I set up Windows Live Mail desktop with a Hotmail account and two accounts
from my ISP that I have been using for years. My Hotmail account does not
have any contacts in it; I imported some (264) contacts from a CSV
(originally from Outllok) and that worked okay.



The next time I got into there were 1500 contacts exactly. I deleted all of
the unknown contacts. Next time I got into the program (the next day) they
were back. This has happened repeatedly and the total - legitimate contacts
and unknown - is always 1500.

Ever more weird, all of the contacts have name, address, phone number, and
company name, but no email, website, or anything else. Moreover, it appears
that all of them are advertising/promotional product companies.

I removed my Hotmail account, but that made no difference. I have not been
receiving unusual amounts of spam, nor or there any other anomalies.

Does anyone have any idea why this happens and how to stop it? Thank you.

The presence of a Hotmail account does not generate or modify contacts(the account only is used for sending and receiving mail).
Nor will removing the Hotmail account have an impact on Contacts.

The use of a Live ID to sign on to Windows Live in WLM will sync the Live ID's contacts and calendar with those present on the web
server for that same Live ID(all Hotmail type accounts[hotmail.com, live.com, msn.com, live.ca etc) are Live ID's. When signed on
WLM will sync the contacts from the server and create a local, identical contact database for use, but only when that given Live ID
is used to signon to Windows Live.

WLM also provides the ability to use only a local set of contacts(no Live ID sign on to Windows Live) and will not sync with the
web server but will create a local contact database for use when not signed on with a Live ID in WLM.

Which mode(sign on with a Live ID or no sign on) did you import your contacts ?

If you are not running the latest version of WLM, upgrading should be done...since the current version has an updated Windows Live
Communication Platform that is used for managing all contacts(in both modes)
- the current version is 14.0.8117.0416 and available at download.live.com


--
...winston
ms-mvp mail

"Kit Mecum" <Kit Mecum@newsgroup> wrote in message news:2A9A8654-A401-47AF-93AB-EBB544B65FA6@newsgroup

> I set up Windows Live Mail desktop with a Hotmail account and two accounts
> from my ISP that I have been using for years. My Hotmail account does not
> have any contacts in it; I imported some (264) contacts from a CSV
> (originally from Outllok) and that worked okay.
>
> The next time I got into there were 1500 contacts exactly. I deleted all of
> the unknown contacts. Next time I got into the program (the next day) they
> were back. This has happened repeatedly and the total - legitimate contacts
> and unknown - is always 1500.
>
> Ever more weird, all of the contacts have name, address, phone number, and
> company name, but no email, website, or anything else. Moreover, it appears
> that all of them are advertising/promotional product companies.
>
> I removed my Hotmail account, but that made no difference. I have not been
> receiving unusual amounts of spam, nor or there any other anomalies.
>
> Does anyone have any idea why this happens and how to stop it? Thank you.