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Xbox LIVE accounts hacked in the name of FIFA-love
UPDATE:
Due to the overwhelming response to this story, we contacted Microsoft for a response to the issues. Check here for the follow-up.
Original Story:
While we’ve yet to hear anything in the way of official numbers, today Eurogamer reports that there are growing cases of Xbox LIVE accounts being hacked in order to…buy FIFA stuff.
These hackers are big sports fans. Probably soccer hooligans.
The Eurogamer post references one of their readers, Speedjack, who told the website that the other day he’d discovered his gamertag was now “recovered” on someone else’s console.
“I then find out that I’ve had 5000 then 500 MS points bought on my credit card. Better yet, all the points including the 120 I had already on my account are gone… all spent on FIFA 12 content packs yesterday afternoon while I was at work,” he’s quoted as saying. “Not only that, but my account now has 35 FIFA 12 achievement points on it!!! Never played the game in my life – hate football.”
The post says that Microsoft support suggested that the issue exists with Electronic Arts’ servers, leaving accounts vulnerable—though this is all speculative. The post also links to several other reports of similar hacks—again, which all seem to have the common thread of being used for FIFA 12 content. Which is insane.
This is far from the huge scale of similar security breaches that we’ve seen on the PlayStation Network—even the relatively small 93,000 accounts that suffered attempted breaches earlier this week—but it goes to show that, if true, XBL is vulnerable too.
No one is safe. Not with these soccer-loving hackers out on the loose. Anyone out there had their XBL accounts FIFA-hacked?
Via Eurogamer
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Not to be a Fanboy of xbox or anything but i highly doubt that it would be there fault, the evidence clearly points to some flaw in the EA servers, or maybe an exploit that has allowed users to get other peoples accounts in some bizarre way. Either way I’m safe, I don’t own FIFA 12 and i buy my Microsoft points in the stores. Linking Credit Cards to an XBOX is fine but you should always play it safe if you can.
I am just curious what evidence you are talking about that says it was EA’s fault. Maybe it was but Just because Microsoft said it doesn’t make it true. Microsoft would say it either way as a PR move to try and maintain people’s trust in the service.
Well, here is the thing. I didn’t own or ever play any of the FIFA games, yet now I am locked out for the next month while Microsoft investigates fraudulent charges. So not playing on EA servers isn’t going to guarantee anything.
How can a player who has NOT used EA’s Servers for FIFA, be hacked because of a security flaw in FIFA’s game?
It obviously wasn’t on EA’s side if people who didn’t even own the game are getting hacked.
No, you’re not safe!
I have been waiting for a blog to pick up on this already. I got hacked on October 14th. All 5600 MS points I had were all spent on Premium Gold Pack as its listed on my purchase history. 120 MS points each.
Have I ever played a FIFA game? NO!
Yet I have 3 achievements from the game.
Did they guess my password? Unlikely
My password is 14 digits long comprised of totally random letters/numbers/special characters
So my only conclusion is there is some type of exploit to allow them to get into our accounts and spend these points.
I was a victim :(
I was just hacked 30 mins ago. Lost 4000 Microsoft points and now have FIfa 12 on my account :(
I too was hacked, i got 2 fifa 12 achievements and i havent played it……. Also, my ability to buy MSP via xbox has been down for about a week now, very annoying because i would like to get the gears of war 3 add ons as soon as they are out…. also my membership runs out soon and i assume the same thing will happen with this….. Is there any reason for this or is my xbox just getting frail?
My Xbox was recently hacked by some Russians and they put $300 worth of MS points on my credit card. Have no idea how they did it. Microsoft fraud department is currently investigating. It’s been 3 weeks and yesterday they sent me a code for a 1 month membership for live cause they are still “investigating”. At least my kids will be able to play Fruit Ninja again and maybe I can get all the russian characters off of the marketplace.
The best picture of the day comes from the f*cking Netherlands, I live there and I am a Ajax supporter. Machinima you’re the best!
This is why I don’t play Fifa :)
Run it’s the FIFA hackers of 2011!
Welcome to our world guys I knew it would happen eventually…
See this is why I go to gamestop and buy point cards instead of putting personal info such as credit cards on XBL cause I knew that if someone managed to hack XBL there would be hell to come for those who had this happen to them. My sympathies go out to those who got hacked and hope that Microsoft straightens it out quickly.
