Mailbox item modification

Question

Mailbox item modification

Tom G 0

Hi, My mailbox was compromised, resulting in the email content of both incoming and sent messages being altered for approximately the past six months, although attachments remain intact. I have changed my password and reviewed all mailbox rules and forwarding settings, which now appear to be correct.

Despite these actions, the altered emails remain, and any new emails I send are being rejected as spam, even though they appear unaffected.

I am seeking assistance to:

Identify and remove any remaining unauthorised access to the mailbox.
Check for connected applications, API access or mailbox permissions that may still be affecting the account.
Determine whether the altered emails can be restored.
Resolve the outgoing email rejections and restore normal email functionality.

0 comments

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

To better determine how the mailbox was modified, could you please confirm whether this is a personal Outlook.com/Hotmail/Live account or a Microsoft 365 work/school account? Also, when you say the email content was altered, do you mean that the message body itself has been changed, and are those same changes visible when you sign in directly at Outlook.com in a private/incognito browser and on other devices? If possible, please describe one example of what was changed, without sharing any personal or sensitive information. It would also be helpful to know whether the original recipient/sender has a copy showing different content from what you now see in your mailbox.

Regarding the possible remaining access and the rejected outgoing messages, please check

https://account.live.com/Activity

Let me know whether you see any unfamiliar successful sign-ins. Also confirm whether you have reviewed any connected apps/services or devices associated with the account. For the sending problem, please provide the exact rejection/bounce message and error code you receive, removing email addresses or other personal information, and let me know whether messages are rejected when sending to every recipient or only particular addresses/domains.

Tom G 0 Reputation points

2026-10-07T03:15:34.7433333+00:00

Hi Jeronimo, thanks for your response.

It is a private hotmail account. Yes the changes are visible on the body of the email in private mode. The body of the email shows a something similar to a virus scan link/archive of files. This spreads across multiple emails. Some of the emails were flagged and had the standard email asking for money to be deposited etc.

Have checked sign ins, there were signs a couple of days ago when it happened but not since. Emails are only rejected when sending to outlook clients it appears, not everybody.

I would like to try and remove the malware from the emails so that I can get back the email content without having to delete.