free month of ps+ emails

[Groo The Perverted]

Originally Posted by Wingman1977

(the same applies with XBL even though XBL has never been breached/hacked).

ohhhhhhh how soon we forget.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...raud-case.html

British console users have had an average £100 taken from their accounts but some customers have lost more than £200, it was claimed.

It remains unclear how many customers have been affected or how much money was stolen by the online gangs behind the "phishing" attacks.

But The Sun claimed that “thousands” of customers of the popular entertainment console were hit in 35 countries. Criminals were said to have made “millions of pounds” by tricking customers into disclosing personal vital information.

On Tuesday, executives from Microsoft, which operates Xbox Live, were investigating the cyber thefts, the newspaper reported.

The "phishing" gangs were thought to have stolen small amounts of money from credit cards over several weeks, which made it harder to detect the fraud.

As part of their scam, the gangs sent emails to players directing them to fake websites offering free Microsoft points that can be used to buy games.

Duped victims then entered their personal details, which allowed criminals access to their accounts and valuable credit card information.

They also reportedly befriend players online and convince them into volunteering personal details.

Paul Thompson, 29, of Essex, had £84 stolen from his account. "People need to know this is happening,” he told the newspaper.

The Sun said Xbox staff were working to protect users from more attacks. Company owner Microsoft has reportedly offered refunds to users who prove they did not give passwords away. It also warned customers to change their passwords.

Xbox is the latest video games firm to be targeted by hackers this year.

Valve, the firm behind Steam, a distribution network for major PC titles including Call of Duty and Skyrim, was hit earlier this month.

Codemasters suffered a security breach in June, and Sony was forced to shut down the PlayStation network for almost three weeks in April and May after the personal details of more than 70 million users were illegally accessed.

A Microsoft spokesman was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.