Microsoft is trying to get my phone number - they force me to give my phone number and warn me if I refuse, then I will lose access to my Outlook (Hotmail) account

When I tried to login into my Outlook account (also known as "Microsoft Acccount" or "Hotmail account") I got this ultimatum:

Help us protect your account
Passwords can be forgotten or stolen. Just in case, add security info now to help you get back into your account if something goes wrong. We won't use this info to spam you - just to keep your account more secure. Learn more.
What security info would you like to add?

Verify phone via: (*) Text () Call
[ Next ] Skip for now (7 days until this is required)


It looks like Microsoft is trying to blackmail me in order to get my phone number. They give me 7 days to obey their demand (or I will lose access to my e-mail account).

Of course this is for my protection. They will give my phone number to the NSA, so NSA can link my e-mail address to my phone number. This, again, is for my own protection.

If you are more observant, you will find out that you can circumvent this demand by selecting "Alternate e-mail address" from the drop down menu:


It is very difficult to see that there is an option to enter alternate e-mail address instead of your phone number. I didn't noticed it immediately. Many users of Outlook (Hotmail) will just enter their phone numbers and NSA will be happy - for them will be easy to link your identity to your email account (if your phone number is linked to your identity).

There are some conspiracy theories that you got this message because you are suspected for illegal activity and Microsoft is instructed by three-letter agencies to get your identity somehow.

I believe it means that the DHS is investigating you. Outlook can't "inform you" of any actions, but the DHS can require Microsoft to provide them with your phone number and related accounts. It might be best to drop that account, and maybe all hotmail accounts in your case, because they are probably going to probe the others, eventually.hotmailmails

That would be pretty funny if DHS were investigating, because they're very minor accounts with very little mail. I've now had it hit two accounts, and the only thing they have in common is that they were both created for Craigslist. One is an account which is mostly just used to post things to sell. The other hasn't had any incoming or outgoing messages for probably a year or two, other than from Hotmail itself.webecedarian

This looks like a right explanation. Same things happened to my two Google accounts. DHS started investigation and I had to abandon them. Now they reached my Microsoft account. Explanation is very simple, your account shouldn't be active. But if you receive e-mails from any account which is under investigation then you will be automatically included in investigation as well. I noticed my accounts get blocked as only I receive e-mails from Afghanistan or Iraq. It can be SPAM, whatever, investigators need to find out ways of communication people from the countries regardless which way they use.MOCKBA2

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Comments

  1. If you are concerned about privacy, don't use Internet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you enjoy bending over to have stuff shoved up your ass then don't use the internet and just go to prison. Some people don't want to be someone else's bitch so easily. But sure,go ahead and let anyone have whatever information they want whenever they want it, not my problem in the end.

      Delete
    2. Well said. Couldn't agree more. There is a push for loss of privacy to become the norm. "Just give us all your personal information and everything will be fine". Assholes. I got the same message from these pricks, so I'm simply closing my account. I'm not bending over for them.

      Delete
    3. I'm deaf and don't use a phone and get along fine without it. I'm not giving out any information to google death or outlook. I don't give a sh*** if I lose my account. It's not safety they're concerned about, it's getting your information.

      Some people don't care what's collected. I worked in IT decades and know. I'm a little more careful than others.

      MSN, go xxxx yourself some more. Put on a demo and show how great your products are (that's a snide comment).

      Delete
    4. I have to agree, they are not concerned about our well being, they blackmail people into giving their information in exchange of using their services, "Free" yeah right, not only they bombard you with adverts and they want your entire life since birth to this moment, they will asking for information, I had Microsoft, Google, and PayPal did it to me, one day they simply limited my account, and gave me ONE option is to upload my picture in order to reactivate my PayPal account guess what I did, I told them to get stuffed and I also made it very clear if I ever get an email from them I will sue the sobs.
      All do it, FaceBook, Google / Youtube, Microsoft, PayPal and so on... at the very top they all belong to the same primitive elite.

      Delete
  2. i dont want to give my phon number

    ReplyDelete
  3. There is an option to use an alternate email address instead of providing a phone number. This combined with a disposable mail services such as mailinator is a workaround for people who dont want to abandon their hotmail accounts, and poisons the database of any would-be phishers, government or otherwise. Win win.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I forgot about the temporary email service. Thanks!

      Delete
    2. not any more....

      Delete
  4. All they did today was force me to give them my gmail account, and from this I will now transfer all my email to gmail. Congrats Hotmail for being jerks face liars (for my safety Ha!) you just convinced many people not to trust you and move on...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete
  6. just tried it today, as my hotmail sgtsnodawg666@hotmail.com is my main account and everyone i know knows it. so goin thru a whole new account is bullshit, so microsoft can go fuck emselves

    ReplyDelete
  7. I left hotmail because of this.

