I wanted to share this with my tpf friends so that you can, hopefully, learn from my mistake (sorry, long rant)
I have had my Hotmail account for as long as I can remember, never changed the password and it was a very easy one at that.
It all started last Wednesday when I realized I can't log in. It kept on saying "invalid credentials". I thought it was a fluke, so didn't think much about it. Then I started trying to answer my security questions, which I couldn't do. Then I started getting suspicious. I was finally able to figure out how to contact Live Help and authenticate myself by saying who were my contacts, names of old e-mail threads, and, most importantly, my IP address. I have gotten my password reset and logged in and, to my horror, saw all these eBay bids!
Obviously, tried logging in to my eBay account which I haven't used in ages but I knew what the password was because it was the same as my Hotmail (smart, I know). Thankfully, eBay's live help is more live and more helpful that Microsoft's so I was able to restore my account almost right away.
The good part is that since I haven't used my eBay for so long, my PayPal and credit card info was outdated so it doesn't look like "I" made any purchases.
I understand that this is fairly minor (compared to, say, having your credit card info or social security number stolen) but is still very unsettling and nerve-wrecking.
The only thing I could think of is that I recently used my phone a couple of times to check my e-mail. Don't know if that has anything to do with anything but I will not do it again.
Thanks for listening.
I have had my Hotmail account for as long as I can remember, never changed the password and it was a very easy one at that.
It all started last Wednesday when I realized I can't log in. It kept on saying "invalid credentials". I thought it was a fluke, so didn't think much about it. Then I started trying to answer my security questions, which I couldn't do. Then I started getting suspicious. I was finally able to figure out how to contact Live Help and authenticate myself by saying who were my contacts, names of old e-mail threads, and, most importantly, my IP address. I have gotten my password reset and logged in and, to my horror, saw all these eBay bids!
Obviously, tried logging in to my eBay account which I haven't used in ages but I knew what the password was because it was the same as my Hotmail (smart, I know). Thankfully, eBay's live help is more live and more helpful that Microsoft's so I was able to restore my account almost right away.
The good part is that since I haven't used my eBay for so long, my PayPal and credit card info was outdated so it doesn't look like "I" made any purchases.
I understand that this is fairly minor (compared to, say, having your credit card info or social security number stolen) but is still very unsettling and nerve-wrecking.
The only thing I could think of is that I recently used my phone a couple of times to check my e-mail. Don't know if that has anything to do with anything but I will not do it again.
Thanks for listening.