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Psn Account hijacked! (Update: 6 months later, a winner is you!)

TyrantII

Member
XXX as a company is shit. They have fans that love them and think XXXX actually gives a damn about them. Fact is, they're one of the worst and so is their customer service. XXXXs customer service is some of the worst I've experienced. You can't trust XXXX with your personal information. Their security for XXX is horrible.

Replace the X's with any corporation honestly, and yes that includes Microsoft. Some are a tad better than others, but none should be given the benefit of doubt.

Every other week a company loses customer data, sometimes including serious breaches including credit cards and social securities numbers. They almost all track as much data on you as possible too, which is lucrative for them in many ways, but puts you at risk should someone get that info with nefarious purposes in mind.
 
This is probably pretty standard corporate behaviour. But their system is obviously inadequate if they can't simply remove a license for an online purchase.

Is there an agency that you can report such a customer service/commerce issue with?

In Australia, you just threaten to contact the ACCC, and most companies will get off their asses and fix the problem.

But you'd think Sony would get sued by someone if they lost access to their entire PSN collection just for issuing a chargeback for obviously fraudulent charges. A choice between paying $500 for some fraudster to play games or losing $X,000 worth of purchases is not an acceptable choice.

Why are Sony getting sued for ridiculous crap like Killzone for technically not being 1080p 100% of the time, but not for stuff like this? Someone should make it more expensive for corporations to have these kindof policies than to update their systems to handle these kindof situations better.
 
Nobody in their right mind should leave their Credit Card info saved on Sony's horribly unsecured website. Or ANY OTHER site for that matter.

Punch it in manually every time and ONLY on a PC you know is secure with a web browser that has an ad-blocker running.

Everything is being hacked these days. It's only a matter of time.

As for Sony not doing refunds... to hell with that. Call your CC company and tell them to block those charges.
 

Oni Jazar

Member
I'm a little concerned when I checked SEN and saw a ton of games on my download list. Like 5 pages of this:

VNDnhK4.jpg


Now my account still has the funds that I put in a few weeks ago and my credit card hasn't been charged anything..... Hmm....
 

vypek

Member
As for Sony not doing refunds... to hell with that. Call your CC company and tell them to block those charges.

I think OP is worried about having his account banned and consoles blacklisted for this. Best thing to do might be to badger Sony. Amazon is the only company who has CC details from me and only because I think if something happened they have the highest chance of taking care of it. But I don't know if I even want to leave it with them.

Don't save CC details anywhere. Just enter it each time to be safe. You'll end up memorizing your info and its safer than leaving it online.
 
Been took my CC details off of the PSN/XBL store.

And everywhere else online for that matter too, you can never be too safe nowadays.
 

Heratiki

Member
My Password has been the same and my Credit Card(changed only because of expiration) since the launch of the PS3 and I haven't had one problem.

Same here. I've only changed it once (due to required change after 2011 hack). How is it everyone on GAF is ignoring the fact that the OP isn't responding to people asking if he gave out his info or was possibly phished.
 

Artorias

Banned
Same here. I've only changed it once (due to required change after 2011 hack). How is it everyone on GAF is ignoring the fact that the OP isn't responding to people asking if he gave out his info or was possibly phished.

Yea, I hate to be a jerk about it but if somebody had his account name, password, AND the security code to his credit card, I don't see how Sony could have reasonably prevented this.
 
Yea, I hate to be a jerk about it but if somebody had his account name, password, AND the security code to his credit card, I don't see how Sony could have reasonably prevented this.

Despite all the posts to the effect of "No way I'd let Sony have my details with their bad security", this is not a security problem. It's a customer service policy problem.
 

rpg_fan

Member
Always, always, always use a different password on any account that has access to funding. I'm always amazed when I hear stories of just how large a data file thieves have per e-mail address. If you've used that password before, don't use it again.

Yeah, he made a mistake with account security, but it's a wake up call and a chance to fix some bad habits. Hopefully OP can get things straightened out.
 

Artorias

Banned
Despite all the posts to the effect of "No way I'd let Sony have my details with their bad security", this is not a security problem. It's a customer service policy problem.

I understand that, but the person who made the purchase would have needed his credit card security code to use OP's credit card on a PS4 unless OP had already made a purchase on that PS4.

You can't just take somebodies account and start using the credit card, the first time you even click on the store it will ask for the 3 digit security code on the back of the CC tied to that account. This isn't something buried in security options, there is no way around entering that code. If you don't enter it or back out, it will simply erase that CC info.

Unless its completely different outside the US, it seems the intruder had much more than just his login password.
 
I understand that, but the person who made the purchase would have needed his credit card security code to use OP's credit card on a PS4 unless OP had already made a purchase on that PS4.

You can't just take somebodies account and start using the credit card, the first time you even click on the store it will ask for the 3 digit security code on the back of the CC tied to that account. This isn't something buried in security options, there is no way around entering that code. If you don't enter it or back out, it will simply erase that CC info.

Unless its completely different outside the US, it seems the intruder had much more than just his login password.

Are you suggesting that Sony was hacked, they stole all this information from Sony servers, and used it to buy some DLC?

