Hotmail Account Hacked?

[mpcs]

There seems to be a spate of spammers hacking into, or gaining access to peoples Hotmail accounts.

I came across one this week, where the spammer was using the account for their own advertising via the holiday auto responder, and via the use of the signature feature.

Fortunately, access to the account was still available, and so it was a simple case of changing the password, after checking the computer was clean of any spyware, or worms etc... and changing the secret question and updating the alternate email address.

It appears that the account information was obtained by a phishing attack on free web-based email account holders, rather than the Hotmail database being attacked. Some accounts are being compromised with the changing of passwords. If this happens then the only thing to do is to try to regain control through various steps that Live.com has in place. Check out the page: http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions/accounts/archive/2008/10/25/what-to-do-if-you-think-your-accounts-been-stolen.aspx.