Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail ) is the newest version of free webmail from Microsoft. More than 60 million people have signed up for it since we released the beta version last summer. Whether you make the transition from Hotmail to Outlook.com now or wait to be automatically upgraded, you can keep...

If you use Outlook.com or Hotmail and think your account has been hacked , you should act right away to help protect your Microsoft account . If you can still access your Microsoft account, sign in and immediately change your password. For Outlook.com, go to the Password and Security section; for...

Last week we answered a question about what to do if your Hotmail account is sending out spam . We mentioned resetting your password if you can’t sign in because your account has been blocked. One way you can unblock it is to respond to an email message sent by Microsoft to the secondary address...

Laura writes: My Hotmail email address has been hacked. Someone sent out a spam email to everyone in my address book. What do I do? If it makes you feel any better, Laura, we get this question a lot. Here’s what to do right now: If you can still sign in to your account, change your...

Outlook.com is Microsoft’s new free cloud email service for personal use. You can use Outlook.com with the Outlook desktop application, via the web at http://outlook.com , or via other email apps that support Exchange ActiveSync or POP3. The new Outlook.com offers several security and privacy...

John writes: I received an email that said that I won a prize from Microsoft and I am concerned that others may fall for this scam. Can't anything be done about these types of scams? The Microsoft Lottery scam is a fraudulent email that claims that you have won a lottery, a prize, a sweepstakes...

Spam and other email that you don’t want can clog up your inbox. Some spam can be fraudulent and can contain malicious software or links to malicious websites, but some email can just be annoying. Graymail is email that you signed up for, but you don’t want anymore. If you use Hotmail...

A reader named Karen asks: “I received a message in my Hotmail inbox that said that I’d been hacked and I should change my password. How do I do this?” If you think your Hotmail account has been hacked, go to the Reset your password page. Karen didn’t say whether the...

Spam filters for email programs are a little like the roof on a house. You wouldn’t want to live without one, but some are better than others. Recent research from Cascade Insights showed that no email program they tested did better than Hotmail at filtering spam. Get tricks for getting rid...

If you think you’re a target of a phishing scam or other fraud in an email, Xbox instant message, or on a website, you can report it. Most Microsoft products have built-in tools that make this easier. Hotmail. If you receive a suspicious email message that asks for personal information, click...

The holidays are here, and that means that more people are travelling for their vacations. We thought this would be a good time to remind you about a popular online scam designed to trick you into thinking that your friend is in trouble on vacation. When cybercriminals break into someone’s email...

We sometimes hear from customers who want to know if an email which appears to be from Microsoft is real or not. If you receive an email that claims to come from Microsoft, but it contains an attachment or asks you to send passwords, user names, or financial information, it’s probably a fake. Te...

We recently received this email: “My Hotmail account was hacked and taken over by the classic ‘I'm in London and I’ve been mugged’ scam . It appears that the hacker has changed the basic verification information on the account and every attempt to reset the password throws...

The Hotmail team has been busy. Three of our favorite new security improvements are: No more easy passwords. You might know that millions of people use the word “password” as their password. But did you know that millions of people also use “ilovecats” and “gogiants”...

The official Twitter account for the Microsoft Privacy team has relaunched at twitter.com/MSFTPrivacy. @MSFTPrivacy was launched for us to engage in real-time with our privacy community. We will use this channel to talk about privacy issues, while raising awareness of Microsoft’s approach to...

Right now, in the United States, summer vacation season is here and so are scams . Here are three tips to help you avoid summer travel scams. 1. Watch out for deals that look too good to be true. If you’re still making vacation plans, then you’re probably looking for deals. If a deal looks...

Did you know that you can chat with Facebook friends within Hotmail? Just connect your Facebook account to Windows Live and be sure the “Chat with my Facebook friends in Messenger” box is selected. No matter where you’re chatting, it’s a good idea to be cautious. There...

We used to recommend that you increase the security of your Hotmail account by creating a new account, one that you would give to online retailers or other organizations that might send a lot of unwanted email . Now, if you have a Hotmail account, you can create an alias within your account instead...

These days almost everything online requires a password. You already know that you should use complicated passwords and that you shouldn't use the same password for every account. Here are more tips on how to create stronger passwords and how to test your password strength . If you want to know why...

A friend recently forwarded us the email below because they thought it was a scam. They were right. This email is a great example of three easy ways to detect a scam . Spelling and bad grammar. Cybercriminals are not known for their impeccable grammar and spelling. A professional company like...

We received this email message from a reader: "My Hotmail account keeps getting hacked and my contacts are getting a message from me requesting money. I had gotten two [email messages] from Microsoft asking me to confirm my Hotmail account with my password. It happened twice and I thought it was...

We recently received this message from a reader of our blog: People on my contact list have received an email that's supposed to be from me telling them that I am in trouble and asking them to send me money. An address of a hotel where I was supposed to be staying (the address is genuine) and a...

Most of us have received suspicious email that looks like it came from someone on our contact list. These emails could contain a virus or other type of malware, or they could be a scam designed to trick you into turning over personal information or money. Did the person from your contact list suddenly...

We've recently heard about a new phishing scam that targets Windows Live Hotmail users. If you see an e-mail message that looks like the one below, do not respond. Delete it or click Junk to mark the sender as unsafe and delete the message. The most important clue that this is a phishing scam is the...