That's really messed up. So sorry Pam. I am guessing you email had no Factor authentication enabled. You should have every important email address and account of yours on 2FA. It will save you a lot if your email or login details get leaked from any platform you have ever registered (Once in a while, they get leaked or exposed).

My bitcointalk account to got hacked sometime back through leaked login details I had used to register in some random ICO site(I used same logins everywhere) but what saved me from a lot of trouble was 2FA on my Gmail and all other exchange accounts until i was able to change all the details of all sensitive accounts.