Managing personal Outlook.com account settings, security, and privacy
- Secure the account first. Use the Microsoft account recovery and sign-in help flow: Start. If the account is temporarily blocked, use Sign-in Helper.
- Before changing the password, run a full malware scan on the PC used with the account:
- Open Windows Security
- Go to Virus and threat protection
- Select Scan options > Full scan > Scan now
- Change or reset the Microsoft account password immediately after the scan. If sign-in fails, use the password reset flow.
- Check account settings that attackers commonly change:
- Connected accounts
- Forwarding
- Automatic replies
- On iPhone, open Outlook.com in Safari and switch to the desktop-style web view. Then review and remove anything suspicious in Outlook.com settings, especially:
- Mail > Rules
- Forwarding
- IMAP
- account aliases and sign-in preferences in the Microsoft account security area
- For the folders that cannot be deleted from iPhone, try deleting them from Outlook on the web instead of the mobile app. That is the recommended workaround in similar Outlook.com account-compromise cases.
- Check recent sign-in activity for unfamiliar access and secure the account if unknown sign-ins appear.
- If the account still cannot be recovered or cleaned up, use the recovery help and contact support options available from the Microsoft account recovery flow.
References:
- How to recover a hacked or compromised Microsoft account
- Unblock my Outlook.com account
- Email is missing from your Outlook.com inbox
- Account hacked and added a folder - Microsoft Q&A My account was hacked. I think I've recovered it, but they have added folders that cannot delete or change? What do I need to do?
- How to stop forwarding rule on iphone - Microsoft Q&A Hi, It looks like someone hacked my hotmail account and created a forwarding rule. I don’t find where to cancel it from my iPhone (I don’t have a computer) How can I stop this forwarding rule? Thanks!