YA XBOX SUCKS!!! THATS WHY PS3 IS BETTER!! IM SO AWESOME AND XBOX IS FOR LOSERS!!!
*replace ever xbox with ps3 and that what ever xbox player was saying when psn was down.*
Yeah, you’re right. XBOX sucks and PS3 is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better. That’s why I, along with every other member of XBOX Live, wasn’t able to play online for 2-3 weeks during this spring. Oh wait, that was the Playstation Network.
ya u forgettin xbox was hacked and down for a few weeks their self u dumb fanboy a awhile back xbox does suck not being a fanboy just simply hate microsoft as a whole
yeah and how long ago was it hacked? A long ass time ago right? well guess what now its 2011 and psn got hacked and was down for weeks while xbl accounts get hacked by fifa lovers just because EA’S shit servers unlike psn where they were completely taken over because their shit security. and f.y.i if it wasn’t for Microsoft your ass wouldn’t even be replying to people on this site.
O RLY? So, EA’s server are so lame that even if I don’t play any EA game I get hacked? This has been happening for quite a time, man. It’s not only FIFA or BF of whatever shit you want to excuse with. It happened with Halo 3 and will happen again for sure unless MS stops looking the other way waiting for it to stop on its own. Even people who barely play now get their account hacked and their bucks used to buy MP which are later sold at bargain prices on the Internet. This has been a regular practice for months. So better assume it, kid: there’s a huge flaw that lets Live accounts to be hacked, deal with it.
it doesnt matter if u dont have fifa…..ur account will be used to get money
Happened to me two weeks ago. I tell the story at 14 minutes in. http://oneofswords.com/2011/10/one-of-swords-podcast-090-bogart-that-nephew/
That wasn’t very smart of them. Why would you mess with an industry dude?
Ass holes did this to me I had 2110 map on my gtag and now there’s 30 I recovered my tag only to find that FIFA 12 was my last game played and 15g was on the game 1 was star a ultimate team. 2 Was sum outher one not no what I’m going to do ):
Well unlike you guys i decide not to buy online and prefer buying with Cash much simpler and i dont have to worry about my credit card details being online.
completley correct mate that wat i do
The only way this could get any worse, would be if some group of hackers come from a popular message board website, and start hacking accounts making it unsafe to log in to xbl, and then Microsoft shuts down its service for 3 weeks. If that happened, I would probably buy the opposing console, instead of whine like a little btch…good thing that has never happened though.
And now, because of this, there will be PSN fanboys that laugh at Xbox ones. But there are laughing for nothing because there is nothing but sports fan in this game online. But it’s EA servers so i’m bit worried about playing Crysis 2 or Bad Company 2 online now……
Looks like mine got hacked too. And I thought that my sister had played her friend’s FIFA12 when they came over. Damn.
who is stupid enouth to hack just for FIFA stuff? these guys should get a life, a job and a reason to live!
come on guys whe can’t say xbox live is hacked, FIFA got hacked
Who knew rednecks could hack..
So many people get hacked on XBL and it isn’t reported and I know because my accounts have been hacked twice and Microsoft dint help me out at all. All they said was ” sorry we can’t help you with that”. WTF >:(
Ive had the exact thing happen to me… but it was with fifa 11. on august 20 i went to work came home and found that my account was recovered to a different Xbox. i tried to recover but the password was changes. i change it again recovered it and reported it to Microsoft. that lock my account and said they will “look into it”. Its been 2 months now and nothing has happen. the little bastard that stole my account also stole 200 bucks from my back account. to buy 10000 Microsoft points and a family gold pack. i took notice of this story when fifa 12 was mention. but i was hacked BEFORE that game came out. with fifa 11. maybe it really is because of EAs servers. And to top it off when i finally made progress with Microsoft on the phone they told me that when they do get to my account i wont be able to log in for a month. woooo.not.
There’s only one way I can put this.
CONSOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
-Love KBMOD
Yah… I hate teh hackers. Mine got hacked and I was rly pissed, not only because i had $70 charged on my card, but because the asshole got 2 achievements on my goddamn acc. Now my friends might think im some soccer loving mexican >:( (jk)
I would really appreciate some word on how we are all getting are accounts hacked with this Fifa thing and Microsoft is saying nothing is going on. Its all over the net and twitter. I am locked out of my xbox live account and had money stolen for 6000 Microsoft points. So can you guys please Cowboy up and release the INFO. So people can protect them self.
Lets all do a class action law suit and sue for pain and suffering. That I got some insufficient funds fees because of it.
I had mine hacked two days ago. They bought 10,000 MS point and seem to have spend them all (including some I already had on my account) on FIFA bundles. It was easy enough to retrieve my account but how hard it’s going to be to get my money back is another question. Microsoft support have warned me it might take a month for the investigation to finish and until it does I can’t use Xbox live, Windows live, or Games For Windows live. Not impressed!
I also was hit with this on Saturday, October 15th. I also do not use the EA servers. I also haven’t used this username or password for at least 5 years. It is outdated and irrelevant due to life changes.
I suspect that Microsoft has hackers inside their servers. Fortunately I only lost a few thousand MS points. My 4 year old son managed to purchase the highest MS points deal a few years ago because the CC was linked. That got removed very quickly.
I’d suggest to anyone, affected or not, NEVER put your bank or CC info on ANY site. PayPal, Microsoft, PSN, etc. The thieves appear to be ahead of the corporations.
I’d note that I also got two FIFA achievements. That seems to be the “fingerprint” left behind on this issue. That is actually how I figured out that I was affected by this hacking.
Microsoft still wants to say that it was either a “mix up” or that I allowed someone to Phish my account info. I don’t ever fall for phishing tactics. If I get an email suggesting that I go online, I use my trusted bookmark link or I don’t visit the page. I verify ALL emails before entering info.
Add me to the list of hacked , 3 fifa cheevos & locked out of my gamertag. worse bit is xbox support dragging their feet over sorting these accounts out & returning them to their rightful owners.
I just got my account hacked. I was at work when my friend called me to tell me that I had just logged in to play FIFA 12. He knew I was at work so thankfully he called me and I was able to get the account locked down immediately. The guy bought $75 of MS points and spent it on a Gold Premium Content pack. I’d be less annoyed if he had bought stuff for a better game (in my opinion. Obviously some people like the EA series of yearly sports titles.). Hope this gets plugged soon, I’d hate to have to dump XBL cause some hooligans are causing mayhem via EA servers (yet another reason for me to loathe EA) and it affects people who don’t play on them.
Mine was – fucking communist pieces of shit.
I gotta say I’m amazed at the responses we’re getting on this story.
I’m going to try and contact Microsoft today and see if we can get any kind of follow-up info about this.
You shouldn’t be too surprised.You’re in an American based network,where the Xbox360 is the most popular platform.
I recently found out I was hacked. I do not play FIFA12 (although I WAS going to buy it). However I DO play NHL12 and NCAA12 – both EA servers. I found out when the hackers bought 10,000 microsoft points on my credit card – I received an e-mail to my primary e-mail address. After I found out, I immediately cancelled my credit card and filed a dispute on the charges. I called microsoft – they are starting an investigation but I can’t recover my gamertag or go online for the next 25 days. Microsoft said they could permanently ban the offender’s machine from playing on xbox live. I’d rather see the person in handcuffs but if they’re overseas I guess there’s not much you can do…
Happened to me earlier this morning, if I hadn’t gotten notices by mail about the first purchase of $50 they’d have gone on draining my card I bet. Microsoft locked the account at my request and they promise a refund but if they’re still saying there’s no problem on their side then the evidence says otherwise. Also, you don’t need to own Fifa 12 for this to happen to you, my system has never even touched a sports game.
Its fucking xbox, i just got my account havked, and i have never played a fifa game in my life
Just got the FIFA 12 Hack today as my inbox starting receiving mail that I had purchased points … I called microsoft and unfortunately am not home so will have to call them back to give them my console number. In a way I am happy to know I am not the only one who had this issue. And yes, FIFA is on my games list downloaded today as well as game packs I assume are associated with FIFA12
Just happened to me as well. I had no idea this was so widespread and yet microsoft does nothing to report on this. And not for nothing…but why dont these assholes in 3rd world countries have anything bettet to do? They need to get back in their huts and finish making our Nike’s. Whats worse in my situation is Microsoft wont even let me reset my password so i can play my games and access my saves on MY hard drive offline. Why in the fuck is the xbl account tied to your profile this way? So everything ive ever purchased or played i cant access because the xbl half is locked?? whatever microsoft. 25 days of waiting for this.
