Anne,
I still have a few contacts at MSN. I can't make any promises but I will try. The new T.O.S. for a hotmail account are very strict. I do need a tiny bit more information. I DO NOT WANT OR NEED any passwords of any kind. But I do need your username only. I will not in any way try to access your account myself. I will just be forwarding it to one of my contacts. (You may already have posted it and I did not see it, if so don’t re-post it I will look for it and see it after I post this). With that said I do need to know what type of Hotmail account you have. Is it just the standard free account, or is it one of the premium accounts that you pay a fee for each year?
Also here are some things you can do in the mean time to try to re-gain control of your account. Try everything to reset the account. Click the forgot my password when you go to log in. This will give you several options. Email current password to another account (if you set an secondary email address when setting up the account.) Also you can re-set your password by answering your secret question. Now if you did not use either of these options when you opened the account this will not be so easy. Or if whoever has taken the account has changed this information then it will not help. But try it anyway, as many times a person that takes over an email account overlooks some of these.
Here is an address where you can email your problem to MSN and explain your problem;
http://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?productKey=hotmail&page=support_home_options_form_byemail&ct=eformts You will need an alternate email address to give them to send a response to.
If you have to, open a new Hotmail account to do this. Even though
I do still have some contacts at MSN from the time when I was an MSN chat host the new guidelines for a Hotmail account are so strict much of the information they will need can only be provided by you.
With all of this said, I am going to say again what I have said many times. And please do not see this as me coming down on you. The last line of defense against these types of people is us the users. We all must make our passwords as hard as possible, and change them often. I change every password I have at least once a week. And that is about 20 different passwords. I know this is a pain to do, but this is the world of cyberspace and we have to do whatever is necessary to keep others from getting our personal information. Next chances are (I can’t say for a fact.) this is someone that you know. Someone that knows enough about you to be able to know your password or what the answer to your secret question is. So no matter how well you know a person still NEVER let them know anything about your accounts. My Wife (soon to be ex-wife) does not even know my online passwords.
I will do all I can, but I fear my efforts will not help much because of how strict MSN is about these accounts. Try everything above I have listed, and please post any updates as soon as you get them. Good luck.
Terry L. White
