Help restoring lost contacts!

[Mr. Mimiyagi]

My daughter's upset. And when she's upset, I feel the brunt of her wrath!!!

Someone (one of her contact's obviously) has somehow gotten into her messenger (has to be remotely of course) and has deleted all of her contact's. (I've read where this is impossible to do, but it's been done).

I deleted her Messenger 6 and reinstalled it hoping that when she log's in her contact's would be picked up again, but to no avail.

Can someone please help me on this and tell me how I can get her contact's back for her? And secondly, tell me how this was done. I'm not a vendictive person, but if someone wants to hack, then I would like to know how to retaliate.

All help appreciated on this and

Greeeeetz

[Tigerblade]

all i can think of is that someone found out or guessed her password and logged in, then deleted her contacts. I'll have to let someone else in the forum who knows more than i do suggest a way to fix it, but i'd suggest keeping a list somewhere of the contacts on her/your list (like in a Word document) so if it happens again all you have to do is retype them... although i'd still be pissed if someone deleted all my contacts... sorry man

[David]

This might work, but only if her contacts still have HER on THEIR list.

Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Right-click + "Add to Contact list"

[Binky]

umm, this is why it's best to save your contact list when you have lots of people in it. Most likely, when she's logged in, people will chat to her and she can add them as they talk.
you could try contacting MSN but in my experience they are not very helpful.

make sure that she makes her 'secret question' relitively hard to guess in the future.

[Jeff]

I'd consider it a blessing. Usually over time, there are some people you still keep in touch with, and others that simply fade into oblivion. This is her chance to start fresh with a clean contact list.

David's idea is a good one. Most of her true friends will have her on their list. The only step he left out is this: after you go to the Privacy tab, click the View... button next to "See who has added you to their contact list." She'll get a list of everyone who has her on their list, and as David noted, she can right-click the name and add them to her contact list.

[shifter]

quote:Originally posted by Mr. Mimiyagi

Someone (one of her contact's obviously) has somehow gotten into her messenger (has to be remotely of course) and has deleted all of her contact's. (I've read where this is impossible to do, but it's been done).

It's likely that your daughter has inadvertently let some information slip to one of her contacts. Make sure you change her password and her secret question to something impossible to guess.

Any user can reset your password with the correct information and then login in and do what they please on her messenger account.

[sciencefeeling]

I think I said this before...there is a way that someone can remove your contacts, without really having bad intention. I don´t know if this is true anymore, but some time ago, if someone signed on in Outlook express while you had your msn on on the same computer...then your contacts were taken by Outlook and were added to his/her contact list...if this person then (surprised), removed them from outlook, then they would be removed from your own list too.
It happened to me and I did lose all my contact list at the time...and what they were doing was trying to help me keep my privacy!!.
I know is probably not the case...but it is not totally impossible...cause we do let people look their e-mail, and we do check msn in other´s people computer, right?
With XP you can let someone else control your computer remotelly so they can fix something for you...but she obviously didn´t allow anyone...so this is not likely to have happened.
This is just a comment..., hope is not too out of the question.
N.-

[Marika]

My question to this topic is now the opposite:
My daughter uses the family computer for MSN messenger (5). When I sign on to Outlook Express (6), a bunch of her contacts are in my contact list, even though she is logged out of MSN at the time. How does this happen and how can I stop it from happening? She is getting fed up with me deleting her contacts and I am getting fed up with all these weird names in my contact list.

ps under privacy we have already deselected "don't store my address book".

[sciencefeeling]

I read your post before and did some research with my own outlook express.
The truth is I stoped using it after that happened without even trying to fix it, so I am not really sure what I am going to tell you is going to help in any way.
The fact is, OE takes the contact from: a. your address book and b. the default IM program. That is, if you set MSN msgr. to be your default IM program...then it will take contacts from it. In my case I set AIM to be my default IM program so it used to take it from there.
First thing to do is not allow MSN and Windows Messenger (very important) to connect directly when windows start or to run in the back.
In IE check Tools-Options-Programs-Contact List-check that it says address book, and not other program.
Then in OE-Tools-Options-unckeck "Directly connect to MSN messenger".
With this settings it stops taking my contacts...from any IM program...see if it works for you
N.-

[FrutZle]

Also check the Tools > Options menu's Privacy tab to make sure you've checked the checkbox for "This is a shared computer so don't store my address book on it". Since you're using MSN Messenger 5 the wording and location of that checkbox might be slightly different than what I just wrote, but with a little searching in the options you should be able to find it.