Account creation after account hack (Takeover)

Question

Account creation after account hack (Takeover)

Rey 20

My sons (13yo) account was hacked, and taken over. MS won't help, and insists we create another account. When we try register a new account it says his account already exists, but the associated email is the one linked/controlled by the hacker. My son can't change his email account as it's linked to many other services (school/computer login/bank/games etc), and friends. His account email is still linked to our family group as well, so this whole situation baffles me that I (as the parent) can do nothing to get this account back.

I don't understand how we can control the underlying email, and have it linked to our family group, yet not get our account back or create a new one! I accept the loss of his gaming purchases, but why the hell can we not just create a new account with his email when it is still active and working?

How do we fix this WITHOUT creating another email address?

Rey 20 Reputation points

2026-07-25T12:43:15.3566667+00:00
Just some new information for anyone that faces this again.

Unless you are successful with the automated account recovery, consider everything lost.

If you still want to use the same email with MS there is some hope:

Create a new account with a clean email (or use an existing account with 2fa).

Add the lost account email as an alias. You will be asked to verify the old (stolen) email, which you can do as you should still have access to it.

Then either remove that email from your account, right away, and create another account using it again or change it to the primary email. You may need to do this on a VPN and with a incognito session or Microsoft will flag the email for suspicious behavior - how ironic. If they flag it for suspicious behavior wait 24 hours and try again (vpn+incognito).

My son now has a Microsoft account with the same email as the stolen one, no extra email required. This does not restore all his old game assets, only the email login.

The pure idiocy of this is mind boggling.

Answer accepted by question author

Darhyl Amizola 50,040 Independent Advisor

I understand your frustration.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to manually remove the email from the hacked account unless the hacker removes it.

As stated in this article, particularly under "Remove an email address," once a third-party email address, such as a Gmail address, has been removed, it usually becomes available to be associated with another Microsoft account:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/Outlook/add-or-remove-an-email-alias-in-outlook-com

I highly recommend following the guide from this thread on how to remove the hacked account from your device: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/3916526/my-microsoft-account-was-hacked-and-i-am-unable-to?forum=windows-all&referrer=answers

Best regards,

Darhyl

Rey 20 Reputation points

2026-07-22T18:29:06.22+00:00

Thank you for the help, as little you were able to give.

Final answer: There is no way for a parent to recover a child's hacked account, even if it's been part of a family group for years, and there is no way to recreate that account, even if you have control of the underlying email address, if the hacker doesn't want you to. Well done Microsoft.

4 additional answers

Your answer

Rey 20 Reputation points

2026-07-25T12:43:15.3566667+00:00

Just some new information for anyone that faces this again.

Unless you are successful with the automated account recovery, consider everything lost.

If you still want to use the same email with MS there is some hope:

Create a new account with a clean email (or use an existing account with 2fa).

Add the lost account email as an alias. You will be asked to verify the old (stolen) email, which you can do as you should still have access to it.

Then either remove that email from your account, right away, and create another account using it again or change it to the primary email. You may need to do this on a VPN and with a incognito session or Microsoft will flag the email for suspicious behavior - how ironic. If they flag it for suspicious behavior wait 24 hours and try again (vpn+incognito).

My son now has a Microsoft account with the same email as the stolen one, no extra email required. This does not restore all his old game assets, only the email login.

The pure idiocy of this is mind boggling.
Rey 20 Reputation points

2026-07-22T18:29:06.22+00:00

Thank you for the help, as little you were able to give.

Final answer: There is no way for a parent to recover a child's hacked account, even if it's been part of a family group for years, and there is no way to recreate that account, even if you have control of the underlying email address, if the hacker doesn't want you to. Well done Microsoft.

Answer 1

Hey there! Nice to meet you!

Based on your description, the hacker was able to remove the account's primary email address/security info and replace it with their own email address, which is why there's an option that you can create a new Microsoft account using the same primary email.

Since the security info has been replaced by the hacker, I'm afraid there is no other working method to recover the Microsoft account, and Microsoft Support cannot help either.

Also, you mentioned that you received an error when attempting to create a new Microsoft account using the same primary email. This is because your son's email address must be a Microsoft domain email address.

Any Microsoft domain email address, such as an Outlook, Hotmail, MSN, or Live address, that has been deleted or removed/replaced (by a hacker) can no longer be associated with any Microsoft account, as stated in this article, particularly under "Remove an alias": https://support.microsoft.com/Outlook/add-or-remove-an-email-alias-in-outlook-com

Lastly, if your payment method/bank is still linked to the hacked account. You will need to reach out to your bank immediately and request to freeze all charges from Microsoft, preventing unauthorized purchases.

