My son’s Fortnite account was hacked this weekend and someone else was playing on his account. They even changed the name and language on the account. I was able to log back into the account, delete the user that was logging in on a PlayStation (we have an X Box), reset password, and forced a sign out across all devices yesterday.

However, this morning I have an email that someone tried to access my account so I logged in and essentially rehashed everything I said above. Fast forward to lunch time and I get a prompt to reset my password again.

There are no credit cards on the account, only my email address. What can I do to stop these hacking attempts? Anyone ever experienced this before?

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Posted by LemmyLives

Texas

Member since Mar 2019

9947 posts

Posted on 2/24/25 at 12:16 pm to Oilfieldbiology

See if you can change the email address on the account to a new one (create it from scratch.) They're going to keep banging on it, and will certainly try the same credentials across every game store out there. Then, start changing the password your kid probably re-used on every site he accesses. You do *not* want multi-factor authentication via email or even text messages for the exact reason you're finding out. I can't get to Epic at work, but I know I have a soft token for them stored in an app.

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Posted by Oilfieldbiology

Member since Nov 2016

39698 posts

Posted on 2/24/25 at 12:44 pm to LemmyLives

Luckily the passwords I have been resetting to are not on any accounts I use my personal email address on Nd frankly are brand spanking new to me.

We set my son up with a Gmail address years ago so that he can have a Google drive that we save videos and photos too. I will change the email to that.

You mentioned not wanting multi factor authentication through email or text. What other way? App? He doesn’t have an account on any other apps yet.

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Posted by LemmyLives

Texas

Member since Mar 2019

9947 posts

Posted on 2/24/25 at 1:01 pm to Oilfieldbiology

quote:
App? He doesn’t have an account on any other apps yet.

Yes, an app like LastPass, Microsoft Authenticator, etc. The phone provides you with slightly more protection than email, but breaching MFA from an app requires a man in the middle sort of attack, which is too much trouble (usually) for what the attacker is going to get.

I can't remember when exactly it happened, but when Steam introduced SteamGuard (MFA), it pretty much pushed MFA into the mainstream for at least the sub-35 generation. It was in response to people hacking accounts and stealing thousands of dollars worth of gear from accounts and leaving the toons nekkid. The gear was then sold for virtual gold, which was then sold for real world money.

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Posted by notsince98

KC, MO

Member since Oct 2012

19988 posts

Posted on 2/24/25 at 1:10 pm to Oilfieldbiology

quote:
However, this morning I have an email that someone tried to access my account so I logged in and essentially rehashed everything I said above. Fast forward to lunch time and I get a prompt to reset my password again.

I'm a bit unclear on this. After you changed passwords, were they already getting through the new password all the way to the MFA request? Or were they just entering the wrong password over and over?

If they were just entering the wrong password, no need to keep changing passwords every time you get that notice. On the other hand, if they already got through the new password that quickly then you might have a keylogger on a device somewhere and you are going to fight this battle until you get the malware/spyware removed.

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Posted by Oilfieldbiology

Member since Nov 2016

39698 posts

Posted on 2/24/25 at 1:13 pm to notsince98