We just helped a woman regain control over her Hotmail account. Needless to say, she was delighted. Can you imagine loosing control of your email account to a hacker who can rifle through your emails to learn what bank accounts, credit accounts, eBay accounts, PayPal accounts, etc you use and attempt to hack those, or use your contacts as marks for future phishing expeditions.
How her Hotmail account got hacked in the first place is an important consideration. Running effective anti-virus and anti-malware software is an important front line defense against having any of your accounts hacked. Using a router with a firewall is also important (if you use dial up, this is not an option). But equally as important are some small things you can do.
- Set your password to something with a combination of letters, numbers, capitals and symbols. Don't use whole words that can be easily guessed. And change your password every few months. And, don't use the same password for multiple accounts!!
- Have an alternate email account as part of your primary account and keep a record of what that is. You can reset your password using your alternate account, but be sure the password on that account is also a combo of letters and symbols.
- Use the security questions. The more questions you use the better but don't use any that could be easily guesses at.
- Don't leave your email account open while you are browsing. Log out and log back in. It's a hassle but can keep your account safe. Also, reopen your log-in screen even if it is sitting there waiting for you to log back in. See our post on tabnabbing.
- If you receive an email that appears to be from your provider asking you to take some action, don't follow any links to your account that ask for user ID or password. This goes for any account. If you get such an email, go to the account by your usual method. If you can't find where to take the action, Google the subject line from the email to see if it is a scam.
To regain control of a Hotmail account, act fast. Go to the link below. The first link will try to verify you though your old password and security questions. If that fails they will direct you to the next link.
If you continue to have difficulty, give us a call.