My personal Auth app keeps getting hit with sign in requests.

Question

My personal Auth app keeps getting hit with sign in requests.

Warren Dalton 0

Hello,

My Auth app keeps being hit by sign in verifications. How can I determine who is trying to break in and what they are trying to access?

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

For a personal Microsoft account, the practical way to see what is happening is to review the account’s Recent activity page. It shows sign-ins from the last 30 days, including device or app-specific information. If an entry is suspicious, use the activity details to report it and secure the account.

Steps:

Go to the Recent activity page for the Microsoft account.
Review each sign-in entry for location, device, browser, and app details.
If activity is unfamiliar, select the option in the activity details to report it:
- This wasn't me for unusual activity
- Secure your account for suspicious recent activity
Change the account password immediately if there is any sign of unauthorized access.
Update security settings on the Security basics page.

Important points:

Repeated Authenticator prompts usually mean someone is attempting to sign in or trigger verification, but unrequested verification codes or prompts should not be approved.
The Recent activity page helps identify where sign-in attempts came from and what device or app was involved.
It does not provide the real-world identity of the person attempting access.
If the prompts continue, changing the password and reviewing security settings are the recommended actions.

Answer 2

If someone knows your email address, even if they don't know your password, they can go to Microsoft website to use the "forgot password" option to trigger a 2FA ask. Doesn't mean your account is compromised, it is just that they are trying to reset your password, but if you don't approve the 2FA they will not succeed.

I get that this can get annoying if you receive a lot of these alerts., You can do this to prevent it.

Go to your Microsoft account online https://account.live.com> Sign in > Your info > Sign in preference. Add an alias - You have two options here:

Create new: this will allow you to use the native domain outlook.com to create a new alias.

Add existing: this will allow you to add a 3rd party email address, such as yahoo, gmail, as long as they are not already associated with another Microsoft account.

Once added, make this new alias your primary alias, do NOT delete the old alias. Then at the bottom, click on "Change sign in preference". On the next page, uncheck the box for the old alias. This means, from now one, the old alias cannot be used to sign into your Microsoft account, but it can be still used to receive emails, etc.