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email address hacked

In the last few days I've gotten security alerts from Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and many others. I talked to Amazon security and the common thread seems to be my email address. I've had the same email address since there was email, it's a verizon.net account. I use the Apple Mail client.


So, I've created a gmail address and changed all accounts. My question - if I delete my verizon.net email address, can I still access my old email on my Mac as an archive, just in case I need it? I wont get any new email to that address but will the old email remain available to me using the Apple Mail client even though the email address no longer exists? I think the mail is local on my Mac.


I'm sure this could be been explained in half the space, but I'm not very technical...

MacBook Air

Posted on Jun 6, 2020 9:25 PM

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Posted on Jun 7, 2020 4:15 AM

It depends on how email is setup. If its setup as POP then all data is saved locally but with IMAP you might loose it.


i would recommend to export your mailbox before you delete your mail account. Use this link https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mail/mlhlp1030/mac


This will save selected mailbox to any folder you want. you can always import back to mail app.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 7, 2020 4:15 AM in response to skiroc

It depends on how email is setup. If its setup as POP then all data is saved locally but with IMAP you might loose it.


i would recommend to export your mailbox before you delete your mail account. Use this link https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mail/mlhlp1030/mac


This will save selected mailbox to any folder you want. you can always import back to mail app.

Jun 7, 2020 8:58 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

It may be the incorrect term but both Microsoft and Amazon security teams suggested I change my email address. One example, I tried to log into my Amazon account and got a message that no account exists with that email. I called Amazon and my account had a .ru email address. Over and over with dozens of accounts, all with different passwords. How that happens I don't know but my question is about archiving my email and how that works.

Jun 7, 2020 10:14 AM in response to skiroc

It may be the incorrect term but both Microsoft and Amazon security teams suggested I change my email address. One example, I tried to log into my Amazon account and got a message that no account exists with that email. I called Amazon and my account had a .ru email address. Over and over with dozens of accounts, all with different passwords. How that happens I don't know but my question is about archiving my email and how that works.

They somehow tricked you into giving them your email password and used it to change your other accounts you had linked to that account. They requested password resets to all of your accounts and since the confirmation came through email account which they controlled, they were able to change all of your online accounts. If they did all of this while you were sleeping, they could make all the changes and then delete all of the change emails and warning emails.

If your Verizon account is your cell phone account, you might want to check to make sure you don't have a bunch of new phones on your account.


To keep your emails available to you on that Mac, create Mailboxes in the On My Mac section. You can create whatever organizational scheme you want. Then, move the messages from your Verizon account into those Mailboxes. Once all are moved (don't forget Sent, Drafts, etc), you can remove the Verizon account. When you remove an account from Mail, it deletes all of the messages.

You can disable an account, but you have to enable it to see the email messages, so not very useful.

email address hacked

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