Xbox Live fraud threatens Live dominance
By Triston McIntyre
Microsoft’s Xbox Live service has been the undisputed ruler of online gaming communities to date. Beginning as a way to play games with friends over an internet connection, it has become much, much more.
Today, Live allows users to download movie trailers, buy arcade content, and play new game demos. Very few Live users would ever cancel their accounts…
Perhaps until now. Apparently as of late, a large group of Live users have had their accounts hacked and their information (including credit card numbers) stolen, as well as their accounts locked. Cnet covers it here.
To make matters worse, Microsoft has essentially turned a blind eye to the issue, claiming that the fraud has resulted from users letting personal information slip in gaming sessions, which led the thieves to contact Microsoft for more information.
Microsoft said, “”An Xbox customer service representative will help [those who have fraud claims] understand our security policies and procedures.” Touching sentiment, really.
If Microsoft cannot fix this problem (or fails to do so in a timely fashion), they might have a bigger issue to deal with very shortly.
With so many game communities functioning free of charge, including PS3 (and the soon to be released Home), Wii, and PC, how can Microsoft continue to charge users for their online accounts? Especially if fraud is costing users more on top of the hefty $50 US
Eventually, Microsoft will have to make the decision as to whether they will lower the price of Live, or phase it out all together. How will they continue to compete with Playstation’s Home coming to integration?
For now, let’s see if Microsoft can acknowledge (and resolve) the fraud hacking problem. Baby steps.
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Entry was posted
on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 8:58 pm
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March 27th, 2007
[...] Microsoft was quick to deny that they had a problem with security measures on their XBOX Live service last week. That is changing as they admitted yesterday that some XBOX Live support staff have been giving away personal information over the phone without verifying the callers identity. [...]
January 4th, 2008
figures they would stick their head in the sand on this issue.
February 10th, 2008
I think MS should improve on the security of Live and offer additional help and reasoning to resolve the issue for users who have been through fraud.
I am a PS3 user but respect that Xbox use a charge system on Live. As the charge system opens the doors to better games and paying small firms to make some decent titles. Plus Live money pays for better facilities and services for Xbox Community.
February 20th, 2008
I hope every one using the Xbox Live service get’s hacked for not moving to the real next gen high tech supercomputer system AKA PLAYSTATION 3 unhackable. If Xbox Live hackers need funding let me know.