Microsoft Points & Live

[yesteryeargames]

It wont let me cancel my auto renewal as my gold account is paid up until 2013 doh, I think it will be worth changing any EA account details too.

[toythatkills]

You'll be without Live for a few weeks, but they will give you a month free at the end, so you're not really losing out time-wise at least.

[Flabio]

Noone has gone on record yet as to how this is happening have they?

It does sound like it might be a case of using the same password on Live as you're using somewhere else, and that 'else' has been compromised and people are using that data to try and recover Live accounts.

I think if you went through and made sure everything you have your card on has a different password, you'll be as protected against this as you can be in this day and age.

[spinpug666]

Is this only effecting people with fifa12 on xbox live and ea accounts?

[Flabio]

Nope. FIFA is just how they're using the points to generate tokens to sell online.

Noone is quite sure whose email/password database is being used as the source for it.

[toythatkills]

Nope. FIFA is just how they're using the points to generate tokens to sell online.

Noone is quite sure whose email/password database is being used as the source for it.

Indeed. This could as likely be a result of the Sony hack as a new hack on Microsoft. I imagine tons of people use the same passwords for both accounts. Nobody has any idea where it's coming from.

[JSR]

Man, I hate the future ( which we're in). Hope it all gets sorted for you.

[Matt]

Indeed. This could as likely be a result of the Sony hack as a new hack on Microsoft. I imagine tons of people use the same passwords for both accounts. Nobody has any idea where it's coming from.

Stop. It.

At no stage has the Sony hack produced any passwords. Sigh.

This is simply a phishing exercise. Some site / forum has been hacked, people have duplicate passwords. This is most likely fallout from all those hacking group pissing games from a few months back, and now someone is looking to turn a profit from whatever lists were posted online.

[toythatkills]

Stop. It.

At no stage has the Sony hack produced any passwords. Sigh.

I wasn't trying to say that's what happened, just that it could equally be that as much as anything else. Nobody has any idea what the source is. Some people said it was EA but loads of people that haven't signed up for EA games have been victims. Some say it's phishing but people that haven't used accounts in years have been victims. There's no pattern at all.

[bwi]

I was on my local gumtree (stoke) and there are people advertising 6000 points for ?20 and mentioning getting fifa ultimate teams etc. Tempted to phone up and see what they say.

bri

[Matt]

I wasn't trying to say that's what happened, just that it could equally be that as much as anything else. Nobody has any idea what the source is. Some people said it was EA but loads of people that haven't signed up for EA games have been victims. Some say it's phishing but people that haven't used accounts in years have been victims. There's no pattern at all.

Fair enough, but it certainly isn't to do with the Sony hack from earlier this year.

Would be nice to find a pattern here. Me, I'm going to change my Live password now. Just in case.

[Spatial]

Whatever it is I'd be willing to bet that MS know exactly how it's being done and are keeping quiet to avoid bad PR in the wake of what happened to Sony and coming up to the crucial Xmas period.

However the fact that it's still happening and they won't tell you how to help protect yourself or that they've fixed any vulnerability frightens the **** out of me. Even MS's own arse trumped Major Nelson hasn't said anything.

[BaronSqwelch]

my mate got done...was actually quite funny in a way, he was messing around with my new windows phone and on the xbox live bit noticed he was online playing FIFA 12 They changed the password and the security question was changed to japanese, he is now locked out in the 25 day period with his fingures crossed its sorted early for Battlefield 3.

taught him a lesson though, he used the same pass on everything from forums to paypal!!

[Yakumo]

What I do when I want to buy something with Microsoft points is to buy UK or US points and buy from those market places. this way I save a lot on buying Japanese points. I know it's not as easy for you in the UK but the pound is stronger than the US dollar, right? So buy US points and buy from the US store to save some cash. Games bought from any store will work with any region account so no problems at all.

[randombs]

How to think up difficult to crack passwords that are easy to remember:
http://www.xkcd.com/936/

I don't get that - surely common words are the worst type for a password if the hacker uses a dictionary thingummy?