Is my account still secure?
If we notice suspicious activity in your account, we'll protect it immediately by blocking access. And if your email settings get changed, we'll let you know by displaying a banner message.
If you suspect suspicious activity, but we’ve not prevented access to your account, you should run an anti-virus scan before changing your password. You should then follow the steps in the Recommended security checks section of this article to ensure that your account is secure.
How will I know if my account has been protected?
If you use webmail or the BT Email app, you will get an error message telling you that we have prevented access to your account. If you use a mobile device or email application (such as Outlook), you’ll get repeated log in failures or password errors.
Now that my account has been protected, how do I get back in?
First you need to run an anti-virus scan on all of the devices you use to access your email. It's important to do this before changing your password.
- If you've got BT Virus Protect as part of your broadband package, you should run it
- If you use a mobile device, you may want to consider taking some anti-virus software through your app store
To change your password, you’ll then need to go to bt.com and log in to Email by selecting the email link as shown, far right, below.
Once you've changed your password, it's important to follow the security advice offered.
If you don't already have a BT ID, you'll be asked to create one and provide some additional security information. Just follow the steps and, when prompted, change your password. Remember to choose a strong password > and then go back and update all the devices you use to access your email with the new password.
Recommended security checks
Once you’ve changed your password, you'll be advised to follow some important checks needed to maintain the security of your account. These include checking;
- From the Contacts tab, check that no new contacts have been added. Delete any you don't recognise
- Check the Contacts Trash folder for any contacts that may have been deleted and drag and drop them back to your Contacts folder. Deleted contacts will remain in the Trash folder for 30 days
If any of your contacts have disappeared, we may be able to recover them but please get in touch with us as soon as possible
- Log in to My BT with your BT ID username and new password
- Select the Your Products link, then scroll down and click the Manage option on the Email tile
- From here you’ll be able to view all of the email addresses linked to your BT ID and can delete any you don’t recognise
- Go to the drop down arrow under your username in the top right hand corner of your email account and select Settings > Mail > Rules
- Select Enable Rules
- Now you need to check the rules listed and select those you want to reactivate and click on the Add button.
- Then select any you don’t recognise and click on the Delete button. Sometimes a bogus rule will just show with a single dot at the side
- Remember to Save your changes
It's possible that an auto-reply has been set up so that any emails sent to your inbox receive an automatic reply.
- From the drop down arrow under your username in the top right hand corner of your email account, select the Settings link
- Now select Mail and then the Auto reply option
- Check the rules that exist and delete any you don’t recognise
- Remember to save your changes
To protect you and your email identity any auto forward rules you had in place have been suspended. Hackers sometimes add a new email to an account as a way to reset the password, so it's important you check that your account hasn't been linked with an address that you don't recognise.
- From the drop down arrow under your username in the top right-hand corner of your email account, select the Settings link
- Select Mail and then Auto forward
- Any auto forward rule set up against your account will be shown.
- To re-enable the auto forward rule select ‘Enable Auto-Forward’
- Remember to save your changes
An alternative email address can help you reset your password, so it's important you check that your account hasn't been linked with an address that you don't recognise.
- From the drop down arrow under your username in the top right hand corner of your email account, select the Settings link
- Select Mail and then the Accounts option
- Delete any email addresses you don't recognise, confirm deletion and click Save
- Log in to My BT with your BT ID username and new password
- Hover over the My BT link and select Personal details from the drop-down menu
- Check your details are correct and use the links on the right-hand side to update as necessary. We’d strongly advise you to change your security question and answer
What can I do to keep my email account secure?
- Make sure you have BT Virus Protect and BT Web Protect installed and regularly run an anti-virus check on your computer
- Don’t reply to emails that ask you to provide personal details such as account numbers or passwords as these are likely to be phishing emails. We'll never ask you to provide such information
- Make sure the connection you’re using is safe - email accounts are regularly illegally accessed when people use smartphones or tablets on unsecured wi-fi public networks
- When using a public or shared computer, remember to log out completely by clicking the Sign Out link
- Avoid using the same username and password for every site that needs login details
- When creating a password, try to create one that is difficult for anyone else to guess