Suspicious activityFollow

Sorry to make this thread, but does anyone know what issue is? I'm trying to log into my FFXIV account and I get the error "Based upon recent suspicious activity, we have identified that your account may potentially be at risk. For your protection, we have temporarily suspended login access to this account.
Instructions for lifting this restriction have been sent to the email address registered to your Square Enix Account."

But I didn't get an e-mail. Did I get hacked or something?

This is the message you're greeted with when you attempt to access XIV or MogStation from a different IP address. There are other reasons you'll see it, but that's the most common one. Did you try to play from a different location or a different computer?

Check your spam folder and if you don't find the email, just go to 'SE support center' (not sure if there's a link from the launcher, but you can google that) and request another.

Not an unreasonable assumption to make, to be honest.

They really really could do better with feedback from the game, to be honest. "You logged in with a different IP, so an email was sent with a confirmation link. Your account will be locked until this link is followed." would be better than "There was suspicious activity detected on your account" IMO.

Glad you got it fixed anyhow.

Edited, Aug 1st 2014 9:22pm by Lyrailis

Can avoid this by picking up an authenticator. If you don't have a smartphone, get a program like Bluestacks and install it on that. Just be sure to save the code for removing it. Personally, I don't trust the security of game servers anymore. I've occasionally found accounts of mine compromised despite using different names, passwords, and routine trojan/virus/malware sweeps alongside safe browsing practices (not clicking strange links, adblock/noscript, not visiting unestablished third-party sites, using unsupported add-ons, etc.). Some have been better about restores than others, and despite some personal conspiracy theories, I think one of the dumbest things some game accounts use is an email address as a log-in. With the existence of things like gmail nowadays, I'd also advise people create a unique email for whatever new game they pick up to minimize cross-game compromise. But yeah, aside from authenticators on games that support them, I think emails you don't use for absolutely anything else is the safest bet. You don't know who will sell that info off, what bots can scour them from public info, compromise that info from third-party sources, and so on.

The authenticator keeps you from having to confirm that you are trying to access your account when you change locations. Given that you're likely to have hundreds to thousands of keystrokes in a long gaming session, pressing a button on a keychain(or smartphone) and typing a 6 digit code is pretty straightforward...

Don't use the phone app then?

*shrugs*

A little dongle that you keep near your computer is not hard to use at all, and it makes it nearly impossible for anybody to attempt to get on without your permission. Even if they know your email AND password... they can't log in without the authenticator.

AND

It gives you an extra, FREE Teleport Location in FFXIV. Why not, right? Oh, and in FFXI, it gives you a free 80 slots of inventory you can access anywhere anytime.

Why not, right? It only takes 2 seconds to push a button and 3 seconds to type a 6-digit code once per login. Are you really saying that 10 seconds is too much "work"?

What if you lose your keys?

If i lose the keys to my car/house, i have bigger problems to worry about then someone getting ahold of my ffxiv account.

It might be more expensive to re-key your house and car, but it's probably more troublesome to lose your smart phone. Unless you use your smart phone for absolutely nothing that people typically use a smart phone for, you would probably have a wider variety of things to worry about than with a set of keys.

Actually though, I thought about it, and wouldn't it be somewhat simple to get a new house or car key? If you lose your MMORPG account -- now that's a hassle.

I'd be more worried about what other kinds of accounts someone could figure out how to access using my phone.

I keep my fobble right next to my computer. Sometimes in a drawer. It doesn't go anywhere.

Ever.

Super simple.

Not quite as simple for me, as I have a desktop at home and a laptop at the office that I played on when it wasn't too busy. There were several times I forgot my fob, because having that thing on my already too large keychain just wasn't really an option. So I swapped to the phone app and never had problems. Besides, it's far more often that I misplaced my keys somewhere in my house as opposed to my phone, and I could always have the wife call my phone.

Either way, having SOME form of protection on your account is very good, and not doing it because it might be slightly inconvenient is fine... until your account gets hacked and then you could be SOL.