Hello diamond,
Yes, you can indeed close a free MSN (Hotmail) account, regardless of
when it was opened. It takes a little patience to find out how, and
it doesn't immediately release the e-mail name, but it is possible.
To close a free MSN account, you need to log in, then click "Help".
Scroll all the way to the bottom, to the search box entitled "Need
more help?". Enter "close account" and click go. You'll receive
instructions to visit the "Close Account" page (You cannot view any
of these pages unless you are logged in to your account).
The "Close Account" page reads:
"By closing this account, you are marking your account inactive.
Stored e-mail and addresses will be permanently deleted and inbound
mail will be refused. Your .NET Passport will still function, and your
e-mail name will be reserved.
To re-activate your account, simply go to http://www.hotmail.com and
enter your Sign-In name and password. You will then be able to send
and receive e-mail using MSN Hotmail once again.
If your account stays 'inactive' for over a period of 90 days, it will
be permanently deleted. This delay is necessary to discourage users
from engaging in fraudulent activity. Additionally, due to the limited
number of names available, we may allow other users to sign up for and
use your current e-mail name after your account has been permanently
deleted."
Clicking the "Close Account" button will bring you to a page which
reads:
"Your account has been closed and scheduled for deletion.
Stored e-mail and addresses are being scheduled to be permanently
deleted, and inbound mail will be refused. Your .NET Passport will
still function, and your MSN Hotmail e-mail name will be reserved.
To re-activate your account, simply go to http://www.hotmail.com and
enter your Sign-In name and password. You will then be able to send
and receive e-mail using MSN Hotmail once again.
If your account stays 'inactive' for over a period of 90 days, it will
be permanently deleted. This delay is necessary to discourage users
from engaging in fraudulent activity. Additionally, due to the limited
number of names available, we may allow other users to sign up for and
use your current e-mail name after your account has been permanently
deleted."
I clicked close (since one can re-activate the account simply by
logging in again within 90 days), then sent a test e-mail.
The headers and text of the failure notice follow (slightly edited for
my privacy):
To: missy@missy
Subject: failure notice
Hi. This is the qmail-send program at secure.hummer5.net.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following
addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
<[elided]@hotmail.com>:
65.54.254.140 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable
Giving up on 65.54.254.140.
--- Below this line is a copy of the message.
Return-Path: <missy@missy>
Received: (qmail 8460 invoked from network); 31 Mar 2003 22:03:39
-0000
Received: from cblmdm63-166-32-206.buckeye-express.com (HELO
missy.missy-ga.info) (63.166.32.206)
by gee.nbnetwork.co.uk with SMTP; 31 Mar 2003 22:03:39 -0000
Message-Id: <5.2.0.9.2.20030331165604.00a4ba10@localhost>
X-Sender: missy@missy/ns3.astrahosting.net@localhost
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.0.9
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 16:56:40 -0500
To: [elided]@hotmail.com
From: Missy <missy@missy>
Subject: Test
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Testing for Bounce message
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hope this helps!
--Missy |
