Hotmail Account Hacked

I had an issue with hotmail before one of my friend emails got stolen.

The option shows up when you say you have lost your password, you get more than an option one of them contact hotmail.

They request a U.S. phone number and they check if you are that person and retrieve it.

He got his email back. I don't believe that took long.

I personally don't like hotmail and I don't deal with them. The search emails sucks and I feel it is a waste of time.

I had a similar situation with Gmail. It was cleared up pretty fast, took a few phonecalls and emails but it wasn't much of a hassle. I can't imagine hotmail being that different.

The problem with sending emails (for him) was that this was his ONLY email account. So not being able to access Hotmail effectively shut him down.

Now that he has a Gmail email account, he now could contact Hotmail (excluding the minor detail he is pretty computer illiterate.)

Marvin

Had this happen to me earlier this year. It was my MAIN, personal email account too.

It was a bit tricky to get it back because it seems whoever did it changed not only the password but blocked me access to the LIVE ID validation page.

Eventually I did find a contact page for Hotmail where they asked me to submit as much info as I could. Some of the stuff they asked on the form was "Name 3 folders you've created..." or "Name 1-5 contacts on your contact list right now..."

I did it and they had the account reviewed and reset the password within 24-48hrs.

This might be a good starting point for your friend: Windows Live Account Validation.

Best of luck!

P.S. - After my account was hacked, I immediately opened a new personal account with Gmail and now I have ALL of my email consolidated there.

I found out that my hotmail account got hacked yesterday. It must have happened awhile ago, but since I only use that account with my Xbox 360 account, I didn't find out until yesterday. I have still not heard from them regarding my verification status, and there isn't a phone number to call which sucks. Guess I'll have to wait for their email.

a simple tip to escape from hacking is to register with your cell phone conformation when you hack it will send u details on your cell phone

I just recently went through this with Hotmail and it was a nightmare. You will need to open a new case at their solution center:

https://windowslivehelp.com/

I went through all this and they still said I didn't have enough information to prove it was my account. I had the account for 12 years so couldn't remember some of the details I had entered back then... surprise surprise. It took weeks and I ended up contacting the CEO of Ninemsn/Hotmail here in Australia who then got in contact and sorted things out for me.

Hotmail were a real nightmare to deal with. All I kept getting was their automated responses and it drove me nuts. They would never tell me what else I could do to get my account back.

It should be more straight forward for you if you can remember enough of the details they ask you - if you can't then be prepared for a slow battle.

I probably shouldn't be responding to this post, but it's been a long day, and my better senses may have escaped me for the moment.

First, I really don't like Hotmail, nor yahoo, nor gmail, nor any other mail service that is essentially anonymous or doesn't require some link with reality. Part of the reason is that the majority of problems I've encountered on the internet have been in dealings with folks that have one of the above email addresses.

I understand some folks may need an email address because they do not have a business nor an ISP provider, and must use public, free email like the above mentioned ones. However, there are paid email providers that can provide accounts with a reasonable amount of security.

The biggest issue I have with them is the use of these freebie emails for business purposes. Having been a web designer back in the "old days" before such things as WordPress, one of the things that tended to legitimize a business was a business contact email at businessname.com, not hotmail.com (or, horrors of all, aol.com).

In my circles, these free email accounts are considered to be "throwaway" just like a cheap, unregistered gun is a throwaway for a thug. You can hide behind the throwaway email address, and if things get too close to home, just abandon it and open another, if you don't already have several others. I've known folks with dozens of these throwaway email addresses, each used for a different pseudo-persona.

The fact is, that even if the service provider tries to make things more secure for the users, anything they do will make it more difficult to use the accounts, and that will reduce the use of them overall. As nearly everyone (or at least "most") on the internet pays an ISP to access the internet, they could use the included email address that comes with the account. At least it wouldn't be considered a "throwaway" address...

Given the terms of service of the freebie email accounts, I certainly wouldn't be using one as my primary email address. Of course, I have no idea what I'd be doing if I had little background, or were functionally computer illiterate, or didn't have access to email via owned domains or via an ISP.

Thanks for the responses! This is the second time I've found Hotmail support to be non-existant, and thus very frustrating. It seems that this time, Hotmail is a spam supporter .

@DR's Fynest - I tried going through Live ID support but the damn thing wouldn't accept his Hotmail email address. All I could think of was how stupid these people are ... and I still think that. Their customer service is pathetic.

@WillR - Thanks! That URL is something I didn't find, so maybe there is some hope. We shall see.

@rickfrazier1 - I've been after him to get another account for years, but he likes free. And we all know that free can be very expensive.

I've forwarded the responses to him so hopefully he can at least get his emails and address book back. Since backup is one of the things I harp on, he was well aware he screwed up. This may have finally got the message through ... I hope!

I'll post the results if he gets his email address back.

Marvin

Just going through this with my partner, who is 95% computer-naive. They will never tell you exactly what's wrong with the info you have already sent them, or what more they want. And for someone who doesn't even know whether they use their address book ("what's an address book?") it's a nightmare. We're about to give up. 10 years of email and email addresses gone without trace.

Once a new account is set up I plan to see if something like Thunderbird is available for his Mac so the emails etc will at least be on his computer if this happens again, and not somewhere lost in the cloud.

BTW, having an email addy through your ISP also has its drawbacks. Any time you change ISP's or sometimes even if you move far enough even with the same ISP, you have to change your email address. Don't know about you, but I have signed up in hundreds of places with my main email addy over the years, so I'm now pretty much tied for life to Shaw cable!

Incredible, He better contact his credit cards provider to block it or else ................

Yes, this happened to me too earlier this year, and I thought this only happened to other people.

You should have another email address in your account so they will send you a new password after you go through the process of trying to login then, I think, answering your secret question.

In my case, the hacker didn't change any of my info so i was able to do this. If they have changed you info then, em I can't help you there, sorry.

Needless to say, I don't use this email address anymore.

Good luck