[Lazlo_St_Pierre]

Hi,
I used to have a hotmail account but stopped using it because I was getting too much spam, and moved over to g-mail.

Tonight, I got an e-mail in my g-mail from my old hotmail address even though I haven't used it in months. It also cc'd the same mail - a piece of spam containing a link to an ad about working from home - to everyone in my contact list on the old hotmail account.

These are addresses of people I knew from work, who will now think I'm sending them spam!

I have logged into my hotmail address now and closed it, I just tried emailing it from my g-mail and it bounced, so it must be closed.

Is there now a chance that my g-mail could now be hacked, or any of the other addresses in my old hotmail contacts list? It's very embarrassing, these aren't friends, they are people I know through work and it doesn't look good if they open an email they think is from me, and it has some virus or trojan link on it.

[JeffG1]

You are not alone. I think most of us have received these emails with just a link purporting to have come from a friend's Hotmail account. I have received several and just ignore them. Don't worry too much. If you really want to, just send a quick email to your contacts to explain - but they have probably already realised it's not you sending spam.

[mounty]

If it's closed now then it might be best to just leave it as they will soon forget about it.

[MartinPickering]

The lesson is: don't use a popular free email account. Either pay for a proper URL and use your own account or use a much less popular service.

It's the same as the old Windows vs Others argument. If it's popular, it will be a target for hackers.

Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail - all free and all big targets.

[JeffG1]

Ah, now you mention it, the emails I got purported to come from a Yahoo account, not Hotmail.

[Urban Bassman]

It is a hotmail issue.

I use Hotmail and this has happened to me three times in the last two years. The first two times were quite a while ago but it did happen again at the beginning of december. Usually my account has been suspended very quickly by Microsoft and they have cleaned it.

When you try and access you get a message saying it has been suspended and they ask a security question. If you have an alternative account they will send you a code to unlock the account. This all happens very quickly. When you unlock the account it will force a password change so your account is secure again.

Once you know the score it is more of a niggle than a major problem.