Microsoft shut down the affected accounts for up to 30 days

Oct 15, 2011 08:13 GMT  ·  By

A strange situation seems to be developing where XBOX Live accounts are hacked, but the credit cards attached to them are mainly used to purchase FIFA Ultimate Team content packages.

After Play Station, now it's time for XBOX enthusiasts to become the victims of hackers.

According to Eurogamer, a number of game console owners realized that their accounts were tampered with and points from their credit cards disappeared.

"I then find out that I've had 5000 then 500 MS points bought on my credit card. Better yet, all the points including the 120 I had already on my account are gone... all spent on FIFA 12 content packs yesterday afternoon while I was at work,” revealed one of the first victims.

Soon after the incident, a Microsoft representative told Eurogamer that they are aware of the situation which is currently being handled.

"We do not have any evidence the Xbox Live service has been compromised. We take the security of our service seriously and work on an ongoing basis to improve it against evolving threats.

"However, a limited number of members have contacted us regarding unauthorized access to their accounts by outside individuals. We are working with our impacted members directly to resolve any unauthorized changes to their accounts,” he stated.

He also recommends customers to visit the www.xbox.com/security page, where they can learn all about how to protect their accounts against potential threats. Also, on the EA support forum there have been posted a large number of detailed measures and advice on how to secure a FIFA 12 Ultimate Team account.

Neowin suggests that one possibility is that the hackers contacted EA's online support in the attempt of accessing the account information of the victims.

As an immediate action, Microsoft has frozen some Xbox Live accounts for up to 30 days while it further investigates the matter.