Please Help Me Access My Hotmail – I’ve Been Hijacked

I receive frequent requests to recover hijacked email accounts or retrieve the information in them, and/or to reset lost passwords. Here’s my answer:

No.

There is nothing I can do.

But here is what you can do:

1) Contact your email service provider and tell them what has happened. They should have some way of identifying you, (usually a couple of ‘secret questions’ you pre-set up) after which they should be able to reset your password.

(Notice there is no Number 2?)

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Unfortunately this (almost) never works for free accounts. Why? Because these accounts are free and there’s (almost) no customer support. They tell you that up front. You get what you pay for.

Let me be even clearer about that: if you are using a free webmail (online email) service such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc., and…

• you forgot or lost your password
• your password does not seem to work
• you forgot the answer to your secret question
• and you did not set up an alternate email address, or you lost access to the alternate email address
• your account has been hijacked by a hacker
• and Support is not responding to your request for help

You are out of luck. I cannot help you – even if you hired me to.

Your only shot at regaining access to your email is via the form the service provides. Which does not always work.

Hotmail: The Windows Live Help Solutions Center is currently your only official support resource for Windows Live Hotmail.
If you think you’ve been hijacked, you can use Windows Live’s own Windows LiveID Account Recovery Help Page. There you’ll be taken through a form where you can prove that you are the rightful owner, and may, hopefully, regain access to the account.

Gmail: try this Gmail Help page first.

Yahoo Mail: try the Sign-in Help Wizard first.

I am not going to bother writing out the instructions for setting up your account, now, so that recovery in the future will be easier, nor tell you to write down the answer to your secret question (your Account settings is where you start), as I may as well be saying “change your oil every 7,500 miles”, or “brush and floss three times a day.” Many are probably reading this because they were not the careful conscientious type, and they were hoping someone else would clean up their mess for them.. (the New American Way.)
All I can say is: use the “recovery form”; fill it out to the best of your ability; and I can wish you good luck.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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