Out of the blue, I got an email from Microsoft Online Services containing a verification code. Within a few seconds, I got two more. All three messages are in Portuguese. Someone is trying to verify my email address through Microsoft for CPFL Energia, a power company in Brazil. I don’t know why someone wants to use my email address, but there you have it.
So I decide to check on my account by trying to login. I know my username and password. I go to Microsoft’s web page and try to login. I get the message “Sign-in is blocked” because [someone] “tried to sign in too many times with an incorrect account or password.” I’m not seeing any option to wait for a timeout. After 3 hours, I still cannot login. My only recourse seems to be to reset my password.
Given the complete lack of options, I choose option 1. I click on the “Reset your password” link which takes me to a form. I enter my account. Then I am asked “Where should we contact you?”. I enter my email address again — you know, because it’s my email address — and it works just fine. But for some bizarre reason, that’s not good enough. I get a message, “Enter an email address that’s different from the one you’re trying to recover.
I have to give them a completely different email address so they can send a recovery code. That makes no sense. If I’m trying to prove that this is my email address, why would the code go elsewhere?
I give them another email address. They send a code. I have successfully proven than I have a different email address. How does this help me access my account? I have no idea.
On the next screen, I’m asked for full name, birthday, zip code, my password, my purchase history. I provide what I can but I do not every recall providing my email address or mailing address to Microsoft for this account. I have no ideal what is being used for comparison. I’ve never used the account to buy something.
Within a minute I get an automated response saying that they could not verify me with the information provided. The message includes a link back to the same form to let me try again an an infinite loop. When I call tech support, they suggest that I just abandon my account and create another one. Their logic is that my email address may have belonged to someone before I got it. The reality is that I have this email account since January 2000 and I’m sure that no one had it before me.
