Over the weekend I think my hotmail account was hacked into. This email was sent to all my friends from my email account:

Hi,

Over the weekend I had a very similar thing but my message was as follow:

Best goods and best service!

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: http://www.bj-trade.com

There is def. something strange about this!

This happened to me this weekend as well, but with this message:

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: http://www.mmhdf.com/

I would lioke to know what to do about it as well.

Hi Guys, 

You will need to contact the Abuse Team regarding the unauthorized message that was sent from your account. To get in touch with them, send a service request to abuse@hotmail.com.  

I've provided you detailed steps on how to remove the Vacation Reply set up in your Hotmail account. Here are the steps: 

1. Log in to your Windows Live Hotmail account.

2. At the upper-right corner of the page, click Options and then select More options on the dropdown menu.

3. Under Manage your account option, click the Send automated vacation replies link.

4. Click the Don't send any vacation replies radio button.

5. Wait for the page to fully load then select the message on the box.

6. Press Delete on your keyboard to remove the selected message.

7. Click the Save button. 

If the message was not removed using the steps above, optimize your browser then try doing the above steps again. This will make sure that your browser is not preventing you from updating your account. Here's a link that you can check out: http://emailsupport.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D6F5A79A79B6708!6203.entry  

I also suggest that you follow the safety measures below to make sure that your account is protected and avoid the same problem from recurring:

http://windowslivehelp.com/community/t/1076.aspx

I have had a simliar problem today - I made the mistake of replying to my friend who had sent me the obvious spam message (one of those listed above), and now my email has been hacked into sending out the following message:

Subject: A new choice!A happy life!

A new choice!A happy life!

Dear friend,

How are you doing recently?We are the online Superstore on electronices  where you'll always find the latest and greatest brands at the best price. We have millions of products such as laptops,digital cameras,MP3/4,TVs and motors etc.If you have some interest,please take few your valued time to come our official website: www.trdec.com and have a look,we believe you can enjoy Low Prices, Great Deals here!

Now for the Women's Day,our company has taken some special actions to reciprocate our new and old customers(especially for women) --- best discount and free gifts,as you see:

·Phones/MP3/MP4 are all ship for  free.

·Purchase more than 600EUR,give the  VIP price and ship for free.

·Purchase more than 1000EUR,give the  VIP price and a free gift which worth 120EUR.

·Purchase more than 2000EUR,give the  VIP price and 15% discount.

More purchase!More surprise!Please don't miss the golden chance!It'll end untill 6,April.


Once I found the problem, I have changed all of my hotmail passwords and related passwords on other sites (facebook, bebo, banking ones etc) and also tried to re-email the people who had been spammed by my account with this message:

Hey everyone,

Hi,

I've tried adding a reply post to this forum 4 times and I have had an error message back each time. Possibly my post would have been too long. Could I please get the email address for reporting abuse as I have had a similar problem today to all the other guys here, and now trying to report it has been almost as frustrating as it happening in the first place? Thanks.

@birdo83

Thanks for the detailed information! It's a good thing that you managed to secure your account immediately. However, we're not the appropriate support team to assist you on this, because our Windows Live Hotmail Support Team (Abuse Team) can best address this. You can check out this link for you to know their contact e-mail address:

/solutions/accounts/archive/2009/01/28/Account-Closed-Access-Denied.aspx

@All

I've moved your post in the Non Hotmail Questions forum because this is the appropriate one for it.

I had the best goods best service sent to all my contacts but the contacts were not deleted so i sent a copy to {removed email address} with this message

This message was sent to everyone in my hotmail account. I have changed my password and run my virus checkers. Do you have any other suggestions and what further risk do I have.  Do you know why this happened?
Thank you

20 days later I had this reply

Thank you for writing to Windows Live Hotmail Customer Service. This is Giannyl and I am writing in response to your message. I apologize for the inconvenience it may have caused you and for the delay in responding to your message.

 After reviewing the information you provided, I have determined that the Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support team can best address your issue. They are experts in your field of inquiry and would be in a better position to address your concern. You may contact them at:

 http://windowslivehelp.com/

 Please accept my apologies for not being able to assist you fully.  Thank you for patience and understanding on this matter.

Even though i have deleted all my contacts since, 2 more emails have been sent. I really need this email address as I have used it for many years but I see no other choice than to close it.

Hi luckilady,

After reviewing the information that you posted, I’ve verified that you need assistance about the message sent from your Hotmail account (not about your contacts). For this reason, it’s best that you get in touch with the Windows Live Customer Support Team (Abuse Team). They’re the support team who handles this type of issue. You can include the address of this thread (http://windowslivehelp.com/community/t/24102.aspx) on your service request for reference.

Moving forward, since I do not have the tool to investigate your account for this issue, I cannot confirm what caused the problem that you experienced. Nevertheless, here are my suggestions:

I. Keep your account secured by following these:

1. Log out from your Hotmail account every after your session by clicking the Sign out link.
2. Clear your browser’s temporary Internet files when using a public terminal.
http://emailsupport.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D6F5A79A79B6708!6203.entry 
3. Be sure not to click the Remember my password option at the Hotmail Sign In page.

II. Get online support (or toll-free telephone support in the U.S. and Canada) for security-related issues (such as viruses and security updates) from the Microsoft Security Help and Support Team. Here’s a link to contact them:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/gp/securityhome

For more information on how you can protect your computer, go here:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx

It happened to me the past two days!!!!!  What should I do with it?  I got the exact same e-mail!!!  Now even when I reply other people's e-mails or create a new one, that message shows up in the text field area!!!!!  Do you have any solutions from Microsoft Windows Live?