DIY Hotmail password recovery?

[T i m]

Hi All,

Firstly, sorry if this is a bit ot for a DIY post ?

A friend phoned me all in a panic yesterday because she'd somehow locked herself out of her Hotmail account. To cut a ls shorter ..

1) She recieved an email from 'Hotmail' (possibly bogus) suggesting she should change her password.

2) She changed it. (doh)

3) She tried to get back in but couldn't

4) She can't 'recover' the password as she's forgotten the answer to her secret question (it takes all sorts I suppose) ..? I did mention that although it was a 'secret question' at least *she* should remember / know the answer!

5) She's resigned herself to creating a new account (she's done so on "so she could get an address like her Hotmail one" but is more concerned that she's going to have to re-enter (manually) all her contacts (address book). Coincidentally, earlier the local PC shop installed a new primary drive and ME sys for her (to try to cure machine lockups thought to be down to an OS problem .. and they might have been right) and put her old drive in as a 'slave' so she could easily get her old data.. On that drive she may well have her complete address book on the Incredimail system she previously used to hook up with Hotmail (and sync address books etc? Can it do that?)

So, failing any automated way of getting back into her old Hotmail account (and before she tries her old drive and Incredimail sys for an Export / Import) , does anyone have a support telephone number (ideally in the UK) for 'Hotmail' please and if she's likely to get them to recover her account for her (or at least her address book)?

All the best ..

T i m

p.s. Anyone running 'Incredimail' know what the address book file is called and where it is please?

p.p.s. I installed Incredimail on my machine to test some stuff for her and emails opened up blank (anyone seen that before?). You hit 'reply' and you can see the text?

[Ian Stirling]

And then the perp from the email probably logged on, and changed the password and secret question for her...

[T i m]

Tis what I suspected Ian ;-(

Any ideas on a telephone contact number for Hotmail? She's be happy to pay a few quid on a 50p/min line to get it all back?

All the best .,

T i m

p.s. If I put her old drive back on for her the offending email may still be there for investigation?

[Windy]

Contact HotMail directly, the email was probably a scam to harvest passwords etc, the email account is probably now being used by a spammer.

[Ian Stirling]

I'm not aware of such. Maybe look around on hotmails site.

Isn't hotmails mail generally stored only on their servers, and you don't download it? Or maybe I'm wrong.