Xbox Live Hacked?

[Space Spoons]

This happened to me just last month. Xbox Live customer service was very helpful; I just had to give them my account name and the serial number of my Xbox, and they were able to see immediately that their system had flagged my account as being the victim of what they called "unauthorized access". They locked my account down and told me that I'd have my money back as soon as possible.

Now, the downside is that "as soon as possible" turned out to mean "two weeks later", but by them, I was just glad to have the money back and the whole mess behind me.

 

[Aroth Khashar]

While Microsoft is not to blame for an individual account being hacked, a 3 to 4 week (or longer) response time for a fraudulent charge complaint is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Also, you can't just assume that the user screwed up. It is possible that someone on Microsoft's side screwed up and a portion of their user database was left with the account info vulnerable. When a larger than average group of people suddenly show up in a short period of time with their accounts being hacked (or just a larger proportion of accounts with credit card info than usual) that is typically a good sign that something was left unsecured on the server side.

Its not actually a larger portion of accounts suddenly being hacked though. Sure their has been an increase in the last few months but thats it. Xbox Live accounts are constantly being hacked all the time. They are really popular to hack these days, kind of like battle.net accounts. They are not hard to hack into and its profitable.


I wont say much about the responce time other then they are apparently really busy right now so that is why.

There is no excuse, at all, for taking a month to respond to a customer service complaint about a hacked account. Especially if the account has a credit card attached to it. Those types of complaints should be prioritized to receive responses asap, not after the 150+ complaints about yet another penis related gamer-tag.

Also, even if the number of accounts being hacked each week isn't fluctuating by a large degree, it would certainly seem that the percentage of those accounts with linked credit card info has been on the rise in recent weeks. That alone should be raising a red flag over at Microsoft.

While I can see one week having more accounts with cards hacked than the week before every so often, a constant increase from one week to the next, over the course of several weeks, suggests that somehow the hackers know that those accounts have card info saved to them. Occam's Razor would suggest that someone at Microsoft either slipped up and left something out where they shouldn't have, or else blatantly sold the info.

 

[theevilgenius60]

I hope it hasn't been hacked, but it's not like I'm Captain Multiplayer anyway. My brother would be pretty livid though. This is why I don't have any credit cards attached my Xbox Live or PSN accounts. I just get those little cards at the store if I want dlc. I had a buddy who used to laugh at me buying the little cards. He stopped laughing when PSN got attacked and his information was laid bare in front of God-knows-who. He buys them right alongside me now.
Here's hoping it doesn't go down. Gears 3 co-op has been a blast so far and it would be just my luck to have it go down just when VALVe decides to bring out the Portal 2 dlc.

 

[dickywebster]

Im a ps3 user so idk the state of xbl, but im sorry to say the first thing that springs to mind is that this is very ironic and will probably wipe the smile off a few xbox lovers i know.
But remember what happened when the psn was hacked, unless its a noticeable problem, which it sounds like it is, then you might not hear from microsoft for ages if ever.
On the otherhand, it does sound too targeted and widespread to be just a system glitch, unless the whole system is playing around?

My exact thoughts on the very ironic situation. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Xbox Live or its users, but maybe with this going on, Xbox users will quit patronizing me for using a PS3, talking about how PSN was hacked and whatnot.

Yeah, got nothing against the xbox itself (beyond the red ring and its fans), but if it is like the ps3 one, then maybe itll shut them up, though pointing out that the group who hacked the psn hacked the american gov didnt, so who knows.

 

[feeqmatic]

I just had this happen to me today, and the person was also playing fifa for some reason which is something that i saw several other people say... any further info on this?

 

[WMCMAH20]

I just got hacked too. Got to spend the entire night on the phone with XBL (XBox Live) billing support. The guy ran up around 70usd worth of points purchases and the XBL people were like "oh don't worry, the account's been put on hold" and I'm left there going yea right and calling up the bank to close my damn card and change my passwords. RAWRPWNZROMFG!

Edit: The only thing I have been doing online lately is the Battlefield 3 Beta which makes me wonder if there is a security gap in the beta since all of these hacking incidents happen to occur with the release of the BF3 Beta

And the guy was playing FREAKIN FIFA11!!!

 

[Hisshiss]

Not this morning, but around semptember 10th, my live account got hacked, they only got away with about 150 bucks worth of microsoft points though, since that's all the cash that was on my card at the time. I called their customer support directly, and after about an hour long conversation they..did something, I dont know. The account got suspended, and they said it would take 25 business days to get it back. Which lands around october 20th. So far I have had no contact from them at all, and the money that was stolen still hasn't been refunded.

I wasn't aware it was happening to anyone else, that may explain why its taking so long.

Edit: To clarify, they didn't actually submit the account until the 17th, which is where I got october 20th. there was a 7 day grace period that they didn't do anything, because apparently the person i called the day it happened just forgot to do anything other than suspend the account, and I called back a week later.

 

[Jamash]

I just had this happen to me today, and the person was also playing fifa for some reason which is something that i saw several other people say... any further info on this?

Do you have an EA account and use the same password for your EA account and X-Box Live account?

Word on the street is that these hackers have managed to compromise some people's EA accounts, then from that gain access to their X-Box Live accounts (in cases where the log-in details are the same).

I don't know how much truth there is in this rumour (I've also heard people who've been 'hacked' say they used the same log-in details for their X-Box Live and PSN accounts), although people seem to be making the EA connection because these hackers play EA games and charge people's credit cards with purchases for EA Sports items (or MS points with which they purchase EA Sports DLC), so it could just be a coincidence or something more...

 

[TxMxRonin]

My fried said his account got hacked. He called Live and apparently they're going to refund all his money lost.