Hacked here as well 25 day wait. .. 75 dollars…. alot of rage.
My XBL account was hacked last Thursday. I had my contact email address,password and security question changed all at the same time. Two minutes later I bought 7500 MS points on my credit card and also played Fifa 12. I was at work while all this happened and was only aware of it when i checked my email the next day. The account is now locked for 25 days while MS investigate.When i get my tag back i will delete my cc from the account- which can only be done on the phone to MS !!! In a world of electronic transactions and highspeed everything then why does it take 25 days to sort all this.I am informed that the console that my account was moved too will leave a console id and serial number on the network and leave a trail to the person who did this.
I don’t understand the 25 business days (so 30+ inc weekends), to do a half hour job, all I can assume is that the investigations dept is massively understaffed ….
I got hacked by these Fifa lovers too
I just wanna ask a simple question. Did anyone who got hacked because of this ever get reimbursed by Microsoft? It just happened to me yesterday and I was furious. They told me that if it looked fraudulent then they would credit my debit card for the losses. Obviously it is fraudulent and they need to put a damn stop to it. I know one thing for damn sure, I’ll never use a credit or debit card online ever again.
Got hacked earlier today, contacted Microsoft…and they didn’t help much. They say that they’ll investigate and have my account back up within 25 days. I doubt it, I’m seeing a lot of people who have been waiting for months to get it back.
On top of that, Microsoft is playing dumb, claiming that there’s no problem on their end, as if they’re taking a page out of the banks and saying they’re too big to fail. If they don’t straighten up and do something about this amazingly large problem, they are going to lose a lot of members, myself included.
Yep. They got me. 25 days for an email just to see what microsoft says about the investigation and a separate email about trying to get my money back that they spent. I care less about the account than my money.
By the way I already called, canceled my credit card was told by them to talk to Microsoft first, Microsoft says wait at least 30 days. I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m a student, I could really use that 200 bucks they took from my bank account back.. like right now. Not in 30 days. Am totally canceling Xbox live after this. Customer service was haughty and rude, I was nothing but polite and patient considering the situation.
I’ve had a credit cards information stolen before and within the week their fraud department had me refunded. This is horrible customer service. Bill Gates, I want a check. :D
Does anyone have a contact within mass circulation media, companies like ms hate being the focus of big media attention.
my son got hacked today for £51.00 on my card they said the account will go down when they investigate the claim in about 14 days time by the way im the uk im sure this is world wide but what i want to know is there any resale vaule to this hack and can they trace the brought content back to the hacker
same thing has happened to me i am pissed been waiting to play bf3 but now my account is under review and it will take 25 days so stupid
Yup, add me to the list. I haven’t even been online for 3 days and today I was notified via email I was spending points, I called them and sure enough, $120 on FIFA 12 and also 2 new achievements for some shitty soccer game I don’t even want. Only EA game I have played in months is Nba jam OFE which I DLed a week or so ago. But ya, called Microsoft, they played oblivious about the problem. First guy was nice, helpful at least, second guy, basically told me my name was a TOS violation and I had to get him back on track by telling him right now, just fucking help me get it back. I have over 180 completed titles legit. I’m not starting over, I’ll trade it all in for a ps3.
Same happened to me. What’s worse is that I don’t have an XBox just a windows phone so Microsoft fraud said they don’t know how to investigate it and there is nothing they can do!
Just wanted to add fuel to the fire here. Here is my story of Xbox hacking.
Back 35 days ago, I was checking my bank after my paycheck was deposited, and noticed that there was less than what should have been. I contacted a phone teller to ask what charges there were pending, and she informed me that 140.00 worth of pending charges from Microsoft were waiting to go through. I immediately logged into xbox.com and looked at my account, to find that 3 seperate charges for Microsoft Points had been made on my account, while I was at work. I called Xbox immediately, and they froze my account. I jumped through all their hoops, starting a claim for theft. I was told that WITHIN 25 days I would receive a full reimbursement if they were able to determine that it was indeed not me that purchased the points.
