email was hacked and now incoming emails go to trash

Question

My email was hacked, I have changed my password on my MS account and all of my incoming emails are going to trash instead of inbox

Answer 1

Hi Charlotte Wellman

I’m sorry this happened, I understand how frustrating it is when new emails are going straight to Trash after your account was compromised.

Have you tried the Q&A Assist steps under your post yet? Could you please confirm:

• After changing your password, did you also check Outlook.com rules and forwarding, and did you find anything unfamiliar?
• Are all new incoming emails going to Trash, or only emails from certain senders?

Since the issue continues after the password change, please check the following:

1, Check your Sweep rules

• Sign in to Outlook.com via your browser, go to Settings > Mail > Sweep.
• Remove any Sweep rules you don’t recognize, as these can automatically move or delete messages from specific senders.

2, Verify your Focused Inbox is not hiding messages

If Focused Inbox is enabled, some mail may be sorted to the “Other” tab rather than Trash, so it’s worth switching this off temporarily.

• Go to Settings > Mail > Layout > Focused Inbox and select "Don't sort my messages" to see all mail in a single Inbox view.

Then send a test email to the account to see whether it arrives in the Inbox.

Once you’ve confirmed no malicious rules remain, you can select all emails in the Deleted Items folder, right-click, and choose “Move” > “Inbox” to restore them in bulk.

For reference, you can see:

• Manage email messages by using rules in Outlook
• Recover and restore deleted items in Outlook

Looking forward to your updates so we can continue with the next steps. Thank you for your understanding.

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Answer 2

Because the account was hacked, a malicious rule or forwarding setting in Outlook.com is likely moving all new mail to Trash. After changing the password, the mailbox configuration must also be cleaned up.

Do the following in Outlook on the web (Outlook.com):

1. Check and remove malicious rules
   1. Sign in to Outlook.com.
   2. Open Settings (gear icon) > Mail > Rules.
   3. Look for any rules that move, delete, or forward messages (especially ones you don’t recognize, like the “Demon” example in the context).
   4. Delete every suspicious rule, or temporarily disable all rules and test whether new mail still goes to Trash.
2. Check forwarding and auto-processing
   1. In Settings > Mail, open Forwarding and remove any unknown forwarding addresses.
   2. Check Automatic replies and turn them off if they were enabled by the attacker.
3. Sign out attackers and remove their access
   1. Go to the Security basics page for the Microsoft account.
   2. Use the options there to sign out everywhere (end all active sessions) and review Recent activity. If any sign-ins are not recognized, mark them as not yours and follow the prompts to secure the account.
   3. In Manage app permissions (from the account security area), revoke any apps or services that are unfamiliar.
4. Re-secure the account
   1. Run a full antivirus/malware scan on the PC before making further changes, as recommended in the hacked-account guidance.
   2. Change the Microsoft account password again after the scan, using a strong, unique password.
   3. Turn on two-step verification / Microsoft Authenticator as an extra protection method.
5. If problems continue or more compromise signs appear
   1. Follow the full guidance in How to recover a hacked or compromised Microsoft account to ensure all account settings and security info are correct.
   2. If sign-in or recovery problems occur, use the Sign-in Helper to get additional support.

After removing malicious rules and forwarding, new messages should start arriving in the Inbox instead of Trash. Existing messages can be moved back manually from Trash once the account is secure.

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References:

• How to recover a hacked or compromised Microsoft account
• Help protect your Outlook.com email account
• Unblock my Outlook.com account
• What happens if there's an unusual sign-in to your account
• My username and password have stopped working
• My account got hacked. - Microsoft Q&A
• My account got hacked - Microsoft Q&A
• Cannot Access Microsoft Account After Hacker Changed Email, Advice Needed - Microsoft Q&A
• my microsoft account has been compromised - Microsoft Q&A
• Hacker set up continuous draft ransomware email - Microsoft Q&A