Hacked email?

Question

I keep getting mail delivery notification to an email address I’ve never emailed, and now it’s pinging up on inbox emails where people have emailed me. Has another email someone how hacked my address or been linked to mine?

Answer 1

Dear Toni Roberts2,

Thanks for using Microsoft products and posting in the community.

I understand that you will receive a return letter at the same time as receiving the email. This is indeed confusing.

Please don't worry. I will do my best to help you solve this problem now. You can try the following suggestions:

If you haven’t manually done this, it is highly likely that hackers changed some settings in your account.

Firstly, it is recommended that you check your Rules**** to see if there are any suspicious rules. You can also go to Gear> Mail > Rules on outlook.live.com and check if there are any forwarding rules set up.  If there is, please disable and delete it.

In addition, please click this link to check Forwarding  or log in to the web of outlook.live.com and go to Gear> Mail > Forwarding and check if forwarding is enabled. Check if there are any issues with the suspicious forwarding address and if keeping a copy of the forwarded emails is open. If there is, please disable it.

Please regularly check your account activity logs to ensure there are no unauthorized logins or other unusual activities: Check the recent sign-in activity for your Microsoft account - Microsoft Support

If there is any unusual activity or logging in, please take protective measures as soon as possible:

We suggest that you change your password and enable two factor authentication (2FA) and add at least three security verification information associated with your account. This is more beneficial for protecting your account.

If you continue to be subjected to unusual login attempts after taking protective measures, there is a solution you can also try to prevent these violent attacks, you can temporarily change your primary login alias. You can go to https://account.live.com/names/manage And create a new alias and set it as the primary alias, click on "Login Preferences" and uncheck the login permissions for all aliases except for the primary alias, so that hackers cannot attempt to log in with the old username.

Note: Please only change the primary alias and login method, and do not delete your account alias. If your current sign-in alias is a Microsoft account and you delete it, you will not be able to re-add it.

You can view more information about account security here:  How to help keep your Microsoft account safe and secure - Microsoft Support

Hope this help you, please feel free to let me know how it goes. If there is any deviation in my understanding, please forgive me and provide me with more details. I am more than happy to continue to help you.

Best Regards,

Addie.C - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist