How to Find Out Who Hacked Your Email

Cybercrimes are on the rise, and they’ve advanced. Hackers can now gain access to your email and valuable information in many ways, so it’s necessary to know how to protect yourself and the information you provide online. However, if the worst happens, it’s natural to want to know who hacked your email.

Unfortunately, your options for this are very limited, but this article will cover everything you can do to discover who hacked your email.

Check Your Email Activity

If your email account’s security has been compromised, you’ll most likely find out by an email notifying you that a device from an unknown IP address has tried signing into your account. 

Of course, the hacker can delete these emails before you’re able to view them, but if you suspect that your email has been hacked, you can look at the IP addresses of your email activity. The following sections will show you how to check the IP addresses of your login history on multiple email services.

On Gmail

Gmail is one of the most used email services. It has a good security system and notifies you whenever someone tries to log in from a new IP address. You can quickly access the IP addresses of your account’s logins on your desktop by following these steps:

1. Log into your Gmail account.
   
2. Go to your Gmail inbox.
   
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Details” next to the “Last account activity.”
   

A new window will open, showing you the time, date, location, and type of access.

If you’re using your phone, you can access your email account login activity through your Google account. This is also possible for the desktop version. Here are the steps:

1. Log into your Gmail account.
   
2. Go to your Gmail inbox.
   
3. Click on your profile photo in the top right corner of the screen.
   
4. Press the “Manage your Google Account” button under your address.
   
5. Go to the “Security” tab and see whether security alerts have occurred in the last 28 days. You can also review the devices used for that Gmail account.
   
6. Tap “Manage all devices” to see the approximate location, date, and access type for each sign-in.
   

On Outlook Mail

Outlook Mail is Microsoft’s free and user-friendly email service used by many people. If you’re one of them, here’s how you can view the IP addresses of the recent activity on your email:

1. Go to the “Recent activity page.”
2. Log into your account to see the date and location of your email activity from the previous 30 days.
   
3. Go to the “Recent activity” section and check for suspicious IP addresses.
   

On Yahoo Mail

If you’re still a user of Yahoo Mail, you can access your recent sign-in activity in the following way:

1. Log into your Yahoo Mail account.
   
2. Hover your cursor over the “Profile picture” in the top right corner and select “Settings”.
   
3. Click on the three horizontal lines in the top left corner.
   
4. Select “Recent Activity”
   

Another window will open and show the time, date, access type, and approximate location of your sign-in activity.

On Proton Mail

Proton Mail has gained popularity over the last few years because of its extreme security features. That being said, you can also disable the login activity for your account. However, if you chose to enable this option to access IP addresses of previous logins to your email account, follow these steps to check activity:

1. Log into your Proton Mail account.
   
2. Go to “Settings.”
   
3. Tap the “Security” tab.
   
4. Under “Security Logs,” click on the “Enable advanced logs” button to view the time and IP address of past logins.
   

Once you access the hacker’s IP address, you can run it through IP address lookup pages. There you can find their city, zip code, and country, which might not be very useful to you personally, but it can help other parties with more access and information in tracking the individual. 

However, you might be unable to view the hacker’s real IP address if they’re using VPN or if an automated program hacked your account. The only thing you can do then is report the problem and update your email security measures for the future.

Contact Your Email Provider

You might be able to find out more about the person who hacked your email account by contacting your email provider. If you’ve lost access to your account, this action is necessary in general, so it’s a good idea to turn to them and learn how to get your account back and reinforce its security for the future.

Contact Local Law Enforcement

Sometimes your email could be hacked as a part of a larger cybercrime, such as a security breach of a website where you used your email to log in. Thus, if you’re concerned about your information and suspect identity theft or fraud, it’s best to report the problem to the authorities. 

This includes contacting law enforcement like the local police or filing a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) or Federal Trade Commission (FTC) if you’re in the U.S. 

However, local law enforcement might not prioritize your case or have the expertise to deal with such situations. In addition, if the hacker is from another country, your case might not be in the jurisdiction of your country’s law enforcement.

Hire a Cybersecurity Professional

If the previous methods don’t solve your hacking problem, try hiring a professional specializing in this area. Compile as much information as possible, such as the date and time of the hack and the cyberattack method. Also, include any details about the hacker you’ve discovered. 

Additional FAQs

How to know if my email has been hacked

Several signs indicate that your email has been hacked, like:

• You have sent or read emails that you don’t remember sending or reading.

• You have emails notifying you of a password reset.

• You have logins from unknown IP addresses.

• Your friends have received suspicious emails from you.

How to protect my email from being hacked

To protect your email from being a cybercrime target, you can take the following measures:

• Create a strong password and avoid using the same, including old passwords for multiple accounts.

• Enable two-step verification.

• Use a trustworthy antivirus.

• Regularly update your apps.

• Log out of your accounts when using devices other than yours.

• Use a VPN when using public networks.

• Don’t click on suspicious links, even from close friends.

What to do if I have been hacked?

If your email account has been hacked, the first thing you should do is change your password. If you can’t log in, use your email provider’s recovery service. Then check other accounts connected with the email and inform your contacts about the hacking so they don’t become the next victim.

Forgive but Don’t Forget

Ensuring that your information is protected for the future is the priority. Still, by trying some of the tips from this article, you might get a step closer to your culprit.

Have you already tried finding out who hacked your account? Did you use any of the solutions from this article? Tell us in the comments below.