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How long will I get email from an inactive account?

I’ve been getting email from the Hotmail account
of someone who is reportedly deceased. How long is a Hotmail
account inactive before they recycle it and make it available
to someone else to use?

That does sound a little unnerving, to be sure. I know I’d
be a little ‘weirded out’ if I got email from someone whom I knew
has passed away.

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I don’t have an exact number, but I believe Hotmail accounts
hang around for several months. I’d guess around six.

But it’s more likely that the email is
the result of “From address spoofing”, a common technique
that spammers and some viruses use which doesn’t require
that the account be active at all. My article
Someone’s sending from my email address! How do I stop them?!” discusses how that can happen.

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15 comments on “How long will I get email from an inactive account?”

  1. I also just received an email yesterday evening (March 2005) from a very old friend of mine who has a Hotmail account. His son wrote to me last August to tell me his father had died in June last year. The son tells me he has been trying to access his father’s Hotmail account for the past five months without success, he says he’s the only one with the password. The email asks me how I am, asks me to write back soon with all my news and sends me kisses from this person. This is freaking us all out. Strangely, it is written in a similar way to how he would have written to me. And the daughter had also received an email from the deceased father and using a pet name that he had for her!

    Reply
  2. i had folders on my old account and i got a new account a while ago,i used to check every once in a while that i still had the old folders on my old account and then just recently,there all gone! im so upset,these emails in theese folders were very important

    Did hotmail delete my folders because i barely use my old account? is THERE absolutly anyways i can get these back somehow!! please help me thank you

    Reply
  3. I have a similar problem to query from Bree on March 14th 2006. I failed to use my hotmail email account for a number of months. When I signed in after that time the account had been deactivated. I reactivated teh account but all my files had been removed. Is there any way I can retrieve these files?

    Thanks,

    Andy.

    Reply
  4. How can i know when an e-mail address is avaliable.. I go to write to a certain someone and it says DELIVERY STATUS NOTIFICATION (FAILURE)…. wHAT DOES THAT MEAN.

    Reply
  5. This account has been closed

    Your account has been closed because it seems to have violated our Terms of Use. To re-open your account, please do the following:

    1. Click on the link below and fill out the e-mail support form.

    2. In the box labeled “Please select an option”, choose Connections/Sign In Problem.

    3. Another box will appear. It will also be labeled “Please select an option”. Choose Account Closed. Access Denied.

    4. Make sure you answer all the questions that have a red star (*) by them. Then click Submit.

    Reply
  6. I have my email account closed by msn due to violation of use terms like the problem alsofiani stated.
    Msn replied to me that my account is closed for ever, but I need my account for business matters so badly. Pls help.

    t

    Reply
  7. im trying to re-open my account and read my mail but still cant and i really need help on this its very important to me…it keeps telling me to fill out the fourm but i see no fourm to do so…PLZ HELP!!!

    Reply
  8. Dear Gentlemen, please help me as soon as the opening of the my email, since my account was closed, I do not know why, please help me, where I need is

    Reply

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