Hey,

if one of msn support team asks you to give him you password, so he/she can check your account from their side, would you accpet?

i have this situation, should i give them !! i'm confused

NEVER give out your password.

Can I see the e-mail, it must be fake. MSN would never ask you for your password.

hmm seems werid that MSN would ask for your password.

Did you contact them through the msn.com domain (ie: through the contact form) or email them stright?

From http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/fullnotice.aspx under "  Security of Your Personal Information"

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if a password is used to help protect your accounts and personal information, it is your responsibility to keep your password confidential. Do not share this information with anyone.

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Hmm.. I once read somewhere on MSN, "Never give our your password. Nobody from Hotmail, MSN or Microsoft will ever ask your password"...

Something like that, don't know where

well yeah indeed they are real hotmail support, because it is like the 5th reply.

actually what they exactly said was

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Account access consent:

"To continue to help you, I may have to access your account. If I have to access your account, I will have to reset your password. If you do not give me permission to access your account, I may not be able to continue to help you. May I have your permission to access your account if I must? If the answer is yes, please reply by saying, 'You have my permission to temporarily access my account.' As soon as I complete my troubleshooting, I will reset your account back to your original password, and then let you know that the issue has been resolved."

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Originally posted by zaher1988
what cofuses me, how they are going to reset back the password if they didn't know the previous ! i mean why they dont directly use the present password, why the reset !

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That sounds like it was typed by a robot
Tbh, I wouldn't trust it...

but i want this fixed http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=58000

Just tell them you don't feel comfortable giving your password out (even if its real and not some dodgy bot like Mike says )

they must have another way to find out <insert your problem here> without your password

well i have filled a list of 2 pages of questions an answers, and they have replied asking again for this, as they have also asked it along to the other questions and at that time i didn't answer it.

ciao

you could change your password too somdthing random,too me it sounds like a robot

why not export all of your contacts, then delete them all from MSN and hotmail then change your password (to something you wouldnt really use) and then give hem that. when they are done change your password again and import all of your contacts
that way they can not mess anything up and your password will never actually be revealed to them as you changed it specially (and your problem can be solved)

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Originally posted by DJKAL
why not export all of your contacts, then delete them all from MSN and hotmail then change your password (to something you wouldnt really use) and then give hem that. when they are done change your password again and import all of your contacts
that way they can not mess anything up and your password will never actually be revealed to them as you changed it specially (and your problem can be solved)

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yes, there is that
but even if it didnt you would have all of your contacts exported and they would have none of them in eithe rMSN or hotmail, but still sucks if they "stole" it and you had to get a new one

Well, if in the EULA it says "hotmail/msn will never ever ask you for your password", I'd go with that. Simply refuse to give them your password. Tell them if they want to do anything with your msn, they'll have to use remote access.

errrmmm... where in the mail do they ask for your password??? nowhere!

All they ask for is your permission to temporarly access your account, not for your password!! They can access any account by simply resetting the password temporarly, without needing the actual passwords (hence why specific MS helpdesk personel will never ask for your password: they don't need it!!! Though they need your permission to reset the password. And when they are done fixing, they simply restore the stored hash of the password.)

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Account access consent:

"To continue to help you, I may have to access your account. If I have to access your account, I will have to reset your password. If you do not give me permission to access your account, I may not be able to continue to help you. May I have your permission to access your account if I must? If the answer is yes, please reply by saying, 'You have my permission to temporarily access my account.' As soon as I complete my troubleshooting, I will reset your account back to your original password, and then let you know that the issue has been resolved."

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Originally posted by zaher1988
it is somehow different than what i expressed

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Originally posted by zaher1988
what cofuses me, how they are going to reset back the password if they didn't know the previous! i mean why they dont directly use the present password, why the reset !

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
errrmmm... where in the mail do they ask for your password??? nowhere!

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
errrmmm... where in the mail do they ask for your password??? nowhere!

All they ask for is your permission to temporarly access your account, not for your password!! They can access any account by simply resetting the password temporarly, without needing the actual passwords (hence why specific MS helpdesk personel will never ask for your password: they don't need it!!! Though they need your permission to reset the password. And when they are done fixing, they simply restore the stored hash of the password.)

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Zaher, due to privacy reasons we are not allowed to access to your account using your password. you will receive the password reset on an e-mail to your alternative e-mail address.

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Originally posted by zaher1988
exactly, but i mean it is funny, that they can't check my email , unless they access my email.

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Originally posted by zaher1988
NOW THE FUNNY THING IS
i've got a reply from them, after i asked if there is really a need to reset and why not just use my password that i can give them. and look at the answer

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Zaher, due to privacy reasons we are not allowed to access to your account using your password. you will receive the password reset on an e-mail to your alternative e-mail address.

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Originally posted by zaher1988
That's totaly different than the 1st story, which we were discussing, that says [b]"WE will revert back your original Password".

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Originally posted by zaher1988
now which of these is bogus

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Originally posted by zaher1988
how could we expect such behaviour from employees in such a "big" company, there should be a coordination, or a 1 rule method :/

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you will receive the password reset on an e-mail to your alternative e-mail address.

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Zaher1988,

There is, indeed, a small discrepancy here.  The first email you posted suggests they would restore your original password (as Cookie stated, this may work by swapping a hash, meaning they wouldn't actually know at any point what your password is).  The second message suggests your password would be reset to a new one, which would be emailed to your alternate email address.

I don't know why there are two scenarios -- perhaps they can do it both ways, perhaps one of the support agents made a small mistake describing it.  However, I think they are consistent on things that matter, which are:

1) They will not access your account without your explicit permission, which should be comforting to you.

2) They are not asking for your password. 

The difference between them using special access rights to view your account or change your password, and them asking you for your password, is that the first creates an audit trail and doesn't expose you if you've been silly and used the same password for many accounts at many places.  It also prevents them from keeping your password and accessing your account for who-knows-what purposes outside their job, without your knowledge.

I am not sure why you have as much of a problem with this as you seem to.  Ordinarily, I am first and foremost concerned with individual privacy, but sometimes it is necessary to see the problem to fix it -- and they are doing it right and asking for your consent.  If there is any information stored on your account that you would be uncomfortable with someone seeing, you have the opportunity to delete it before you tell them it is okay with you.

There are times you have to trust professionals who are just doing their job.  That applies as much here as it applies to your doctor. 

I would give my password to MSN support if they needed it to solve a problem that's bugging me a lot. But since they don't actually need your password but only your permission to acccess your account

Support changed my account settings a while back, with my permission. Nothing dodgy about it. True they didn't go into my actual email account but what do you think would happen if a microsoft helpdesk employer would "steal" accounts from their customers and the news got out? Honestly, they're just doing their job and if you are sure that the email is in fact from support and not something else, go for it and get them to solve your problem.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
What's so funny about that?

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
There's nothing dodgy or different about it. It is exactly the same as they said before only not with so many words.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Don't read stuff which isn't there; there is absolutly nothing funny or contradicting about those mails.

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Originally posted by NiteMare
this means they will inform you when they are done, and have reset your password, by e-mailing you at your alternative address, since you won't have access to the main address

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Originally posted by Renee
There is, indeed, a small discrepancy here.  The first email you posted suggests they would restore your original password (as Cookie stated, this may work by swapping a hash, meaning they wouldn't actually know at any point what your password is).  The second message suggests your password would be reset to a new one, which would be emailed to your alternate email address.

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Originally posted by Adeptus
1) They will not access your account without your explicit permission, which should be comforting to you.

2) They are not asking for your password. 

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Originally posted by Adeptus
I am not sure why you have as much of a problem with this as you seem to.  Ordinarily, I am first and foremost concerned with individual privacy, but sometimes it is necessary to see the problem to fix it -- and they are doing it right and asking for your consent.  If there is any information stored on your account that you would be uncomfortable with someone seeing, you have the opportunity to delete it before you tell them it is okay with you.

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Originally posted by Renee
would give my password to MSN support if they needed it to solve a problem that's bugging me a lot. But since they don't actually need your password but only your permission to acccess your account

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There is nothing contradicting in those two mails...

1) They will reset your password temporarly (as they will put back the old hash after they're done).

2) Whenever you or someone else, resets your password, temporary or not, you recieve a notification on your alternative email address. That's how the system works. And it is that which is described in the second mail.

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Originally posted by zaher1988
the funny is, they should be able to access, coz my email is on their servers! and they are the administators of these servers, and they should be able to modify any setting remotly.

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I'm with Cookie and segosa on this one, 100%. I mean, wth? It seems pretty clear cut to me.

Yeah I agree, it seems 100% real. Just send them the confirmation e-mail and see what happens.

I'd send back comfirmation.

Don't give out your password though, ever.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
There is nothing contradicting in those two mails...

1) They will reset your password temporarly (as they will put back the old hash after they're done).

2) Whenever you or someone else, resets your password, temporary or not, you recieve a notification on your alternative email address. That's how the system works. And it is that which is described in the second mail.

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