I continue to wonder why people pay for this service.

This happened to me, I was on my way home one day when I received 2 emails from paypal saying 10000 MS points had been purchased. I went home and called Microsoft immediately to tell them and my account was closed for 25 days while they investigated. When the account was unlocked I received an email from Microsoft saying no fraudulent behaviour was detected. So I had to deal with £85 missing from my bank account and 10000 Microsoft Points I didn't buy. Not the worst thing in the world. A few days later however I come home, all the points are gone (including about 300 I had beforehand), Fifa 12 had been played on my account (Which I do not own) and I had to call Microsoft again. They told me there's no guarantee that they will find anything suspicious again and locked my account for a 2nd time. After about 10 days it was unlocked though I received no notification from Microsoft and am still out £85. Not even sure what to do at this point... Keep waiting and see if they actually send me something or call them up for a third time and see what's going on. Being on hold for 30 minutes before you can speak to anyone doesn't help either.

My account was hacked back in April and still have not be able to use it because its locked I have called several times to see what the hell is going on and I get the same response everytime they say we will send you a email in a week or two still have not got the first email and the last time i called i asked them just to cancel the damn thing they said they could not do that at this time because it was locked i dont know how they go about unlocking the account Patrick may have explained it in the post but I may have skipped over it   
 
Its been like 9 months not a damn thing has happened just went ahead and made another account i know one thing I will not be spending the 50 dollars for gold membership ever again if i wanna play online I'll use the PS3 or the PC

I got hacked just a few days ago for $75 worth of points.... Most annoying part about this is my xbox doesn't even work because due to RRoD. I am fortunate I have a PS3 and I haven't missed a beat as it has been my main console for the past 2 years or so.

Sure, I rather play a FPS on my 360 and I love the Halo franchise but I seriously doubt I am going to buy another console from MS. I mean I was only able to use like 4-5 months of my year long gold subscription till that piece of shit red-ringed and then I get hacked for $75..... fuck all that.

@ProfessorEss said:

@TentPole said:

It took over 60 days for me.

That stinks. Did they at least offer you two months of free Live? Or just the standard month?

The standard month is total BS. I mean it was them that put you though all of this because they are being compromised, yet they can't even offer you a refund or an entire year free if you do decide to stay with them. Seriously... WTF. This is almost worse than PSNs hackings around Easter.

Sony should have made an example out of Geo Hotz and castrated the bastard with a rusty carving knife then burned him at the stake. Maybe then people would think twice before doing this shit that is really just a pain in the ass for all involved.

@GameOverGreggy: Greg you beautiful son of a gun! Contact shitty Microsoft and help us out ;)

I recommend James report the incident to the BBB. A friend of mine was locked out of his XBL account for about 6 months and had his account back within hours of filing the BBB report.

@GameOverGreggy:

Prime example of why people shoudln't take justice into their own hands when they don't have all the facts.

Hotz had nothing to do with the PSN hacking the PSN hacking was to do with their shoddy server security which had not been updated not with the console itself which is what Hotz had cracked.

It's about the same wait time when their hardware craps out on you so....nothing really terrible going on besides assholes hacking people. Then again if it's just RROD you can at least log into your profile on a friend's console or something.

My sympathies.

28 days for mine to come back. The thing I still don't understand is how nobody is taking the blame for this. Both EA and Microsoft say it was due to a phishing scam, and because of FIFA's popularity, it makes striking easy. Here's the thing: I hate soccer. If the phishing scam was about FIFA, I wouldn't have even glanced at it. Secondly, I'm a Senior Systems Administrator. Not to toot my own horn, but I have never fallen for a phishing scam. Part of my job is to prevent them from getting into my client's emails. I always check the URL for a link I don't immediately recognize and compare it with DNS whois entries and their subsequent IP addresses to make sure I'm not falling into a trap. Someone is not telling the truth in this matter... *cough* EA *cough*

Not even offline play is available? Wow.

I feel bad for anyone that is affected by these assholes, but what bugs me about this situation is how calm and OK Patrick seems to be with what these people are going through. He was ripping Sony a new one every chance he got when all their bullshit was going on, he came unglued with the whole psp umd non issue but people being hacked and money being stolen from them, locked out of their accounts for multiple months and he doesn't take microsoft to task for it, he says " those already affected is to remain persistent" And he ends with "It’s the holidays, which means even Xbox 360s are being sold every day, and more and more of them will hop online over the next few weeks, as gifts are unwrapped and plugged into a nearby TV. Make sure you’re keeping a close eye on your account." seriously WTF.

Wheres is his outrage to help force micorsoft to fix this shit now, where is the i am standing up to the big bad corporation for consumers rights soap box he likes to get on when comes to other companies.

My guess is most won't agree with me in regards to this story and Patrick lack of balls when is come to going up against microsoft. I am seriously losing respect for some of the stuff that goes on here at Giantbomb lately.

@DeanoXD said:

I feel bad for anyone that is affected by these assholes, but what bugs me about this situation is how calm and OK Patrick seems to be with what these people are going through. He was ripping Sony a new one every chance he got when all their bullshit was going on, he came unglued with the whole psp umd non issue but people being hacked and money being stolen from them, locked out of their accounts for multiple months and he doesn't take microsoft to task for it, he says " those already affected is to remain persistent" And he ends with "It’s the holidays, which means even Xbox 360s are being sold every day, and more and more of them will hop online over the next few weeks, as gifts are unwrapped and plugged into a nearby TV. Make sure you’re keeping a close eye on your account." seriously WTF.

Wheres is his outrage to help force micorsoft to fix this shit now, where is the i am standing up to the big bad corporation for consumers rights soap box he likes to get on when comes to other companies.

My guess is most won't agree with me in regards to this story and Patrick lack of balls when is come to going up against microsoft. I am seriously losing respect for some of the stuff that goes on here at Giantbomb lately.

Majority of GiantBomb has always been pro x360 and bash PS3, not about to change. Don't let it get to ya.

25 days, huh? Someone used my account to purchase stuff from Xbox.com on July 10th. I still can't log into GFWL because of it, 'pending resolution.'

My account was hacked on October 31. I was able to access back within about 35 days, but there was about $70 worth of charges on my card through my Xbox Live account. Microsoft said they would refund my money and that it would take 10 days for the refund to process and maybe even up to 30 for it to show on my bank account. If I do not receive my money within 30 days I will be filing a complaint with the BBB. Just a suggestion to anyone thats having trouble, filing a complaint with the BBB will work. Large companies pride themselves on having a good BBB score. Also, if certain size companies get more than 5 unresolved complaints within a fiscal year they are usually booted from being part of the BBB. In short, if you have trouble, file a complaint with the BBB. It will work.

I got hit with this a couple Saturdays ago. The tragedy is I had saved up some vacation time to be able to just sit and play Xbox since I hardly get to during the week because of work and other things. I called customer service to follow up today and they tell me I should be good and ready by January 3, the same day I have to go back to work.

I got the code to start another Gamertag and still play online, but the progress and achievements won't transfer over.

Thanks, Patrick for at least shining a light on our situation. Even though I called the BBB in October, I'm still waiting. I DO suggest people file a complaint if you keep getting the runaround. Contacting the BBB at least got me in contact with someone from corporate. That way you are dealing with one person every time you call.

@Doctorchimp said:

What do you mean social engineering is hard to protect yourself from? Doesn't Xbox make it abundantly clear that they would never ask for your password? I still haven't really heard exactly how this stuff happens. And I know its hard because people forget and they're really sensitive about turning over their info and admitting a mistake on their part.

In short, people call up customer service and use existing publication information--Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, leaked information from things like Gawker, PSN--and get gullible customer service people to turn over accounts.

So the lesson is... don't buy FIFA games?

I feel bad for anyone that is affected by these assholes, but what bugs me about this situation is how calm and OK Patrick seems to be with what these people are going through. He was ripping Sony a new one every chance he got when all their bullshit was going on, he came unglued with the whole psp umd non issue but people being hacked and money being stolen from them, locked out of their accounts for multiple months and he doesn't take microsoft to task for it, he says " those already affected is to remain persistent" And he ends with "It’s the holidays, which means even Xbox 360s are being sold every day, and more and more of them will hop online over the next few weeks, as gifts are unwrapped and plugged into a nearby TV. Make sure you’re keeping a close eye on your account." seriously WTF.

Wheres is his outrage to help force micorsoft to fix this shit now, where is the i am standing up to the big bad corporation for consumers rights soap box he likes to get on when comes to other companies.

My guess is most won't agree with me in regards to this story and Patrick lack of balls when is come to going up against microsoft. I am seriously losing respect for some of the stuff that goes on here at Giantbomb lately.

@Anwar said:

@Nakiro said:

@DeanoXD said:

I feel bad for anyone that is affected by these assholes, but what bugs me about this situation is how calm and OK Patrick seems to be with what these people are going through. He was ripping Sony a new one every chance he got when all their bullshit was going on, he came unglued with the whole psp umd non issue but people being hacked and money being stolen from them, locked out of their accounts for multiple months and he doesn't take microsoft to task for it, he says " those already affected is to remain persistent" And he ends with "It’s the holidays, which means even Xbox 360s are being sold every day, and more and more of them will hop online over the next few weeks, as gifts are unwrapped and plugged into a nearby TV. Make sure you’re keeping a close eye on your account." seriously WTF.

Wheres is his outrage to help force micorsoft to fix this shit now, where is the i am standing up to the big bad corporation for consumers rights soap box he likes to get on when comes to other companies.

My guess is most won't agree with me in regards to this story and Patrick lack of balls when is come to going up against microsoft. I am seriously losing respect for some of the stuff that goes on here at Giantbomb lately.

Majority of GiantBomb has always been pro x360 and bash PS3, not about to change. Don't let it get to ya.

Yup and as far as I know I haven't heard any kind of big CC fraud happening after the PSN hacking and all those false claims(not from journalists or the GB staff, but still...) about Sony storing the info of the users in plain text. Good grief.

While in many cases my personal feelings spill over into a story, that didn't happen here; the facts spoke for themselves. If I were to get down 'n dirty, it would happen in a separate article, which it very well might. No conspiracy, even if you're desperately looking for one.

I recently had my account jacked and had all of my points(over 3000) spent. It only took about a week to get my account back, and another couple days to get my points back. During the investigation period I was able to use my account offline, but was locked out of connecting to live with it. Looks like it has something to do with Fifa12, it shows as being a recently played game though I've never played it.

@patrickklepek: I don't think anyone is suggesting conspiracy.

Bias on the other hand . . . it's just a part of human nature.

Though to be fair, you're coming off of all that flak you got for that one particular rousing article, so naturally you're trying not to pepper it with too much opinion, so really it's just an unfortunate coincidence that it seems like this.

Of course, the crew's general lack of knowledge of basic PS3 functions that are printed on the flaps of the box of every new PS3 and the minimal posting of PSN titles and QLs of them and such over the greater course of the website's history also leads to the theory of bias.

Rocketbirds was an incredibly fascinating game and it was quite prominently featured on the PSN--not tucked away or anything like that--and yet no QL, no discussion, except we hear Ryan over podcasts saying that no one buys PSN games. It maybe has something to do with the bias that prevents media outlets like yours here from showing them off so that people could maybe think about buying them more. Joe Danger seems to be the last thing anyone remembers anything about, and even that's sketchy.

I don't know. I'm sure, I'll get the ad hominem treatment and Brad will remark "Let me guess, was his name blue?"

PS3 players get treated like second class citizens from all fronts, not just from limited publishers. But hey, I get it. You gotta' play to the numbers.

Thats sucks. Lucky for me, and them, I've never had a problem. Because 25 days to get me back online for a service I pay for is unacceptable.

@Sander said:

@DeanoXD said:

I feel bad for anyone that is affected by these assholes, but what bugs me about this situation is how calm and OK Patrick seems to be with what these people are going through. He was ripping Sony a new one every chance he got when all their bullshit was going on, he came unglued with the whole psp umd non issue but people being hacked and money being stolen from them, locked out of their accounts for multiple months and he doesn't take microsoft to task for it, he says " those already affected is to remain persistent" And he ends with "It’s the holidays, which means even Xbox 360s are being sold every day, and more and more of them will hop online over the next few weeks, as gifts are unwrapped and plugged into a nearby TV. Make sure you’re keeping a close eye on your account." seriously WTF.

Wheres is his outrage to help force micorsoft to fix this shit now, where is the i am standing up to the big bad corporation for consumers rights soap box he likes to get on when comes to other companies.

My guess is most won't agree with me in regards to this story and Patrick lack of balls when is come to going up against microsoft. I am seriously losing respect for some of the stuff that goes on here at Giantbomb lately.

And he completely fails to see obvious things like if it were social engineering, then xbox users wouldn't be the only ones affected. If social engineers have become so capable, then why aren't we seeing hacking spikes into people's myriad other accounts? Ebay accounts, bank accounts etc are all up for grabs but no, according to patrick klepek, the only thing worth hacking into is somebody's game account.

Another dot he fails to connect is the poor and often incompetent customer service. Goddamn 90 days to undo what a hacker did in 30 seconds? If Microsoft is paying bottom dollar for customer service, I bet they ain't paying much more for customer security.

The difference, as I pointed out, is that video game aficionados are constantly, publicly talking abou their accounts, accounts that have credit and debit cards directly tied to them. It's absolutely a problem in other places, but we're talking about a website that discusses video games.

Pff... that sucks! Waiting over 25 (on average) for them to fix a service you pay for? That's ridiculous!

@Goldanas said:

@patrickklepek: I don't think anyone is suggesting conspiracy.

Bias on the other hand . . . it's just a part of human nature.

Though to be fair, you're coming off of all that flak you got for that one particular rousing article, so naturally you're trying not to pepper it with too much opinion, so really it's just an unfortunate coincidence that it seems like this.

Of course, the crew's general lack of knowledge of basic PS3 functions that are printed on the flaps of the box of every new PS3 and the minimal posting of PSN titles and QLs of them and such over the greater course of the website's history also leads to the theory of bias.

Rocketbirds was an incredibly fascinating game and it was quite prominently featured on the PSN--not tucked away or anything like that--and yet no QL, no discussion, except we hear Ryan over podcasts saying that no one buys PSN games. It maybe has something to do with the bias that prevents media outlets like yours here from showing them off so that people could maybe think about buying them more. Joe Danger seems to be the last thing anyone remembers anything about, and even that's sketchy.

I don't know. I'm sure, I'll get the ad hominem treatment and Brad will remark "Let me guess, was his name blue?"

PS3 players get treated like second class citizens from all fronts, not just from limited publishers. But hey, I get it. You gotta' play to the numbers.

That UMD story is hardly the first thing I've written people have taken issue with, and I'm not in the business of catering to whatever the users ask of me. I write the stories that I find interesting, figuring other people will find them interesting, too.

As for the bias theory, Xbox 360 is just the more commonly used console, so everyone is more familiar with it, the games on it, the library--that's natural.

A corporation denying responsibility is called a "conspiracy" now? It would seem "conspiracies" have been going on everyday of my entire life.

Just to add to the list of how widespread this is - My account was also hacked to the tune of 10,000 MS points, and they were all spent on FIFA 12 card packs. Took about 2 weeks to get it all straightened out.

u guys so silly. Stop hating on the new kid.

Patrick 360 biased? He talks more about PS3 stuff than anyone else on the staff. Either way, stuff like this sux.

Honestly, I'm not special in any way, but my XBL account was hacked on August 14th, 2011.

After immediately contacting microsoft, i had a 10 day recovery estimate.

10 days later, i called again "we need 10 more days" they said.

10 days later (a total of 20) I called back and i got "Sorry sir, we dont know what the hold up is."

4 FUCKING MONTHS later, I call them back "Sir, you havent been helped? We're sorry."- account recovered 1 week later.

It took them 4 months to help me recover my account.. Ive never had any issues with my PS3(aside from the arbirary shutdown) Or any of my other subscriptions.

I love my xbox, but i loved it a lot less after 4 months of having 0 customer assistance.

Say what you'd like about ps3, and xbox, but a 4 month wait cycle is fucking stupid.

I wish mine was only 25 days..

@patrickklepek: I certainly know and acknowledge it's more commonly used. Like I said, you gotta' play to the numbers. If the console is more commonly used however, I think bias stops being a theory.

You take it to mean something terribly negative though. You're part of a business that is designed to cater to a certain audience. MSNBC and Fox News have their own bias, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad networks. That makes them a media outlet that serves their clientele well.

And speaking of businesses that cater to an audience, I wasn't suggesting you were bending to a whim, just that you were adjusting your presentation to better suit your audience.

Clearly you show interest in that, as I have your ear now.

If I am critical, it is because I have respect for the website. I like your articles, and I find them interesting. I was just expressing my concern over common trends I noticed and how they have affected me, but I also wanted to iterate that I get it, and the crew has explained the reasoning several times.

I appreciate that you took the time to at least respond, as that shows that you care about your work and how it is received. I've always respected your work and continue to enjoy it.

. . .

Well, some of that ER stuff has me yelling at my TV, but I still have a good time. Maybe pick up a guide or two for quick reference so that we don't stumble around so much? Haha.

Ridiculous. I am letting my Live account run out and I am done with XBox after this console generation is finished. Owning an XBox 360 has been the most arduous electronic-device-related experiences I have faced.

@patrickklepek I think you should amend the article to note that you can, in fact, play single-player games on your account even when it is not able to connect to Live.

@cmblasko said:

Ridiculous. I am letting my Live account run out and I am done with XBox after this console generation is finished. Owning an XBox 360 has been the most arduous electronic-device-related experiences I have faced.

@patrickklepek I think you should amend the article to note that you can, in fact, play single-player games on your account even when it is not able to connect to Live.

Not when it gets locked down for investigation.

say what you will about being biased and all that crap, stuff like this has happened for years on pretty much everything that 1) has your email address and 2) has your bank account details, this isn't new. It is a shame that it does happen and it sucks for the ones that it does happen to, and customer services on EVERYTHING and not just console manufacturers suck balls 99% of the time, they can't just change the way they do stuff overnight, i guarantee if they could improve the speed of these fixes and the backlogs, i'm sure they would do.

