Not Receiving Emails

Question

Pretty sure my account may have been compromised. Quite a few people notified me that they received a bogus email from me and that my email has been blocked. I can send out an email but can’t receive.

Can someone help me?

Thank you,

DLAult

Answer 1

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)?

Also, can you please check if your Outlook (Attachments) storage is full?

If your mailbox is near or over the storage limit, new emails might not arrive in your inbox https://onedrive.live.com/managestorage in the same page, please check your OneDrive storage as it's linked to your Microsoft account and can sometimes affect email services if it's full.

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To be safe, I recommend the following steps:

Check your account rules and forwarding settings, hackers create rules that automatically forward or delete emails. You can do this in Outlook settings under Mail > Rules and Forwarding. https://support.microsoft.com/office/manage-email-messages-by-using-rules-in-outlook-c24f5dea-9465-4df4-ad17-a50704d66c59

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.

And changing your password again and enabling two-step verification if you haven’t already. This will add an extra layer of security to prevent future unauthorized access. "How to help keep your Microsoft account secure" https://support.microsoft.com/account-billing/how-to-help-keep-your-microsoft-account-secure-628538c2-7006-33bb-5ef4-c917657362b9

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Click "Add comment" to let me know.

Regards,

John J.D.

Answer 2

The symptoms described match a likely compromised mailbox that has been blocked from sending/receiving because it was used to send spam.

Take these steps in order:

1. Secure the account

• Immediately change the account password to a strong, unique one.
• If not already enabled, set up multi‑factor authentication (MFA) on the Microsoft account.
• From a clean, trusted device, sign out of all other sessions and remove any devices that should not have access.

2. Check for compromise indicators in the mailbox In Outlook / Outlook on the web, review:

• Inbox rules: Look for rules that forward mail to unknown addresses or move messages to Notes, Junk, or RSS folders and delete any suspicious rules.
• Sent Items and Deleted Items: Look for messages that were not sent by the account owner (for example, “I’m stuck, send money”).
• External forwarding: Check if automatic forwarding to an external address was added and remove it if it was not configured intentionally.
• Signature: Remove any suspicious or changed signatures.

These are common symptoms of a compromised Microsoft 365 mailbox and must be cleaned up to restore normal mail flow.

3. Work with the email administrator (if using Microsoft 365/Exchange Online) If this is a Microsoft 365 mailbox managed by an organization:

• Contact the email administrator and report that the account was compromised and is now blocked.
• The admin should:
  • Follow the guidance to secure a compromised email account in Exchange Online.
  • Unblock the account on the Restricted entities page in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal so it can send and receive again.

4. If using Outlook.com / consumer account If this is an Outlook.com/Hotmail account used in Outlook for Windows:

• Confirm that cloud storage/mailbox is not full; if full, free up space so new mail can be received.
• If sign‑in or sending is blocked due to unusual activity, follow the steps to unblock the Outlook.com account.
• If mail still does not arrive after securing the account and checking rules, use Outlook.com in a browser, select Help → describe the issue, then under Still need help? choose to chat with a support agent.

5. Inform contacts

• Notify contacts (from a different, secure account if necessary) that the mailbox was compromised and that any recent suspicious messages should be ignored and deleted.

If the mailbox remains blocked from receiving after these steps, the tenant or service administrator must complete the unblock process in the security portal or Outlook.com support must intervene.

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References:

• Respond to a compromised cloud email account
• Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com
• Help protect your Outlook.com email account
• NDR error code "550 5.1.8 Access denied, bad outbound sender"
• Where are my email messages or calendar events in Mail and Calendar for Windows 10?
• Mail goes to the Junk folder by mistake
• Not receiving emails after my facebook account was hacked - Microsoft Q&A
• Stopped receiving emails on my account. - Microsoft Q&A
• Need to speak to a agent I am getting pop up draft scam emails - Microsoft Q&A