How to stop a subscription bomb

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

To help clarify and narrow down the issue:

1. Are you seeing this charge on your Microsoft account? Or just on your bank/credit card statement?
2. Do you still have access to your Microsoft account?
3. Do you recognize any of the purchases at all?

If this is an unauthorized charge, here are the immediate steps:

• Contact your bank or card provider right away
• Ask them to block the card and report the transaction as fraud.
• Check your Microsoft account activity Go to: https://account.microsoft.com/billing/orders

Do you see the purchase listed there?

• If so and it doesn’t look familiar, click “Order help” and then select “How to investigate a billing charge.” Follow the prompts to investigate the billing charges and find out more about them.

Secure your Microsoft account if you haven’t already:

• Change your password again.
• Turn on 2-step verification.
• Review recent sign-in activity: https://account.microsoft.com/security

If the charge shows in your Microsoft account, you can also report it to Microsoft for investigation.

Let me know what you find from those questions, and I’ll guide you on the next step.

Click "Add comment" to let me know.

Regards, John J.D.

@Rita Sharpen said

I have been attacked by a subscription bomb. My hotmail/outlook inbox is being filled with unsolicited subscriptions

Sorry but there is no quick fix. The bombardment usually subsides in a day or two but the after effects (constant Spam from other sources) may continue for a long time.

All I can suggest is to use Outlook Web (not your client) to change your Junk Mode to "Strict" for you Microsoft Account

Personal (Free) : https://outlook.live.com/
MS 365 (Paid): https://outlook.office.com/

• View -> View Settings -> Mail -> Junk email
• Incoming mail handling
• (o) Strict - Individually decide who is allowed to send you mail
• Security options
• [/] Trust email from my contacts
• (You can right-click on an email in your Junk Email Folder and choose: Report -> Not Junk, to put the Sender on your Safe Senders list)
• The settings are in New Outlook (Web or Windows) ONLY. But if you configure it in Outlook Web, the effects should be visible in other Outlook clients after a sync.

The problem is that now anything from someone not on your Safe Sender's list will end up in Junk and you are going to have a hard time picking out the potentially legit mail from all the garbage.

There are more drastic measures (e.g. new account/alias). Please advise if you want to try those.