There's no big conspiracy to screw people over, they want your loyalty and custom as much as the competition, i just think 'you americans' think too much about this kind of stuff. Sorry to be saying 'you americans' but if you look at the comments on this thread and then the comments on the PS Vita thread and the other thread regarding the 'inability to sue' microsoft and sony, you just put too much thought into it.

My account was compromised on October 19th when someone bought $80 worth of points and migrated my account to the Czech Republic. I called in for an investigation that same day and this upcoming Monday will be two months without my live account. Outside of the free 30 day of live e-mail that they send out to everyone on day 25 or so, I've had zero contact or feedback from anyone. Calling into XBL Support does nothing as they have no way to contract the investigation team.

I've never given my password out to anyone, I don't fall for phishing scams, and it's not something you can easily guess or brute force with a dictionary attack.

Fun stuff all around.

Honestly, for shoving the PSN outage down every PS3 users throat, this is a bit...how you say...vindicating. I feel it. Ohh yes...

Guess I'll relay my story even though it's similar quite a few here. I noticed that my account was hacked a few months ago when I had 2 FIFA achievements on my profile, since I would never play FIFA in a million years, I called Microsoft immediately and told them I was hacked.

The lady that answered was nice but I knew she was just a call router and she told me that their 'Account Investigation Team' would be getting back to me within 25 to 30 days. I asked her if I could get on the phone with one of them right now so I could speed up the process and she did transfer me after about 20 minutes on hold.

Once I got to talk to the guy who would be investigating my account I told him that I couldn't wait the full time since I was hosting a Gears 3 party at my house in a couple of weeks (which was the truth). He told me he was a Gears fan and he would do all he could to restore access to my account. Eight days later he had my account back in my hands and I changed my password to something extremely complicated (the password I had used was admittedly weak and I had used it on other sites).

The hackers spent all of my 720 points but since I do not have a credit card attached to my account they were not able to make any purchases beyond that. Unfortunately Microsoft sill hasn't restored my points balance. I called them last week to ask them where they were on that but they responded that they were still looking into it. I figure if all I am out is 9 dollars then it's not to terrible, but I will call once a month to see if they can restore those points.

Overall it was certainly not a nice experience to get my account hacked, but they took care of it quickly (minus getting my points restored). Looking back I am very glad that I did not have a credit card attached to my account and I that I keep a low points balance at all times. I would suggest others do the same just to be safe.

@cmblasko said:

Ridiculous. I am letting my Live account run out and I am done with XBox after this console generation is finished. Owning an XBox 360 has been the most arduous electronic-device-related experiences I have faced.

@patrickklepek I think you should amend the article to note that you can, in fact, play single-player games on your account even when it is not able to connect to Live.

Not when it gets locked down for investigation.

I personally know two people that got affected by this. One was being an idiot and pretty much tweeted his password for the account. I think he was intoxicated at the time. The other though is technically savvy and I assume smart enough to not use hello123 as their password. A lot of people who are even more cautious than I am have come out and said their accounts were compromised as well. I'm not too worried as I've been able to actually disconnect my credit card a year or so ago through a pretty hassle free Customer Support phonecall - so no one can actually charge me anything. The idea that someone can get a hold of my password and just get on my account is the troubling issue for me.

With as much as I've sunk cost wise into the Xbox ecosystem it frightens me to think of losing access to my account. I feel bad for everyone affected by this.

@CaLe: I was also able to play offline just fine. Maybe our accounts were never actually flagged for investigation?

This stuff scars me, Microsoft needs to set my mind at ease.

IWe have to trust microsoft.They need to do stuff like allow users to turn of acount recovery and other things.

By far the worst thing they ever did was allow the likes of EA to host servers.....EA are terrible, always will be, just look at the countless botched launches of online games.

God speed SWTOR, your days are numbered.

Wait, the connected live account? So does that mean you're hotmail would also be inaccessible?

Well it is really rough turn-around time . . .

I had this happen to me back in September I believe. I had around $50 of points burned through on FIFA packs and they would have spent more but my credit card on file had expired. In the end it probably did take about 25 days to solve, and all of my points were returned. I also now randomly have like 25 achievement points in FIFA 12, lol. I don't recall being taken off the grid, but I disconnected my xbox from the internet through the entire process. I didn't notice any lost progress on my games or anything, but I was also mostly burning through arcade titles at the time. Still, I hope this never happens again or to anyone else.

@CaLe: I was also able to play offline just fine. Maybe our accounts were never actually flagged for investigation?