Question about Outlook Express

This bizarre incident took place last night which makes me suspicious that it *might* be a hack job although with Outlook, one can never be sure.

Long story long, last night my Outlook e-mail page was suddenly replaced by the Microsoft sign-up page informing me that I needed to enter my password  to verify my account as I was trying to access some "sensitive info". Actually, I was simply reading my e-mail. I ignored it thinking it was a hoax but later when I returned to my e-mail Inbox page (it's also my home page BTW), lo and behold after a few moments I was confronted by this request to once again verify my account.  Not being in the best of moods I ignored it and went to bed.

This morning when I logged on to the Interwebz, I was immediately confronted by the aforementioned sign-in page and not the usual sight of my Inbox page, so in desperation or exasperation (take your pick) I entered my password into the box as requested.  I was then taken to another page which said "Yes, we are being a bit over protective here but can you add your security passcode too?" My what? If added "If you don't have one or have forgotten it, which e-mail address shall we send it to?" and listed a corrupted version of my e-mail addresss. Now I was really concerned as to why an erroneous addy would be listed on an alleged official Microsoft site.

At this point I clicked the "I already have it " link which called up another page informing me that I would get this message again in 6 days (or 6 weeks -  can't remember which) before FINALLY sending me to my e-mails.

So, my questions are these:

Can someone from Microsoft/Outlook or better yet, Planet Earth, please confirm or deny that this is either a genuine but ridiculously elaborate safety procedure or a hacking hoax?

Has anyone else experienced this or am I alone?

Is there a fix for this?

I never had these problems with Hotmail...

Thanks in advance.