someone is sending scam Emails to my contacts threw MY Hotmail account

Hi Jerry and Sharon,

There are 2 possibilities that come to mind as most likely.

1. Your new password was guessed
2. One of your PCs or devices has been compromised (i.e. hacked).

Hopefully it is 1 as this is relatively easy to address if you still have access to the account (i.e. you can still logon).

a. Goto https://account.microsoft.com/

b. Go to Security on the left hand side

c. go to 'manage how I sign in'

d. Add a new way to sign in or verify

In here you will want to set up some authentication methods such as passkeys, sign in notifications, authentication apps, etc. Basically a second factor of authentication in addition to your password and/or passwordless authentication. Remove any old ones. Turn on two step authentication. etc. Here's a handy article from the top of that page
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/account-billing/microsoft-account-security-info-verification-codes-bf2505ca-cae5-c5b4-77d1-69d3343a5452?OCID=AMC_Security_MoreOptions_LearnMore

This will help to address the problem of someone guessing your password and taking over your email.

e. while you are in the account pages, check the other pages like devices and clean up old devices and logout other sessions, etc.

For possibility 2, let's hope not, but start looking out for other weird stuff happening. Run an antivirus scan on each of your devices which you use to accesss hotmail. (devices from accounts page may help identify them but doesn't include smart phone and browser based access) don't use public computers to access hotmail, etc.

Start with locking down your account and see how you go....

Regards,

Geoff