Xbox Live Account Security In Question As FIFA Phishing Still a Problem
For months now gaming sites have been buzzing with FIFA fans tales of woe and annoyance over finding strange purchases charged to their credit cards. Apparently it’s still a problem for many players, including VentureBeat gaming writer Dan Crawley, who fell victim to the phishing scam just last week drawing questions as to the measures Xbox Live is taking in protecting account security.
In a recently published piece, Crawley chronicles his experiences as a victim, what he did about it and his thoughts on the security practices of Microsoft.
Crawley realized that he had fallen victim to the scam the same way most other users have, by noticing some unusual charges on his credit card, specifically large quantities of Microsoft points. He soon learned how these hackers were operating. The offenders first use malicious phishing techniques to obtain Xbox live user name and passwords. If there is a credit card linked to the account they then purchase loads of Microsoft points to spend on FIFA’s Ultimate Team Packs. The criminals then take advantage of the fact that the Ultimate Team Packs can be traded between account holders, and transfer the cards from the victim’s account to their own.
The kicker is that the criminals aren’t trying to collect all the virtual cards. “Scouring the internet, it appears that the rarer cards are being traded for cash, through forums and online auction sites, with some fetching as much as $280,” Crawley notes.
The ordeal produced many question involving Microsoft’s security with Xbox Live accounts. Upon contacting Microsoft with his concerns, he was told that the issue wasn’t one involving Xbox Live being hacked.
“It is important for us to reconfirm that the Xbox Live service has not been hacked. Some of our customers have been the victims of internet fraud on their accounts. This is a frequent issue that all internet and e-commerce sites and services experience every day. These threats include phishing, brute force attacks, malware, third-party security breaches and in-game scamming / social engineering,” a Microsoft spokesperson stated.
Microsoft went on to state that the number of players affected by this scam represents a small relatively small portion of Xbox live users. “Of the tens of millions of Xbox Live customers (there are 35 million active members) using the service daily, these issues are affecting a very small percentage of users globally,” Crawley was told.
Given the fact that this recent scam exclusively involves FIFA players, Crawley also reached out to Electronic Arts for comment. “We do our best to educate FIFA players to take measures to keep their accounts safe,” he was told, and was provided with some links EA had established on how to identify phishing site.
“With dedicated pages set up on the EA Forums to deal with this issue, at least the company is admitting that there is a problem,” Crawley notes.
The advice Crawley was given by both Microsoft and EA seems logical, but it still leaves some underlying questions for the author. “While it is easy to shrug these incidents off, blaming them on the security practices of affected Xbox Live users, and a number of malicious hackers, could it be that Microsoft needs to look at its own security protocol and ask if it is good enough?” Crawley asks.
While Crawley’s piece provides an interesting take on the FIFA phishing scam that has affected a number of players on Xbox Live, it’s important for players to realize that this issue is still ongoing and that they should be particularly careful with their Xbox Live information when online.
Source: VentureBeat
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