Finding another person's email password?

Question

in my family, I'm considered the technology-savvy one. (i'm not....we're just a dull-witted family). in any case, my sister is convinced that her boyfriend (who lives in another state) has somehow hacked into her computer, discovered her password, and is now reading her mail. First, there is no way that he is smart enough to have done this. Second, could he have hired someone? (i.e. is it possible?)

Answer 1

To answer your first assumption, it doesn't take much to get into most email accounts - therefore, you need not be intelligent to do so. You just need to know how to navigate through the "I forgot my password" crap. To answer your question, it's not necessary to hire someone to do this - it really is easy.

I had an ex hack into my yahoo email a couple years ago to delete every email I had to and from my now-fiance. All he had to do was click "I forgot my password" and answer the security question - which was a question he knew the answer to.

If she's really worried about it, she needs to reset her password AND security question immediately. Make up a fake answer to the security question, as well (just make sure she won't forget what she put there). If she still has suspicions, she needs to close that email account down entirely and start a new one, with a different password and security question.

Hope her boyfriend hasn't done anything stupid yet.

Answer 2

Yes, it is possible for him or somebody else to hack into her computer and access her passwords. There are also software programs called Keyloggers which can be installed on the sly, via a email attachment sent by a trusted sender, and silently installed without the users knowledge, they then log each keystroke on the tainted system.

It doesn't take much "smarts" to do any of these things. All you need to do is go to one of a million websites which not only tell how, but offer the software keyloggers and other malicious software tracking and recording software programs and code.

So, yeah, he could have done this. The real question is what is your sister doing with a guy she suspects would violate her in such a fashion? While it may feel great to be so wanted somebody would go to such leangths, it can and often does lead to very scary stuff. If he would do this, would else would he resort to? I hope you can convince your sister she deserves better than to date somebody who she suspects would stoop to such behavior. It is a violation of her most private stuff. Her thoughts. That is really bad.

Good luck and have a nice day.

Answer 3

Most likely if it has happened she gave him the password either directly or he used some social engineering to get it...

My suggestion would be to g into the preferences of the email account and change the password to something she is not using on any other account... to check that no forwarding or secondary email accounts have been set in the preferences and to log out of the account completely.

I would also recommend changing any other accounts that used that password and checking that no malicious software or third party monitoring software has been installed (like remote access).

yes, it's possible.

good luck.

Answer 4

It is possible, if you have enough information about the computer that she uses her email on. Also, if she ever logged into her email on her boyfriend's computer, he could have had a keylogger installed, which copies keystrokes and saves them to a file.

Bottom line: If she thinks her password has been compromised, then she should change it right away.

Answer 5

Most likely with teh use of a keylogger.
There are also software that can pick up passwords if they chose to store on the PC.

Answer 6

if its her boyfriend they could have easily gone on the computer together and he saw her typing in her password. he could have hired someone but it would have been easier for him to just peek over her shoulder. she can change the pw and shed be safe.

Answer 7

what above guys said hun

Answer 8

Tell her to change her password .....DUHHHH!!!!!