AOL email account. Here, we will discuss how you can identify and get back an AOL email account that is hacked.
Symptoms of a Hacked AOL webmail Account
If your AOL email account is showing any of the following signs then it is possible that it might be hacked.
- You are unable to log in to your AOL email account even after entering the right login credentials.
- Your inbox is full of spam messages or your spam filter is automatically disabled.
- There are unknown messages regarding undelivered message failures in your inbox.
- The setting of your AOL account is changing by itself.
- Your AOL email account is sending spam emails to your contacts.
How to check if your AOL email account is hacked?
Apart from the symptoms mentioned above, AOL offers a method by which you can be sure if you are account is compromised.
- Sign in to your AOL email account and visit the Recent Activity page.
- Depending upon the method by which you log into your AOL email account, you will get the following three options.
- Recent Activity: This options list the activities performed using your AOL Account. Here, you can see the location and device from which your AOL email account is logged in
- Apps connected to your account: Through this option, you can find out which apps are connected to your AOL account.
- Recent account changes: Under this option, you can check your last three password changes. Please note that you need to click “Show all” to see all the changes.
- If you find a suspicious device, location, activity, or app associated with your account then it indicates that your AOL account is hacked.
What to do if AOL Email is hacked?
Here are the things that you should do if you suspect that your AOL account is hacked by someone.
- Change AOL Password
The first and foremost thing that you need to do is change your AOL email password. Changing the password will automatically sign you out of all the active sessions of your AOL account. Many users think that they can get rid of the hackers just by changing the password. However, it is not completely true. Actually, things can be more complicated. You need to block the way by which the hacker comes to know about your password. Go to the subsequent steps in order to do so.
- Check your settings and password recovery option
Open the password recovery option associated with your AOL account. Make sure you have the access to recovery phone numbers and email added to your account. It is quite possible that the hacker might have changed these settings. If it is so then you should change back the recovery options.
- Scan your device
Run a deep scan in your device using a capable antivirus to track down the malware that the hacker might be using to compromise your AOL account.
- Enable Two-step verification in your AOL account
Two-step verification makes it very difficult to hack an AOL email account. If you suspect that your account was compromised then you should definitely enable the two-step verification.
How to restore a Hacked AOL email password?
If the hacker has changed your AOL password then you need to reset it. Here are the steps that you should follow in order to run AOL email hacked password recovery.
- First of all, go to the AOL sign-in page and enter your AOL username
- Click on “next” and select “I forgot my password” from the next page.
- Type in the phone number and click on the “Yes, Text me a verification code” button.
- Here, you can also choose the option to receive a verification link on your email account. Alternatively, you may answer the security questions.
- Enter the security code that you have received on your Phone and click on the “verify” button.
- In case you have selected the option to receive the verification link, then you need to click the link from the inbox of your alternate email ID. Answer the security question if you have selected the option to do so.
- If your verification code or security answer matches the correct one then you will get the option to enter a new password.
- Finally, provide a new strong password for your AOL email account.
Your Hacked AOL Email Password recovery is now complete. It is recommended that you should enable two-step verification to keep your account safe.
Things can be a bit more complicated if the hacker is able to change your password recovery option such as phone number, alternate email id, or security question. In these cases, you should contact AOL support immediately to know the next course of action.