Why is Microsoft interpreting attempted retrievals via POP Peeper as follows:
"We detected something unusual about a recent sign-in to the Microsoft account *****@hotmail.com. To help keep you safe, we required an extra security challenge."
This kind of thing is happening a lot lately. How can it be prevented/avoided?
we detected something unusual about a recent sign-in to MS
Re: we detected something unusual about a recent sign-in to
If this is related in anyway to POP Peeper (PP) at all then it's remotely possible this could be caused by a "polling interval" setting of less than 10 minutes in POP Peeper (PP). It could also have nothing at all to do with PP as you may have encountered this regardless of PP which is more likely the case actually. That said, in the outside chance it may be PP related it might possibly be due to very frequent log-in attempts (most often multiple failed attempts actually) among other things and is a security measure put in place by MS.
I'm presuming your not getting a "mail check" error from PP in regards to this, is the correct? So then it is an email message from MS in you inbox, right?
How many accounts is this happening on?
What is your "polling interval" set at ("Tools" > "Options" > "Mail check" tab)? If your "polling interval" is greater than 10 minutes I doubt very much PP would actually have anything to do with this.
It is much more likely to be due to other issues instead of PP, i.e. IP address/country region related, for example see CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE regarding discussions on MS Community websites regarding this issue.
You'll notice that some were questioning whether these were phishing emails of which MS responded in part as follows (of which the important thing to look for in regards to this is the "green shield" that MS uses for all "official" MS messages as you might already know that as such assures it is a "trusted sender". Notice by hovering the shield icon you'll get the "trusted sender" tool-tip message):
I'm presuming your not getting a "mail check" error from PP in regards to this, is the correct? So then it is an email message from MS in you inbox, right?
How many accounts is this happening on?
What is your "polling interval" set at ("Tools" > "Options" > "Mail check" tab)? If your "polling interval" is greater than 10 minutes I doubt very much PP would actually have anything to do with this.
It is much more likely to be due to other issues instead of PP, i.e. IP address/country region related, for example see CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE regarding discussions on MS Community websites regarding this issue.
You'll notice that some were questioning whether these were phishing emails of which MS responded in part as follows (of which the important thing to look for in regards to this is the "green shield" that MS uses for all "official" MS messages as you might already know that as such assures it is a "trusted sender". Notice by hovering the shield icon you'll get the "trusted sender" tool-tip message):
Microsoft is very much committed in securing information on your account. It has increased security and customers' awareness by providing real-time information accessible to users. This is by logging in to your https://account.live.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and check your recent activities.
We also created a Two-step Verification, wherein a user will be asked for another verification code for any unfamiliar location or devices.
If the system detected there is unusual activity on it, they will be sending a notification to the user. Our gauge for verifying if it is a legitimate email from Microsoft is by looking at the "Green Icon", that means it is a "Trusted Sender".
If you have additional concern on your log ins, we highly recommend that you contact Microsoft account team through the link below:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... id-support" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. - Will Rogers
Re: we detected something unusual about a recent sign-in to
That's not the primary issue.
It happens whenever MS has one of their annoying notification messages, eg.
"We're updating the terms and privacy statement for your account
As part of our effort to improve your experience across our consumer services, we're updating the Microsoft Services Agreement and the Microsoft Privacy Statement. We want to take this opportunity to notify you about these updates.
"CONTINUE" button"
If you log in from their web page, you get the above message and just click "Continue" to proceed as normal.
If you attempt to retrieve via Pop Peeper, you can't proceed - and then may get the additional security messages mentioned in the first post.
But the primary problem is NOT the subsequent failed attempts but rather that Pop Peeper gets blocked by these notification messages that Microsoft seems to be fond of having lately.
So that's the issue, can Pop Peeper be made to automatically "continue" past these messages without being blocked.
It happens whenever MS has one of their annoying notification messages, eg.
"We're updating the terms and privacy statement for your account
As part of our effort to improve your experience across our consumer services, we're updating the Microsoft Services Agreement and the Microsoft Privacy Statement. We want to take this opportunity to notify you about these updates.
"CONTINUE" button"
If you log in from their web page, you get the above message and just click "Continue" to proceed as normal.
If you attempt to retrieve via Pop Peeper, you can't proceed - and then may get the additional security messages mentioned in the first post.
But the primary problem is NOT the subsequent failed attempts but rather that Pop Peeper gets blocked by these notification messages that Microsoft seems to be fond of having lately.
So that's the issue, can Pop Peeper be made to automatically "continue" past these messages without being blocked.
Re: we detected something unusual about a recent sign-in to
The issue you're speaking of is different than what is described above by the OP, that said I think you're intention is in reference to these types of messages that block PP from being able to check mail because the inbox cannot be accessed directly by PP and instead there needs to be some user intervention in order to do this, and your question is whether this can be circumvented by PP.
Because user intervention is required and as such can vary depending upon the message from MS this makes it inherently difficult for PP to be able to bypass the required user intervention that MS is requesting not to mention potential "legal" ramifications of doing so as discussed below.
If you think about it, if PP were to intervene in regards to your example "updating the Microsoft Services Agreement and the Microsoft Privacy Statement" (which as you say is often the case) and actually skip the required response from the user this would be problematic perhaps most importantly because as I see it doing so could potentially create legal issues since this would be denying the user the knowledge and right to know that changes in these policies have been put in place. As you can see based on this common place example the user clearly does need to be able to respond to the MS prompts in order that not only the user is aware that changes have been made but also that MS is aware the user knows this as well. Regardless of whether bypassing the interchange between the user and MS is even practical you can readily see that by circumventing the MS notice to users, PP would be providing the user continued access to their email accounts without any foreknowledge of changes made to MS user agreements and/or privacy statements which would not only be denying the user any awareness of these changes but ultimately circumvents the option the user should have to decide whether to subsequently continue to use MS email accounts under the new guidelines and by doing so could, as pointed out, presumably raise significant legal concerns.
There are sometimes unavoidable inconveniences in life of which I'm afraid this is one.....
Because user intervention is required and as such can vary depending upon the message from MS this makes it inherently difficult for PP to be able to bypass the required user intervention that MS is requesting not to mention potential "legal" ramifications of doing so as discussed below.
If you think about it, if PP were to intervene in regards to your example "updating the Microsoft Services Agreement and the Microsoft Privacy Statement" (which as you say is often the case) and actually skip the required response from the user this would be problematic perhaps most importantly because as I see it doing so could potentially create legal issues since this would be denying the user the knowledge and right to know that changes in these policies have been put in place. As you can see based on this common place example the user clearly does need to be able to respond to the MS prompts in order that not only the user is aware that changes have been made but also that MS is aware the user knows this as well. Regardless of whether bypassing the interchange between the user and MS is even practical you can readily see that by circumventing the MS notice to users, PP would be providing the user continued access to their email accounts without any foreknowledge of changes made to MS user agreements and/or privacy statements which would not only be denying the user any awareness of these changes but ultimately circumvents the option the user should have to decide whether to subsequently continue to use MS email accounts under the new guidelines and by doing so could, as pointed out, presumably raise significant legal concerns.
There are sometimes unavoidable inconveniences in life of which I'm afraid this is one.....
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. - Will Rogers
Re: we detected something unusual about a recent sign-in to
What lakrsrool said is exactly right -- it would be undesirable for POP Peeper to skip past the notices that the webmail service provides. You can use IMAP which will avoid those types of problems; however, many people have found that Hotmail's IMAP server is not the greatest in reliability so you may find yourself having even more issues. Then there's POP3 which, from what I understand, is pretty reliable but you lose a lot of features.