ExRx.net

...and he doesn't know how to fix it. It's being used to send spam about acai berries. Does anyone know what he's supposed to do?

Contact Microsoft and they will first disable the account, then he will have to verify the account was his by a long list of questions.

My sisters was hacked not long ago and Microsoft responded quickly to stop the spam sending, but then getting all the questions answered cottectly to verify the account ownership was quite difficult.

Good Luck to him..
Cliff

Well, first you'll want to check the mail headers for the path to make sure it actually came from your ISP's mail server. If it didn't, someone is just forging it (and there's nothing you can do at that point because it's probably a server in Lybia or some $h1t ).

If it's your actual account you should be able to change your password unless it's a trojan (if you are using an actual software-based email client, like Outlook).

The hotmail hacks I was referring to before were true hacks. The login and password were compromised and new passwords were stored. This made it impossible for the true account holder to login and change their password.

Cliff

He should dump the account and switch to gmail.

I would like to point out that it is nigh impossible for the account to have been 'hacked' in the most literal sense. E.g. hotmail's servers weren't exploited and his password retrieved that way; they're also immune to brute-force.

What probably happened is that they phished it out of your friend, e.g. he entered it on a valid-looking site. If that didn't happen, almost the only other option is that your friend is infected with malware that logs keypresses(Keylogger) and he should, while retrieving his password by talking to hotmail(This has happened to me, it was relatively easy to get back) scan his computer with anti-virus.

Yes, I would tend to blame spyware. Some spyware logs keystrokes to fish accounts and passwords. If hotmail was hacked, then many people would be having the problem.

No argument from me, It's not Hotmail's fault. That being said, convincing Hotmail who is the true account user/owner is the problem.

Cliff

Trouble is, it's even easier to fake emails from someone else if you want.

All you need is a hooky copy of server 2003 and about 10 lines of .asp code and you can generate an email to anyone, from anyone.

The only way to distinguish it from a real email is to examine the headers.

The problem usually goes away after a few days, the spammer will rotate email addresses to avoid any 'serious' attemps to track them down.

hmmm i wish i knew more about computers. I don't think he'd have been stupid enough to use his password anywhere dodgy. He does download music by the tonne, so his computer probably caught an STI