Impossible to recover my fathers hotmail account

Question

Impossible to recover my fathers hotmail account

Neil Thain 0

My father had a rarely used hotmail account. We have just discovered that someone has hacked it and is sending emails to the contacts scamming for money.

My father is 90 and missed the signs. I have tried to reclaim the account for him but the scammer has changed the recovery email address to his own [Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed]@gmail.com.

WE have tried to recover the account but we do not have the information requested, ie the card number will be a few card numbers ago and being unable to access the account means we cannot provide recent emails.

Ironically, it says we have not given enough information to protect the account when the reality is, it is protecting the hacker.

Any advice would be gratefully received

Thank you in advance

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1 answer

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Answer 1

Hi Neil Thain

Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.

I’m very sorry that your father’s account has been compromised and is now being used to send scam messages to his contacts. I understand how upsetting and frustrating this situation must be, especially when the recovery information has been changed.

Please try Microsoft’s hacked-account recovery process and use the Sign-in Helper if the recovery email shown is not recognized. When completing the recovery form again, provide as much information as possible, such as previous passwords, older billing details, Microsoft services linked to the account, and exact subject lines or email addresses of contacts your father previously communicated with. Family members or trusted contacts may be able to help provide some of those details.

If a recovery request is unsuccessful, it can be submitted again up to two times per day.

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators, contributors including external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas only.

In the meantime, please warn your father’s contacts through another trusted method not to reply, open links, or send money, and ask them to report the messages as phishing. Also change the passwords for any other accounts where your father used the same or a similar password.

I hope you are able to regain access to the account soon.

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