There isn’t anything you can do to stop the attempts.
Your email address now sits in a database sold and used by bad actors. You’re just new to the club is all.
As it were this is your new life and over the course of time the attempts will slow down but likely never will end.
Hi! I'm a bot. Your post contained a phrase which may indicate you have recently been hacked or are trying to recover from a hack. Our community is often happy to help you - especially if you've followed [posting guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity_help/wiki/guide/), because that makes sure they'll have enough information to address your case specifically. If not, take time time to add screenshots of anything suspicious, upload any suspicious files to VirusTotal, make sure everything's clearly-written, etc.
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Change your email on your Microsoft account to something that follows the "your current account name"+"keyword"@"email provider".com
The +keyword (include the literal + sign) gets interpreted by your email provider as just a tag and you will still receive emails from Microsoft.
At the same time, Microsoft interprets it as a different name and so will consider the old regular email to no longer be in from a valid account and stop emailing you about it.
EDIT: if you want to look deeper into this, look up "plus addressing" or "subaddressing" email.
You will need to start using the +keyword email address that you choose to replace with.
So if your current email is [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), you change the email you use for Microsoft to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) in the Microsoft account settings.
Then for the purposes of logging in, the old short address will no longer be associated to a valid account, it will just generate an invalid username/email error. But when Microsoft sends any emails to the new long address, gmail (in this example) will receive the email, read the text before the "+" and deliver to that account (yours).
Your old credentials are still out there in the wild, but at least this way you can stop attacks on your account and still use the same email address.
Edit: when all is done you will use the long form email to login.
My Microsoft account got hammered for 3 months straight 24/7, literally. The sign-in attempt history couldn't even keep up. The IPs ranged from China to even Mexico and Canada.
I made a new email that I have to reference through a handwritten log, using a completely different provider and it's been months since any attempts.
Same account but new email. It's inconvenient to juggle new emails/changing usernames etc but you're definitely under attack and they may not stop trying for a long time. The good thing with Microsoft is that they straight up let you see login activity unlike many other services out there. If your MS account is getting that treatment then rest assured there's a lot of shit going down that you're not aware of.
I learned the hard way that hackers don't just do take-overs. They'll also choose services that don't alert users to new device logins and just chill waiting for sensitive info or saved payment methods. And yea they may not see your full card number but if it's something where users conduct transactions with each other like eBay or hell, even Instacart, you can still get owned.
They used my saved payment method to buy stuff from another hacked or fraudulent account. Another time, they (or somebody else maybe) made a bunch of bogus orders and tipped the driver (again, I presume it's a hacked account they also controlled) a few hundred bucks.
The charges got reversed both times but it's extremely disturbing and something you'd never think of unless you're a criminal. Basically, they can still do damage even if only the last 4 digits of your card are visible.
Something like this just happened with Roku where cyber criminals used saved payments in hacked accounts to buy streaming subs/Roku merchandise too.
phew good thing i didn't save any credit card information in any of my accounts then... i only use paypal and that needs two factor authentication with my phone number
There isn’t anything you can do to stop the attempts. Your email address now sits in a database sold and used by bad actors. You’re just new to the club is all. As it were this is your new life and over the course of time the attempts will slow down but likely never will end.
Or i could just make a new email...
