Our main e-mail address was hacked last

Sorry to hear of your problem, but this is common in this day and age where things are moving (against us in many cases unfortunately) so fast and security is becoming almost impossible to keep up. A simple thing like the use/addition of an email address ( zin. at mcn.org ) on the web, especially on open forum is not a good idea or anywhere else on the web for that matter... If you need to have an address on your web site, for say advertising a rental, then it would be better to set a specific email address for that purpose and keep it separate from your personal address. There are many ways to link these email addresses without compromising one or the other. There is some good basic stuff here in this . However the main thing they seem to miss is to tell you not to give out your email address too easily.Personally I no longer worry that my friends or acquaintance’s account gets hacked now and then as I rarely get anything coming through. The small amount that does invariably I never see as I guess it goes in to spam. So don’t give yourself extra to worry about, it’s my (our) fault if anything gets through. Hope you get everything sorted soon.

Thanks for the response. One tip received from another forum was to not use the @ symbol when "publishing" one's e-mail address which BOTs will ignore?? Have had the same address for almost 20 years with annual password changes, however was advised hacking occurs in spite of passwords by getting into the server's "innards" and getting all the info they want.Thanks again for your input,Fred

Fred the email you quote (with the @ ) comes up in a Google search for , so possibly linked ? Anyway these bad guys don't use manual means, or at least not at the start, it's big, big organised crime. So you really do need to be on your guard.Indeed passwords are very important or everyone and their dog would not be trying to make us have mixed upper case numbers symbols etc, etc... Anyone telling you it's not important is I'm affraid incorrect. Have a look at this as to why. They are very correct in saying your email provider can be the weak link, but that's also something in your hands. I've really come to dislike Google, but they are very big, have a reputation to protect and do so in a big way! You don't want to be tied to specific companies such as a BT or Sky email as when you leave them they shut you down... I've just had a quick check and it seems "zincFr ATgmail.com" is available (just as an aside I think typing "gmail.com" is NOT secure). Time for a change perhaps

Thanks again for your responses. The site you referred to was actually a website (Sea Ranch Village.com) I managed from 1996 and the ad for the Austrian condo was our vacation residence before we came to Italy in 2005. It can be a jungle online; one has to be alert all the time.