Hotmail account Hijacked or hacked? Here's how I retrieved it...

Yesterday my wife's hotmail account got hijacked. The account was created more than 10 years ago and at that time, she did not set any alternate email address in case of situations such as this. And worst still, the secret question's answer had to be incorporated with the location in which your account was open under where and when. Email accounts, as we now realize, are actually something very personal which holds many of our personal information (and secrets!) as well as vital information. Also by loosing an email account, imagine all the hassle you'd have to go thru to inform all the other services which you have subscribed to that send to your email account. For e.g. credit card statements, utility bills, stock trading account, social networking accounts (e.g. facebook, twitter, etc.). And loosing this email account may compromise all your other social networking accounts too because they too have password recovery services which sends password reset information to your email account!

What do we do? Well, contrary to the forums on the internet which mostly complaint about the crappy service which they got from Microsoft Live team, we got it resolved within 24 hours (after searching high and low on the internet that is). The people complaining about the service probably did not provide initial information for the team to work on or they are approaching the wrong channel in Microsoft. If you have went to MSN help centre, they will simply ignore you because it was not the right channel.

More after the jump

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So if you have a compromised Hotmail account, here is what you do:

1. Try password recovery first. If you have alternate email set, that would be the fastest. 
2. If above fails, try the secret question.
3. If the above fails because you have forgotten or the person who hijacked your account changed it, the the only thing left now is go to https://windowslivehelp.com/product.aspx?productid=1

Its the Microsoft Live Solution Centre portal. Find the Account Recovery and Security link. 

Once there, you will see 3 links: 

• Account Compromise - Unauthorized Account Access
• Important Security Information To Know
• Password Reset

Click the bottom two just to see what information you're missing. But finally click on the first link, Account Compromise - Unauthorized Account Access. When you're at this page you are presented with information about how to reset your password as mention above but since we're here because you cannot get that to work. Click on the Windows Live Validation Page link

From here on, its pretty straight forward. You will be asked for another email address in which the Microsoft Live staff will use to keep in touch with you for the recovery process. After you have provided that, a form will be presented with all information they need from you in order for them to expedite your recovery. 

Here is a list of information to prepare:

• Full Name
• Date of Birth
• Country tell them which country it was created in
• State tell them which state it was created in
• Zipcode 
• The secret answer to your question 
• Your alternate e-mail address
• Your IP address
• Your Internet service provider
• Last successful signed in date/time if you did not log in for a long time, this could be difficult, but try to be as close as possible
• Name a few folder you have created in your hotmail
• Name a few contacts in your hotmail address book
• Subjecs of any old mail in your hotmail folders get someone who you emailed with this account to tell you the subject.
• Name of contacts on your messenger contact list ignore this if you do not use messenger
• Messenger display nickname ignore this if you do not use messenger

Lastly, you will have a space where you can provide additional information regarding your account. Write as much as you can remember from your account that will help them verify you're the rightful owner of the account. After you have completed the form and click submit, you will be presented with a PIN number. WRITE THIS DOWN. An email will be sent to you with the private forum link for your issue which will require this PIN to see. 

In my case, fortunately we got most of the criteria right and we got a swift reply the next morning with a link to reset the password. The reply looks like this:

"Hello abc@xyz.com: 

You recently asked to reset your Windows Live ID password by e-mail. Follow the instructions below to reset your password, or to cancel your password reset request. 

TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD: 

1. Select and copy the following Internet address. https://accountservices.msn.com/EmailPage.srf?emailid=xxxxxxxxxx

2. Open a browser, paste the link in the address bar, then press Enter or Return on your keyboard. 

IF YOU DID NOT REQUEST TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD: 

1. Select and copy the following Internet address. https://accountservices.msn.com/EmailPage.srf?emailid=xxxxxxxxxx

2. Open a browser, paste the link in the address bar, then press Enter or Return on your keyboard. 

Thank you, 

Windows Live Team "

If you receive this email, that means your password recovery process was successful and you can go ahead and reclaim your hotmail account. If you do not receive any feedback after 24 hours, check back on the forum to see if any staff has left a message for you to follow up. 

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