Hotmail nightmare

yorica

Hi there,

After using my hotmail account at home over last weekend I logged in at work (as you do) on Monday to find to my horror that my password had been changed somehow.

So I went through the procedure to get a new password which would be sent to my alternative address. Unfortunately I have no idea what this is as I set up my hotmail account nearly 10 years ago. I also remember giving loads of duff information when I signed up ie made up address and so on, which I thought at the time was unneccessry information to pass on to a company I didn't know). Also I always thought the internet offered a certain amount of anonymity.

I emailed the helpdesk and they replied by asking me 7 or so security questions with some of them referring to address details which I made up nearly 10 years. However, I did give them my IP address and other information that only I could know. But they wrote back so this was insufficient. They just told me to set up another hotmail account.

So now I lost all my email contacts from the last 10 years - both business and personal. Frankly I'm a bit distraught at losing this valuable information. I've now lost contact with many of my friends who I met from travelling around the world.

Sorry for the long thread but this is quite important to me. Can anyone offer any advice.

piggypiggy

Exactly the same thing has happened to me this weekend.

Tried to log in and my password has been changed.

Getting stressed as i've lost loads of important emails and pictures. I'm now worried that they might use information in my emails to steal my identity (or maybe i'm getting a bit paranoid).

Given up hope of getting my email account back. Its so frustrating!

Moneymaker

I don't understand why people use a free online service for their main email account. For about £1 a month you can have your own web address, as many email names as you like tagged onto it and full control.

computerwoman

get rid of hotmail its a thing of the past, sign up for yahoo or gmail free much better than HM

everythingblogcast

Windows Live Mail is better then Yahoo.

beachbeth

I personally would never use Hotmail for important emails and messages, it is just a fun thing. I know so many people, including my daughters, who have had their accounts hijacked and couldn't get back on that it shouldn't be used for serious mail.

However, that doesn't help you. The only thing I can suggest is to set up another hotmail account and wait until the person who has stolen your account to come online. You could get into conversation with them and see what they say (could it be someone you know?). If you realise its someone you know then you can reveal your true identity and demand they give you your account back.

If it doesn't seem like someone you know you could try appealing to their good nature and tell them that you now have lost touch with some important friends and see if they will give you your account back or at least give you these email addresses. It may not work but I think its worth trying.

virgo17

Moneymaker wrote:

I don't understand why people use a free online service for their main email account. For about £1 a month you can have your own web address, as many email names as you like tagged onto it and full control.

I have my own domain name for £2.49 a year. My emails to this address are forwarded to my ISP's incoming mail server for me.

V.

marleyboy

I had the same problem with my Yahoo a/c some years ago, made worse because it also included my messenger, which means in effect, not only my email and contacts were gone, but someone out there has the potential to be me. And theres nothing I can do about it either.

missile

yorica wrote:

Can anyone offer any advice.

I sometimes send out mail to many addresses on my list and when I lost my BT account access. I mamanger to get most of the addresses back from the header on an old e mails, which one of my contacts has on file.

LULUBELLE_2

There's been an intermittent fault on Hotmail this week - sometimes it's told me that my password isn't valid, other times, with the same password, it's let me in. It was bad most of today, but tonight it's working again.

Give it another go with the password you believe to be correct!