Multiple "unsuccessful" sign in attempts on my account

What could be the outcome if the bot get successful in accessing the account????

What could be the maximum damage I can suffer??

What could be the outcome if the bot get successful in accessing the account????

What could be the maximum damage I can suffer??

Complete loss of the Microsoft account, along with everything it contains such as subscriptions, your OneDrive data and anything else stored on your local machine as well, since in most cases people haven't set up either a second Administrator account or local admin account on their personal devices as a backup method to recover from such a loss of control.

Many people have come here in recent months having lost access to their accounts containing Minecraft or other popular game subscriptions, which though in extremely rare cases they've managed to regain control due to special exceptions of just plain fast response, for most the account and the Minecraft game they've sometimes invested significant money and/or time in, is now gone with no possible way to retrieve it, since Microsoft can't help once the primary email alias has been changed either.

Set up at least 2-Step verification (2FA) and if possible, the Microsoft Authenticator on a smartphone. It's that easy to protect yourself and highly unlikely you'll be successfully attacked if you do.

Rob

* Merged.

Recently I have seen that in my Microsoft account signin activity there are so many failed login attempts in last one month from different locations accross the globe. Is Simeon is trying to hack my account or my account is already compromised? I am a bit worried about this incident and is there any possibility that if someone gain access to my Microsoft account can he get access to my entire desktop and data? What should I do now ??

* Merged.

Recently I have seen that in my Microsoft account signin activity there are so many failed login attempts in last one month from different locations accross the globe. Is Simeon is trying to hack my account or my account is already compromised? I am a bit worried about this incident and is there any possibility that if someone gain access to my Microsoft account can he get access to my entire desktop and data? What should I do now ??

ANUP YADAV1

I've merged your newest post with the thread you were already participating in. Please read through the thread.

Don

Same here. From mid last month there has been many attempts to my account as well. IP WHOIS lookup points to China, US, Canada and some European countries.

Why is this happening? Can we find out who exactly is trying to login to my account?

Same here. From mid last month there has been many attempts to my account as well. IP WHOIS lookup points to China, US, Canada and some European countries.

Why is this happening? Can we find out who exactly is trying to login to my account?

It doesn't matter, since that will do nothing to protect your account, because neither you, nor Microsoft, nor anyone else can do anything about the attempted attacks anyway.

Anyone who's email address is known to others can be attacked and those with gaming accounts like Minecraft are especially popular targets due to the value these accounts have to criminals and nation states, but there are many other reasons including simply the Microsoft account itself to be used for phishing and other criminal activities.

All you can really do is make sure you've set up 2-Step authentication (2FA) and if you have a smartphone, use the Microsoft Authenticator as well, since these steps will truly protect your account from being stolen, which is all thar really matters.

How to help keep your Microsoft account safe and secure - Microsoft Support

People whose accounts are stolen are basically foolish, since they've either ignored the warning signs or wasted time worrying about these same useless details, while the only thing that matters is setting up the proper protections Microsoft tries to get everyone to do before the account is actually compromised. Nothing else matters at all and it never will.

Rob

The reason for this is your email is exposed to the public. I have the same issue and I checked my account details and saw my email is accessed from different countries. I checked my 1-month activity and there were 84 pages of unsuccessful attempts. Yesterday I contacted Microsoft customer care and one told me the ultimate solution.

Solution

First, open your Outlook email account, and then under your photo, click "My Microsoft account". On the new page, click "Your info". Now look for the "Account info" section and click "Sign-in preferences". On the new page, see the "Account aliases" section and add an email address or phone number that nobody knows. Make sure the email address or phone number that you are adding is working one's. Remember, DO NOT remove your Outlook email address from here because it will permanently delete your Outlook email address forever. After adding the new email address or phone number, click "Make primary" as the new email address or phone number so that your outlook email address is not primary now. Now click "Change sign-in preferences" from the bottom. On the new page, uncheck your Outlook email address box and check the newly added email address box or phone number box that you want to use as your login email address or phone number. Now onwards, when the hacker tries to use your email address to log in, Microsoft says, that email address does not exist. Remember, you can still send and receive emails using your email address. Additionally, you can sign out from everywhere by visiting your account page. Click the "Security" tab, and look for "Manage how I sign in" under the "Account" section. This will sign out from every device that your Outlook email address is connected to. Thanks, Microsoft for this excellent work.

This was really helpful. I ran into a snag. In your instructions you talk about the second email address and you say “make sure it is a working one’s”.. ‘s showing ownership. There were two ways to add an alias and I chose the second one, “add an existing email address as a Microsoft account alias.“ Then, I chose a new page and created a second email account. I made sure it was working. This is where I think I didn’t understand your instructions. . After creating the new email address, I came back to the page and put it into the second option and it said that email was already taken.

I think I wasn’t supposed to make a working email address. I think that’s the issue here, correct me if I’m wrong.

Thank you.

This was really helpful. I ran into a snag. In your instructions you talk about the second email address and you say “make sure it is a working one’s”.. ‘s showing ownership. There were two ways to add an alias and I chose the second one, “add an existing email address as a Microsoft account alias.“ Then, I chose a new page and created a second email account. I made sure it was working. This is where I think I didn’t understand your instructions. . After creating the new email address, I came back to the page and put it into the second option and it said that email was already taken.

I think I wasn’t supposed to make a working email address. I think that’s the issue here, correct me if I’m wrong.

Thank you.

1. You cannot setup a existing Microsoft address (hotmail, live, outlook, msn) as an alias. The alias has to be a new, never used address. If the alias was the original address of the account a new alias will make the original address a non-primary address, which you should not, should not, should not delete.

2. The advice you're trying to follow is unnecessarily complicated and won't stop these login attempts.

3. Please follow the advice by Rob Koch on this page

Don

Thank you.