Hotmail? No good!

In December 2009, my Hotmail account was hijacked by a Chinese spammer who then sent a mail to my contact list saying that I was recommending some laptop. I learned about this because one of these messages was also sent to my Google mail. I immediately informed "abuse" at Microsoft which - to my utter amazement - led to the closing of my Hotmail account. What was that all about?, I wondered and sent an inquiring mail to Microsoft - only to get an email back, that was evidently written by a machine, saying that there was spam activity originating from my account and that it was therefore closed! Which meant my contact list was gone! Well, arguing with a machine is hopeless - and my interest in Microsoft products is now zero.

A couple of weeks later, my Google mail was hijacked by the same Chinese spammer with the same message about that laptop and was sent to my Google mail contact list. Expecting the Microsoft approach, I immediately rushed to send my most important email addresses to a safe account (I hoped and still hope) with a not so famous company. But Google didn't do the Microsoft, they simply let me know that there was spam activity originating from my account and told me to change my password. Praised be Google!