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Unable to access account

I am writing on behalf of my son who opened an Outlook.com mail account but did not use it and has forgotten his p/w. He is unable to recover his M/S account as he needs to sign in and if he clicks 'forgot your password' it requires details of a sent email which he has not yet done. He cannot log in to this site without his password.

This means there is an account in his name which is useless and cannot even be closed without a password.

How on earth can he reset his password now?

Dear maisie46,
I am an independent advisor, and I am trying to help other users in Community with my experience in Microsoft products.
Let him try to use suggestions for login to Microsoft Account in this support article https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12429/... . If he will be still unable to login, If he will still be unable to recover the account, then it is better to contact Microsoft Account Support for alternative recovery options https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12401/...
They probably will be asking for safe proofs, so try to recollect what information you were providing while creating the account https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12428/...
Also he can create a new account.
Hope this will help your son retrieve his Microsoft Account.
Regards,
LA
***I'm an independent advisor and I don't work for Microsoft***

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I have received an email saying this:

<Removed Spam quoted from Spammer's Reply>

.

I assume that telephone number is in USA whereas I am in UK.

Is there a UK helpdesk?

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Dear maisie46,
That email that you received is technical scam that is popular on this forum lately. Please do not call that number. Tech support scams are an industry-wide issue where scammers attempt to trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a Microsoft Agent or Microsoft Employee and that the phone number is an official Microsoft global customer service number https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/405170... .
Could you please also update if you were able to access your account ? And what exactly have you tried ? Have you contacted Microsoft Account support ?
Looking forward to your reply.
Regards,
LA
***I'm an independent advisor and I don't work for Microsoft***

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Hi

Checked the list here

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12429/microsoft-account-sign-in-cant

and nothing is relevant to this problem.

Will try this next (when my son visits again)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12401/microsoft-account-get-help-by-email

Thanks for info on spam email.

Rest assured, I did not call them.

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Dear maisie46,
Glad to hear that you did not call them. But I had to make you and other users aware, just in case.
If article about sign in option did not help, then it would be better to try fill out the recovery form:
1. Go to account.live.com/acsr.
2. Under Email, phone or Skype name, enter the info for the account you need to recover.
3. Enter an email address that we can use to contact you about your account recovery.
4. Enter the characters you see on the screen to prove you're not a robot, then select Next.
5. A screen will pop up asking you to verify that email address. We'll send you a security code in an email. Enter that code, and select Verify.
6. Now you'll be asked to answer several questions about yourself and your account. Fill in as much info as you can, even if you're not sure. See Tips for filling out the recovery form below.
7. Select Submit when you're finished.
More about validation procedure you can find here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10494/...
If he still will not be able to recover account, try to contact Microsoft Account support directly.
I hope he will be able to retrieve his account.
Regards,
LA
***I'm an independent advisor and I don't work for Microsoft***

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Tried that but it asks for details of a sent email and he has not sent anything yet. If you leave that question blank, it asks for more information. You can't win.

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Dear maisie46,
In this case it would be better to contact Microsoft Account support to go through validation manually. Unfortunately it is the only way.
Regards,
LA
***I'm an independent advisor and I don't work for Microsoft***

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Ok. He will most likely just create a new email account.

It seems daft not to just be able to reset his password (without all the questions) like other applications do.

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Dear maisie46,
This is also an option.
I do agree that resetting the password for Microsoft Account is a complex procedure and sometimes it is hard to prove that you are the owner of the account. But If you will take a closer look at this procedure you will see benefits of it. This makes very hard to hack the account and keeps it away from unauthorized people. But this is a double edge sword, it makes also hard to retrieve the account.
Regards,
LA
***I'm an independent advisor and I don't work for Microsoft***

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Last updated October 10, 2023 Views 158 Applies to: