My Husband Passed Away In October.

Someone is sending ads to my husband's entire hotmail contact list fraudulently. What can be done?

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Answer #1: Posted by DreadPirateRoberts on March 5th, 2011 7:03 AM

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DreadPirateRoberts

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Hotmail accounts can get hijacked in a number of ways and are often used by thieves to spew spam, phishing messages and malware to everybody in the account’s address book. Along with its general Hotmail support portal, Microsoft has an article on recent reports of Hotmail account hijackings and what you can do to try and rescue your account.

If you can get to it, the first thing you should do is change the account’s password — and change it to a strong password made up of letters and numbers so it’s hard to guess. You should also update your machine’s security software and run a system scan to see if any viruses or malware from the hijackers has infected your computer. (If you have a PC and don’t have any security software, consider the free Microsoft Security Essentials program.

Microsoft’s Windows Live Solution Center also has a section devoted to account recovery and security with steps to take if you still have access to the compromised Hotmail account.

If you try all the suggested steps there and still can’t get back into your account, try the Windows Live ID Account Recovery page, which might help you reset your password by way of the secret question and answer you set up when you created the account, or by sending password information to the alternate e-mail account you supplied when signing up for the Hotmail account.

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Recent reports of 6 results Account being used to send out e-mails Windows Live Rosalie R, Wednesday, August 05, 2009 10:04 PM Someone stole my contact list and used my account for spam Windows Live Bharathi M, Friday, August 20, 2010 6:41 AM amalcho, Tuesday, August 03, 2010 4:24 PM Hijacked email address - ...
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