• Microsoft accounts and 2FA

    From David@21:1/5 to All on Thu Aug 10 13:06:56 2023
    A friend (who I usually support on IT matters) recently bought a new
    laptop and got impatient and set it up themselves.

    This included using their Hotmail account as a Microsoft account where it
    had been local before.

    Microsoft has a record of a landline as the phone number.
    Any attempt to make any changes requires 2FA.
    Selecting the land line number doesn't work.
    It appears that M$ may be trying to send a text but that if so it isn't
    being converted to a voice message.
    So no authenticating PIN.

    I've nominated a Gmail account as the alternative method of contact, but without 2FA (and there's a hole in my bucket) there is an imposed 30 day
    wait before any changes can be actioned using the new method of
    authentication.

    I should mention that my friend is a Luddite (about certain things) and
    refuses to have a mobile phone, which I assume M$ assume everyone has
    these days.

    It is a bit late now, but does anyone know of a way to get M$ to recognise
    that a phone number is a land line without something else as 2FA?

    Cheers



    Dave R


    --
    AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to David on Thu Aug 10 17:38:31 2023
    David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
    A friend (who I usually support on IT matters) recently bought a new
    laptop and got impatient and set it up themselves.

    This included using their Hotmail account as a Microsoft account where it
    had been local before.

    Microsoft has a record of a landline as the phone number.
    Any attempt to make any changes requires 2FA.
    Selecting the land line number doesn't work.
    It appears that M$ may be trying to send a text but that if so it isn't
    being converted to a voice message.
    So no authenticating PIN.

    I've nominated a Gmail account as the alternative method of contact, but without 2FA (and there's a hole in my bucket) there is an imposed 30 day
    wait before any changes can be actioned using the new method of authentication.

    I should mention that my friend is a Luddite (about certain things) and refuses to have a mobile phone, which I assume M$ assume everyone has
    these days.

    It is a bit late now, but does anyone know of a way to get M$ to recognise that a phone number is a land line without something else as 2FA?

    How did they manage to set up the landline as 2FA if it doesn't work? As
    part of enrolling a new 2FA mechanism is always a confirmation that it
    works.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From David@21:1/5 to Chris on Fri Aug 11 10:15:45 2023
    On Thu, 10 Aug 2023 17:38:31 +0000, Chris wrote:

    David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
    A friend (who I usually support on IT matters) recently bought a new
    laptop and got impatient and set it up themselves.

    This included using their Hotmail account as a Microsoft account where
    it had been local before.

    Microsoft has a record of a landline as the phone number.
    Any attempt to make any changes requires 2FA.
    Selecting the land line number doesn't work.
    It appears that M$ may be trying to send a text but that if so it isn't
    being converted to a voice message.
    So no authenticating PIN.

    I've nominated a Gmail account as the alternative method of contact,
    but without 2FA (and there's a hole in my bucket) there is an imposed
    30 day wait before any changes can be actioned using the new method of
    authentication.

    I should mention that my friend is a Luddite (about certain things) and
    refuses to have a mobile phone, which I assume M$ assume everyone has
    these days.

    It is a bit late now, but does anyone know of a way to get M$ to
    recognise that a phone number is a land line without something else as
    2FA?

    How did they manage to set up the landline as 2FA if it doesn't work? As
    part of enrolling a new 2FA mechanism is always a confirmation that it
    works.

    I am assuming that the land line has been associated with the Hotmail
    account for some time.
    My friend is at the best an unreliable witness so they may have given
    their land line number when creating the Microsoft Account, of course.

    Even so, if they did supply the phone number when asked then it obviously
    could not be validated.

    Which would leave the account with no means of validation.

    In which case should set up of a new Microsoft Account proceed without a
    proven means of validation?

    Whatever happened, there is certainly a hole in the bucket.

    Cheers



    Dave R


    --
    Dell Latitude 7280 with Full HD and Thunderbolt (woo hoo)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to David on Mon Aug 14 06:35:39 2023
    David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
    On Thu, 10 Aug 2023 17:38:31 +0000, Chris wrote:

    David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
    A friend (who I usually support on IT matters) recently bought a new
    laptop and got impatient and set it up themselves.

    This included using their Hotmail account as a Microsoft account where
    it had been local before.

    Microsoft has a record of a landline as the phone number.
    Any attempt to make any changes requires 2FA.
    Selecting the land line number doesn't work.
    It appears that M$ may be trying to send a text but that if so it isn't
    being converted to a voice message.
    So no authenticating PIN.

    I've nominated a Gmail account as the alternative method of contact,
    but without 2FA (and there's a hole in my bucket) there is an imposed
    30 day wait before any changes can be actioned using the new method of
    authentication.

    I should mention that my friend is a Luddite (about certain things) and
    refuses to have a mobile phone, which I assume M$ assume everyone has
    these days.

    It is a bit late now, but does anyone know of a way to get M$ to
    recognise that a phone number is a land line without something else as
    2FA?

    How did they manage to set up the landline as 2FA if it doesn't work? As
    part of enrolling a new 2FA mechanism is always a confirmation that it
    works.

    I am assuming that the land line has been associated with the Hotmail
    account for some time.

    That may be so but to be set up with 2FA it would need to have been
    confirmed to work.

    My friend is at the best an unreliable witness so they may have given
    their land line number when creating the Microsoft Account, of course.

    Even so, if they did supply the phone number when asked then it obviously could not be validated.

    Which would leave the account with no means of validation.

    In which case should set up of a new Microsoft Account proceed without a proven means of validation?

    No. It would fail.

    Whatever happened, there is certainly a hole in the bucket.

    Agreed.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)