Hotmail - "The email address or password is incorrect. Please try again."

Scania · 29 Aug 2011 at 13:15

Hi,

A friend of mine is having issues with Hotmail, she decided to change her password but rather stupidly forgot the new one! Simples, she requested a re-set password from Hotmail and submitted a secondary e-mail address for the re-set link / whatever to be mailed to her. Trouble is, she can now not log into her secondary (also Hotmail) e-mail.

She called me, asking for help, I managed to log into her secondary account with no issues from my pc at home, filled in the form so she could retrieve the older account (email subjects, contact e-mails etc) and have been waiting for a reply, the site states such a reply could take upto 24hours.
48 Hours later, I can now no longer log into her secondary email account! (she has had the very same issues, hence her asking me for help!)

Just to be sure its not my laptop that was at fault (as I'm at work today, not at home) I've tried all 7 of my Hotmail accounts and they all work just fine!

My friend is panicing big time, she has a lot of important stuff in her account and fears losing the lot.

Needless to say, I think she will be soon to sign up to G-Mail! obviously though, she needs to retrieve her old e-mails/ contacts etc first.

Any help greatly appreciated.

oli356 · 29 Aug 2011 at 13:34

Can't she reset it using a recovery question? There's the windows live forums help - but the support is TERRIBLE!

After my experience with my @live.co.uk address a month or two ago, with it being hacked and then locked.. I've moved to Gmail.

Scania · 29 Aug 2011 at 13:44

oli356 said:
Can't she reset it using a recovery question? There's the windows live forums help - but the support is TERRIBLE!

After my experience with my @live.co.uk address a month or two ago, with it being hacked and then locked.. I've moved to Gmail.

She has tried this, only to not be able to log into her secondary e-mail address to see if she has had any answer, and I have tried the same with exactly the same result.

Needless to say, she will be switching to a different e-mail provider!

But, needs - somehow - to gain access to her Hotmail first.

Pho · 29 Aug 2011 at 14:02

Did she enter her mobile number into her account? She might be able to recover with that and the reset password system at https://account.live.com.

Scania · 29 Aug 2011 at 14:43

Pho said:
Did she enter her mobile number into her account?

No.

Pho said:
She might be able to recover with that and the reset password system at https://account.live.com.

Been there, done that (see above posts)

div0 · 29 Aug 2011 at 15:17

What error do you get if you try to log into the secondary account?

If it's to do with password being incorrect, then someone else probably knows how to log into both of her accounts and change the password. This is either by knowing the password (keylogger on her PC?), or knowing/guessing the secret question for password reset.

Sounds to me like it's not a hotmail issue, but an issue with security. Could be wrong though.

Normally I'd just say gmail >>> hotmail, but in this case I think there's more to it.

Deleted member 77746 · 29 Aug 2011 at 15:20

So the secret question has been changed too then? The only way is to contact hotmail and say that the account has been compromised then they will ask some questions to get back into the account.

Scania · 29 Aug 2011 at 15:59

Yes, it seems the account has been hacked or something.

She has tried Microsoft, got put throught to whoever deals with Hotmail only to be told they don't give support for free accounts!

I assume getting her to clean the PC (C-Cleaner) and a Malware scan (Spybot et al) may cure the keylogger but the damage is already done?

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!

oli356 · 29 Aug 2011 at 16:02

https://windowslivehelp.com/forums.aspx?forumid=d3fda415-1e53-4007-8e0c-2a77180ffb1d

Maybe make a post there.

Deleted member 77746 · 29 Aug 2011 at 16:27

They don't do telephone support for free accounts just email support from what I can remember. Damage has been done as to me the only way that your friend will gain access now is to email support and wait.

Scania · 29 Aug 2011 at 16:31

div0 said:
What error do you get if you try to log into the secondary account?

"The email address or password is incorrect. Please try again."

div0 · 29 Aug 2011 at 17:03

Well assuming someone knows the password, or answers to the secret questions. What recovery options do you have available to you?

Have the recovery questions/answers been changed on either/both accounts?

All your recovery attempts should be done on a clean PC and then the password and secret questions changed immediately. No attempt should be made to log in from any PC, unless you're happy that it's clean.

The spyware scans you suggested should do the trick, but it may be worth considering a fresh install of the OS. Of course, something like a keylogger on her PC is high up on the suspect list, but there may be other causes, such as just having an obvious password and secret question.

My suspicion is that, as this seems to be a 'targeted' attempt on her email (ie changing the back-up password too), then this is likely to be someone she knows. In general accounts that are 'hacked' by a random, tend to just be used to send spam. They don't usually make too much of an effort to 'monitor' the account and try to prevent it from being recovered.