Hotmail denying access problem

[Krystal n chips]

For the last few weeks, I have been getting an intermittent message on my hotmail account which says, words to the effect,

" you have many too many false password applications recently "

Which, is interesting as I only log in once a day, or even once a week, at best...or try to.

The problems seem too have started when I installed a Norton anti-virus package....although this could be pure coincidence I suppose.

No other problems with emails or virus threats etc.

Any ideas / suggestions would be welcome please.

[Just an other number]

In view of what you say my first thought would be a phishing scam with a link to a dodgy website asking for your Hotmail log in details.
Is there such a link?

[Krystal n chips]

Re phishing link.

Thanks for your reply.

As far as I am aware, no there is no link. All the virus / tracking scans etc have not produced any threat, only the usual "low level" tracking cookies.

It worked perfectly yesterday...today, it's back to denying access again.

I actually rarely use my hotmail account, other than for Yahoo! groups confirmation mails and as I say, prior to upgrading my anti-virus programme, it worked every time.

[hellsbrink]

I'm wondering if Norton is doing some sort of "websafe" thing where it checks the site against a list of known "bad" sites and that leads to Hotmail thinking that you are making multiple, invalid, logins?

It's something that, iirc, happened before, and that's assuming you are running a "total protection" version of Norton and not just a basic antivirus programme.

[Cacophonix]

It is possible at that your e-mail address has been cloned by nefarious parties who sometimes use automated bots to attempt to access e-mail accounts for fraudulent or spamming purposes. Most mail providers do a random check to authenticate you are who you say you are and will challenge you to provide additional proof of existence using the bit map verification (remember that on PPRuNe) particularly if you have made a number of password changes or requested such changes over a short period.

Hotmail are not particularly helpful in sorting the mess out if you have been victim of this sort of activity or if you have erroneously been flagged as a threat.

Caco

[Krystal n chips]

Hells and Caco.....my thanks for both of your replies....

As I said, I really do not use the hotmail account for anything other than Yahoo! verification and the groups I subscribe to are not of the "more alternative" variety.

Hells suggestion would sem to be nearer the mark as I do run a full security programme c/o Norton and the problems only began when I downloaded it recently....although when I first acquired the current PC, there were no problems when I initially started to use it.

I have tried Caco's suggestion re the bit ident, but the problem remained afterwards....hence the query on here.

[Krystal n chips]

An update on this event.

Talking with my boss at work last week, about our new "super dooper" system. and we started talking about security....out of the blue, he mentions that his hotmail had the same problems mine did....around the same time....thus hacking would seem to be the answer as the issue has now ceased.

[Milo Minderbinder]

a couple of weeks ago a large number of Hotmail accounts were hacked. Several fo my customers suddenly found their account had been turned into spam relays.
Its possible that what you've sen is an attempt to hijack your mail in the same way. Someone somewhere launched a bot at your account in an attempt to get your password. Hopefully they failed. However I'd still be inclined to change your password to something difficult and also change the associated security / reset questions as well