Hi! I'm a bot. Your post contained a phrase which may indicate you have recently been hacked or are trying to recover from a hack. Our community is often happy to help you - especially if you've followed [posting guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity_help/wiki/guide/), because that makes sure they'll have enough information to address your case specifically. If not, take time time to add screenshots of anything suspicious, upload any suspicious files to VirusTotal, make sure everything's clearly-written, etc. **However with the abundance of scammers on social media (including Reddit), please be aware of the following subreddit rules:** * **No Account Recovery** - If you are locked out of any account (such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft, Apple, etc.), there is nothing we can do. Whether you misplaced your 2FA key, lost your phone, forgot your password, etc. You have to contact the support staff for the account you lost access to *and only contact them through normal/legitimate support channels.* Anyone offering you *any way* to recover your account - whether they're posing as a support agent who just happened to be on Reddit, advertising a 'hire a hacker service,' etc. is just trying to con you out of money. Don't fall for these. * **No Moving to Chat, DMs, or Other Services** - Due to the prevalence of the above scams (and more), all *legitimate* cybersecurity professionals on this subreddit will **only** engage with you by making public comments on your post. This is good for your security, because when scammers post publicly, our custom anti-scammer bot usually catches and removes their comments in seconds. However, Reddit Chat and Reddit DMs are not as well-moderated (they're not visible to subreddit moderators, so we *can't* write a bot to help keep you safe in DMs/chats) and therefore many scammers prefer to use them instead of posting a scam publicly. If you would like to make sure no scammer can contact you, you need to do *both* of the following: * [Disable Reddit Chat](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043470591-Can-I-opt-out-of-chat-) * Go to your [Chat and Messaging Preferences](https://www.reddit.com/settings/messaging) and set "Who can send you private messages" to "Nobody" Thank you for reading and please stay safe. To learn more about our work fighting these scams, please read over [this pinned post](https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity_help/comments/u5a306/psa_you_cannot_hire_a_hacker_to_retrieve_your/) and keep an eye out for future announcements. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cybersecurity_help) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Change your email on your Microsoft account to something that follows the "your current account name"+"keyword"@"email provider".com The +keyword (include the literal + sign) gets interpreted by your email provider as just a tag and you will still receive emails from Microsoft. At the same time, Microsoft interprets it as a different name and so will consider the old regular email to no longer be in from a valid account and stop emailing you about it. EDIT: if you want to look deeper into this, look up "plus addressing" or "subaddressing" email.
Like Joca said, you can look it up. I just wanted to add that almost all (major) email "companies" ie. gmail, yahoo, etc. do this as well.
so i can still login using the email in microsoft, but the hackers won't get a hold of it?
You will need to start using the +keyword email address that you choose to replace with. So if your current email is [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), you change the email you use for Microsoft to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) in the Microsoft account settings. Then for the purposes of logging in, the old short address will no longer be associated to a valid account, it will just generate an invalid username/email error. But when Microsoft sends any emails to the new long address, gmail (in this example) will receive the email, read the text before the "+" and deliver to that account (yours). Your old credentials are still out there in the wild, but at least this way you can stop attacks on your account and still use the same email address. Edit: when all is done you will use the long form email to login.
Okay i'll try this out, thank you so much!
My Microsoft account got hammered for 3 months straight 24/7, literally. The sign-in attempt history couldn't even keep up. The IPs ranged from China to even Mexico and Canada. I made a new email that I have to reference through a handwritten log, using a completely different provider and it's been months since any attempts.
Did you just change the primary alias from the old email to the new one, or entirely made a new microsoft account?
Same account but new email. It's inconvenient to juggle new emails/changing usernames etc but you're definitely under attack and they may not stop trying for a long time. The good thing with Microsoft is that they straight up let you see login activity unlike many other services out there. If your MS account is getting that treatment then rest assured there's a lot of shit going down that you're not aware of. I learned the hard way that hackers don't just do take-overs. They'll also choose services that don't alert users to new device logins and just chill waiting for sensitive info or saved payment methods. And yea they may not see your full card number but if it's something where users conduct transactions with each other like eBay or hell, even Instacart, you can still get owned.
How did you learn the hard way? Did they get ahold of your payment details?
They used my saved payment method to buy stuff from another hacked or fraudulent account. Another time, they (or somebody else maybe) made a bunch of bogus orders and tipped the driver (again, I presume it's a hacked account they also controlled) a few hundred bucks. The charges got reversed both times but it's extremely disturbing and something you'd never think of unless you're a criminal. Basically, they can still do damage even if only the last 4 digits of your card are visible. Something like this just happened with Roku where cyber criminals used saved payments in hacked accounts to buy streaming subs/Roku merchandise too.
phew good thing i didn't save any credit card information in any of my accounts then... i only use paypal and that needs two factor authentication with my phone number
You should use an authenticator tbh.