I figured, ok it’s Microsoft, case closed. Well a week goes by and I haven’t gotten so much as a “Hey were working on your claim” email so I call back to find the status. That’s when the shit hit the fan. I was told that the woman who had originally entered my claim in fact had not entered it properly, so it was hanging out in Microsoft Limbo. The person this time was extremely helpful, and took down all my information again. I said to him “This is basically going to be Microsoft determining wether or not I’m trying to scam you, then refund my money correct?” As I didn’t expect them to pursue a criminal case over 140.00. I was told that was absolutely wrong, they would be going after the person liable, and all that it entailed. He even went as far as to tell me that he could physically look up and see the Console ID that the points were purchased from, the Xbox Live gamertag associated with that console ID, and that it was cut and dry that I did not purchase these myself. He said I should have my money back in far less than the original 25 days quoted, as he could see right there that it was an open and shut case.
I asked him, so how does this happen, I don’t use the same email for my Xbox live as for any other online activity, my password is 12 characters long, which makes it damn near impossible to crack unless you have a LOT of computers running crackers or a LOT of time on your hands. He told me that someone must have just either guessed it, or ran a cracking program that tried various different combinations until they got it right. I said “Wouldn’t someone attempting to log into an account with the wrong password 2, 3 or even 4 times trigger a flag, let alone 10000+ times?” I was informed that even though the most basic online stores implement security like that, they do not. ….
Fast forward 8 days. I call again to ensure that my claim is being processed and lo and behold, not only is it not being processed, but it is in the same Microsoft Limbo as the original claim was. The CSR again did not fully fill out the required information, so it was going nowhere. At this point, I expressed my extreme frustration with Microsoft. I am a sole provider for my family. I make 20 bucks an hour and feed/cloth/house 2 growing boys and my wife. 140 dollars out of my paycheck may as well be 5000.00 as it makes me unable to pay some of my commitments. I explained this to the 3rd rep I had to talk to, and I was assured that I would receive my money back that was owed, along with some form of compensation. I asked what kind of compensation…I was told I’d probably get a free month of Xbox live. A free month of Xbox live, that they give out simply for creating a new account, or one of the codes in damn near any online game sold. A 12.99 value is their form of compensation for me being out of my 140.00 for going on 4 weeks.
Needless to say, I was still unhappy. I called back last week, for the 4th time in as many weeks, and immediately asked for a supervisor. When I finally got through, I was able to talk with the woman and she assured me that it was properly entered and being processed, and that it had ended up on her desk as a “high priority resolution” as it’d been mis-handled 3 times already. I’m on day 35 at this poitn, still have yet to receive a single email, or any sort of non self requested update.
I’m extremely frustrated at this point, and even if they offered it, I don’t know that I’ll ever return to Xbox. My account is locked, and all my saved games are tied to that account, meaning I can’t even play my games without starting over, for the most part. I think out of the 9 games I still own, I was able to migrate the save games from 1 of them to a new Xbox live account. All the time I put into the original account that I’ve had since 2007 is wasted. All the achievments for nothing.
All over 140 dollars, which to Microsoft is equivelant to (based of their reported 60billion in revenue last year) 13 milliseconds worth of time. They made what was stolen from me, in a fraction of a second, then proceeded to fumble the claim 3 seperate times, and want to offer me a 12.99 “compensation?” Hardly seems fair to me. I just wanted to share my story, and let people know what to expect when you have to deal with the beast that is Microsoft. Oh and to top it off, the credit card that was tied to my account, that I asked to be removed the first time I called, that I had to cancel with my Bank and have a new one reissued….yeah that is still on my account for the hacker to view. Reason? Somehow, even though they had my CC # on file, even though 140 dollars was stolen using that same card, there is somehow a 10.40 outstanding balance on my old account. WTF???? Go Microsoft.
Yeah I got hacked last night, I put a temporary block on the credit card and I’m going to ring microsoft this morning. Although looking at these comments I don’t think i’ll have much luck. Its a fault on microsoft part for not asking for the security number on the back of the card everytime you purchase something from the marketplace.