Email addresses that are no longer used are often reassigned.

If these email addresses are still stored with social media accounts, gaming accounts, online shops or other access data, the new owners can gain access to these accounts. Criminals exploit this for fraud and extortion purposes.

With some email providers, email addresses are deleted if they are not used for a longer period of time and are made freely available again. Free webmail providers in particular sometimes give out such “orphaned” email addresses to any new customer after just six months.

Criminals take advantage of this. After re-registering, check whether the email addresses are still stored on various online accounts on the Internet. If this is the case, you have the opportunity to reset the passwords to the online accounts. This gives the perpetrators full access to the respective account and can misuse it for fraud or blackmail purposes. The real owners of the accounts are locked out. Social media access and gaming accounts in particular are currently affected.

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How can I protect myself?

  • Check whether old, unused email addresses are stored in your social networks or other online accounts and change them to a current email address.
  • Delete access to online accounts that you no longer need. Then you don't always have to keep the data there up to date.
  • If you want to continue using old email addresses, it is sufficient to log in from time to time and write emails. This means that the email addresses are not deleted and reassigned.

What do I do if I no longer have access?

  • If the email address has already been assigned, there is no way you can get this email address back. If it has not yet been reassigned, you can simply register again.
  • If criminals have already gained access to your online accounts and changed all access data, you must contact the respective operator of the site and explain what happened. It can be very time-consuming to convince the operator that this is your account. Support is available from the Internet Ombudsman,
The content is an article from our partner Watchlist Internet
Article image: Shutterstock / By Pavel Ignatov


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )