marsuleman asks:
Yesterday my fiance told me that when he signed in to Hotmail to chat with me, someone else was talking to him. It was some guy who isn’t in my account contacts or my fiance’s contacts.
I was wondering how this could happen and came to find out the guy is none other than my own uncle. My fiance logged out and then logged in again after awhile. This time when he spoke with me, he was actually able to speak with me – it wasn’t my uncle.
So was my account hacked? I have changed the password, there are no emails sent from my account like hackers do, but how do I know for sure?
This question has been resolved. You may still add an answer if you think you can add something to the discussion though.
Hide 33 Comments
You know that they have hacked into the account because you
can see clearly that they have sent an email from it to all your
contacts, or even an instant message. They would not be able to do this
if they did not have access to the account.
Yeah i have checked that…no mails are sent from my account…besides, anyone could delete them after sending.
i am having another problem…i can not chat from any where any longer, neither from messenger nor from web?!!!whats this?what ever i write in chat slot is not delivered to the other person, why?
Hello, I think we need some more information. For example; does your uncle live in same house/place as you? Does he have access to your computer? Do you by any chance log in automatically to MSN or keep the keep me sign me in option checked? If there are many people accessing the computer, Do you use different accounts? Do you clean your browser history especially cookies?
If your answer is yes to any of the questions above, it would be very easy for anybody having physical access to your computer to achieve that. Especially if you log in automatically to hotmail or keep the log in option checked. If the option I mentioned in previous line is checked or configure that way, it is just a matter of clicking the sign in button and they are into your account. Now if that option is not checked and you have to type your password/email address all the time, chances are somebody got a hold of your information.
Another question that comes to mind is also, where you signed in at the time your boyfriend log in the first time?
If somebody got a hold of your information, what do you think the chances are there is keyloggers and software like that installed in your computer? I am not saying that is what happened but it is a possibility. Try checking your computer with superantispyware and malwarebytes to see if it finds any keylogger software installed. If there is not any, only thing you could do is change the password again.
.
You know what…the creepiest thing is that i live in Saudi Arabia and my uncle lives in Cyprus..my pc is all mine..i mean no one other than i have access to this pc
I was signed in from my pc and mobile device at one time
and most of the times i hibernate my pc while still signed in!
I have the creepy feeling of some GHOST software being used against me..i dont know, what do you say?
Hello, I wouldn’t say it is weird. Have you heard about remote access? Remote access is used to access other computers through internet as if you were sitting in front of it yourself. It is mostly used for giving customer support and also to fix issues with computers with the person receiving the help being able to watch what the other person is doing. The person can cancel the connection at any time. How did you find out it was your uncle?
i asked my fiance that from what name did he chat with you, he told me the name of my uncle..
i know its him, i am 99 % sure…lol…my fiance was getting too romantic…anyways…it was my uncle
Did you recently use your uncle’s computer to check your mails and forgot to sign out from a browser on his computer?
I live in Saudia Arabia and my uncle lives in Cyprus bro…besides, i dont get one thing..how could a person with gmail account do this with the hotmail-ers?!!!
Sound really strange, but as James said, it is possible that your fiance contacted your uncle ?
but for that he needs email address of your uncle, which according your uncle is not there in the contacts.
And if your uncle has a gmail account, what happened at his end ?
Did you ask him about this ?
as he also chatted with a stranger from hotmail from his gmail account who was looking for his niece to chat, and was not in his contact list,
May be we can get a clue from him,
as it looks like we are missing something.
no my fiance didn’t contact him and yes he does not have him in his account, but yes once i forwarded him a mail that i sent to my fiance already, maybe from there he managed to access his account
Are there similarities between the two name and email?especially if you have the same last name.
We can only guess.
I think you can avoid this, and update us if this happens again.
Because you already changed your password, and that’s enough, I think.
No i dint ask my uncle..
If you ask him, he can tell you more about this, so you can find out some details that may help you.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but what makes you think he got into your account at all? I’m pretty sure hotmail allows you to chat with OTHER PEOPLE.
They don’t need to be in your contact either – random people can chat with anyone they like given the email address. The fact he logged in and out again is irrelevant – first he was chatting with someoen else, then with you. Simple.
You haven’t actually said that this person was posing as you. Did your NAME appear as chatting? If so, you would have been in your fiances contacts, so why do you say “this person wasn’t in my contacts”.
Here’s what I think actually happened. Your fiance mistakenly thought that a random person who was chatting with him, was you. Only, it wasn’t. Mystery solved!
No, my name did not appear, it was my uncles name, my fiance told me the name of my uncle
try this
https://pwnedlist.com/
enter the username or email address (not the password)
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/11/are-you-on-the-pwnedlist/
Myself never tried it.
So your fiance chatted to your uncle then. Not to you. I’m not sure how that would lead to you believing your account has been hacked.
yeah…my uncle..i dont know..i have changed the password and security question too, would that be enough?
No, you don’t need to change anything. Your account wasn’t hacked. Your boyfriend was chatting to your uncle, who was chatting from your uncles account, not yours. Just a little misunderstanding there, dont worry about it.
thank you bro:)
Hi James, I dated an IT guy once and I was not excited by him so I told him that we should not meet again and since then I’m receiving everyday about hundreds of porn related e-mails. So I assume that he used my e-mail address to subscribe me on several websites. I don’t bother about the e-mails because they directly go to my junk box and sometimes I enjoy a good porn. But since he might have been able to do this I’m thinking that maybe the poor guy is insane and therefore that he might do other things like hacking my hotmail account, take control of my PC through my hotmail account (not sure that’s possible though), use my e-mail address to harm me in another way or do any other crazy IT thing that I cannot even imagine. So James, could you let me know how I can make sure that nobody else than me has access to my hotmail account please? Cheers, Sandra
If he knows you personally, then it’s likely he would be able to defeat any security questions placed on your account. I would change those to be something completely arbitrary rather than personal information.
There’s no way to install malware thorugh hotmail per se, just change your passwords and security question and you’ll be good.
Ok, thank you very much James!
Sounds like the likeliest explanation to this scenario, looks more like a mix-up than a “hack.” Nonetheless, run an anti-virus/malware scan, change your passwords, and see if it occurs again.
What was your uncles response?
I don’t believe it was a hacker, doesn’t sound like anything a hacker would do. Generally the hackers that are trying to get into your account are also trying to make money off of it. Also the first thing they would do is change the password. Is there any chance at all that your uncle found out your husbands email from your family? Something somewhere is not fitting right… There is a small detail missing somewhere.
That said, If you are worried it is actually a hacker, I would do two things.
1. Scan your computer for anything rogue.
1a. First download CCleaner, Malware Bytes AntiMalware(MBAM), SAS Portalbe
1b. Restart your computer and enter safe mode. (to enter safe mode you press F8 before the Windows Loading Screen. Your will get a menu with options)
1c. Run CCleaner
1d. Run MBAM
1e. Restart Computer and reenter safe mode
1f. Run CCleaner again
1g. Run SAS Portable, after it is done scanning restart your computer as normal.
2. Change your password. Make it complex, meaning Symbols, numbers, Capital and lower case. Also if you can make it longer than 12 characters.
With these two steps, that would take care of anything that may have taken over/gotten into your email if you can still get into your email.
okay…thanx anyways..i will try all theses steps
i received an email that send password or ur account will be closed.
unfortunately i send the password and my account is now misusing by another man who is sending fake emails to all my relatives for money.
saleem_perwez@hotmail.com
this is my account , i m very upset now , every one is calling me abt fake emails, pls help me out , and send my email new pass word to my wife email address as under
humera_saleem2@yahoo.com
the same fellow is a big cheater , he also hacked my yahoo pass word now , i send my pass word which is big mistake what i made.pls help me out for God sake, he also change my secret question.
saleem
I’m sorry to hear that Saleem, but consider that a valuable lesson: Don’t send your password to someone.
There is no way to recover an account after doing something like that.
The best you can do is change all your other account passwords that he hasn’t already gained access too. I suspect you used the same password for many different services. You should also get in contact with your relatives and make sure they know the emails are fake.
How did this happen and what do I do now?
not really
How do you know it’sbeen hacked
Your just talking rubbish and pooman dosn’t like it 1 bit fatty