Expert: James Filmer - 4/20/2010

Question
Hi James, It's been over a month now that my email account has been hacked. I want to close my hotmail account and I have contacted the technical support and they keep giving me all these options that I have already tried. The options they give dont work because they all require to access my account. I cannot log in to my account since hacker changed my password,alternate e-mail, and private questions. I am fed up with this situation I have already explained to them and wrote to them 3 times and no one seems to be able to help me. All I want is for them to close my account. How hard can this be? This is the worst expeerienceever.3

Answer
Hi Elsa,

I can understand how you feel. Its happened to me before too. I even spent some time trying to convince an email service to do the same as you. But, there really isn't more you can do.

If you're concerned about the information the hacker may have retrieved from your account, the best you can do is try and remember what private info that was there and change it.

I'd say it in my own words, but Ask-Leo (a link on my Enrgy21.com site) does a great job explaining in more detail what you can (and can't) do.

http://ask-leo.com/someone_has_stolen_my_email_account_what_can_i_do_to_get_it_b...

There's also info on my site about strong passwords, and a free, simple, easy to use tool - Klikosafe (enrgy21.com/tools), but there's lots more valuable info (if you need it) via your favorite search engine.

As far as Hotmail closing your account for you, for legal reasons (protecting themselves and you, indirectly), they really can't access that account for any reason unless you prove to them it was really yours - the only proof on the Internet being that "you" actually log in.

Wish I could do more, but I would consider it a lesson learned - that generating a strong password and keeping it in a safe place is the best way to go.