My mother needs to verify her outlook account using an alternative email address

[brazen oracle]

Phone Support is only provided to Microsoft institute or organisation customers and people with accessibility issues

You can access live chat via the website

[earnest obsidian]

We do not have the access to assist with purchasing and account queries. Please contact official Microsoft support.

[warm ferry]

That's what we've done

It sends us to the support website which doesn't help

[sullen rock]

Yeah Microsoft Australia ain't doing anything for you. I can't even get business support to actually do anything for me when I call them. Can barely even get live chat.

[brazen oracle]

You’ve not mentioned what the actual issue is other than previously your mother hasn’t needed to add recovery details

What is preventing her from logging in

[warm ferry]

Verification

I forgot to mention that sorry

[sullen rock]

I'm assuming you have tried just sending a code or smth to a random email you'd have even if its not related to the account

[warm ferry]

wdym

[sullen rock]

Like is it asking for a specific email address for verification or something else

[warm ferry]

yes

She's had the account for 17 years and she doesn't recall ever having to put an alternative email for any verifications

[brazen oracle]

Hm well if one has never been added it certainly shouldn’t be asking for one - does it give a partial email of the one it’s asking for?

[sullen rock]

If yes, then to me it sounds like someone could have logged in and probably added the email address themselves then turned on 2 step verification, which leaves little to no hope of recovery

[warm ferry]

it says an email address but we have no clue what email it is

[brazen oracle]

Is it an unusual domain or typical one like gmail, hotmail, outlook etc?

Assuming it provides that part

[warm ferry]

its hotmail

[sullen rock]

And I'm assuming the first 2 characters before the * don't even match your mother's email at all?

[warm ferry]

Nope

[brazen oracle]

You typically don’t see hacked accounts using hotmail as an alias or recovery email

[sullen rock]

Sometimes you do its not surprising in my case, but yeah it is less common than others

[brazen oracle]

Well that Is certainly still on the table

It sounds like the password hasn’t changed which is odd, especially if this email has been recently added, as you would receive a notification relating to the changes to the account