Skype Got Hacked – How To Recover

Skype has millions of active daily users and is one of the most popular platforms for both personal and professional communication. Hackers know it too, and that’s why they work hard to take control over busy Skype accounts. It doesn’t matter what you use Skype for – it’s essential that you do everything you can to protect your account.

If you wake up to find out you are locked out of your account, you will have to contact support and prove that you are the original owner. Read on to learn what to do when your account gets hacked.

Contact Support

When you realize that you can’t access your Skype account anymore, the only thing you can do is contact Microsoft support. Skype doesn’t allow you to enter a backup email address, and there are no unique questions you can answer to prove that you are the rightful owner. That can create huge problems because you could have a hard time proving that you are the owner of the hacked account.

Many users have lost their accounts entirely because they couldn’t provide enough information to prove their ownership. But that’s not the only issue. Skype requires you to enter personal information like your phone number and email, so if you suspect that your account got hacked, you should try changing the password immediately. If you can’t do that, make sure to change the passwords on all accounts connected to your Skype profile like your email to prevent further damage.

If there is nothing else you can do, you will have to contact Skype support and ask for their help. The support team will then try to figure out if you are the real owner. But if the hacker changed your Skype information, the chances that you’ll get the account back are slim to non-existent. Many users have lost access to their hacked accounts because hackers were faster at changing the account information than they were at reporting it to the support team.

How to Tell When Your Account Is Under Attack?

The truth is that it’s hard to tell if someone is trying to hack your Skype account. Hackers know how to find personal information about people, and they are good at doing that. That is why you should set up the two-step verification feature when creating a Skype account. Most hackers use phishing and fake emails to extract sensitive information from users.

Phishing

Don’t trust unknown users pretending to be a part of some company. Hackers often portray themselves as trusted companies, hoping to extract personal information they can later use against you. If an unknown contact starts asking personal questions and requests you to share sensitive information like your passwords and credit card info, block them right away.

Fraudulent Emails

You can get a fraudulent email on the address you use to log in to your Skype account asking you to fill in some personal info. In 99% of the cases, those emails are sent by hackers who want to take control of your profile. Don’t share any information unless you are absolutely sure the sender is who they claim they are.

Prevention Is Key

It can already be too late to retrieve your Skype account once it gets hacked, so it’s crucial that you do everything you can to protect yourself before the worst happens. Prevention is the key, which is why it’s best that you merge your Skype account with your Windows account. You should also set up the two-factor authentication to make sure that no one else gets a hold of your account.

Two-Factor Protection

The two-step verification process will protect your account because Skype will ask you to enter a unique code that will be sent to you every time you want to log in. You can either get emails or have text messages sent to your phone. This is what you have to do to set it up:

1. Go to https://account.microsoft.com and sign in.
2. Select “More security options.”
3. Find “Two-step verification” and select “Set up two-step verification.” Turn it on and follow the instructions to set it up.

Merge Skype with Your Microsoft Account

The other method that will help you protect your Skype account is merging it with your Microsoft account. Here is how you do that:

1. Go to https://account.microsoft.com and sign in.
2. Enter your Skype name and use your Skype password to log in.
3. Sign in and merge the accounts to create a Skype alias.

Use All the Tools Available

Sadly, many users learn that prevention is vital only when they lose their Skype accounts. It’s essential that you do everything you can to protect your account from day one. That’s even more important if you use Skype to conduct business and make purchases. Set up the two-factor verification process and merge your Skype and Microsoft accounts to make sure that the hackers can’t take over your account.

Did you ever suspect that someone wanted to hack your Skype account? What did you do to prevent hackers from taking control of your account? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below.