    ReplyDelete
  8. re: Microsoft OneDrive

    I shared two small videos taken with my 2 year old cell phone. Each was about 2 min long. They were videos of two apartments I am thinking of renting. I shared these videos with 4 family members. No later than 15 min. of sharing I got blocked because of suspicious activity. This never happens with Google Drive. In addition they are insisting for my phone number - silly.

    I'm really getting annoyed.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's easy to bypass this. Outlook is not so much protected, you can ignore this phone/email verification with less than 3 clicks with any web browser.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yeah, world is getting more fucked up every day. I remember back when all it asked for was your postal code and that's it, nothing more. Someone needs to fucking fix up the government and then all these fucking corrupt businesses abusing their power. I don't want fucking give my phone number or my other older email addresses, I want to create a separate, new account on it's own that's all. They shouldn't be able to ask for these things, again.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love how every comment is ANONYMOUS...

    but seriously... what if I don't want google or microsoft to know who I am? what if I am ok to take the "risk" and just create a new account if I loose it.....

    seems to be the further encroachment of big brother wanting to know who I am and what I am doing...

    I'd rather my voice be heard... but not identified.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It surely must be illegal to (intentionally and at the risk of causing all kinds of serious problems) DISALLOW access to (and control over) any given law-abiding (innocent unless proven guilty) user's own, private information (private property)...in order to coerce VALUABLE and highly exploitatable telephone numbers from countless hundreds of thousands. And yet, even though such a thing is clearly illegal in a variety of ways, certain large and well-funded biz-cancers seem to be unable to resist the temptation of doing so. Be it for sleaze-style profits or even if it's simply the latest subversion of private citizens' constitutional rights, disallowing access to private property is extremely unethical. And your private information IS (most certainly) your property. But how can one DEFEND oneself and one's loved ones from such aggressively greedy biz-creeps who do not care about the rule of law and who give good businesses (of which there are many) a bad name? Class action lawsuits? Seriously...just wondering. There's no reason to lie about such things. Law-abiding citizens DO have the right to defend themselves from thugs. Call it natural law...call it whatever you want. But how? Let's face it...why lie? The very idea of "privacy being a thing of the past" is a conceptual abomination created by some of the most disturbingly expensively poorly educated morally incompetent biz-creeps ever invented. Therefore...do not put up with them. Throw them out. Take the scoundrels TO COURT. Or just roll over and display your soft, yellow underbelly to them so that they may more easily SHEAR YOU LIKE THE SHEEP that they want you to be.

    ReplyDelete
  13. They were trying to say someone else tried signing in on my account from another device, etc.....Of course they then try and get me to add my phone number for authentication instead of alternate e-mail.....Nope, sorry, not gonna happen!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. They are all doing it now, through SKYPE he tries to get our phone numbers, through many agencies and applications, some android applications who are placed in playstore to trick us to give out our phone numbers name, surname address, and anything else you can think of.

    Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Viber, to mention just a few, they have a gigantic database collecting bits of information here and there, now it's almost impossible to create any of the so called "free" accounts without signing your life away like you guys mentioned NSA, this is just one of the many agencies.
    Google is known for his constant blackmail tactics he will let you open the account for a while then one day out of the blue you try and login, surprise for security reasons we would like to protect and your personal information from hackers (you are the hackers as far as I am concerned) since we are having sleepless nights worrying about your well being, help us protect you.

    Even where it says use your email address instead, bull, because few clicks later it will ask you for the phone number anyway lol
    Microsoft, Google / Youtube, Facebook, are the enemy of the people. Period

    "It looks like Microsoft is trying to blackmail me in order to get my phone number. They give me 7 days to obey their demand (or I will lose access to my e-mail account)."

    Microsoft is not trying, but he is a blackmailer, Microsoft since its conception has done nothing but, screw people's lives and made them pay for it, I have been using Linux for ages, the only place I use windows is at work.
    Sometimes I say people deserve what happens to them, because they are still being loyal to these ruthless soulless parasitic entities, this is not a conspiracy theory, it is a conspiracy fact.
    People need to grow up and see the world for what it is and not for what they hope it is

    ReplyDelete
  15. This Telegram thing is makes me angry. It can't be used if you don't give your phone number!

    ReplyDelete
  16. In my case microsoft is just holding my hotmail account hostage.

    They claim someone else used my account and recquire my phone to unlock it since 2011 (account created circa 2002) I still haven't given them my phone and never will.

    ReplyDelete

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