Hotmail account problem

Fruitcake

Yesterday I received a spam e-mail allegedly from my Mother-in-Law. The fact that she was sitting next to me eating lunch at the time the e-mail was sent, and she has not used her account for about three days were a big giveaway.

Today, my wife received the same spam e-mail, again, allegedly from her mum.

We both marked these messages as phising scams, but now my MiL cannot access her Hotmail account. Every time she tries she is asked to pass a random check and type in eight characters displayed in a picture.

I hope that this is simply because we have marked the two e-mails as phishing scams and this is a genuine response from Windows to the genuine account holder.

My question is, how can we be sure that it is not an attempt to hack into her account? Also, how can I check/clean all our Hotmail accounts for these attacks? I have run the normal antivirus and antispyware scans but they have come up clean.

Thanks in advance.

scottishblondie

This has happened to me a couple of times, it seems to be relatively common on Hotmail. No-one reported the emails sent as phishing or anything, so I can't say if the security checks are a response to this. What I did do was email Hotmail to say that my account had been hacked, in case it was blocked because of the spam it was apparently semding out.

If she can get into her account, change her password immediately and email Hotmail to let them know it wasn't her that sent the emails.

Fruitcake

scottishblondie wrote: »

This has happened to me a couple of times, it seems to be relatively common on Hotmail. No-one reported the emails sent as phishing or anything, so I can't say if the security checks are a response to this. What I did do was email Hotmail to say that my account had been hacked, in case it was blocked because of the spam it was apparently semding out.

If she can get into her account, change her password immediately and email Hotmail to let them know it wasn't her that sent the emails.

Thanks for your reply.

The problem is that she can't access her account unless she types in the characters in the alleged security check. Consequently she can't e-mail Hotmail to tell them there is a problem. We don't want to go any further unless we can be sure the security check really is from Hotmail and not part of the scam.

scottishblondie

If you use a different computer and go to hotmail.com by typing the address into the browser directly (ie don't go thru links or bookmarks) and log in to the mail, then you can be sure that it is a genuine check.

busenbust

Fruitcake, if you are able to disclose, what was the email address that was sent to you (allegedly) from Microsoft? This might help clarify with regards to authenticity .

Fruitcake

scottishblondie wrote: »

If you use a different computer and go to hotmail.com by typing the address into the browser directly (ie don't go thru links or bookmarks) and log in to the mail, then you can be sure that it is a genuine check.

I have done this from wo different pcs. It looks genuine but I really just want to be sure.

busenbust wrote: »

Fruitcake, if you are able to disclose, what was the email address that was sent to you (allegedly) from Microsoft? This might help clarify with regards to authenticity .

It is not an e-mail address, it is a web page, see below.

I can't quote the web address as it shows her name and links to my e-mail address.


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Money_Grabber13579

If loads of e-mails have been sent from your account, then they will ask you to verify you are a real person by entering the characters as shown above. After doing this, change your password and security question, and run a full scan of Malwarebytes just to be sure your computer is clean.

Fruitcake

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

If loads of e-mails have been sent from your account, then they will ask you to verify you are a real person by entering the characters as shown above. After doing this, change your password and security question, and run a full scan of Malwarebytes just to be sure your computer is clean.

Thanks for that. I'm pretty sure now that it is a genuine security check, I have just never come across it before, hence my scepticism.

computershack

Fruitcake wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm pretty sure now that it is a genuine security check, I have just never come across it before, hence my scepticism.

I wish more people showed the same vigilance....