Hotmail asks to verify account each time

From time to time, Hotmail may ask subscribers to verify their accounts. Typically, users are made to solve a Human Interaction Proof (HIP) puzzle whenever they send an email. The challenge entails deciphering characters that only a real person could interpret and this helps in protecting the Hotmail service from spammers armed with automated programs that abuse the system by sending tons of unsolicited email. For more information, please what is CAPTCHA and why is it so important.

Unfortunately, you cannot turn off the Hotmail verification but its frequency may decrease when the system realizes that you are an actual human user and not an automated program. As far as I know, such a verification issue hasn’t been reported from the two other popular email services – Gmail and Yahoo – but I may be wrong.

I am a new user – why does Hotmail ask me to verify account each time?

Only the Hotmail staff know why certain accounts get the HIP challenge. However, based on the feedback I’ve received, it’s generally the new users who are asked to verify their Hotmail accounts but this doesn’t mean that old accounts are spared! Here are a few theories (mine, of course):

• Your Hotmail ID (Windows Live ID) looks like one made by a spammer (eg: kwgyrnssa@hotmail.com)
• New Hotmail users can send only a limited number of emails per day. This number is gradually increased to 300 messages in a 24-hour period. So if you have been hitting this value every day, the system may be forced to show the HIP puzzle again and again and ask you to verify your identity as a real human.
• Most of the messages you send trigger the spam detectors. The email could contain certain words or may be blank with only attachments.

Hotmail urges its users to solve these HIP puzzles as they help the fight against spammers. For detailed help with screenshots on how to do this quickly, please read Windows Live email account verification. However, if you are a genuine user and are plagued with this issue, contact the Hotmail staff or post your concerns on the windowslivehelp.com web site – maybe you can get the verification challenge removed manually.

By the way, don’t get conned by a phishing email that threatens you to verify your Hotmail accounts – read that for more info.