I lost my account from 2010 in the migration, because they require the transaction ID of the original purchase. The support person told me that the transaction ID was a key to the account.
Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
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Re: Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
#32Just a developer (for Excel). I don't work on Minecraft or anything related but I'm happy to (try and) escalate this internally in Minecraft and/or identity through the internal channels. You can email me at bgruenbaum@microsoft.com
Re: Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
#33I have a 13 year old minecraft account. I've been unable to migrate it because I don't have the transaction ID. I don't have the email (I wasn't very good at managing an inbox when I was 14), and the bank that it was bought with no longer exists, even if they had more than 7 years of records retention. I told support I can provide government IDs for myself and my father (the name on the card, presumably), but I got t…
You probably don’t want to reward them with extra income, but if it can at least get to the username change screen with your current account you could change your username, wait 30 days, and then buy a new account with your old username.
Re: Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
#34Ye, companies are terrible with accounts. Found out I had made an Apple account in 2010 by getting an email that the security questions had been changed to Chinese. Reset the password to go delete the account but was not allowed to sign in without responding to the (Chinese) security questions. Tried contacting support and asked them to delete the account, from the email registered with them, noting that no one has u…
> or book a time for a phonecall where I can prove my identity so they can reset the security questions I do not see the problem with this, when it comes to account deletion you want to be very careful and this sounds to me like a very reasonable offer.
I don't see how Apple can verify identity to reset security unless they verified identity to setup the account, and as far as I remember, Apple doesn't require an identity verification to setup accounts.
If the identifier is an email address, it should be relatively easy to disown an account if you control the email address.
Re: Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
And Microsoft could send the confirmation code to the email address already associated with the account, but they would rather create a reason to siphon more data from people.
Has anyone come up with a disposable mobile number service, similar to how you can get a temporary email address for signing up to junk?
They exist, but this is likely a very bad idea. Most services that I've found, once you use a mobile number with them they never really remove it and the next thing you know, they are sending some stranger SMS messages to change your password per their "secure" 2FA requirements.
Re: Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
#36I have a 13 year old minecraft account. I've been unable to migrate it because I don't have the transaction ID. I don't have the email (I wasn't very good at managing an inbox when I was 14), and the bank that it was bought with no longer exists, even if they had more than 7 years of records retention. I told support I can provide government IDs for myself and my father (the name on the card, presumably), but I got t…
You probably don’t want to reward them with extra income, but if it can at least get to the username change screen with your current account you could change your username, wait 30 days, and then buy a new account with your old username.
My user name is a common real-life first name with no numbers or symbols. So, since username transfers to a specific new account are not possible, I would almost certainly lose the name to a sniper with a script. I know there's a whole industry around that practice.
Re: Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
#37They already got your money when you bought the game for your kids. They don't care whether or not you ever play it again, and in fact their server costs are probably lower if you don't.
There's an in-game marketplace where you can buy a number of cosmetic upgrades and such with "Minecoins", which are sold similarly to other in-game currencies. Looks like $20 for 3500 coins.
Minecoins? Jesus Christ. Glad I’m only on Java.
Re: Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
#38It's possible that the TOS message is boilerplate that they put up when they haven't created (and localized) an appropriate message for the real reason (or they don't want to reveal the real reason). To me it sounds like maybe they detected a successful credential stuffing attack against the accounts and locked them. That said, it sounds like their recovery process leaves a lot to be desired.
I had a gaming-only Microsoft account locked in the same way and I can guarantee you there is no successful credential-stuffing attack against it (even the username was secret, as it was random and not used anywhere else).
Locking accounts for "security reasons" and requiring a phone number is a common tactic to harvest phone numbers for "growth & engagement" reasons. Twitter does that since a while ago and recently got caught "accidentally" using those numbers for tracking reasons.
The security argument doesn't make sense because if they don't already have an existing phone number to compare to, they can't authenticate the newly-provided phone number - if the account was actually breached, the attacker will trivially bypass the restriction by just providing a phone number they control and take over the account anyway.
Re: Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/ftc-fines-t...
That isn’t the same thing unless Microsoft is using the phone number to target ads.
Who says that they don't? Microsoft has heavily invested in advertising since Windows 10.
Keep in mind that Twitter does the exact same thing (locking accounts and requiring phone numbers to unlock) since a while ago and recently got caught "accidentally" using those numbers for tracking reasons. Facebook also got caught doing the same some time ago.
Re: Tell HN: Microsoft locks migrated Minecraft accounts, requires phone to unlock
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/ftc-fines-t...
That isn’t the same thing unless Microsoft is using the phone number to target ads.
They certainly aren't using it to verify I am who I am....
I had them lock a MS account I made for a 2nd/alt account (Something I bought years ago to help when I made plugins and game content)..
Account got immediately locked the second I tried to use the launcher for "suspicious activity, give mobile number NOW to regain access".
I tried fighting it for a month, Mojang buried their head in the sand. I've even seen youtubers with multiple millions of subscribers get hit by this bullshit, with no help from Mojang.
They already have the email address I associated with the Minecraft account to begin, that should be good enough...