I've heard of isolated incidents here and there but never anything major. But then again I only use pre-paid cards so I don't really check up on Live's security status as much as I would if I used an actual credit card.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I'm really fucking worried now! I'll get to you once I check my account.

 

[Creator002]

Sorry to hear you got hacked. Microsoft really have screwed up with Xbox LIVE membership. Really easy to join (you can do it alone, online), exceptionally hard to cancel (you MUST call up with all of your account details).
I've stopped using credit cards for LIVE. I put my card on there for points then take it straight off. For LIVE, prepaid cards from shops. That way, if I don want LIVE, I just wait for it to run out.

EDIT - I'm also fairly lucky by being quite poor. If someone tried to charge money on my credit card (which is currently locked to my LIVE, I'm going with cards next month), they'll get a "too poor to buy" error.

 

[feeqmatic]

I just had this happen to me today, and the person was also playing fifa for some reason which is something that i saw several other people say... any further info on this?

Do you have an EA account and use the same password for your EA account and X-Box Live account?

Word on the street is that these hackers have managed to compromise some people's EA accounts, then from that gain access to their X-Box Live accounts (in cases where the log-in details are the same).

I don't know how much truth there is in this rumour (I've also heard people who've been 'hacked' say they used the same log-in details for their X-Box Live and PSN accounts), although people seem to be making the EA connection because these hackers play EA games and charge people's credit cards with purchases for EA Sports items (or MS points with which they purchase EA Sports DLC), so it could just be a coincidence or something more...

The one thing that seems to remain constant is the EA affiliation. Also, remember that Bioware got hacked in July and there seems to be an uptick in this since then

 

[NearlyG]

My account was definitely hacked last night (2nd October 2011). I attempted to login to XBL as usual only to be told that my account information was incorrect and/or I needed to recover my gamertag. I immediately logged in to windows live and discovered that some **** had been playing FIFA 2012 under my gamertag that evening - a game I do not own and have absolutely zero interest in. I recovered my gamertag, changed my password and then noticed that my Microsoft points had vanished. Checked my email and received one from Microsoft confirming a purchase of 6000 points (£51) earlier in the evening, which had already been spent along with the points I already had - I'm a coder/designer by trade and I'm pretty computer savvy, so I'm 100% sure that my details have not been put out there by me and made available to obvious abuse - Either XBL or an affiliated partner has/is being hacked. I'm about to call Microsoft and my bank now to get this sorted which I'm sure is going to be non-stop laughs and constant giggles!...

*UPDATE*

Just finished on the phone to XBL - had it confirmed that my account was essentially hacked last night, but that they 'noticed an unusual amount of Microsoft points being purchased' across the board and so they immediately 'cancelled/refunded most payments'. I asked about whether the support guy had received a lot of calls about this sort of thing lately, got the response "ermmmm.... ummmmm...." to which I replied "you cant comment about that can you?" which in turn was met with some nervous laughter.

The thing that now annoys me is that in order to have this investigated properly, it would involve having to have my XBL account deactivated for up to 4 weeks. I told them not to bother... I can't possibly go that long without a live session on Halo Reach or BF2... the thought of it alone makes me twitch and feel a bit sick.

*DAMN*

Just read above about the possible EA link. *Alarm bells* - I received what appeared to be a genuine invite to beta test BF3 and I might have attempted to log in with my windows live details... *palm to face* guess I'm not as computer savvy as I first thought... oh but the beta test of BF3 was so tempting. I'd put my Microsft points on that email being how my details were captured... going to slam my fingers in the door for a bit.

 

[bnlf]

just checked purchase history today because I had 1070 microsoft points and now i have only 30 MS. here's the history:

10/2/2011 GOLD PACK -- Game Consumable -80 30
10/2/2011 PREMIUM GOLD PACK -- Game Consumable -120 110
10/2/2011 PREMIUM GOLD PACK -- Game Consumable -120 230
10/2/2011 PREMIUM GOLD PACK -- Game Consumable -120 350
10/2/2011 PREMIUM GOLD PACK -- Game Consumable -120 470
10/2/2011 PREMIUM GOLD PACK -- Game Consumable -120 590
10/2/2011 PREMIUM GOLD PACK -- Game Consumable -120 710
10/2/2011 PREMIUM GOLD PACK -- Game Consumable -120 830
10/2/2011 PREMIUM GOLD PACK -- Game Consumable -120 950

I hope it's just a bug otherwise i will be very pissed for having my account hacked but judging by the number of ppl complaning since Set. 28 im pretty sure xbox was hacked.

 

[NSGrendel]

I noticed there was some talk about password strength, and I felt it appropriate to bring this up now.

I am unsure if anyone else here is familiar with XKCD, but the author and artist (same person) is greatly interested in math, science, computers, and astronomy (given that he is a former employee of NASA) and writes little stick figure comics detailing instances that he finds interesting. A relatively recent post had to do with internet security and password strength.

Here is a direct link to the page in question. If you do not feel up to following the link, the next spoiler tag will contain the comic in question.

Spoiler

http://xkcd.com/936/

The comic in question.

Spoiler

Hopefully this will help with future password and account issues.

Best of luck in resolving your issues with your credit card.

Edit: Removed double post, and edited small grammatical error.

That's a very sexy post.

 

[Awexsome]

I'm getting a feeling that with the BF3 and MW3 releases coming up there's been an influx of very clever scam scenarios that people have been getting tricked into. Of course people would admit to possibly falling for one of those things a million times slower than Sony was at admitting their fiasco.

Always be careful where you try to log into your account at.

I really wish MS wasn't so anal about your details though. Making it as inconvenient as possible to try and not buy something from them once you've started. They refuse to let me delete my old expired credit card from the account. Lotta good that'll do them...