My Windows Live e-mail account (connected to MFC) is blocked

[LilyMarie]

I'm sorry for posting this here because it's not very camming-related, but I really need your help and I need models and members to see this, hoping someone knows a solution. :|

So apparently my 6 year old e-mail account (Microsoft Live a.k.a. Hotmail) has been hacked and has been sending e-mails with malicious links to the people in my contact list for a couple of weeks.
I've known that for a few days because I suddenly kept getting delivery failure messages for e-mails I didn't even sent. But I never took the time to change my PW or do anything about it, which was very stupid of me.
This e-mail address is the one that's connected to my model account, as well as my facebook account and several websites, and I NEED IT.

Yesterday I tried to log in and they told me the account is blocked because 'I' had been sending malicious links. :roll:
In order to unblock it, they wanted me to fill out a form/questionnaire so I could prove my identity, asking for my name, address, date of birth, and security questions ('What's your favorite literary character?', the kind of jazz you have to answer when you register an e-mail account).
I can answer those, but on the same form they're also asking for things like 'Enter some of the e-mail addresses you have recently sent mails to' and 'Enter some of the subject lines you have used in the last weeks'.
But I don't know! I rarely write e-mails from that account anymore. So I don't remember any subject lines I used, and the only e-mail I remember sending recently was one to the MFC model support. So I entered the model support's e-mail address and sent the form away.

Microsoft send me an e-mail to the alternate e-mail address I gave them, saying that the identy information I gave them is not enough, and that I should fill out as much of the form as possible in order to get my account unblocked. But I can't, because I already entered all the information I know and I can only try out different things, but it will never end up being a completely correct and completed form.


Does anyone know what I can do to get my account unblocked?

 

[AllisonWilder]

Re: My Windows Live e-mail account (connected to MFC) is blo

I'm not sure if this is something that can help, but I found phone numbers for hotmail tech support here and maybe you can call and explain it and get better results?

If that site doesn't take you to a person that can help, when I googled phone number for hotmail support, I got a bunch of hits.

Best of luck, wish I could be more helpful!

 

[GingerOwnsChris]

Re: My Windows Live e-mail account (connected to MFC) is blo

Sorry about your trouble. I don't have experience dealing with Microsoft, but maybe it is easier to get another email account, contact MFC and ask them to change your email address? It should be easier for MFC to verify your identity, as they already have your personal information on file.

I really appreciated reading about this. I am absolutely dependent on my email accounts, and need to take some measures, like backup, to have a fall-back plan if this happens to me.

For the sake of other readers, here is what I know that can lead to your account being hijacked:

1. Weak passwords susceptible to dictionary attacks.

2. Installing programs on your computer that pose as free goodies, but monitor what you do and type.

3. (I only recently learned that) Visiting malicious web pages in the same browser that has your email account open. It is possible for another page to access cookies stored on your computer by the email client. While hackers does not get your password in this case, they can get authenticated as you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_hijacking Gmail encrypts their cookies, but I read somewhere that they are, too, vulnerable to session hijacking. I use a different browser (Chrome) to visit pages that have the potential of being malicious, and this browser is configured to delete all cookies and temporary files when I close it.

 

[Jessi J]

Re: My Windows Live e-mail account (connected to MFC) is blo

Ohh! I called customer service with the same problem! I had an email from my grandmothers account with a recipe in there from like 6 years ago and told the lady about the time when I established the account as well as some of the contacts in my list, like my mother an fathers email address. The lady was super sweet and got me back in. The person changed my secret questions, my phone number, AND my recovery email address, which was also hacked.