More mystery. I did as @billybutcher suggested and from the browser tried to login to my MS account. Neither the original password which I have had for years or the new one I setup when asked to last week, work. Both are apparently incorrect.
What to do now, simply setup a new password from that link?
Or maybe I don’t have an MS account? Should I in that case try to set up a new account?
Why do I need MS, never had to prove an account or otherwise before?
The only password I need to use every time I am faced with a blank screen with an empty password panel in the middle, is the one that is accepted and allows me to get into Firefox. That is not the password that I have a record as being for MS.
As far as I am concerned my email providor is Orange, am I mistaken?
I do, as at first evidenced at first in my OP. I also have an old Orange account, still live, from when it used to be Wanadoo. Also a Gmail account, but only because there is one person whom I do need to talk to very occasionally (in the dog world) who simply refuses to answer anything from Orange.
If any M$ account that you might have set up would be associated with the @orange.fr email address then I would assume that it is compromised.
You could try using the “forgot password” link but it is probable they will have changed the email on the account, however if they haven’t you might be able to get control of the account
I would strongly advise contacting M$ support and explain that you think you might have a compromised account with them.
Sadly I think you are right. This just appeared in my inbox
ALARME - Je vous ai pirate et je vous ai vole des informations une…
At the same time 3 other messages, which I have read and was leaving for reply, had a thin line drawn through them.
Then when, without opening the ALARME message, I sent it to spam, it went there but the other 3 disappeared, completely lost.
Do I go back to MS from the browser and, after finding again my passwords unknown, ask for another in order to explain what has happened.?
Is all this because I clicked on an apparently genuine MS email and would have I been better to ignore it, which was my first inclination?
BTW some of the messages in my ‘Brouillons’ file which show my email address also have lines drawn through them. The ones which don’t, do not.
Just checked a dossier which has a few messages saved but not important as I know who they are so can contact another way, also have lines drawn through them.
I must admit that looks like one of the general “I’ve hacked you” messages. I get them all the time.
Usually like this
The sender address is spoofed (trivial to do) and does not need any account hacking to achieve - the right thing to do with these is definitely to ignore them.
Looking in my Spam folder there have been a flurry recently so I wouldn’t be surprised if French language versions are “doing the rounds” at the moment (though they never really go away).
Not sure how reassuring that is with all my saved messages having a line through them which presumably means that as soon as I want to open one it will disappear.
Not sure I am getting anywhere with MS, it is so many years since I have used either it directly or Skype that I had to leave most things blank.
They asked me if I have paid anything to Skype, I used to keep a small amount of money in credit there, €10, in order to use it for sending text messages which before I got my current phone I found it easier to type than on the old one. I stopped it years ago when they falsely told me I had run out which encouraged me to pay in another tenner only to find my original one still there, thus in double credit.
I don’t like the way Gmail works so how would I go about getting a totally different Orange account?
@David_Spardo - if I were in your position, I’d contact a local recommended computer specialist so they can work out exactly what has happened and offer suitable advice, as it does sound as if at least some of your private information has been ‘got at’…
Yes I agree, although I can’t see how anyone could financially profit from the disruption. Everything I have is not on the computer though I agree that most, but not all, of my communications are via email.
Had a reply from MS Help saying that I haven’t given them enough info to prove my account and inviting me to give them more. As I have given them as much as I remember I can’t see what else I can do.
How do I change my Orange email address, anyone know?
BTW just had another look at my inbox files and only 3 seem to be affected. Nothing of importance or advantage to anyone.
Pretty sure it means you’ve had a password hacked from some other source. Then sometime after the hack, the same password is tried against your email address (that Microsoft emailed you on) on a list of common sites.
So your email+password combination that they hacked from some other site with loose security, wil be tried against social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and other commonly used sites. Possibly against financial sites if you use any.
Microsoft bought Skype a while back so if you’ve ever had a Skype account, Microsoft regards you as already having an account on the email address you used for Skype. It’ll be there even with no effort on your part.
Also beware that IME when sites or firms owning them have been sold, all too frequently the new owner will start spamming you. Even if you closed your account or unsubscribed from any comms from the original website many years ago.
So if ever you close an account or stop all comms from a website, consider if you want to invoke yoir right to also request them to delete all your data.
