Is someone hacking into my account?

PleaseHelpMePleaseHelpMe
edited February 2005 in Science & Tech
This may be paranoia on my part, but I use Microsoft Outlook for email, and lately everything in my inbox would disappear and there would be only one email from "Hotmail Staff" with the following message:
Dear [edited]

To help protect our users from automatically generated junk e-mail (or spam), MSN Hotmail periodically asks for identity verification.

Please go to http://www.hotmail.msn.com and follow the instructions. It takes only a few minutes and you can then return to using your Hotmail account.

Thank you for helping us to help reduce your junk e-mail.
Sincerely,
MSN Hotmail Staff


Please do not reply to this e-mail as this is an unmonitored alias.

The link never works. I usually have to go to hotmail and have to copy the weird looking letters into a box and hit continue. THEN my emails will come back into my Inbox in Outlook.

Also, a while back, I would be signed onto MSN Messenger and get signed out with a message saying someone has signed onto MSN with my name at another location. I changed my password, and that stopped happening.

Anyways, why is the above with my email account happening several times every day?

THANKS.

Comments

  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited February 2005
    From the Hotmail Help site:

    To protect our users from the increasing amount of unsolicited junk e-mail or spam sent from MSN HotmailSympatico Mail accounts through Outlook and Outlook Express, we have reluctantly had to restrict the new use of Outlook and Outlook Express to subscribers.

    By making this feature part of a subscription, (which requires a user to provide billing information), we can more effectively manage and put a stop to abuse of this functionality, and help protect you and others from unsolicited mail.

    If you purchase a subscription service such as MSN Hotmail Plus or MSN Premium, you get access to your account from Outlook or Outlook Express, along with many other added features. To see other benefits of upgrading your MSN HotmailSympatico Mail or MSNSympatico/MSN accounts or to create a new subscription account please visit our subscription information page.

    In other words, you will have to have a paid Hotmail account in order to access Hotmail via your Outlook or Outlook Express.

    As for your Messenger problem, yes, it sounds like either you left yourself logged in on someone else's computer or a public computer, or left your password saved on someone else's computer or a public computer, and someone esle was logging in as you. Probably a "friend".... Since changing your password, you have shut them out. Don't sign into Messenger on other computers unless you double check that the password is not being auto-saved. If you regularly sign in to Messenger from different computers, you should change your password regularly as well, at least once a month. You can easily use an easy-to-remember "base password" then add on something new each month, like this:

    base password = PleaseHelpMe

    Feb password = PleaseHelpMe_feb_8282
    Mar password = PleaseHelpMe_mar_6464
    Apr password = PleaseHelpMe_apr_1919

    That way, you always know the main part of your password, and just change the numbers once a month to keep it fresh, and just memorize those numbers for a month.

    Dexter...
  • PleaseHelpMePleaseHelpMe
    edited February 2005
    Dexter, thanks a lot for the reply. I should have checked their site. That's nuts- I'm sure they can find some other way to get around the Junk Mail problem. I'm going to have to leave them for yahoo or something. I'm hesitant to use Gmail because I don't know how that works with Outlook.

    And I'll get into the habit of periodically changing my password, although I'm almost sure I'll forget the number every month. Anyways, thanks again.
  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited February 2005
    Gmail does not work with Outlook, and neither does Yahoo. Gmail has an optional notifier that you can install, it runs in the background of your system and periodically checks yoru account to see if there is new mail. It displays an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have unread Gmail messages, and shows you their subjects, senders and snippets, all without your having to open a web browser.

    Dexter...
  • PleaseHelpMePleaseHelpMe
    edited February 2005
    Are you sure Outlook doesn't work with Yahoo? My brother uses Outlook with his yahoo account.
  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited February 2005
    http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/pop/pop-02.html

    The paid version of Yahoo MailPlus works with Outlook, or any other e-mail client. But the free Yahoo mail accounts do not, which was what I was referring to. Since you did not want to pay for Hotmail, I assumed you do not want to pay for Yahoo. They cost basically the same, Hotmail is about 5 cents cheaper per year.

    Dexter...
  • littleonelittleone
    edited February 2005
    I am also facing the same problem. Did anyone found a way out?
    Thanks
    Robert
  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited February 2005
    littleone wrote:
    I am also facing the same problem. Did anyone found a way out?
    Thanks
    Robert

    If you are talking about the problem of not being able to read your Hotmail account through your Outlook Express, the "way out" is to pay for the advanced Hotmail service. There is no other alternative at this point.

    Dexter...
  • littleonelittleone
    edited February 2005
    Dexter wrote:
    If you are talking about the problem of not being able to read your Hotmail account through your Outlook Express, the "way out" is to pay for the advanced Hotmail service. There is no other alternative at this point.

    Dexter...


    Hai All,
    Well here is a quick solution for the problem. First download eprompter from www.eprompter.com. Then delete the Hotmail acounts from your Email client. Visit hotmail site and login. AT this time configure your Hotmail ID onto eprompter. You may enter any number of Hotmail acounts to it.
    And that's all. You will never recieve that bogus email in your Inbox again. This shows that the email was not a part for you susbcribing to hotmail plus services but just a kind of virus.
    Hope you will find thsi useful
    Binu
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited February 2005
    Dexter wrote:
    Gmail does not work with Outlook...

    Actually, it does. If you go into your GMail preferences and turn on POP access, you can setup any email client that supports POP and SMTP to access your GMail account.
  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited February 2005
    Cyclonite wrote:
    Actually, it does. If you go into your GMail preferences and turn on POP access, you can setup any email client that supports POP and SMTP to access your GMail account.

    Ah, I was not aware of that, thanks for the info Cyclonite :)

    Dexter...
This discussion has been closed.