Hacked and deleted or moved emails.

Question

Hi!
My email was recently hacked and while I have regained control of it, it would seem that the hacker has either deleted or moved emails that will recover other accounts elsewhere. Is there any way to recover theses so I can get my other accounts back on track

Answer 1

Hi, I'm John!

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

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About the missing emails:

Please check your Deleted Items folder and click “Recover items deleted from this folder” at the bottom, sometimes older messages can still be restored from there. Also check your Archive or Junk Email folders. "Recover and restore deleted items in Outlook" https://support.microsoft.com/office/recover-and-restore-deleted-items-in-outlook-49e81f3c-c8f4-4426-a0b9-c0fd751d48ce

If the emails don’t appear under “Recover items deleted from this folder,” it means they’ve been permanently removed from the mailbox and unfortunately can’t be recovered.

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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

Yes. Depending on what the attacker did, deleted or moved emails can often be recovered and, in enterprise environments, investigated in detail.

1. Recover deleted or moved messages in Outlook/Outlook.com

• First, check the Deleted Items and Junk Email folders.
  • In Outlook on the web or new Outlook: open Deleted Items or Junk Email.
  • Select the messages that were removed.
  • Use Move on the ribbon to move them back to Inbox or another folder, or right‑click and choose Restore.
• Also check other folders in case the attacker created rules or manually moved messages.

2. If items were hard‑deleted (enterprise/Microsoft 365) If this is a work/school Microsoft 365 account and mailbox auditing is enabled, an admin can investigate what happened to the messages:

• Use Search-UnifiedAuditLog in PowerShell to see deletion operations such as SoftDelete, HardDelete, and MoveToDeletedItems, for example:

    Search-UnifiedAuditLog -StartDate <start> -EndDate <end> -UserIds <******@domain.com> -Operations SoftDelete,HardDelete,MoveToDeletedItems -ResultSize 1000
  

• Admins can also run a broader search including Move, Update, and Create to understand how messages were moved or altered.

3. Secure the account so it doesn’t get re‑compromised Because the account was hacked, securing it is critical before relying on recovered mail:

• Run a full antivirus/malware scan on all devices used to access the account. If using Windows 10/11 or 8.1, ensure Windows Defender is enabled and fully updated, then run a full scan.
• After the scan completes, change the account password to a strong, unique one.
• Review account settings for malicious changes, such as:
  • Connected accounts
  • Forwarding rules
  • Automatic replies
• Follow the official hacked/compromised account recovery guidance and sign‑in helper if any issues remain accessing or securing the account.

Once messages are restored, use them to reset and secure other linked accounts (update passwords and security info there as well).

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References:

• Recover and restore deleted items in Outlook
• Identify who deleted an email message or why an email is missing
• How to recover a hacked or compromised Microsoft account
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