yesterday i got an email from hotmail saying that they were updating their records because they had a lot of dead accounts belonging to people who never use them anymore. was i alive? please reply and tell them how often i use it.
okay. i use it everyday and just used it that a.m. therefore, i'm alive. thank you.
last night my account was closed. nowhere, but nowhere is there a living being to speak to. i lost my password and my secret question. they'll let me in if i know my password. they'll let me in if i know my question. no? then check here and tell them my pw and they'll tell me the secret. no? then check here and they'll tell me the password after i tell my secret. have they gone mad? around and around. i couldn't change one without knowing the other. too bad, barbara.
meanwhile, i couldn't read my emails because they made a mistake. after staying up up until after 2 a.m. i ended up paying a service that finally got me into the correct form to change my password without needing a secret. my password is now ***************. nobody had that. after a while, i'll change it.
it took me the better part of 12 hours to get there. the service cost $14 and worth it. i still would be fighting. it's a secret form. which i now have in a file.
btw, a question they asked was if i emailed a joke recently. i may post the entire experience. we'll see.

BEWARE OF WHAT YOU SEND AND DUMP THOSE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN THROUGH A BUNCH OF ADDRESSES AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS NOT TO SEND THEM TO YOU.

I had something similar on face book. I was sent an email asking me if I really wanted to change my email addres, this had the facebook logo and was from facebook.com. I responded not to change email. I was immediately hacked, took my password and photo and everything through facebook was directed to their facebook site. Even the law enforcement got involved, the hackers contacted everyone in my facebook family and friends saying we had been injured and needed money. I tried to get to facebook when I realized I could not stop it by going in through the web and changing my password, the hackers kept hijacking everything that was trying to go through my face book account, even me trying to get in touch with facebook on their fraud site. Finally since facebook does not have a phone number to contact, I did a search on google, found someones office phone number at facebook. Left a vm saying I was going to the media. My account was shut down in seconds. I will not use facebook ever again. This happened in August, they were aware of it in May and did not do anything about it or warn us.

I am really computer savy, but still got caught. I never answer any paypal, ebay, microsoft email or any of that stuff, without going direct through their corp sites. In fact the reason information about this came out in the Times in May was because a Microsoft Executive got caught with the same thing.

I had the same thing with facebook. Then they emailed that I had broken the rules and was banned from using it. It irks the crap out of me that there is no number to call and talk to a REAL person. I am so sick of all of this electronic garbage. It is a total pain in the a**! When I get on the phone, it is for a good reason. I don't want to spend an hour and press 49 different numbers to get the info I want. Sorry, I'll quit ranting now!

I am with you Honey.

I keep all my password and secret questions in an envelope in our safe. I went through that same ordeal with a past ISP. I don't use Yahoo or hotmail or any of those other email programs. You won't find my of Facebook, MySpace or Twitter either...lol

I know, I have taken myself off of all social networking sites, except this one of course.

Huh?? You ended up paying a service to get you into your email account? How did you find the service? How do you know if they're legit? How did you pay them - do they now have all your banking information?

Was that initial email about dead accounts even legit? Because you obviously got into your email just fine to open it.

was that a legitimate email to you? it would worrry me.

I agree with the above messages. I've had hotmail for several years and they never contact you about your usage. There is a question mark on the top right of the hotmail page, under your name. Click on support. Sign in or register. There is a list of problems already addressed, or you can ask a question. I would report this to hotmail, ASAP.
Mary Ellen

you may have noticed that i did not immediately answer you. once i used the new password i couldn't use it again. the fee i paid was on a dedicated card. the initial email - who knows? it looked right. whatever happened it was after that. i still can't open email. i got here now by typing in quilting board - the quilter's message board. i understand that everyone in my hotmail address book, including me, has received an email saying that i'm in trouble in london and need $2500. the stupid thing is there's no place to even send it to. i think i just have to shut this hotmail account down and open a new one on a different, more reliable provider's service. that means i'll lose everything i have here, including those email addresses. this is one stupid hacker or just a troublemaker.
fortunately, this is not my serious email account. this is my hobby account.