Hacked?

[Saxif]

I cannot tell if I got hacked or not!

I was trying to get access to my skype account, which I used my work email to open, then thought I'd try my hotmail to see if I had any old accounts linked to it and low and behold I do, an account I never set up using my hotmail address!  Seems it belongs to a teenager, judging by his friends ...

Obviously I changed the password for my hotmail, that skype account, deleted all my old threads in my hotmail, virus checked, ran CCleaner and updated mozilla.  I have never knowingly been hacked but someone is using my hotmail account for their skype account, unfortunately it had very little info attached to it so I cannot ascertain much.

Any advice?

[Lasiien]

Well so long as you changed your PW and you're pretty sure your computer is clean then i don't think there's much more you can do. Just to be double paranoid try downloading another virus checker (e.g. malware bytes, it's free and will give you a 2nd opinion!). You could contact Skype customer service just to be sure, but they'll likely suspend your account and get you to prove you are the one who set it up, then release it back to you (I'm not sure they'll do much else if you haven't used payments on the account, presumably you've just used it for free?).

I'd then think of everywhere else that you've used that password, if you ever use the same password for things and go change them too, in fact to be double paranoid again  I'd prolly change all my passwords for improtant stuff just in case, but perhaps thats an overreaction !

[Cernos]

Was your Hotmail account left inactive for an extended period? It could be that the Hotmail account lapsed and someone else took the name. However that wouldn't explain why your old details still worked. But I would have thought if you'd been hacked the first thing this imposter would do is change the password and lock you out.

Microsoft have recently started the process of retiring Hotmail, they will be closing it down and migrating everyone to Outlook.com, so perhaps there's some muddle gone on behind the scenes.

Or perhaps you've inadvertently hacked the account of some poor teenager who is now locked out, deprived of his email, lost contact with his girlfriend and been dumped ... and it's all your fault!

[Saxif]

LOL Cern.

Las, my skype hasn't been hacked as my skype name is edbo22, this guy set up an account under the name Green_monky ... I only got access to it on the off chance that I had actually set my skype up with my hotmail account but because the password reset went to me I suddenly had access to this random account!

One of his friends is obviously doing homework cos his status is "I hate hoooomwoooork!!"

His mate Ben Roberts has "I don't wanna live on this planet anymore" as his skype message, much teenage angst!

I am unsure what to do tbh.  I have a phone number, might give him a call ;p

[Lasiien]

Well if it's still your hotmail account I can't see how it can be linked to his skype. One of you had access they shouldn't have and I don't think you did any hacking As Cern said, if you told us you couldn't get into your hotmail anymore then that would maybe fit with your account lapsing, but if you can get in then sounds odd :S

(and lol Cern !)

[Saxif]

Yeah, my own skype is set up using my work email, prolly because I could set one up with my personal email because someone else beat me to it!

I tried to find out how long the account had been active but no luck.

Running malwarebytes now.

[Saxif]

Decided to contact the police and report it and ask Skype to delete it and I obviously reported it to them.  Too dodgy to do anything else tbh.

[Lasiien]

Aye, does sounds strange indeed Sax. Hope you get no more nasty surprises.

[Saxif]

Yeah, am worried someone has been using it for grooming

I always get weird problems with my pc and internet ...

[Cernos]

Well if you're concerned the account was being misused you did the right thing reporting and closing it.

Not sure why you seem to get so many problems, you run antivirus and a firewall and with a good choice of passwords and staying away from obvious risks it should keep you secure enough.

[Saxif]

Yup, never download anything, not porn, not films, nor games or music unless it is from someone like Steam or Apple.  My passwords are always alpha numeric, typical 10+ long, I am starting to add more symbols in now and they are all different, which is a nightmare.  I use paid for AVG, constantly updated ... blah ... the way it goes I guess, prolly had a gap in my defences at some point or did something stupid and they got in that way.