EU General Data Protection 2018 Hotmail Outlook .com Request Credit Card details?

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In response to the question I asked where absolutely no one could believe we could legitimately be asked for credit card details and full address to access an email account, I have been through it all with microsoft now and they say it is legit, even though it pops up exactly the same as a malware attack on your network or a hack!!

*update: love it that no one believes microsoft would do this and that the scammers are that sophisticated! I don't have access to microsoft other than through this IP address, though I went through Office 365 billing - if anyone else is in a position to get through to them it would be great!

The Story:

When I found myself locked out of my 20 year old hotmail email account and directed to a childproof landing page that insisted I needed credit card details and full address before May 6th to keep using my email account I immediately thought only scams and attackers ask for these details, no email account would request this and I asked people here did they know anything about it.

After eventually getting microsoft online chat* and having to waste a lot of time working my way through various assistants and virtual assistants it turns out THIS IS TOTALLY LEGIT, freshly rolled out, one of the assistants reacted as if she too found it unacceptable, but in the end I got hit with 'microsoft requires', basically they are the law and I must conform. Though it seems not part of our original deal on signing up to email with them.

  • Microsoft hotmail and outlook .com email accounts are demanding credit card details and full address to be typed in when trying to access certain email accounts, exactly the same way a malware attack or hacker would steal your email account!!!
  • AND they were charging a fee that they would donate to UNICEF!!

It was very hard to get through to them and then they said that any account that was a child or mistaken in the system as a child account was now requesting credit card details and address. And any adult who got labelled wrongly had to provide photo ID to verify their age. Even though my hotmail was in use in 1999 they have me down as 2011 date of birth and I got caught in this net. Now I would have to provide a driver licence or something official to prove I was an adult - or I could still get my parents to give their credit card details lol and address!!

The last time I provided official photo ID was for a .ie domain name extension and I could barely believe it was required then, and it meant wasting more time to and fro over and back, taking photos, uploading and waiting for them to accept all that.

I asked them to notice they had a record of the age of my email account - 20 years old which showed it could not be a child account! . Also they were emailing me bills for Office 365 which involves payment details linked to that account already. But that evidence was not enough. They have been given an order and they intend to streamroll right over the obvious to comply with filling their forms neatly. ''Microsoft requires'', but Microsoft cannot see!

Conclusion

I wasn't in a position to upload a photo to verify my date of birth with official photo ID at that time of live chat, but it seems either I changed my age on the email account that way or got parental consent involving their credit card. They could make the age go away with some effort on my part but not so good at the credit card scam-like request.

And even though they hinted there might be another way for parents to give consent without credit card that was not revealed by them, even though it was my primary request in all this, and clearly was something they hadn't rolled out as a clear choice to people either. It seems any parent who has a child with a hotmail account will be told to submit their credit card unless they object and spend time finding alternative ways, which still elude me , and of course it is easier to #deletehotmail

Also, I didn't like the 'new update' that assumes it can just take my credit card details and charge and donate to UNICEF or wherever until I accidentally find out what is going on.



*Thanks to everyone who replied to my question and confirmed what I feel about giving credit cards for email!

And also thanks to IvyT for giving me an idea how to actually get through to microsoft for an answer..


I include snippets of the long and boring convesation below - it is not worth reading as time is precious and people have websites to be working on - however if anyone finds themselves needing to know more on the issue, if their credit card is being demanded or whatever, it will show them what to expect.

I will just take what's important from the old email account and bail, it was full of spam newsletters anyway, time for a spring clean and move onto fresher email pastures.

ps anyone who is being blocked with the childproof landing page and needs to access the email account press SKIP, as at first glance they have us locked out but skip is a temporary reprieve till May 6th




Agen

Age

Finally I get to state the Problem

MeME:

my office 365 account is to my hotmail address but that is showing a chidproof verification lock out threat and asking for credit card details and address

the date for it is May 6th, but no credit card and address should be asked online, is it a scam, the childproof landing page keeps coming up?

It is legit!!!!


btw the wrong dob is on my account, 2011 I am an adult

Agent

AGENT:

It's legit, Mary. This happens when your account is listed as a child account (date of birth is set to 16 and below.)

Me

ME:

why ask for credit card details and address?

Agent

AGENT:

Let me contact our Microsoft Account team for you to fix this.

AgentIt is because your Microsoft account was recently identified as a child account (Microsoft account age under 16 years old). Parental consent will be rolling out for countries in the EU starting in March to align with EU General Date Protection Regulationand this is the reason why you are getting this prompt message.

Me

ME:

data protection does not ask for credit card details and full address, everyone thinks this is a malware attack, no way do we give this for an email account

Agent

AGENT:

I understand, Mary. The small fee that is being collected goes to charity (UNICEF) but no worries if you don't want to provide your card information, we have prepared certain process for you to fix this. We just need the assistance of our Microsoft Account team.

AgentI am currently trying to contact our Microsoft Account team for you.

Me

ME:

I didn't even realize there was a fee! What I object to in the first place is how dangerous this request as a precedent. The fee is a double insult

Agent

AGENT:

Oh, I am really sorry for this one, Mary. I understand how you feel. The process was just rolled out recently but no worries, I will forward your feedback to our higher support team for them to take actions about it.

Agent

AgentBy the way, I will now connect you to Melody, one of our best Microsoft Account representative for further assistance.

