It's not your fault. Most probably that their msn passwords have
been posted online. (refer to article)
Or,
It could be a case of cyber
bullying, Andrew, If they threaten you for more $,
ask them for invoices/ receipts of where
they went to repair their PCs. It's most probably cyber
bullying imo.
Thousands of accounts on web-based e-mail system
Hotmail have been compromised in a phishing attack, software giant
Microsoft has confirmed.
BBC News has seen a list of more than 10,000 e-mail accounts,
predominantly originating from Europe, and passwords which were
posted online.
Microsoft said it had launched an investigation.
Phishing involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing
details such as bank accounts or login names.
"We are aware that some Windows Live Hotmail customers' credentials
were acquired illegally and exposed on a website," said a Microsoft
spokesperson.
"Upon learning of the issue, we immediately requested that the
credentials be removed and launched an investigation to determine
the impact to customers."
Quick change
Graham Cluley, consultant at security firm Sophos, told BBC News
the published list may just be a subset of a longer list of
compromised accounts.
"We still don't know the scale of the problem," he told BBC
News.
Technology blog neowin.net was the first to publish details of the
attack. It said the accounts were posted on 1 October to
pastebin.com, a website commonly used by developers to share
code.
Although the details have since been removed, BBC News and Neowin
has seen a list of 10,028 names beginning with the letters A and
B.
BBC News has confirmed that the accounts are genuine and
predominantly originate in Europe.
The list included details of Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail
accounts with email addresses ending hotmail.com, msn.com and
live.com.
Mr Cluley advised Hotmail users to change their password as soon as
possible.
"I'd also recommend that people change the password on any other
site where they use it," he said.
Around 40% of people use the same password for every website they
use, he added.
Hotmail is currently the largest web-based e-mail service.
source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8291268.stm
