My Microsoft account was taken over, and I can no longer access it despite submitting recovery requests. The attacker replaced my former primary email address with a .ru address. My Azure tenant is still connected to my email and credit card, but I have no way to sign in and remove the payment method. What options do I have for securing the billing details or closing the tenant?
3 Answers
Your best first step is to keep pursuing Microsoft support and clearly explain that the account was compromised, you cannot authenticate, and your payment method is still attached. Document every support attempt and provide billing records or card details only through official support channels. The difficult part is getting past automated verification when you do not have tenant access.
If Microsoft cannot restore access or remove the card, contact your credit-card provider and explain that the payment method is tied to a compromised account. In a similar situation, someone documented their failed recovery attempts and filed a dispute; billing eventually closed the account and refunded the charges. This may be more useful if there are active or unauthorized charges, but the card issuer can still advise you about blocking future billing or replacing the card.
There are no ongoing charges to dispute, but I still do not want the card attached to the inaccessible tenant. I may contact the card company to ask about blocking future transactions or replacing the card.
Be careful about using a Microsoft account that contains personal services as the recovery target. If the account cannot be recovered, access to things such as cloud files, photos, game purchases, or other subscriptions could also be affected. Secure any other services connected to that email and consider replacing the card if support cannot confirm that the billing relationship has been removed.
That is the frustrating part—without a business support plan or an established Microsoft contact, it can be extremely difficult to reach a human representative for an Azure account.