Agent

Agent Transfer

AGENT:

Agen

Agent

AgentTo verify that an adult is giving a child permission, or if the account owner is an adult but was detected to be a child due to incorrect date of birth, Microsoft requests a credit card to be linked to the Adult's Microsoft account. If a credit card is already linked to the account, you will only enter the CVV to verify they are an adult.

AgentThe credit card will be associated with the parent's account which is not accessible by the child account unless it is added to the child account as well.

Now I need a photo ID and to donate 50c to UNICEF to access my hotmail email account...

ME:

Me'microsoft requests a credit card' so does malware, this is unacceptible

Meand what did the other assistant mean by fee?

AgentAGENT

AgentThe 0.50 cents/Euro fee will either be added to the account the parent specifies or the charge will result in a donation.

Agent

1.) Donated to UNICEF

2.) Can be added on the parent or child account's funds

UNRESOLVED, there's a way to do this without a credit card but it's not offered first, or at all in my case

AGENT:

AgentBut then again if you do not want to provide a credit card we have other way to verify your account

ME:

Meso if the correct dob had been on there in the first place none of this is necessary?

Agent

MeI have a microsoft office 365 account billed monthly, my hotmail account is over 20 years old, it looks like your paperwork has gone mad?

AGENT:

AgentYes it is

ME:

Meyes to what - all people now have to provide photo id for their hotmail or 20 year old accounts and billing can't be acknowledged on your system?

AGENT:

AgentI understand you however this is a part of the update here in Microsoft

Me

ME:

any update that bad needs revision

Me

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Recent Comments

48

How would you know when it's a scam or legit. This is really scary to me.
Thanks for sharing.

yep, I thought they were legit when I was in chat with them, but what they are asking is just so crazy, and the way they asked it - if it was legit they've been badly advised on this and then one comment from stn67 makes ya wonder all over again :D

but no one felt safe with what was proposed, that is interesting

I would be very careful.

Time to move providers.

All the best

Jon

Thanks Jon

I'd drop them like a hot potato, Mary!

Jim

yeah, gods like that either way I'm out!

Sounds complicated and frustrating. I would’ve probably just said forget it and opened a new account, but good for you for seeing it through!
All the best,
Marcus

well I'm about to say forget it and move elsewhere, so your approach would have saved me some time :D

That's wild Mary,

very interesting that your year of birth says 2011 when the account is over 20 years old.

Have you tried searching on the official website for a phone number so that you can call and actually talk with someone?

I still find the issue very alarming and strange, what if the hacker set up a live chat in your account.

I sincerely pray that it all comes out positively for you my Friend,

Tony

normally the date would be significant but I can't rule out I may have edited the details over the years - I always try to confuse these online forms when they snoop on me

I don't think they set up a live chat, I was in office 365 and it was very sophisticated, there was I think an option to phone there too but I chose chat - but the same people doing chat are the phone too - it looked legit but who knows!

Amazingly fishy.

Good Luck with everything. This still looks fishy. but I hope all is okay.

yes I don't think any should ever comply with anything that looks like this, it would not be a good move for the internet for companies to suddenly 'imitate' malware attacks, I'm not giving in to them, whoever they are!

Did you get an incident #, an email from MS (but how would you read it). Maybe they can send you an incident number to a google email.
These sound weird.
"... It looks like your paperwork has gone mad..."
"...I will now connect you to Melody, one of our best Microsoft Account representative for..."

Back in the day, I remember giving ccrd info for a $1 charge to prove age. But I have not seen that lately.

How did you contact MS? Third party sounds fishy.

It does not happen that way. If you buy some of Microsoft's products, do it from their member area. You have been chatting with a third party who is only looking for your credit card information.

Likely so.

I went in through office 365 billing onto their chat line from there...they would have let me go through an age change thing which was too lengthy, but you make me want to go put a question mark on the title of this all the same!

I do not pay for hotmail. Why should you pay? It is here. I pay to them for some Xbox games for my son. I do not use their Office package

I don't have mobile or access to wifi elsewhere - only one network - so can you ask microsoft if they are doing this - I went through my billing account for Office 365 to access that chat, the range of options there was pretty sophisticated

It would be nice to nail it down one way or the other for sure

yeah, you would contact them through xbox the way I did through office, my point to them precisely, it is ridiculous on email but they pinned it down to child parental consent and a new rule they'd come up with...I'd like them exposed if they are imitating malware, and malware exposed if they are imitating hotmail!

Ok, I can see that there is a completely different online setup that you have compared to what we have. We have both hardvire, wifi. and data. It just sounds a bit wild you have to pay to protect a webmail.

Utterly amazing. I have a very old ymail account that is starting to hassle me to upgrade and I keep ignoring it. I wonder if this same scenario is going to happen to me.

it probably won't ask for card details but who are you with, I have had rocketmail / yahoo hassle me to upgrade and sometimes the upgrades are not improvements at all

Yahoo mail is very useless. I have abandoned them, there's always problem of opening up your mail. They always cry security, yet its the most targeted, you wonder why.

This is an old yahoo account before they became gmail. Well over 20 years old.

I will NEVER supply any card details to ant e-mail account, otherwise I will create another one, although most accounts will be lost though. Its ridiculous my dear, although I can understand the child case scenario in the case. Thanks for this briefing.

thanks for confirming how I feel, just seems so cheeky of them and it will get so confusing going forward, they literally are imitating a malware attack the way they pop up block and redirect !

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