I logged into my hotmail account today to find that a message (that I copied in below) had been sent to all of my contacts. I did not write or send this message. How/why did this happen and how can I prevent it from happening again?

Thanks,

Doug.

The message read as follows:

"Great shopping for you!

i would like to introduce a good company who trades mainly in electornic products.
Now the company is under sales promotion,all the products are sold nearly at its cost.
They provide the best service to customers,they provide you with original products of 
good  quality,and what is more,the price is a surprising happiness to you!
It is realy a good chance for shopping.just grasp the opportunity,Now or never!
The web address:www.mfsgw.com "

I’ve moved your post here in Non Hotmail Questions Forum.

Please read how To report abuse on article How to report Abuse or SPAM in Windows Live Hotmail found at:

http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions/safety/archive/2009/03/23/how-to-report-abuse-or-spam-in-windows-live-hotmail.aspx
 
In addition, I’ve outlined several ways to help you enhance your account’s protection:
 
I.   I recommend that you change your password as well as your secret question and answer regularly to increase the privacy of your account.  You can use several combinations of letter cases and numbers to make your password harder to decode.
 
II.  Properly log out of your account after your Windows Live Hotmail session by clicking the "Sign Out" button above your screen.
 
III. If you are using a public terminal, I suggest that you clear your temporary Internet files (cache) and close the browser that you are using when you are ready to end your Internet session. 
 
For Internet Explorer:
 
1.  From the "Tools" menu, select "Internet Options".
2.  On the "General" tab, under "Temporary Internet Files,” click on "Delete Cookies" then click on "OK."
3.  Click on "Delete Files." Put a checkmark on the "Delete all offline content" radio button, and then click on "OK."
 
For other browsers, please refer to the Help files of your browser.
 
IV. Please do not share your password to anyone even if they claim that they are persons of authority.  Windows Live Hotmail disclaims all attempts to gather account information from you via phone or e-mail.
 
V.   Be sure not to set your account and browser to remember your sign in details at the Windows Live Hotmail Sign-in page if you are using a public computer or if there are other people using your computer.  Enabling this feature will allow users to automatically sign in to their account and bypass the username and password authentication portion. 

Hi Doug,

The exact same thing happened to me this morning. It's the same email and was also sent to all my hotmail contacts. Please let me know if you learn anything new.

Thanks,

AC

Hi AC, this issue can be addressed by Abuse Team. Meanwhile, please refer to Jeffry's post last March 27 on how to enhance your account’s protection.

I face similar issue too. I have been accessing the hotmail from Outlook for years, and somehow since today the spam messages were sent from my hotmail address using the email lists from hotmail.com address book (instead of the address book attached with my Outlook profile). The computers I used to access hotmail server are not public terminals.

Hi umarlahmie, please contact Abuse Team at abuse@hotmail.com regarding this matter. They handle this kind of issue. Meanwhile, please take extra measures to assure your account security.