My Identity has been stolen, please help

I would also recommend setting up two factor authentication on all accounts which can utilise this feature as even if a hacker has your username & password they still cannot access your account as they do not have your phone so cannot enter the pin you’ll be sent.

sportsfan148 said:

You also seem very worried that somebody might be accessing and intercepting emails to your MS Outlook or Hotmail account. Go into your MS account security settings page. You can keep an eye on out for any unusual sign in activity. If there has been any it will show up there. It may help to put your mind at rest a little bit at what must be a really stressful time for you. I hope this helps a bit

Wow, I just did that, I've had two sign in attempts in the past month that were unsuccessful. I must be on some sort of list.

Bastet said:

I would also recommend setting up two factor authentication on all accounts which can utilise this feature as even if a hacker has your username & password they still cannot access your account as they do not have your phone so cannot enter the pin you’ll be sent.

2FA is a double-edged sword, sometimes even a legitimate user might loose access to his account. There is no support, which can circumvent that afterwards. Besides banks plan to stop using phones for authorizations, because it is an insecure method. SMS can be easily spoofed and intercepted.

TairikuOkami said:

2FA is a double-edged sword, sometimes even a legitimate user might loose access to his account. There is no support, which can circumvent that afterwards. Besides banks plan to stop using phones for authorizations, because it is an insecure method. SMS can be easily spoofed and intercepted.

I agree, 2FA can be beneficial & a pain.
Most of mine are via the Microsoft authenticator app (iDevice) & the codes are backed up to iCloud so they can be easily recovered. The rest are via text message.

Bastet said:

I agree, 2FA can be beneficial & a pain.
Most of mine are via the Microsoft authenticator app (iDevice) & the codes are backed up to iCloud so they can be easily recovered. The rest are via text message.

Have you tried something like Authy rather than the Microsoft Authenticator? it make life much easier as you can use it over multiple devices and is auto backed up to the cloud so no chance of getting locked out of all your accounts if your PC dies.

z3r010 said:

Have you tried something like Authy rather than the Microsoft Authenticator? it make life much easier as you can use it over multiple devices and is auto backed up to the cloud so no chance of getting locked out of all your accounts if your PC dies.

Thanks z3r010, I’ll look into that one.