microsoft hotmail

[wannabegriffey]

I began receiving a 'count down' email about a week ago stating "give us your phone number or we are going to freeze your account".

This morning the count down reached zero and I am blocked.

I called to find out why they needed my personal information in order to access an account I have used for 11 years and was told I had been hacked BUT, for THREE HUNDRED DOLLAR$, Microsoft would fix my problems.

LOL.

I told the guy "nice scam".

guy says "if it is the money, how much can you afford?"

I told him "nice scam, I'll just use my phone for the Hotmail account (still works perfectly)"

F/*k off Hotmail...

[johnnya24]

Google keep asking for my phone number also ... guess they want to tie together my NSA file

You could use your phone access to get all your emails forwarded to another address. I'm not sure if you'll have that functionality on the phone though. I also do not know if Hotmail will auto-close /suspend your account if you fail to log in regularly. I think that happened to me.

[Controller Jacobs]

I would be surprised if that's Microsoft, particularly if you can still access it from your phone (and doubly so if they asked how much you can afford). Where did you get the phone number?

My guess would be some sort of redirect on your PC that is sending you to another site when you try to access Hotmail. If that's the case, they probably want your personal info to get into that or other accounts.

It's not entirely unrealistic, Facebook and Google both really try to get a cell number from you. But that wouldn't explain why the support # would suggest you're hacked.


Note - if it is legit, here's a reason your cell might work but not your pc:
"...The reason why it occurs because if you are signing in from a location more than 300 miles from your normal location. ..."

link - MS Windows Live forum

[johnnya24]

CJ is quite right. This was very odd, and I haven't heard of Microsoft or any major free provider doing this (that's not to say it isn't happening). Make sure this wasn't phishing ... look at the URLs you are being sent to and make sure they are genuine Microsoft. You need to report this if it is a scam.

"How much can you afford"? ... big companies do not work like that.

Hotmail accounts get hacked a LOT. But as CJ said, it is more likely that this is a virus/hijack that is local to your computer. So do an anti-virus and anti-malware run instantly. Also look for a delay and quick changes in the url when you click the hotmail link.

[TranaGreg]

yeah, there's no way this is MS.

Just to expand on what johhny said, you need to examine the underlying URL, not what appears on the screen - for example, I can insert the following link ...

www.microsoft.com

but unless you look at the URL by right clicking the hyperlink you may not realize that it's not going to go to www.micosoft.com, but rather to www.google.com - this is an obvious case but phishers will put up fake sites that look exactly like the real thing - the only way to tell is by examining the URL itself. even then you need to careful - for example, fake sites that have been set up to capture login information will somtimes just add an additional letter or word in the URL which makes it look authentic.

[onejayhawk]

I have the perfect solution. I dont own a phone.

J