I can’t close my late mum’s Skype account
Ms S.C. writes: Microsoft has proved unwilling to close the Skype account of my late mother since it appeared to be hacked last November. I have sent it her death certificate and the Grant of Probate, but I have made no progress. It would appear the only way it would consider closing the Skype account is if I obtain a court subpoena. But I am not asking it for any information, just the closure of the account. It appears uninterested in the fact it has been hacked. YOUR mother died in 2012, but suddenly last November her Skype account burst into life again when someone you know received a message from it. The message recommended a dating website, with the claim: ‘It’s better than Tinder!’
You contacted Microsoft, which runs Skype, and you were asked for your mother’s death certificate, which you supplied. Shockingly, Microsoft replied: ‘We are unable to assist with the accounts of people who have passed away.’
You replied that as the executor of your mother’s estate, you wanted a supervisor to reconsider the matter. But the supervisor told you: ‘We cannot delete or make changes to an account without the account owner’s permission, regardless of the situation.’
She added: ‘For Microsoft to make any changes, a subpoena needs to be provided.’ She gave you 24 hours to reply or the company would regard the matter as closed.
I have the strong feeling Microsoft only paid heed to US laws. When you contacted the company’s UK office in Reading, you were told it had never received such a request from an executor. You kept being told staff could not give you any information about your mother’s Skype account – even when you repeatedly told it you did not want information, just for the account to be closed so the hacker could not use it.
I asked Microsoft exactly what families should do in these circumstances – or was it happy to let the names of deceased Skype users bounce around cyberspace apparently sending inappropriate messages and upsetting their relatives. Microsoft told me it would immediately suspend the account and that ‘the team are working with the customer’ – overlooking the fact that your mother died six years ago.
Finally, Microsoft admitted it had mishandled your closure request. It said: ‘The account in question has now been blocked and can no longer be used.’ Microsoft said it would review what had gone wrong and implement any necessary improvements to avoid a repetition.
The internet giant then came back and said its review had given it the chance to re-examine and clarify procedures. It concluded: ‘If a family would like to close the account of a deceased relative, they should contact us at support@microsoft. com, where they will need to first validate ownership of the account.’
My confidence was only slightly dented by the fact that a day later Microsoft told you the company is ‘now working to adjust our processes to provide assistance to individuals with needs such as yours’. So has Microsoft really concluded its review and got its act together?
You might think that with all the adverse publicity surrounding the big beasts of the internet jungle and their inability to stop leaks, hacking and other offences, Microsoft would have had in place years ago a simple procedure for closing a deceased customer’s account. But it seems not.
Whether it has one now is anyone’s guess.