One of our readers got into a real jam recently while travelling. From her description, it’s a situation that any one of us could encounter when we’re out of the country. Here’s what happened to her. See if it’s possible for you to be in the same situation.

1. Our reader uses Hotmail/Outlook, the free email service from Microsoft. Millions of people use the same service, including the people at Computers Made Simple. We should point out that she has used the same hotmail account for over ten years.

2. As she didn’t travel with a laptop or connected mobile device, she made use of various computers to access Hotmail. Because of this, the security people at Outlook/Hotmail locked up her account. Until she could prove who she was, she could not sign-in.

3. If you’ve ever used one of the free web-based email services, you’ll know that you are often required to be able to receive a code via an SMS/text message sent to your mobile phone. Guess what? Our reader had used her landline as her contact number but had it disconnected while she was away. Ooops! No way to receive the code.

Does any of this look familiar? Could you see yourself in this situation? Even if you do travel with a cell phone, you probably wouldn’t have the use of the same number. Many people purchase a SIM card in the country they are in but this will not let them use their old cell number.

Microsoft/Outlook expected our reader to know something about her last ten emails, the subject line or the sender, in order to prove she was the account owner. Is that something that you would be able to provide? After jumping through seemingly endless hoops, our patient reader did get back into her account. We weren’t much help at all, to be honest, but her experience made us question what we would do if we were in the same situation.

Whether you use Hotmail or Gmail or Yahoo Mail, what trials and tribulations would you face if you were to head off on an extended trip through various countries? We can imagine that more than a few travellers have met with the same situation as the one in which our reader found herself. Yikes! The problem we face here at Computers Made Simple is that we don’t have an answer. Well, not a free one anyway. More on that later.

We’ve posted the question on Slashdot plus we’re doing some research into solutions. Once we find out how to avoid the problem, we’ll post the answer. Meanwhile, here are our suggestions:
1. Use a current and active cell phone number when setting up the security settings for your email account.

2. Leave that phone with a trusted relative/friend who will be able to receive any security code that you need to verify your identity.

3. Have your email forwarded to another account. This is only a partial solution but it could alleviate some of the tension when you can’t get into your main account.

That’s three but there are probably more that we can’t come up with right now. If you have some suggestions, let us know. Have you found yourself in the same situation? What happened? Did you manage to get back into your account? Let us know in a comment below or on our Facebook page. Here is the link:  Computers Made Simple on Facebook 

Finally, there is a fool-proof solution to all of this but it isn’t free. In our next post we’ll explain how to become your own postmaster. It’s not that expensive but it takes a bit of technical know-how to set up.

Thanks for reading!

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