You may also need to request a new payment method.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

Darhyl

Rey 20 Reputation points

2026-07-21T14:51:21.69+00:00

This is false information. I just created a Microsoft account with a gmail email account. Please confirm you facts.

So my question stands: Why can I no longer create a new account with my Son's gmail account if the account has been taken over and the hackers email is now the primary email.

Answer 2

Hi Darhyl,

Thanks for trying to answer.

"Based on your description, the hacker was able to remove the account's primary email address/security info and replace it with their own email address, which is why there's an option that you can create a new Microsoft account using the same primary email."

There is no option to create the account again using his existing email address (gmail). When I try to register his account again with Microsoft, it says his account already exists. Since the hacker changed his email address on the MS account, why won't it let me use my sons email (gmail) to create the account again. We have control of the gmail account.

"Since the security info has been replaced by the hacker, I'm afraid there is no other working method to recover the Microsoft account, and Microsoft Support cannot help either."

Yes, I understand this (insane) concept as being bureaucratic stupidity/laziness, but in this case I'm not trying to recover. I'm trying to recreate his account with the underlying email (gmail) address.

"Also, you mentioned that you received an error when attempting to create a new Microsoft account using the same primary email. This is because your son's email address must be a Microsoft domain email address."

As far as I'm aware you can create a microsoft account with any external domain.

"Any Microsoft domain email address, such as an Outlook, Hotmail, MSN, or Live address, that has been deleted or removed/replaced (by a hacker) can no longer be associated with any Microsoft account, as stated in this article, particularly under "Remove an alias": https://support.microsoft.com/Outlook/add-or-remove-an-email-alias-in-outlook-com"

This refers to account related to Outlook.com, my son is using gmail.

Answer 3

Darhyl Amizola 50,040 Independent Advisor

Thank you for the clarification.

Since you are unable to create a new Microsoft account using the same Gmail address, this means that the Gmail address is still linked to the compromised account.

However, if the hacker has removed your son's Gmail address from the Microsoft account, you would be able to use that Gmail address to create a new Microsoft account.

Best regards,

Darhyl

Rey 20 Reputation points

2026-07-22T11:20:13.4766667+00:00

I am not able to register using my son's email account as it is still linked to the hacked account. Since I can't get the hacker to voluntarily remove my son's email, how do I get it removed so we can create a new account?
Rey 20 Reputation points

2026-07-22T11:23:08.2866667+00:00

An additional issue is that this MS account is linked to his PC login, and we can no longer verify his account on his PC. All completely insane, since I have his account under parental supervision for Xbox, Minecraft, and Microsoft, yet we are still somehow unable to 'prove' that the account belongs to him.

Answer 4

Bulldog 4,625

"There is no way for a parent to recover a child's hacked account, even if it's been part of a family group for years, and there is no way to recreate that account, even if you have control of the underlying email address ... "

All that is correct.

Microsoft doesn't know you or your child. They have never met you. All they know about your child is what's in their Microsoft account, and the attacker has all the same information. There's no longer a way to distinguish your child from the attacker, so whoever can successfully sign in owns the account.

It's true that if a comprehensive investigation were performed, which could involve lawyers and courtrooms, but would certainly involve plenty of people and take plenty of time, it might be possible to prove that your child should be declared the owner. Or maybe not. In any case, since literally thousands of Microsoft accounts are stolen every week, it's simply not possible to investigate every one, and neither should that be Microsoft's responsibility, since it isn't Microsoft's fault that the account was stolen in the first place.

It's tough enough these days for adults to keep their user accounts secure. A child needs extra oversight. The people - or more likely, the organizations - that hijack user accounts are sophisticated professionals.

Rey 20 Reputation points

2026-07-23T06:57:07.9966667+00:00

My account is an active Microsoft account with 2fa, a business profile, certificates from MS, and with both my personal and work email for probably 20 years. Then my sons account has been linked to "family safety" for 3 years, Xbox for probably 2 years, Minecraft parental control, and his login to his PC for as long (Think GDID). The same email address has been used in all his interactions with Microsoft, and mine as well. The distinguishing difference from a normal account take over is that this account is under multiple parental controls for multiple years.

To claim they don't "know us" is a serious overstatement. No comprehensive investigation is needed, check my account, check the other three corelating pieces of evidence. Hell just ask for my son to confirm his email on the one PC he's been using for the last year, and they would have the answer. (edit: Ask for his government ID as he had his real name on his account).

After all of this you are completely ignoring that the underlying primary email just changed, with all of the evidence being static for more than 2 years, and we have the purchase codes for Minecraft. This is not tough, it's lazy, and business decision that screws people over. They make more money selling new copies of the games lost than solving the issue.