Outlook account compromised

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

Do you currently have full access to your Outlook account (you can sign in normally and see your inbox and settings)?

To change language directly from Outlook app, please see https://support.microsoft.com/office/manage-language-settings-in-outlook-8a34d50d-81b4-40c2-b304-b3d043566389 Select a tab option for the version of Outlook you're using.

If issue persists, you’ll need to update your language settings under the "Your Info" page:

• Visit: https://account.microsoft.com/profile/msa-language-settings and sign in with your Microsoft account.
• This will open the "Your language settings" page.
• From there, edit both your Display Language and Preferred Language.

Also, just to be safe, I’d recommend to sign out everywhere:

• Visit: https://account.live.com/proofs/manage/additional Scroll down to Sign me out and select "Sign me out".
• After signing out everywhere, please monitor if the issue persists in the coming hours.

Let me know how it goes.

Click "Add comment" to let me know.

Hi Frank,

If the commands/buttons in Outlook suddenly changed to Vietnamese after the account compromise, the attacker likely changed your language or regional settings rather than damaging the mailbox itself.

You can usually switch it back like this:

1. Open Outlook.com in a browser

Go to:

Settings (gear icon)

View all Outlook settings

General

Language and time

Change:

Language → English

Region/Time zone → your correct region

Save the changes and refresh Outlook

If the menus are hard to navigate because everything is in Vietnamese, you can also try opening this direct settings page while signed in:

https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/options/general/languageAndTime

Since the account was compromised, I would also strongly recommend checking a few other things because attackers often leave behind hidden settings:

Inbox forwarding rules

Auto-forwarding

Deleted/recovery email changes

Junk mail settings

Connected devices/sessions

Also:

change the password again

enable 2FA if not already enabled

review account activity/security history

to make sure the attacker no longer has access.

Hopefully it is only the language settings that were changed.

Thank you so much.