Late yesterday, the continued Xbox Live FIFA Ultimate Team scams bubbled up inside the news cycle again each time a particularly compelling support services horror story was recounted for the Hacked on Xbox Tumblr blog. In the blog, women referring to herself as Susan T described her struggles with Microsoft just as one outside party logged into her Xbox Live account and created charges for my child credit card--even after Microsoft stated it had blocked usage of the profile while an investigation was conducted.

There's considerably more to her story, and it's really well worth reading the whole saddening, frustrating account. The problem is that her story is simply by no means unique among Xbox Live gamers. While 2011 was 4 seasons Sony lost the non-public information of some 100 million customers with hacks towards the PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment databases, anecdotal evidence about FIFA 19 Coins which platform endured essentially the most troublesome id theft was weighted heavily toward the Xbox 360. For Microsoft's part, the organization insists that Xbox Live security wasn't compromised, like the following statement issued after Susan T's blog got traction inside news cycle: FIFA 12's Ultimate Team mode has inspired an abundance of online hooliganism.

"Microsoft knows that there is no breach for the security in our Xbox LIVE service. In recent cases, some Xbox LIVE members appear to happen to be victims of malicious scams. Unfortunately this can be something that affects many Internet based services. The online safety of Xbox LIVE members remains on the utmost importance, which is the reason we consistently take measures to defend Xbox LIVE against ever-changing threats. However, we're aware that a small number of customers have noticed problems getting their accounts restored once they've reported a problem. We are working directly with those customers to regenerate their accounts without delay and are reviewing our approaches to ensure a good customer support experience."

I believe Microsoft if it says Xbox Live hasn't suffered a security alarm breach. But i am not saying Xbox Live isn't being affected by a security problem. The problem is that Microsoft seems content to easily reassure people whose accounts happen to be compromised that the business wasn't the listlessness in the security chain. That's fine from your legal liability standpoint, but it is pretty shortsighted for a business to tell victimized customers, "Don't blame me; I didn't lose your info," and go on as if nothing happened. Instead, Microsoft must be doing a better job of depriving them of a crook's incentive and chance to cheat its member. I believe Microsoft gets hotter says Xbox Live hasn't suffered a security alarm breach. But for many people Xbox Live isn't struggling with a security problem.

Take the FIFA scam, one example is. There are a variety of variations about it, though the basics are that the scammer gets your hands on an Xbox Live member's user name and password and logs into that account. If the account has already been linked to credit cards, the crook stocks on Microsoft points and uses these to buy FIFA Ultimate Team card packs. The cards from those packs are then sold online outside Xbox Live, just as soon as buyers happen to be found, the transaction is fully gone in-game by trading the credit card directly to your purchaser's gamertag.

The solution the following is simple, and it's also one borne away from Microsoft's hold for the Xbox experience. Because the Xbox 360 is really a closed system, Microsoft ultimately has treatments for what happens on its console along with its games. That level of control means Microsoft can impose the guidelines by which publishers must play, also it can forbid such direct transfer from a paid downloadable content from gamertag to a different. An illicit secondhand niche for these cards can't really exist when a would-be seller can't ensure those pilfered wares wind up inside the hands from the proper buyers.

Obviously, this might be bad for business with an extent. Without the capacity to trade cards directly, the Ultimate Team-playing community might not thrive inside the same way. And EA would without a doubt be unhappy at which consists of options for how you can structure its business design limited. But the real question is whether or not Microsoft as well as third-party partners see protecting their consumers from rampant fraud to Buy FIFA 19 Coins and become more valuable as opposed to incremental revenues they reap by using a system open for continued abuse. Or in many pragmatic terms, no matter whether they are willing to organize with how scummy it seems to have these stories circulating online while EA executives brag to investors that, "We see people spending $500, $600, $700 on digital card packs to learn Ultimate Team simulation mode."

In another, more narrowly defined type of Xbox Live fraud, one gamer conveyed to GameSpot a narrative of scammers wanting to steal the gamertags of himself and the friend. Both were members in the original Xbox Live beta, they usually had simple handles which were free of superfluous numbers, characters, or "xXX-XXx" prefixes and suffixes. They were whatever gamertags that would are already not at all from place if used as nicknames for American Gladiators. When his friend's account was hacked, American Gladiator 1 (we'll call hime constantly "Gemini," though that wasn't his real gamertag) messaged his friend's account (let's go along with "Turbo") to determine what the thief would say. Perhaps surprisingly, the squatter acknowledged what he'd done and explained he was about to sell the handle online. While Xbox Live users can't actually give their handle completely to another gamer, they're able to coordinate name changes. When one account uses Microsoft's gamertag name change feature, it instantly releases the old gamertag for just a second account ahead in and claim it.

Gamertags is usually an in-demand commodity similar to FIFA Ultimate Team cards.

Although this isn't one of the most widespread problem, it is one Microsoft could almost entirely eliminate by placing old gamertags in quarantine for the unspecified period after each name change. That would not simply reduce the chance of a scammer having the capacity to reregister an account using the desired gamertag, but it really would also give the first user a way to notice the name change and lodge