The Stolen Xbox Live Account

Metallikat

So, someone apparently got a hold of my Xbox Live account, changed the Gamertag, password and email and proceeded to charge about 500 or so dollars on my account. It had been several days since I'd used my Xbox, so imagine my surprise at sitting down to watch some Netflix, only to not be able to log in or retrieve my tag. Spent last night on the phone with the Xbox people, giving them my info and having them tally up the damage for me. They're locking and suspending the account while they have the fraud guys look into it, and I was told it would be 2-3 weeks before they finished. Anyone been through this before? How do these fraud team inspections usually go? Also, is there any way the person who took the account could have gotten hold of my credit card info?

Preacher

Metallikat wrote:

So, someone apparently got a hold of my Xbox Live account, changed the Gamertag, password and email and proceeded to charge about 500 or so dollars on my account. It had been several days since I'd used my Xbox, so imagine my surprise at sitting down to watch some Netflix, only to not be able to log in or retrieve my tag. Spent last night on the phone with the Xbox people, giving them my info and having them tally up the damage for me. They're locking and suspending the account while they have the fraud guys look into it, and I was told it would be 2-3 weeks before they finished. Anyone been through this before? How do these fraud team inspections usually go? Also, is there any way the person who took the account could have gotten hold of my credit card info?

I had this happen to my account back on the August 4th still haven't gotten my tag back yet. Its not really possible for them to have gotten your card from xbox live I was told once they finish investigating the charges will be reversed, haven't seen that yet either. They hit me for 200 dollars, you'll also probably see an email from EA about welcome to fifa its some kind of method for ripping off money or so I was told.

Metallikat

Yeah, I went down to the bank today and told them about what was happening. They decided to cancel the card and send me a new one just to be safe. They also told me to write down and keep a record of my conversations with Microsoft on this, to help them do charge-backs if Microsoft ends up not doing anything to refund me the money.

saint2e

Forgive my insolence, but what would be the point of stealing an XBox Live tag, and racking up money on it? As soon as it's discovered, you can't do anything with the stuff you download/"buy"?

Is this the video game equivalent of a joy ride or something?

Metallikat

saint2e wrote:

Forgive my insolence, but what would be the point of stealing an XBox Live tag, and racking up money on it? As soon as it's discovered, you can't do anything with the stuff you download/"buy"?

Is this the video game equivalent of a joy ride or something?

Either that, or just someone who enjoys causing other people grief. Sure, he didn't have it long, but he put someone out 500 bucks for a little while.

Preacher

saint2e wrote:

Forgive my insolence, but what would be the point of stealing an XBox Live tag, and racking up money on it? As soon as it's discovered, you can't do anything with the stuff you download/"buy"?

Is this the video game equivalent of a joy ride or something?

Griefing and I think they somehow launder the points somewhere else. I know I got an email from live about having all the points transferred off my account like a week after the event.

never-ending-reign

Well, if they spend the points and then keep the Xbox itself offline, not connected to Live, then they would have the merch permanently, wouldn't they?

Daenris

I actually just went through this and just got access back to my gamertag today actually. In my case it was a fairly small amount of money and points as I noticed it quickly, but it still took 3.5 weeks -- after being told it could take "up to 3 weeks."

They can't get your credit card info, as only the last 4 digits are available on the billing site, so all they could do when they had access was spend it on points. In my case, the investigation team never even contacted me during the 3.5 weeks.

Preacher

Daenris wrote:

I actually just went through this and just got access back to my gamertag today actually. In my case it was a fairly small amount of money and points as I noticed it quickly, but it still took 3.5 weeks -- after being told it could take "up to 3 weeks."

They can't get your credit card info, as only the last 4 digits are available on the billing site, so all they could do when they had access was spend it on points. In my case, the investigation team never even contacted me during the 3.5 weeks.

So did they email the back up email you provided them? And is the 18 days calendar or business? From the sounds of 3.5 weeks that sounds more like business.

Daenris

Yeah, they emailed the back up email I gave them. And just double checked and it was actually like 27 days, so almost 4 calendar weeks.

Metallikat

So, finally got an email back from Microsoft saying they've given me control of my account back, with some Xbox points to change my Gamertag (was changed to Friends4EverNev by the silly goose who stole my account) as well as some codes for 2 months of Gold access. Will be refunding me my money as well. So.... yaaay.

One thing though, they refunded some points to me (on top of the points necessary to change my tag). Problem is, they refunded me waaay more than I had on my account before it was stolen. Do I contact them about this?

Iceman.USAF

Sounds like they're just being generous.

Metallikat

Iceman.USAF wrote:

Sounds like they're just being generous.

That sounds suspiciously un-Microsoft.

Deusfaux

you might want to check that previously purchased content is still tied to your account, maybe they gave you points to re-buy it

Riale

As long as the communication you received from them didn't say 'Here's X amount of points refunded' and you actually received more than that, it should be fine. When I had a dispute with Microsoft a while back over a different issue they ended up sending me a small point card as a way of apologizing. It's not entirely unheard of, and this may be their way of making up for the lost time.