How Do I Find Who Hacked My Email Account?

TL;DR: You don’t.

When accounts are hacked, folks really want to be able to figure out who did this to them. How did it happen? What computer were they on? Who are they?

The short answer is, you’re extremely unlikely to figure out who hacked your email account. Here’s what to do instead.

Who hacked my email?

You probably can’t find out who hacked your email, and chasing it will only frustrate you. Make sure you were actually hacked and not just “From:” spoofed. Then secure your account and learn from what happened. Let it go, and move on.

Were you really hacked?

A hack means that someone was able to sign in to your email account and send messages using that account. They typically change your password and recovery information to lock you out of the account. Often, being locked out is the first sign that your account has been compromised.

However, none of that is required to send email that looks like it came from you.

What’s called “From spoofing” allows hackers to make email look like it comes from any email address they want. No actual account access is required.

If you’re still able to sign in to your account, you may not have been hacked. Check the Sent folder (and perhaps the Trash folder). If you only find messages that you actually sent, chances are your account hasn’t been compromised at all.

The other extreme: you can’t sign in

The most common sign of an account hack is that you can’t sign in to your account. If efforts to recover the account fail, you could lose the account forever.

Even if you could identify the culprit, it probably wouldn’t help you get your account back. It might feel like it should, but the reality is that the amount of effort and cooperation from so many organizations — law enforcement (foreign and domestic) as well as the service itself — is not likely to happen, and certainly not in a useful timeframe.

Recover your account, if you can, but don’t count on finding the hacker as a way to help.

Law enforcement might help… or not

If laws have been broken — if you can involve local law enforcement and they have the time and expertise to help — they may have the ability to get more information.

Sometimes, they can even track down an individual.

Several factors make this an extremely rare result.

• Law enforcement doesn’t have time. They must prioritize other, more serious issues needing their attention.
• Law enforcement doesn’t have the expertise. While it is getting better, most law enforcement agencies don’t have the technical know-how required in these situations.
• Law enforcement may not have jurisdiction. Hackers are often in other countries, where your law enforcement agencies can’t help.

Even though this is a personal violation that’s incredibly important to you, it’s just not a priority for most law enforcement agencies to help people with hacked accounts.

Related

My Email Is Hacked, How Do I Fix It?

If your email is hacked, there are several steps you need to take to get it back and prevent it from being hacked again.
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You’re on your own

If you’re not able to get outside help tracking down the culprit, my advice is that you don’t bother trying. It’ll be a frustrating experience, and as you can gather, the chances of finding anything are slim to none.

What you can do is focus instead on recovery and prevention.

Begin by reading “Email Hacked? 7 Things You Need to Do Now” to make sure you’ve completely recovered your account. Changing your password is not enough, and often leaves your account in a state that allows the hacker to quickly take it over again. There are several steps you need to take.

Learn from the experience. As best you can, figure out how the hacker got your account in the first place, and take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. For starters, follow the steps outlined in Internet Safety: 7 Steps to Keeping Your Computer Safe on the Internet.

Finally, after you’ve secured your account (or started fresh if you’re unable to get it back) and plugged any security leaks, get on with your life.