Hotmail account compromised

[chas2008]

I have a msn hotmail account that i maybe only access once a week, somehow and i cant quite work it out but my contact list has been accessed and mails sent to everyone on it trying to get them to log into some dodgy site..
Firstly i dont use messenger,secondly i dont use ms outlook,(because of the security issues) thirdly i dont download anything and finaly dont open any mail that isnt from someone i know any suggestions as to how this has happened ? is it a security breach at MSN ? rather than my PC..
Its not really a major issue from my point of view just bothers me that it can be done.

[boxtops]

Sounds like someone's got hold of your hotmail account - not uncommon, my friend had this happen a few weeks back, I kept getting emails from her that weren't from her (if you understand me). Tell hotmail without delay.

[roslyn251254]

Change your hotmail password

[jno]

change your password; that did the trick for me.

It's possible that these are just spoof emails that appear to be sent by you but aren't, but in that case they'd be going to the whole world, not just your contacts. If it's only your contacts who are getting them, that suggests someone's hacked your account. A new password should stop it happening again.

[squarebear]

This happens almost daily here. Change your password and all will be ok.

[chas2008]

it is definitely my contact list as its showing them in the mails that are being generated , having googled it, it appears its quite common...password change required ...

[VHG]

One of the problems nowadys is that we all register for websites (Tesco, Amazon etc) using our email address and password.

If you use the SAME password to register for a (dodgy?) web site as you use for your hotmail account, then when you register for this website you are in effect giving away your hotmail email address and password which can then be stolen.

One way round this is to NEVER use the same password as you use to logon to hotmail to register for a website, keep them different.

A friend of mine registered for a "job" webiste to post his CV and used his "normal" hotmail userid and password, the next day his hotmail account was hacked.

User a DIFFERENT password on hotmail than the one you use to register for websites.