An Xbox user loses track of 15 years’ purchases and progress, including purchases and progress made over that time.
One Xbox Player recently found themselves living an agonising nightmare after discovering their account had been compromised and locked, potentially wiping out fifteen years worth of purchases and achievements.
Gaming can be both costly and time consuming hobby; therefore, long-term accounts can be invaluable assets to any gamer’s arsenal. Unfortunately, with internet security becoming easier to bypass every year, accounts may no longer be as safe as once thought – something one Reddit user discovered first-hand.
One Xbox gamer recently posted to Reddit’s r/xbox board to inform others that Microsoft had deleted their 15-year old account after it had become compromised and terminated it as soon as they found out.
“Over the past 24 hours I’ve spent every waking hour gathering information about my account from email conversations dating back 13 years in order to provide Microsoft with information that would aid their account recovery,” they stated. After spending over 40 minutes speaking to support and asking to speak with either their manager or supervisors with any power in recovering my account (after providing card numbers, transaction histories and date of compromise of account, Xbox support officially suspended my account without offering transfer options due to unauthorised access), Xbox support permanently suspended it without giving an option of transfering my account permanently without offering an option due to unauthorised access or transfer options being given by Xbox.
They continued, “Someone out there may be able to help, but they won’t hear the voice of 12-year-old me who first created my account and shared so many fond memories with friends and now-deceased family members through that period.
As one Reddit user noted: This news caused alarm among other Redditors; many started worrying that Microsoft would create such a precedent with digital purchases and digital purchases of games from third parties like Steam allowing malicious actors to gain entry and delete my entire library at any moment due to malicious actors gaining entry through hacks of accounts on Reddit and elsewhere.
No word has yet come back on if or when they will receive back their accounts; nonetheless, losing 15-years’ worth of purchases would certainly be devastating for anyone involved.