We’re not going to pussyfoot around this: if you own a 360, and have credit card information tied to it, there’s a possible security problem that affects you.
There is what many see as mounting evidence that the XBox 360 platform has been breached in some way, shape or form, and that the problem is spreading and spreading fast.
Microsoft, for its part, keeps insisting that customers are getting phished and that nothing is wrong with their security.
And that may well be true. But considering it’s your credit card on the line, and this problem is continuing unabated regardless of who’s right, here are a few ways to keep the hackers at bay.
#5) Be Defensive About Phishing Attacks
This is really something you should be doing anyway: don’t give out your password, look closely at the email addresses with subject lines about your account having a problem, and if you’re in doubt, call Microsoft directly about possible issues. Better safe than sorry.
#4) If Possible, Change Your Credit Card Information to Something Easier to Control
If you want to play online without worrying about liability or your credit card being maxed out, there are methods to prevent this. For example, American Express has a new service called Serve, which is essentially PayPal, but with a plastic card and a hard limit: once you deplete the funds in your account, you have to authorize a transfer for more funds. Yeah, it’s a PITA, but it’s also a good method of control, especially online, and American Express has some of the tightest security in the payments industry.
#3) If Possible, Ditch PayPal When Paying XBLA
PayPal just does not have the same legal protections as a credit card, and of late, their customer service has been a bit off their game. Or even flatout Kafkaesque. PayPal is still a good service, but in this particular case, act defensively and cut out possible problems before they become actual ones.
#2) Know Your Rights As a Consumer
If you live in the United States, remember that your liability for fraudulent credit card charges is $50 under federal law. If you have a debit card hooked up to your XBLA account, well, first of all, NO. Secondly, your liability goes up much higher if you don’t report the card stolen within two days. These laws vary by country: take a minute to Google your country’s credit card laws and find out what you might be on the hook for.
#1) Set Up Alerts For Your Credit Card Accounts
Call your credit card company and tell them you want to establish an alert where if the company sees you gifting Microsoft points to other users, to call you immediately. The hackers tend to get into an account, start a bunch of new XBLA accounts, fill them with points, and then sell them off on overseas auction sites.
This is important in two ways: one, it lets you stop the fraud quickly. Two, if enough people call credit card companies to report this as a suspicious behavior, it goes into their database as a fraud flag, meaning we can stop these hackers right away.