my hotmail account has been hacked, and emails have been sent to people i know asking for money. i have contacted microsoft and they have sed they wont be able to access my account again but my email page is all messed up? its just displaying numbers where the writing should be? how do i get it all back to normal and what other steps should i take?

Can you put up some screenshots, hiding all personal info please so I can see what you mean?

yeah give me a sec mate

Ok looks like the default language for your hotmail session has been changed to something that hasnt got the language pack installed on your pc. 

 

follow the information here to get it back to english then you should be able to recover 

 

http://en.kioskea.net/faq/26549-outlook-com-change-language-settings

cheers ill try it now. ill let ya know how i go on

Can't follow the steps in the link mate because I can't read the words on my comp. When I click on what I think is "more mail settings" I just get this...

How helpful and kind of someone. Can't you copy and paste the page text into a translator? Or alternatively if we can find out what language it's been set to then you could download that language pack.

I would download a recovery disk and scan your machine for virus, trojan, malware, and rootkit software.

done a full scan and cleaned up my comp best i can. it was in khmer language. cambodian. i used chrome to open it and it came up with a translator. i have got it back to english but when i log out and back in i need to translate it again?

Change to English. Find password and reset it on another computer or your mobile.

Set up any account recovery so if anyone tries to change settings you'll get an alert to another email address.

Assume your pc has been compromised for now and restrict what you do - don't use banking or buy anything.

yeah done all that. its just not displaying correctly. i have managed to get it back to english but its not making sense? i can no longer log out and it just make any sense with the wording?

You have changed your password haven't you?

 

I'd suggest you change passwords for anything to do with shopping or banking that might sent anything to that mailbox.

I'd also change passwords on anything you shared that password with. So if you've a shop login with that hotmail account and the same password change that.

Yeah changed passwords. How do I know when it's safe again? I have done a scan and it's ok

Did you do it on another computer?

You can't trust anything loaded on the machine to say everything is okay.

You either need to remove the drive and scan on another computer or run something via usb pre boot.

Try an online scan with trend house call

Online scan with trend house call? What's that? Not been on my laptop for a week and this only happened last night. I was on the Internet on my phone and did put my email address in a few sites, eg moneysupermarket. Could I have been hacked through using my phone?

http://www.trendmicro.co.uk/campaigns/housecall/index_a.html?mkwid=sSVHU1zWO_dc&pcrid=31596926946&kword=%2Btrend%20%2Bhousecall%20%2Bonline%20%2Bscan&match=b&plid=&gclid=CKzArMmMrLkCFY_KtAodRSMAqQ

 

It is possible it could have been hacked via your phone, but I wouldn't of thought very likely... What phone do you have? Do you only install apps via the relevant app stores/market places?

 

It can even be that someone has managed to get details from a website for you and guessed their way into your account. Hence why it is so important to make sure your recovery stuffs are good. Also ensure you don't use similar passwords elsewhere. Pain in the ar$3 I know, but it's how it is!

To be honest Hotmail has been hacked many many times and I know people who have very tough passwords and do not even use smart phones and their account has been hacked. The weakness is Microsoft and hackers are always targeting them.

 

Spybot is good alongside Malware bytes which are both free. I also use spyware blaster in the background again free. Ghostery in Firefox is also good for stopping all the tracking stuff.

MalwareBytes is best run in "Safe Mode", as some malware will try to reinstall itself via the internet if it detects it is being deleted.

I have a note 2, and yeah only ever use the Google play store

My Hotmail was also hacked the other day... that's why I don't really bother using Hotmail now as it's happened a few times before.

 

Phil

Yeah changed passwords. How do I know when it's safe again? I have done a scan and it's ok

 

You never will.

 

Sounds more likely that either Hotmail has had a breach or you've typed into your password into a compromised computer or phone.

It pays to be paranoid.

 

I've not been hacked or lost a password for years but not many people would like to run their equipment as tight as I do. SWMBO hates it.

Edited 2 September, 201312 yr by Aspman

I had my Yahoo account hacked earlier this year - despite not actually logging into it or using it for over 5 years.