Thousands of Windows Live Hotmail passwords have been leaked online on Monday, Microsoft confirmed.

Earlier today, Neowin.net reported that more than 10,000 accounts had been compromised and speculated that Hotmail had either suffered a breach or an aggressive phishing campaign had collected the usernames and passwords by duping people into divulging the information.

Over the weekend Microsoft learned that several thousand Windows Live Hotmail customers' credentials were exposed on a third-party site due to a likely phishing scheme, Microsoft said in a statement.

Upon learning of the issue, we immediately requested that the credentials be removed and launched an investigation to determine the impact to customers. As part of that investigation, we determined that this was not a breach of internal Microsoft data and initiated our standard process of working to help customers regain control of their accounts.

Neowin originally reported that the credentials were posted to a developer forum on Pastebin.com on October 1.

Microsoft was quick to point out that credentials were stolen through what was likely a phishing scheme. The company said that it was not a breach of internal Microsoft data. It's currently working to help customers regain control of their accounts.

The software giant did not confirm how many accounts were left affected.

Microsoft