My email was hacked, I changed the password, but I am not receiving emails.

Nadia R 0 Reputation points
2026-10-24T12:48:55.8233333+00:00

Hello,

My email was hacked and it forwarded a document to all of my contacts. I did not know I had sent anything until my husband asked what was the document I was sending. I immediately changed my password. Since then, I have not received a single email. I can send emails, but the responses are not appearing in my inbox.

Any responses that people sent asking "What is this document?" went to me deleted messages.

I saw the "Unusual sign-in" email after the document had already been sent en-masse.

How do fix this problem? I'm not seeing any emails.

Microsoft Security | Microsoft Identity Manager
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  1. AI answer

    2026-10-24T12:49:09.7233333+00:00

    This pattern usually means the attacker left mailbox settings behind after the password change, or the account is still under a temporary protection block.

    1. In Outlook.com on a computer, open Settings and check Mail > Rules.
      • Delete any rule that is not recognized.
      • Attackers commonly create rules that move mail to Deleted Items, Junk Email, Notes, or RSS Subscriptions.
    2. Check Mail > Forwarding and confirm forwarding is not enabled to an unknown address.
    3. Check IMAP settings and remove anything that should not be there.
    4. Review Deleted Items, Junk Email, and recover deleted items if needed.
      • Since replies are already landing in Deleted Items, a malicious rule is a strong indicator.
    5. Review recent sign-in activity for the Microsoft account.
      • Use the Recent activity page to see sign-ins from the last 30 days and confirm whether there was unauthorized access.
    6. Check account sign-in and security details.
      • Review aliases and remove any that are not recognized.
      • Confirm recovery and contact information is correct.
      • Remove existing app passwords.
      • Remove devices that are not recognized.
      • Use Sign out everywhere. This can take up to 24 hours to take effect.
    7. Change the password again and enable two-step verification if it is not already enabled.
    8. Check whether the mailbox or Microsoft cloud storage is full.
      • If storage is full, Outlook.com cannot send or receive email.
      • Messages sent while storage was full are bounced back to the sender and are unrecoverable.
    9. If the account was temporarily blocked because of unusual sign-in activity, unblock it by resetting the password.
      • If sign-in or unblocking still fails, use the Microsoft account sign-in helper or the account recovery flow.

    If mail still does not arrive after removing rules, disabling forwarding, signing out everywhere, and confirming storage is not full, contact Outlook.com support from the Outlook.com help flow.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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