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Hotmail account hijacked, what can I do?

post #1 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:26pm
Thread Starter 
My hotmail account has been sending out random SPAM. I think it might have started when I received a similar e-mail apparently sent from a friend's e-mail a couple of weeks ago. I realized it was SPAM as soon as I opened the message. I didn't click on any of the links inside the message. Is it possible that my account has been hijacked and is sending out SPAM to e-mail addresses in my contact list? Anything I can do to stop this?
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post #2 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:29pm
Get a real email account like gmail or something else. Hotmail is for middleschoolers and people's first email accounts.
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post #3 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:31pm
Was your friend penniless in London?
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post #4 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kwilkinson View Post
Get a real email account like gmail or something else. Hotmail is for middleschoolers and people's first email accounts.

lol. When I see a hotmail address I think South African scammers. When I see a Yahoo address, I think senior citizens. Gmail is by far more common but it's still pretty underclass. Get a legitimate work mail address and things will be far safer.
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post #5 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pantisocrat View Post
lol. When I see a hotmail address I think South African scammers. When I see a Yahoo address, I think senior citizens. Gmail is by far more common but it's still pretty underclass. Get a legitimate work mail address and things will be far safer.

Yeah but who wants to get personal shit sent to their work email? For me, it was much easier to keep them separate. Work correspondence goes in work email, online statements, friends, facebook emails, shit like that goes to gmail.
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post #6 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by kwilkinson View Post
Get a real email account like gmail or something else. Hotmail is for middleschoolers and people's first email accounts.

Word. Thing is, I,ve had that account for so long that it's listed as my e-mail in a bunch of places and it be a pita updating with new account info.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dakota rube View Post
Was your friend penniless in London?

Unlike other random spam and phishing scams, the message(s) I had received might have simply been titled 'RE' or 'FW' and the sender shows as one of my contacts so no reason to suepect it would be junk...

How is this bug actually accessing my account and sending e-mails?!?!?!?!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pantisocrat View Post
lol. When I see a hotmail address I think South African scammers. When I see a Yahoo address, I think senior citizens. Gmail is by far more common but it's still pretty underclass. Get a legitimate work mail address and things will be far safer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kwilkinson View Post
Yeah but who wants to get personal shit sent to their work email? For me, it was much easier to keep them separate. Work correspondence goes in work email, online statements, friends, facebook emails, shit like that goes to hotmail.

^ This.
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post #7 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:39pm
FWIW I've opened those emails several times and it's never done anything to me. This was back when I had hotmail, also. So I don't know if it's that, but I'm close enough to being computer illiterate to know that I don't know what it means.
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post #8 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kwilkinson View Post
Get a real email account like gmail or something else. Hotmail is for middleschoolers and people's first email accounts.

+1. Do people still use Hotmail?? Upgrade to yahoo at the very min!
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post #9 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:41pm
change your password, pronto, and call hotmail support. Happened to a friend and her yahoo address.
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post #10 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:42pm
Why anyone would use anything but gmail for personal e-mail is beyond me. Mailboxes look terrible without threading.
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post #11 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:43pm
I think when you clicked on the spam, it instantly figured out that the address that it sent the spam to is legitimate, and is now spoofing your Hotmail address as the source address for its e-mail. There's not much you can do about that, given the way our e-mail system is designed.
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post #12 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:43pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas View Post
change your password, pronto, and call hotmail support. Happened to a friend and her yahoo address.

Hadn't thought of that, will give it a try. Thanks!
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post #13 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:48pm
Can you let me know how this works out? I've had this happened to 2 of my hotmail accounts which I hadn't used in years and despite deleting both accounts, it's still happening.
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post #14 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:56pm
Legitimate mailing accounts (work, university, government,etc.) will allow you to link to several other accounts but with very rigorous filtering settings. This allows you to use it as depository site, allowing low-risk mails to pass through as well as keeping CCs of important messages. This means that a friend's invitation on facebook will go through one of several gmail accounts, before being filtered to this depository account if allowed. This way you view the original messages in gmail(s) and only answer using your legit account when it's safe to do so. Even if your gmail account gets hacked, you'd be a little safer since gmail is an alias. I never view messages using my work related accounts, which is where you'll likely click on high-risk links.
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post #15 of 19
4/12/10 at 1:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by TRINI View Post
Can you let me know how this works out?

I've had this happened to 2 of my hotmail accounts which I hadn't used in years and despite deleting both accounts, it's still happening.

The internerds might know better than me. When I called up my friend from whom I had initially received one of those e-mails, he (also) told me that his hotmail account had been inactive for quite some time... So that sort of rules out the possibility that the bug relies on you opening the message to then spoof/hijack your account and then send new SPAM to your contact list.
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