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Hotmail account names?

Hotmail closed my account. To "investigate" why it was closed, they want all my personal information. Why?

  • I had a Hotmail account for more than a decade. A few months ago, they closed my account out of the blue. I logged in nearly every day, so it wasn't for lack of use. I immediately followed their links and sent the appropriate emails to try to get the account reopened, and I never received any sort of reply. This was a couple of months ago. I decided to try again this week. This time I got a reply. To paraphrase, they said they need to "investigate" why the account was closed, as though they didn't make any record of that information. They asked me for all the information listed below. My question is: If my account was closed for some sort of piracy or something (which I can't think of anything in my account that could warrant that, but you never know), would they use that information to try to prosecute me? I'm probably paranoid, but if you'd experienced something similar, any light you could shed on the matter would be appreciated. The information they asked for: 1. Your Windows Live ID 2. Your first name and your last name 3. Your date of birth (month/date/year) 4. Your country 5. Your state (if applicable) 6. Your postal code 7. Your IP address List the IP addresses from each computer that you use to access your account. 8. The answer to your secret question 9. The "alternate e-mail address" that is on file for the account 10. Your Internet service provider. An ISP is a company that provides an end user with a connection to the Internet and other similar services, such as e-mail. Examples include MSNIA, EarthLink, and Comcast. 11. The last date and time when you successfully signed in More information that may help us verify account ownership: 12. The names of any folders that you created in addition to the default folders 13. Names of contacts in your address book (please include the e-mail address) 14. Subjects of any old mail that is in your Inbox or mail folders Windows Live Messenger customers 15. Names of contacts on your contact list (please include the e-mail address) 16. Your Windows Live Messenger nickname (display name)

  • Answer:

    This may sound condescending, but is there any possible way you have some malware on your computer or followed some false links? This sounds like a phishing scam. I searched for hotmail scams and found one common one. Check the link and see if it looks familiar. As far as the list of required answers, it seems impossible to remember all of that off the top of your head. And why would they need to know who's on your Contact list or your ISP or folder names? And what good would your Windows Live nickname be when you can change it at the drop of a hat? To calm your paranoia hotmail doesn't investigate piracy unless it would mess with their bottom line. So unless you secretly have been creating your own web-based email and messenger programs that will revolutionize the internet, you shouldn't be on anyone's radar. The only internet piracy that's being investigated is by the RIAA or the equivalent organization for movies. And your hotmail account would hardly hold the key to your prosecution in that scenario. Another quick search reveals that many people have had their hotmail account closed for unknown reasons. Check the second link. Most of these people say they filled out the forms and got no response. My advice is to just set up a new account with gmail or yahoo and chalk it up as a loss.

Prof. D. Ian McClain at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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These questions are typically used to verify that you are the true owner of the account. They already have the answers to most if not all of these questions as part of the sign-up process and you account settings and they are most likely going to check your answers against those they have on file. Without asking these questions, just about anybody could claim they own someone else's account and then get access to it. There needs to be a sufficient number of difficult questions that only the true owner could answer them all correctly. Just make sure that the information is being sent directly to the Windows Live/Hotmail service address (if it is a valid address, it should be available from the Windows Live/Hotmail website). You don't want to accidentally send personal details to a phisher. I would not worry about presecution, as I said, they already have most if not all this information already, so it doesn't make sense to ask again unless they are trying to verify who you are.

Ben

Sounds like your in TROUBLLLLLLLE!!!! ;) Just kidding. Perhaps they just want you to verify the information so they can know if you Are the rightful owner of said account. Quite frankly if they wanted to prosecute you and they had your actual information, it would make no difference at this point if you give it to them, other than the fact they might not be able to verify the account was actually created by you. It is also possible someone gained access to your account and hacked someone or used your info for whatever reason and now they want to know if it was you or actually someone else... There are tons of reasons, but quite frankly it may just be easier to open a new account, which it sounds like you have already done. That said...Hope it helped Do verify who you are sending your info to before giving all THAT away though.

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