I’d suggest treating a message like this from Microsoft as a reason to get a new password from Microsoft/,Skype. Then think if you have any other important sites such as bank ones, or Twitter etc, where someone could take your money or send out messages claiming to be you or use that signup as a way to register in your name on other sites (Facebook and even some quite ordinary sites like grocery sites enable this) and just in case you might have used the hacked password, get a new password for those other sites as well.
Well first of all MS won’t talk to me unless I give them more information, and I have given them all I have. For instance they asked me when I paid Skype for anything and what name i used etc. This would be 20 odd years ago, why would I know now?
I have got waiting the means to change my email address but I am waiting for someone to tell me that that will do the trick. and not involve me in more problems. I can access my dossiers on Orange, only 3 out of around 20 seem affected, so I can look at those without opening them if I want to remind myself of who to inform of an address change. For that reason I don’t want to cancel the old address so will have to be careful to open a new one rather than change the old one. Also I could monitor the old, hacked, one to see who is trying to contact me and then reply on the new one.
As I have said this is all double Dutch to me so my ‘plans’ may not be logical or workable.
Perhaps you can provide MS as much info as you can, e.g. you paid 10€ twice to Skype 20 years ago, maybe you can guess the username or email address, do you have a phone number registered etc. Or provide details of your current machine and when you installed the operating system, bought the machine etc?
Setting up / using a secure new email (with a reasonably different password) should be OK.
I’m a little worried though that if your MS password is compromised that might cause problems for your computer - you wouldn’t;t want to get locked out of the ‘master’ / admin account? I’m nota MS user though and hopefully others can offer advice.
I’m guessing that you would have to allow remote access to your machine for any person with your MS account credentials to cause damage - and of course you won’t do that.
I don’t think I installed MS on the machine, I suppose it was already there. As I said, I simply don’t have any memopry of having anything to do with MS at all, other than when I first switch on in the morning I see something called Bing and the MS logo. Then I click on the 3 bars top right and am offered the password panel which leads me to the Firefox page where I select the previous session. That’s all.
I think I’ll operate from the gmail account for the time being and see how things go.
These people are absolute scum. My father’s email was hacked towards the end of his life when he really did not need that. He couldn’t do much any more but he used to enjoy being able to easily communicate with family and friends by email and he was very distressed when this small pleasure was spoiled for him, it was heartbreaking. I try not to hate people, but, I hate hackers who do this.
Just because you can’t see how anyone could financially profit doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways people could profit. I can think of half a dozen ways in which knowledge of your Orange and Microsoft log in details could be used to a criminal’s financial advantage.
For goodness’ sake, get some trusted, face-to-face advice as soon as possible before your bank accounts get emptied…
I am still able to use that email address although for future connections I will use the gmail one. Apart from that the lines crossed through some emails are restricted to 3 out of 20 dossiers so I can see what I want, which is rare, in order to connect with the other address.
Easy to say
get some trusted, face-to-face advice
but where? I know of only one person, the last Brit in the village apart from me, and he seems to have disappeared for an extended time.
One thing that might or might not be connected is that I have had, after a very long and frustrating ‘chat’ with someone in a call centre last evening, lost Netflix on the TV, though not on the computer. So I have cancelled it.
Also tell me how they can empty my bank accounts please. There are no details of personal life, including those, on my computer. Everything is on external drives.
Impersonation using your(now changed) credentials. It looks as if you may have already experienced this with the odd behaviour of your Netflix account.
You could ask the carers if they know of a local company. And the secretariat at the Mairie would almost certainly have an external person or company to look after their computers so why not ask them too?
I asked the first carer today and she knew nothing, I think the Mairie may be a good idea, as long as I steer clear of the Maire and wait to speak to the very able secretary. I asked the Maire not long ago if I could book a double plot in the cemetary and he said ‘wait until you are dead’.
The only problem with asking locally is that they will all be speaking in French. I am pretty proficient at the language but, as you can see from above, struggle in my own first one to understand anything like this.
One simple question then. If I dump that email address altogether and use the gmail one from now on, will that solve the problem?
It would take time of course, checking all my records in order to inform friends and family.
If you go to the Mairie, the only question you need ask is if they know or can recommend a local computer expert.
When they visit, they will probably have some English and will certainly have a smart phone - and smart phones all have translation programmes where the phone can listen in English, then speak the French version and vice-versa.
