Am posting this in the chat section rather than the Techi one since it might be seen by more people.
For a long time I had an annoying pop up box constantly appearing on my W10 laptop at the bottom right corner, saying urgent attention required on your Microsoft windows account. It eventually said words to the effect if you do not confirm and reset your MS account your Hotmail account will not work and you will loose all your emails. My defences being down (possibly related to alcohol intake late one night), I clicked on it. It looked entirely believable, so I signed in, confirmed that my account was valid, then changed to a supposed new sign in. A day or so later, sure enough emails stopped arriving. It sent an email to everyone in my contacts list asking for help. Most people realised it was a scam owing to the bad English, but some offered help (which of course I did not receive). I also received a call on my mobile which I now believe to be a ransome demand, so I did not pick it up. I then realized my old sign-in was still working when I next reconnected. Strange.
So I went to the real account on the genuine MS website, correctly changed to a new password, and set to investigating my account. I eventually found my emails in another folder, so obviously the hacker had diverted the emails. I'm not sure how the hacker got in, so cannot help there, but DO NOT FALL FOR THIS if you receive a nag box. Like I did.
For a long time I had an annoying pop up box constantly appearing on my W10 laptop at the bottom right corner, saying urgent attention required on your Microsoft windows account. It eventually said words to the effect if you do not confirm and reset your MS account your Hotmail account will not work and you will loose all your emails. My defences being down (possibly related to alcohol intake late one night), I clicked on it. It looked entirely believable, so I signed in, confirmed that my account was valid, then changed to a supposed new sign in. A day or so later, sure enough emails stopped arriving. It sent an email to everyone in my contacts list asking for help. Most people realised it was a scam owing to the bad English, but some offered help (which of course I did not receive). I also received a call on my mobile which I now believe to be a ransome demand, so I did not pick it up. I then realized my old sign-in was still working when I next reconnected. Strange.
So I went to the real account on the genuine MS website, correctly changed to a new password, and set to investigating my account. I eventually found my emails in another folder, so obviously the hacker had diverted the emails. I'm not sure how the hacker got in, so cannot help there, but DO NOT FALL FOR THIS if you receive a nag box. Like I did.
