Hijacked Hotmail

Hi all. A friend of mine (who is not very computer literate) had her Hotmail account hijacked. It looks like the Password has been reset. I followed the instructions from a post here on August 9th regarding getting her password reset again. Question is, what happens if her security questions were changed and she still cannot get a new password? Is there another way to contact Hotmail? Or is she out of luck? This account is her name so it is being used "in her name" but it is all spam.

I have instructed her on scanning her computer for viruses so that part is taken care of.

And how does someone hijack a hotmail account? I consider myself a computer super user but am not knowledgable in the technical side of computers.

Thank you.

 

The only way I've personally seen online e-mail accounts hijacked was when the user of the account gave their password to someone else - intentionally or otherwise - or had it conned from them.

I'm not saying it can't happen... But the only times I've seen this happen were the result of carelessness (leaving a written pw around to be found, sharing with the wrong people, easy-to-guess), or social engineering.

To get your account back, or have it closed, I would personally pursue getting a hold of someone *live* and pleading your case. If she can't answer the new security questions, I'm not sure they'll do anything for her, though, because that's how they'd verify it was her account originally. At best, you might be able to get them to shut it off...

Find and talk to hotmail customer service. It's the best I can offer you right now.

(Please remember: this post contains anecdotal evidence and should be treated as such. Take anything you've read with a large grain of salt.)

 

I know I don't post here much (1st post actually) but this happened to me a few years ago and even after speaking with one of Yahoo's corporate directors, I still couldn't get the account back and eventually gave up.

If you do have any luck, please post what you did so others can follow.