How to Secure Fortnite.com With 2FA (Two Factor Authentication)

Fortnite took the world by storm. The 100-player “battle royale” has players of all ages, spread around the globe. At its 2018 height, Fortnite developers Epic Games were pulling in $350 million per week through in-game transactions.

Over time, Fortnite accounts have become an attractive proposition for hackers and other fraudsters. Stolen accounts with high-tier loot can be resold, with a willing market waiting to buy.

With that in mind, you need to secure your (and your children’s) Fortnite account. Here’s how to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on your Fortnite account.

Do You Need 2FA on Your Fortnite Account?

In December 2018, the BBC interviewed one Slovenian teenager making an astonishing amount of money. The young chap in question was cracking Fortnite account passwords in the hope of finding an account full of premium skins and other loot. The cracker put his earnings at around $20,000 for seven months of work.

“It’s lucky dip basically, you either get a good account or you don’t. People like the rarity of the ‘skins’ and it’s about the look of them and showing off to friends.”

But that is just one example. The Epic Games Fortnite forum is full of threads about stolen accounts, lost skins, fraudulent V-Bucks transactions (V-Bucks is Fortnite’s internal currency), and more. Some Fortnite items are very rare. So rare, that they’re worth hundreds of dollars in the real world.

Epic Games is acutely aware of the issue, too. The vast majority of Fortnite’s userbase is young. Many have no idea about turning on 2FA, let alone how to practice secure password hygiene. The combination of these two factors means that crackers are using basic credential stuffing tools to blast through Fortnite accounts.

In short: You need to turn on 2FA security on every account you own, including your kids’ accounts. (Your kids are playing Fortnite: here’s what you need to know!) Epic Games will even give you the Boogiedown Emote if you turn it on, plus 50 Armory Slots, 10 Backpack Slots, and 1 Legendary Troll Stash Llama in Save the World mode.

How to Enable 2FA on Your Fortnite Account

Whether you understand the urgency or you like the look of the free loot, here is how you enable 2FA on your Fortnite account.

Before starting the process, consider what type of 2FA you are most comfortable using. Epic Games offers two options:

Authenticator app: An authenticator app is a 2FA app you keep on your smartphone (tablets, too). When you want to login to your Fortnite account, it will ask you for a six-digit code that will appear in the authenticator app. There are several authenticator apps available. I would strongly suggest using Authy or Google Authenticator.

Download: Authy for Android | iOS (Free)
Download: Authenticator for Android | iOS (Free)

Email authentication: Email authentication works by sending you a single-use 2FA security code to the email address associated with your Fortnite account.

Once you know which 2FA method you’re going to use, move onto securing your account. That is, if you’re using an authenticator app, make sure you install it on your smartphone before continuing.

Now, for Authenticator Apps:

1. Head to your Epic Games account in a web browser.
2. Under Password & Security, scroll down to Two-Factor Authentication.
3. Select Enable Authenticator App.
4. Open the authenticator app on your smartphone, then scan the QR code to add your Fortnite account.
5. Type the six-digit security code into the verification box, and complete the process.
6. On the next screen, you can generate a series of backup codes for your account locked with an authenticator app. Copy these to somewhere safe. You can only use each backup code once!

Now, for Email Authentication:

1. Head to your Epic Games account in a web browser.
2. Under Password & Security, scroll down to Two-Factor Authentication.
3. Select Enable Email Authentication.
4. Head to the email address associated with your Fortnite account and check for a verification email.
5. Copy the six-digit security code from the email into the Enable Email Verification box and press Continue.

That’s it. You have secured your Fortnite account with two-factor authentication.

Watch Out for Fortnite Scams

If the threat of Fortnite account crackers wasn’t enough, there are also scammers out there looking to trick unsuspecting users. Most of the scams center around free V-Bucks.

Scammers make flashy videos full of Fortnite imagery with alluring titles such as “How to Get Free V-Bucks” or “Check Out This Free V-Bucks Fortnite Glitch.” Most of the time, the videos invite users to a specific fraudulent website where you input a code from your Fortnite account.

In some cases, scammers can access the Fortnite account and use it to steal the existing V-Bucks, or lock the account for resale.

Other examples send users to websites full of malware that instantly begins downloading. And others still act as phishing portals, waiting for the user to input their Fortnite credentials before having their account stolen, locked, and resold.

Another route for scammers is through the Google Play Store. The Google Play Store is full of apps claiming to gift the user tens of thousands of V-Bucks for nothing. At best, they’re just terrible guides detailing fake methods of acquiring V-Bucks. At worst, they ask for Fortnite account login details to steal your account.

Enable Fortnite 2FA for Free Loot!

Epic Games understand there is a problem. That’s why they’re giving away some free loot to every account that turns 2FA on.

You don’t have to become a statistic though; it only takes a moment to secure your account. Similarly, as the Fortnite loading screen declares, “Only you can stop V-Buck scams.”

2FA is a great way to add additional security to all of your online accounts, not just Fortnite, and Epic Games. Here’s how to add 2FA to your Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many other accounts.

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