Somebody has hacked my mate's Hotmail - what can he do?

Someone has hacked into my friend's Hotmail today. They've managed to find some quite personal emails in his Inbox which they've apparently forwarded to everyone in his address book (including important clients) - that was the first I heard about it, when they forwarded one to me.





They've also changed his password, so that he can't access his account.





He's having a major panic and doesn't know what to do, so I said I'd ask on here. If anyone's got any genuine advice (and not just typical Yahoo answers wisecracks!) then I'm sure he'd be really grateful for it, poor chap.





Thanks!

Somebody has hacked my mate's Hotmail - what can he do?
If he supplied an alternative email address when he set up the account he can have the password sent to that address!


If not - he's pretty much screwed!!
Reply:here r some tips,how u can get it back. http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2006... http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/21607-... best of luck.
Reply:they probably changed his password but he can still recover it with the "personal question" if it has been changed too then i am sorry to say that you "friend" is f%^%26amp;*$d and need to get a new hotmail id.


mind you there are hackers online advertising to get anyone hotmail ID, they will hack into the account, send a copy of the inbox to prove that they have the id before you pay them.... by western union.......i dont know if it really works (probably a scam) but if your friend is really desperate, he has nothing to loose (other than 50bucks). good luck!
Reply:Firstly, if he was using hotmail as an email address for clients, hes a FOOL!!!! he should use an original email address or a domain address





Next, he's obviously made someone annoyed so what does that tell you?
Reply:Firstly try the alternate email address method to reset the password. If that fails, try the secret question to see if it's the same and then reset the password using that. Also most "hackers" just know the person well enough to guess their secret question, so make sure it's one that isn't guessable. Bogus answers work the best, such as setting the question then putting in an answer that's got nothing to do with the question, but one that you'll still remember. My ex guessed my secret question before and got her cousin to "hack" mine - I threatened him and soon got it back. Then did the same to her so it was all out war. :-D Anyway, if all that fails then email or call Microsoft explaining the situation. They'll probably then ask you a series of questions you filled in when you set up your account for security, then they'll either reset your password or disable the account to stop him doing anymore damage.