Microsoft account i prevously used to own compromised, and now shows not recognized.

Question

Microsoft account i prevously used to own compromised, and now shows not recognized.

Sudusa 0

I recently got targeted by a malicious app which logged me out and changed emails for almost all my personal accounts. Which includes the microsoft account i previously used to own. The account contained items purchased with real money. I still have access to transactions and proof that the microsoft account is mine. I have been trying contact microsoft support, but the email i provide is flagged as not recognized or account doesnt exist. Below are screenshots of my primary alias being changed, along with my own security measures being deleted and most likely changed as well.

User's image

I am still looking for support, and it would be helpful if an official were to answer my questions and aid me.

And yes, i did try every solution available on the forum related to my problem. Most of the time it just shows 'email not recognized' when i try to put in the email i used to register the account.

0 comments

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Lychee-Ng 27,955 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

I’m sorry you’re dealing with this, Sudusa,

I understand why you are asking for an official to intervene. That said, before getting further, I need to clarify that Microsoft Q&A is just a public user-to-user forum. Nobody here, including moderators and external staff, can access your account information or help you restore its aliases/security information.

From what you described, the attacker appears to have changed the sign-in alias already, so the current email linked to the account is the new replacement, not your old email anymore. In addition, if days have passed, they might have already changed the alias again, so the "old email" would still be theirs in this particular situation.

The good news is that it's stated in your email, so try using it to sign in/perform recovery. If you were quick, you could've tried to sign in with it and your old password as there's no password changed notifications yet at the time.
Use the https://aka.ms/sign-in-helper or/and Microsoft Recovery Form (only if 2FA is not turned on). Enter the attacker's alias from the warning emails and fill in all previous information related to it, like previous emails, passwords, etc.

However, the not-good news is that the attackers might have already changed the alias again, and removed those temporary ones, as well as changing passwords and adding security verification methods. Unfortunately, Microsoft explicitly restricts support agents from accessing and changing account details for account-security reasons.

I know this is not an answer you're hoping for, but I think it's better to be direct. There is no Q&A moderator escalation path nor a support system that can override Microsoft's account-ownership and recovery system. The Sign-in Helper/Recovery Form is the only appropriate channels.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Sudusa 0 Reputation points

2026-09-09T14:15:31.12+00:00

Unfortunately, i am 100% sure they have changed the primary alias again, because if i tried to use the attackers new email to submit a recovery request, it shows no account found or account not recognized. Is there even a single speck of hope for me to recover this account? Cant the officials use the first email used to register to determine the account? I still remember my xbox name, but its most likely changed.
Lychee-Ng 27,955 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-10T06:21:29.29+00:00

From my experience (and you can search online for similar cases), I don't think so unfortunately. Due to privacy and security reasons, the initial verification process is fully automated. Only when you passed that it could get to the next stage of recovery.

If you're using Xbox though, trying to recover your Xbox account would be a reasonable attempt. It's not confirmed to work but some users have shared that they could get their accounts back that way.
Sudusa 0 Reputation points

2026-09-10T21:05:34.1033333+00:00

I never saw the effort or enthusiasm from Microsoft to help people like me. It's just never happened. I find it weird that Microsoft officials can't access account info. Meanwhile, steam has a much better system. It's just sad Microsoft shows no enthusiasm to help us. They should at least make the recovery form better by customizing it to detect alias changes. This is just something bad from Microsoft, mentioning that it's a billion dollar company (or more). I hope they fix their issues and help the ones like me in the future.