My hotmail account was hacked

[Rebo]

I think that's what you call it. All of a sudden I had about 90 "could not send" error emails from an email I hadn't sent.

Do I need to change my password? Should I abandon the account?

[hajario]

That happened to me last year. I didn't find out for a while because I rarely check that account anymore. I changed my password and haven't had a problem since.

[Iris]

Change your password. That's the advice I was given when it happened to my yahoo account.

[Rebo]

Thanks, guys!

[The Futility of Nihilism]

So you're saying that email from you where you express your undying love for me and want to run away on a 7-Day Carnival Cruise in order to buy Viagra in international waters while I give $2,000 to your friend the Nigerian Prince in order to help him receive his ten million dollar inheritance wasn't actually from you?

Awww, man!

[Rebo]

No, that one was from me!

The one I'm talking about was selling something else entirely.

[Yorikke]

Ditto. Happened to me and my wife a while ago, changed passwords, and all is well.

Joe

[Rebo]

The mail Daemon is still trickling in "unable to send" messages:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification. Delivery to the following recipients failed. www.ozoilgas@wt.com.au


--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: my email
To: someone's email
Subject: Re:
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 08:20:55 -0700




Hey, so I was bored at work as always casually surfing on PBSs local
self-employed testimonials early last wednesday and checked out this
brand new work online job where blue collar workers continue to earn
around $2200/per week+ of course they did not know if i should believe
some of it at first but for some reason i really had to try it for myself
and im so happy I did because I made $289.61 my very first day working.
its completely not hard at all Ive already gotten paid once straight into
my checking account... its probably the most amazing oppurtunity that's
happened to us in years.

Heres the page AOL Trys Out 2011's
Trending Online Based Jobs ha2 I think virtually anyone that has
computer access should try to do this thing so thats why Im filling in
all our new friends & loved ones. Id like you to start and make some
income your self you can also send this webpage with everybody you know
that needs extra money so that we can all recover from this nightmare of
an economy..

I guess it takes a while to get to Australia.

[Yorikke]

I've recieved legitimate "unable to send" emails as much as a week after I tried to email someone. Don't sweat a few stragglers, IMO.

Joe

[Khampelf]

I had a similar problem where my Hotmail account was hijacked and sending everyone spam for a Canadian pharmacy.

My solution was to delete my contact list.

I wish I had thought to try the changing the password thing.

[Fish]

You might check the Password Strategy thread for some crazy-paranoid ideas on designing an infoolbly good pass-thing.

[Random Precision]

Originally Posted by Fish

You might check the Password Strategy thread for some crazy-paranoid ideas on designing an infoolbly good pass-thing.

Or see this recent topical XKCD comic for further enlightenment.

[Dragonlady]

Those spammers must have saved a fortune on punctuation!

[dynamitedave]

I wouldn't say your email has been hacked. More likely your address was used as the return/reply address. You are getting the bounces from invalid addresses. Unless only your contacts received the spam emails; then your account was hacked.

[Rebo]

That makes sense, dave. My friends haven't bitched at me for sending them spam...

I still changed my password.

[Lord Blackmore]

Dump the account and move to gmail.

[Rebo]

I've been thinking about that. It's just that I've had this email for over ten years, believe it or not.

[Yorikke]

Originally Posted by Dolores Reborn

I've been thinking about that. It's just that I've had this email for over ten years, believe it or not.

I've had my Hotmail since about 1996. I recently opened a gmail account, but am using it only for specific tasks in which I don't expect to get spam - my WoW account is almost 100% of the traffic in the gmail account.

I'm still not 100% hot on the gmail interface.

Joe

[Control-Z]

I had a throwaway Hotmail account that kept getting deactivated due to inactivity. Finally it got hacked or something and MS disabled it completely. MS wanted to know my mobile phone number to get it working again so I just said fuck it. They never could control the spam like Gmail does.