IndexChange your passwordRecover your accountEnable two-factor authenticationCheck your email settingsScan your computer for malwareFind out what else has been compromisedHumbly ask your friends for forgivenessPrevent it happen againChange your passwordThe first thing you should do is prevent the hacker from accessing your email account again. Change your password to a strong password that is unrelated to your previous password; if your last password was billyjoe1, don't choose billyjoe2, and if your name is actually BillyJoe, you shouldn't have used your name as your password in the first place. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayTry using a meaningful phrase as the basis of your new password. For example, "I go to the gym in the morning" turns into "Ig2tGYMitm" by using the first letter of each word in the sentence, mixing uppercase and lowercase letters, and replacing the word "a" with "2".Claim your accountIf you're lucky , the hacker accesses your account only to send a mass email to all your contacts. If you're not so lucky, the hacker also changed your password, blocking you from accessing your account. In that case, you will need to recover your account, usually by using the "forgot password" link and answering your security questions or using your backup email address. See specific tips for recovering your account for Gmail, Outlook.com and Hotmail, Yahoo! and AOL. Enable two-factor authentication Set your email account to require a second form of authentication in addition to your password each time you log in to your email account from a new device. When you log in, you'll also need to enter a special one-time code that the site will text to your phone or generate via an app. See instructions for setting up two-step authentication for Gmail, Microsoft Outlook.com and Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo! Check your email settings Sometimes hackers may change your settings to forward themselves a copy of every email you receive, so they can monitor any emails containing login information for other sites. Check your mail forwarding settings to make sure no unexpected email addresses have been added. Next, check your email signature to see if the hacker has added a spam signature that will continue to sell suspicious products even after they have been blocked. Finally, check to make sure hackers haven't triggered an automatic response, turning your out-of-office notification into a spam machine. Scan your computer for malware Run a full scan with your anti-malware program. You have an anti-malware program on your computer, right? If not, download the free version of Malwarebytes and run a full scan with it. I recommend running Malwarebytes even if you already have another anti-malware program; if the problem is malware, obviously your original program didn't stop it, and Malwarebytes solved problems for me that not even Symantec's Norton Internet Security could solve. Also scan other computers you log in from, such as your work computer. If one of your scans finds malware, fix it, then go back and change your email password again (because when you changed it in step #1, the malware was still on your computer). Find out what else was compromised My mother-in-law once followed the ill-advised practice of storing usernames and passwords for her various accounts in an email folder.