Xbox Live phished/hacked/somethinged

[Neon Ignition]

Reason #36 why an online online future = Fail

[Matt]

Received an email last night, asking to confirm the alternative email address I'd give MS for my account. I clicked the link to approve it, which took me to the Live.com site. Had to sign in, but it was not recognising my password (obviously different to the hacked one).

Immediately I feared the worse, that once again my account was compromised. Needing to check my gamertag, I turned on the 360. Same password. Straight into XBL. Online? That can't be right. Fired up BF3, and jumped into a game. Awesome!

So right now my Live account works fine on the XBox, but not online (live.com or xbox.com).

I've had no other emails from MS.

I guess I should be happy I can game again, but what a ****ing appalling way to handle things. I only found out by luck, really. Let's see if it's still working tonight....

[Matt]

Final update.

So it turns out I was sent an email from MS to say my account was OK to use again. The kicker? They sent that email to the alternative address I had given, for which they sent me (at around the same time) an email to my proper email asking me to confirm it was safe to use [the alternative]. The mind truly boggles.

They did give me 2 1 month Live codes, which was nice of them. Except they didn't work.

**** it. At least I'm back on BF3 I was seriously considering selling up and upgrading the PC, but all my gaming friends are Live only these days

[Mayhem]

Most balanced article I've seen about the whole thing so far...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/22/xbox-live-users-phishing-attacks

[Matt]

From speaking to MS several times, and from "news stories" taken from the MS Corporate Position, MS are basically saying it's User Fault. They said I must of clicked on a phishing email, that kind of stuff. Please, I work in IT, I've never been scammed through phishing.

I'm not saying it's not Phishing, I'm just saying it's unlikely to be solely the fault of users. There must be something else going on. What I can't say, but early indications were the EA Origin issue - which again is now being brushed aside and The User is being blamed.

Maybe one day we'll find out. I truly hope it happens to no-one else here.

On the plus side, I see in my Purchase History all the titles the Thief purchased with my money (I think I'm going to call them Thieves, the word Hacker kinda romanticises them as some kind of Anti-The-Man hero). Should see if I can download all those titles....

[Matt]

Yes I'm still going on about this. Just noticed that all my Live Download Licenses were transferred to the hackers console. That's 640 items transferred so he can use them offline. Screws me up as I play RB3 offline, taking my console to the venue.

I'm not on hold trying to get MS to sort it. It really is incredible. You'd of thought that would be standard check in hacking cases, and they'd move them back. The argument I'm now having is that no, I cannot do it myself because of their silly time restriction on license transfers.

[Family Fry]

Ok just noticed on Twitter Geoff Keighley (GTTV persenter) one of his accounts has been done over.
Here's what he said.

"Just talked to Xbox Live support - My Xbox Live account will now be locked for *25 DAYS* while they conduct an investigation!"

and who replied to that?
Stephen Toulouse
Who's he?
Xbox LIVE Director of Policy and Enforcement.
What did it say...

"shoot me a mail with the tag"

Take care of themselves don't they people, bet you Geoff tag will be recovered and sorted in about 3 hours.
I've not been affected by this but that kind of behaviour is just bull**** if I'm honest.

[Matt]

Yep. It's not right.

I ended up speaking to some moron for half an hour, who could not understand the concept that the "new console" I had recently moved all my licenses to was not really my console. I must of explained it to her 4 times.

The result? They can't do anything, and will need 15 days to investigate. It's just unbelievable.

[Colin]

Not really an online gamer lads, but does stuff like this not make you miss the days when you got the boys round to play games and abuse each other face to face? The more crap that happens with all this hacking, makes me glad i've never really bothered with the whole online thing, but hope you all get it sorted out.

[Matt]

Yeah I miss those days. Sadly I moved a hundred miles away from my old gaming mates, so online makes things easier. We still get together every other month for Rock Band parties and whatnot

[charlesr]

I don't get it. You'd think there would be a process to perform when investigating this and what to do when it's a proven hack. i.e. move all the stuff back. It's almost like each case is being dealt with individually by a detective who hasn't been told about all the other cases. UNBELIEVABLE.

[Silanda]

I don't get it. You'd think there would be a process to perform when investigating this and what to do when it's a proven hack. i.e. move all the stuff back.

You'd think; personally I wonder if there may simply be a little politics at play here. If EA are at fault then perhaps MS don't want to come out and openly flame one of the biggest publishers for the 360. It might hurt their relationship, especially after MS were at fault for the Mass Effect leak. Much easier to simply blame the customers and act as if the hacks aren't a well known issue: it avoids finger pointing and admittance of liability.

[Matt]

This has just happened to another mate. That's two people I know IRL

And when it happened to me, he checked his password to confirm it's not the same as his EA one.

Guys, I really suggest you all change your Live password. This isn't just an isolated case as MS would have you believe.

[Fader209]

Yeah I noticed a guy on my Facebook had been locked out for weeks thanks to this EA problem.

I went on the EA site to change my details (didn't even realise I had an account with them until I checked) but their server is having trouble so I couldn't even get a reminder of my sign in. Fairly certain I would have chosen a random password for them at the time anyhoo.
Went on Live and changed that password anyway just to be sure

[Matt]

I am not convinced it is an EA problem. The two guys I know who were hacked, one had changed his password after the alleged EA hack, and another checked his password and it was completely different (Live to Origin). I'd just change your Live password regardless.

Title change may be in order.