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.

Butterflywing, that is what happened to me on my Facebook, only they were on real time chat to my family and friends with my Facebook photo. Saying I had been injured and needed money wired, only they did tell people where to wire it to. It was being sent to the UK. My friends thought we were on vacation and in trouble. It was awful, they hijacked my password.

The very same thing happened to me with my email. Everyone on my list got an email saying we were in London and had been robbed and please send money. Also, all of my emails were rerouted to a different email address. This is not just a hacker, it is a virus. I had to take my computor in and have it backed up, wiped clean and everything reloaded. Then I had to contact my email carrier and take over 2 hours to set everything up again. What a pain in the butt!! This is a virus that normal virus protection does not get rid of. My daughter made a copy of the email that was sent out and I took it to the police. Of course there was nothing that they could do, but at least they are aware of it and have been telling people to watch for it. I got calls from everyone on my contact list asking me if I had enjoyed my vacation!

Hackers often do these things just for their own amusement, just to cause trouble. They didn't intend to actually receive money, because that could be traced, and then they'd get arrested.

This kind of thing is why I do not use an address book.

Yeesh, I'm sorry to see all the people it happened to.

butterflywing, it sounds like it's just your email that's affected. So it shouldn't affect your ability to come to these boards or to go to any other websites.

Very good that you used a dedicated card, but I'd move the money out of it (if it's a debit card) and close it.

i never use a debit card. it's a credit card that i don't use for anything else except online purchases. it's therefore very easy to track and challenge. plus, because it is a credit card, they can hold you responsible for only $50. after that, too bad for them.

now i have to figure out how to empty this whole site and set it up elsewhere.

if i don't take the address book with me, will that end it? or will people keep getting bothered?

i'm thinking i can hand write the address information and then delete everything to spam and out.

This makes me so mad! Haven't these idiots got anything better to do with their time? I had this email and of course knew straight away that it wasn't you, B. You'd have asked for far more than 2500 bucks! Just kidding! I hope you get it sorted out soon. I'm thinking you should notify the police as well - they may not do anything about it but if everyone who this happened to reported it, maybe eventually something would be done.

they can't spend their lives tracking these jerks down. while i'm in i'll retrieve what i can that i really want - probably just names. then i'll open a different account. please send money. i'm out of fabric and i'm going into withdrawal. the clinic bills are expected to be very high as i expect to take a long time to recover, if ever.

I'll send you a case of good French cognac! :mrgreen:

I'm not so sure about that $50... it's my understanding that you can dispute ANY charge, for any amount.

Credit cards offer great protection, that way. After all... your money isn't really gone until after you've paid the bill.

NOT SO with debit cards... that's why I would never, ever use a debit card for online purchases.


And I'm very sorry to hear that this happened to you!

I too have a problem with Jerks that have nothing better to do but sit around trying to mess with poeple and mess up their lives. They do sometimes get caught. I've had no problems so far and am hoping I don't. I mainly come here and well known online businesses.

Sometimes they do expect to get money. Mine had a place to wire too. The police were after these guys because they moved quick. No one in my family wired. But the executive from Microsoft that go hacked several of his friends sent money. Because why would you think a Microsoft Exec. could get hacked. You should read his article. He has even been on Nightly News a few months back.

Oh, no! I think mine is going down, too! May need some preventative meds! ;)

LOL MissT! Maybe I'll just send a ship load and you can all split it between you!

funny ladies! see you on google.......