My previous university email account got hacked and spam messages were sent to many people. What should I do? I am having serious trouble with my previous university email account (Office365), provided by the university where I finished my master’s studies last year (I am currently pursuing a PhD at another university in a different country). The account is still active but I am no longer using it to send any email, although I have been receiving messages for alumni.
A few days ago, for a reason I still do not understand, a blank Teams meeting invitation was sent FROM my account to multiple professors and faculty members. The account seems to be hacked. I noticed it today when I received a notification saying that one of the recipients “rejected” the invitation. I am very confused and embarrassed.
I successfully cancelled the Teams meeting (which was automatically added to my calendar), but then, I logged out of that account (just to check my other account), and now I can no longer log into it again.
I am going to contact the university for technical support, but here is my question: Should I send an apology email to the recipients of the invitation? I want to apologize, but it’s been more than half a year since I graduated, and I no longer get in touch with any of them. And more than half of them are the ones with whom I interacted only once during my studies (e.g. to ask for an internship opportunity), and they probably do not even remember/recognize me. Also, except for the one who rejected the invitation, none has reacted to it in any way, so I am assuming that they haven’t yet seen the invitation or simply ignored it, noticing that it was mistakenly sent.
Would it be appropriate for me to send them an apology email? Or would that just end up bothering them, given that they are all busy and keep receiving numerous emails every day?
Any advice or suggestions are highly appreciated.
Contact tech support and let them know what happened. They can probably clean it up appropriately. The apology message might be better if it comes from them. In any case, ask them for advice.
Perhaps you need to pay more attention to passwords and watch out for phishing attacks.