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Could someone reopen my closed email account?

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Summary: After deleting an on-line account the ID is eventually made available for re-use. It's the same name but a different owner, and that can confuse people.

I have terminated my Yahoo account. There's a clause in the form that says that after 90 days my user ID can be made available to others. Does that mean that if someone then snaps up my old user name they could start impersonating me? Would he see everyone on my contact list? Would my old contacts see him and think I was back on-line?

Could that person try and impersonate you? Yes.

Will it be easy? Maybe.

This actually applies to all the services, not just Yahoo. The "90 days" part might change, but the basics would still apply.

When you close or abandon your account with any of the email or IM service providers, they typically do exactly what you've seen called out in the Yahoo text: after some period of time they make your abandoned user name available again. To anyone. All someone has to do it sign up and ask for it.

Now, exactly when it's returned to the available pool of names varies greatly. If you close your account with your ISP they could make your ID available again the next day if they wanted to. Most free services like Yahoo and others wait at least 30 days and most wait much more.

Typically, if you attempt to use your old name before time runs out it resets the clock. I mean, if you're successfully logging into it, you're clearly not "abandoning" it. Even if you go through a provider's steps to cancel an account, there's often a grace period after that where you can change your mind, login and "un-cancel" it.

Things get a little confusing when folks use two different services from the same provider, say email and instant messaging, that use the same ID. Using either one is usually enough to keep the other alive.

When your account is finally, really and completely closed by the provider, I believe several things happen:

  • Any email, files or other items stored in the account are irretrievably deleted.

  • Any contacts, friends or buddy lists are irretrievably deleted.

  • I hope that buddy lists maintained by the provider that reference your ID will remove you.

(Sometimes, as in the case of Hotmail, these things can actually happen well before the account is finally closed.)

The last point, however, is both incomplete and uncertain.

For example, I might have your account in my contacts in MSN Instant Messenger. When your account is finally truly deleted MSN could remove you from my list. I'd actually expect it to.

However these services can't remove you from lists that they don't manage. That means if someone adds you to an address book that's not part of the service, there's no way to remove that when your ID is deleted.

Even more likely are services that allow you to maintain a kind of combined address book, buddy and contact list where you can add information of your own to each contact. In these cases the services may not be able to just delete the entry, because they'd be deleting additional information that your old buddy may have entered. I know I'd be annoyed if the system just deleted the whole thing out from underneath me.

So in summary, if someone picks up your ID after it's been deleted:

  • Any data in your account is lost, so they will not see your contact list or old email.

  • It's possible that it might look like you "came back" to people who used to be your buddies. It depends on the service, and how your buddies kept track of your ID.

In the long run, if you're at all concerned and particularly for free accounts, I'd simply keep the account open so that someone else doesn't get it.

To be totally honest, it's one reason why I'm very confused by the number of people who are looking for ways to delete their account immediately. All they're really doing is making it possible for someone else to sign up and get their old ID that much sooner.

Important: sadly, since I know it will happen, I'll delete any comments to this article that are simply requests to delete an account.

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Article C2991 - April 9, 2007

Recent Comments
31 Comments

Account Closed. Access Denied.
Your account has been closed because of concerns over violations of the Terms of Use. If you want your account to be re-opened, please follow these instructions:
1. Click on the link below, and complete the e-form by providing your name, an email address where we can reach you, and the name of the account that has been closed.

2. In the box labelled Please Select An Option, choose "Connection/Sign In Problem".

3. In the next box label ed Please Select An Option, choose "Account Closed. Access Denied."

4. Complete the two additional questions with a red star (*) by them (they are required fields) and click Submit

Posted by: Bertus at May 13, 2009 10:22 AM

Same thing happened to me. Account was closed and acces is denied. WHAT DO WE DO NOW. I keep sending emails to the abuse@hotmail.com but nothing comes out of it. It says that an anwser should be given within 24 hours - well it's been over 2 weeks now. Is there a possibility that my email may never be re-opened and all my emails may be lost? Can someone actually help?

Yes, this is Hotmail, it has almost no customer service, and it's very possible that your account has been lost. I hear about it all the time for many, many different reasons.
If there's any chance at all, I would have you start here: How do I contact Windows Live Hotmail customer service?
- Leo
14-May-2009

Posted by: Magda at May 13, 2009 8:46 PM

Thanks!today I was just thinking to delete my account without thiking,but than,Thanks to God,it struck in my mind,that if someone else started using it.......that will not be good...and after reading ur answer...im resolved that if someone want to delete account,one should first tell friends that im going to do so....and if someone else start using this id,be sure that it will be not me...afcourse...thanks

Posted by: shehr at May 22, 2009 1:48 AM

Same thing happened to me. Account was closed and acces is denied. WHAT i can DO NOW

Posted by: bader at June 6, 2009 3:13 AM

As soon as tried to access my email i received this message. i do not understand anything as i have not not something wrong!i have been receiving several postmaster delivery notifications failure when i didn't even send those emails. i deleted all those postmasters and now my account is closed!do you have an idea how i can reopen my account plz??? when i tried to access the link i got nothing so i couldn't solve this problem. could you please help me out i dunno what to do!!!

Your account has been closed because of concerns over violations of the Terms of Use. If you want your account to be re-opened, please follow these instructions:

1. Click on the link below, and complete the e-form by providing your name, an email address where we can reach you, and the name of the account that has been closed.

2. In the box labeled Please Select An Option, choose "Connection/Sign In Problem".

3. In the next box labeled Please Select An Option, choose "Account Closed. Access Denied."

4. Complete the two additional questions with a red star (*) by them (they are required fields) and click Submit.

An agent will review your account and notify you within 24-hours if your account has been re-opened. Please DO NOT submit multiple tickets, as this will delay processing of your original ticket.

Posted by: Lubnah at June 20, 2009 10:06 AM

the same problem of my hot mail which is account closed according to terms of use and i have sended to abuse@hotmail.com and do all but they answer that it's not in their boundary so wht the solution is????? i have work to do, will it be solved automatically or wht , to whom we can geet specific solution???????? help me out here!!

Posted by: mohamed hafez at June 22, 2009 12:31 AM

my e-mail account has blocked. i not know it reason of blocking. plz help me, that i reopen my account again.

Posted by: rao at June 27, 2009 2:10 AM

can you please open my account for some reason it was closed.

Posted by: angeline trene at June 27, 2009 11:16 AM

my account has been closed and access denied.. when i try to submit a request to re-open my account the link appears to be brocken
plz tell me wt i should do

thx

Posted by: Safa at July 2, 2009 4:15 PM

the same done with me i didn't forget my password but i can't reopen it do i make another one?

Posted by: samar nassar at August 29, 2009 3:08 AM

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