Couldn't get into my hotmail yesterday.A screen came up saying that someone had been using it.
Said that I should give my mobile number and that they would text me password.We don't give our mobile out so I followed the instructions for those who don't have one.(go to customer services)
Got to the page and they wanted to know who I had recently emailed and people who I had on my email list.
When I scrolled down the page they wanted my bank details.
Neither Tony or myself are pc whizzes but we do not give our bank details to anyone.
Why would windows live want our details.
Earlier in the week our full AVG had detected a trojan virus and quaratined it.
I did a full scan last night and it found 2 more corrupt files.
Can anyone shed light on this and advise me what to do to get the info that is kept in my hotmail account.
The first thing I would check is whether when you are checking your hotmail account whether your browser is actually being redirected to another site that looks like hotmail - if you use internet explorer then check the title address at the top, you may enter hotmail.co.uk and find it alters automatically.
It certainly sounds like this is a virus trying to pretend its hotmail - DO NOT GIVE ANY PERSONAL INFO
I am not getting any pop ups from AVG to tell me I have emails as I normally do and I don't get any response when I click the envelope on my AVG toolbar
The only way I got to hotmail yesterday was to type it in
Someone infiltrated my hotmail account and started sending my contacts all sorts of messages purporting to come from me. They changed the password and locked me out.
The solution was to send an email to hotmail from your other email address the one you gave them as your original one in the first place and ask for them to change the password, then when you finally get into it you need to change the password again and use a more complicated one. Do not use the same password as you use for logging into other accounts.
I suspect your hotmail account has not been infiltrated - hotmail would never ask for your backing details. I would wager that you have a virus that is causing ghosting - when you check your emails, presumably in internet explorer, check the address in the address bar does not change from hotmail.co.uk to another address.
Download malwarebytes from malwarebytes.org. Anti-virus only provides part protection, malwarebytes is likely to find the browser hijacker.
Whay DJbrenton said!
More then likely you will have a proxy server setup in IE to redirect you.
Malwarebytes is a great free tool
Download here - http://www.techspot.com/downloadget.php?id=4716&file=1&evp=0a59f9584bb65ce60f8292a3fc06e555 (http://www.techspot.com/downloadget.php?id=4716&file=1&evp=0a59f9584bb65ce60f8292a3fc06e555)
You may well find if the virus is as potent as this that the virus will not only have disabled your avg but may also stop even malaware from running, in which case you will also ned a free download of 'rkill' which stops memory resident viruses long enough to get rid of them.
Doubt if it is a virus but there is a scam where you either get an email or a phone call telling you that your computer is running slow or your email has been used by someone else and request your details email address etc and which server you use and bank you use to make sure you have paid up to date and so on all leading up to getting your bank details.
Some that you get computer wise look just like the logo,s from microsoft and its hard to tell the difference.
None of your anti virus, malware or spyware will pick it up because your email, to who it was sent is genuine, it is only when you open anything that is in the email do they get access so you must delete it straight away.
Thank you all fo your advice. Its times like this when you are glad to have friends on here. Glad to have Tones laptop as well.
I downloaded Malwarebytes and its been scanning the pc for the last 5 hours and still at it. So far it has found 19 infected files. Just hope that it gets rid when it's finished.
Well it got rid of the infections but I still cannot access my hotmail account
What happens when you try? Do you get to hotmail at all?
Sounds like your PC has some very nasty malware if it is rerouting Hotmail's page to a dodgy site.
I would not rely on any anti-spyware tool to remove it, as the nastier malware is more than capable of hiding from detection software, and some contain keyloggers that record your passwords and bank details silently. You wouldnt necessarily know anything was going on.
If it was me I would back up all the files, then wipe the PC and change all passwords. Might be worth informing your bank if you do any online banking.
Actually its very easy to redirect some to a fake website - all it requires is to set a proxy server up in your browser. All web requests are then sent through the proxy which redirects you from hotmail to somewhere nasty. I have seen this with a fair bit of malware and malwarebytes might not pick the proxy up..
I even do it at work with my proxy (not maliciously!)
Also malwarebytes pick up things like tracking cookies which are not really malicious so it maybe that there is nothing in this. Difficult to say without the logs.
Shirl - can you access yout hotmail account or at least the site from another PC??
Have a look in Internet Explorer - click tools - Internet OPtions - Click yhr connections tab - click on lan settings. Is ther anything under Proxy settings???
With Hotmail it will remain active for 120 days even if you uninsall it and reinstall it within that time your old email will stil activate. So what you can do is create another windows live ID and use that or uninstall your your pressent one and do not use it for more than 120 days.
More computer literate may possibly have another idea,s.
Also with Malwarebytes you need to update it every time before you use it.
another good anti spyware is Spybot Search and Destroy
I have checked my internet options.
It is not ticked but it says
Use a proxy server for your LAN
(settings will not apply to dial up or ven connections)
Have you tried Hotmail on another PC? This would establish whether your account is actually locked or whether you are being sent to a fake site.
Yippeeeee
Tried to access hotmail from Tones laptop and got the same so I decided to follow the route of giving them my old mobile number for them to send me a code.
Guess what it worked.
I am now going to take all of my info in hotmail and put it somewhere else.
Thankyou all once again for you help. ;D
Yay! Well boo i suppose as It does mean someone must have locked you out of your own account....
Gmail is good..I use it as my backup account..