You wouldn't need to do that anyway. Couldn't you just buy stuff over the webstore, then access the download list on a PS4 using the same credentials?
 

hodgy100

Member
Same here. I've only changed it once (due to required change after 2011 hack). How is it everyone on GAF is ignoring the fact that the OP isn't responding to people asking if he gave out his info or was possibly phished.

I've been ignoring them because it doesn't matter how my password was obtained. it shouldn't affect my ability to get a refund. But for you since it's so important, It's likely my account shared a password with an account on another website that got compromised. I have a rotation of ~10 different passwords and combinations of them because I can only keep track of so many at once.

satisfied?

I understand that, but the person who made the purchase would have needed his credit card security code to use OP's credit card on a PS4 unless OP had already made a purchase on that PS4.

You can't just take somebodies account and start using the credit card, the first time you even click on the store it will ask for the 3 digit security code on the back of the CC tied to that account. This isn't something buried in security options, there is no way around entering that code. If you don't enter it or back out, it will simply erase that CC info.

Unless its completely different outside the US, it seems the intruder had much more than just his login password.

Sony said the purchases were made through the webstore which probably does not carry out this security measure.

I want to give OP the benefit of doubt but I have a feeling he gameshared with someone and got screwed.

yeah... no
 

rezuth

Member
I've been ignoring them because it doesn't matter how my password was obtained. it shouldn't affect my ability to get a refund. But for you since it's so important, It's likely my account shared a password with an account on another website that got compromised. I have a rotation of ~10 different passwords and combinations of them because I can only keep track of so many at once.

satisfied?

I mean since they were not compromised its your fault for having the same passwords across a multitude of websites. However since its all digital and they could simply revoke the games and refund you I would say its in their best interest to do so. Keeping a spending costumer spending is always in the interest but since they are a huge corporation they have standard procedures to deal with this kind of thing. I would suggest calling and harrasing them instead of just emailing since they would just copy and paste a respond to that.
 

Shadders

Member
I mean since they were not compromised its your fault for having the same passwords across a multitude of websites. However since its all digital and they could simply revoke the games and refund you I would say its in their best interest to do so. Keeping a spending costumer spending is always in the interest but since they are a huge corporation they have standard procedures to deal with this kind of thing. I would suggest calling and harrasing them instead of just emailing since they would just copy and paste a respond to that.

A small claims court works on evidence and balance of probability. I don't think it would be hard for OP to convince a court that it's Sony's lack of security/protection that lead to this issue. The fact that they have no check when games are downloaded to a new console for example, the fact they don't have two-step authentication, the fact they are subject to repeated security breaches.

OP just needs to present to a court that Sony could have done more to protect him, he doesn't need to tell the court that his password might have been compromised on another site. Sony can say that, but it would just be conjecture without any evidence.

I've been to court a few times, and although none of them were for digital purposes like this, the courts tend to take a common sense approach and would just see that in the spirit of the law he should obviously be allowed his money back.

OP - I wouldn't hand around with applying for court, or sending a letter (on paper) to Sony to instruct them that you're planning to. Depending on where you are, there can be quite a wait for a court session.
 

igor

Member
My account has been hijacked as well, on the 3rd of January. I got an email saying that my email login has been changed about a week ago. I called the customer service, spending all my credit money in the process ;__; and I gave them all the details correctly but it seems my name on the account has been changed as well - I was told to send a photo ID to confirm my identity but before I could even do that I got another email saying that they won't accept it because... the name on my account is different. WTF.

I am waiting for the email back but they are not replying back and I simply can't afford another call to UK.

Another problem is that at the time of making the account, good 6 years ago if not longer I put my date of birth wrong because I wasn't 18 at the time. (I did give them that DOB correctly over the phone though). If I don't get my account back, Sony is over for me to be honest, I poured enough money into it and they can't provide a safe service.
 

GoaThief

Member
This is the plan. I am first going to send a strongly worded and detailed letter about my experience as a formal complaint threatening legal action if my issue isnt resolved.
This, citizen's advice, and even the media might well lap this story up given the coverage of Sony Pictures/The Interview fiasco. BBC Watchdogs?

This is quite outrageous really, £600 isn't something to be sniffed at.
 

slit

Member
My account has been hijacked as well, on the 3rd of January. I got an email saying that my email login has been changed about a week ago. I called the customer service, spending all my credit money in the process ;__; and I gave them all the details correctly but it seems my name on the account has been changed as well - I was told to send a photo ID to confirm my identity but before I could even do that I got another email saying that they won't accept it because... the name on my account is different. WTF.

I am waiting for the email back but they are not replying back and I simply can't afford another call to UK.

Another problem is that at the time of making the account, good 6 years ago if not longer I put my date of birth wrong because I wasn't 18 at the time. (I did give them that DOB correctly over the phone though). If I don't get my account back, Sony is over for me to be honest, I poured enough money into it and they can't provide a safe service.


See this stuff is just unacceptable.

It's like the wild west on PSN. It's just absurd.
 

rezuth

Member
A small claims court works on evidence and balance of probability. I don't think it would be hard for OP to convince a court that it's Sony's lack of security/protection that lead to this issue. The fact that they have no check when games are downloaded to a new console for example, the fact they don't have two-step authentication, the fact they are subject to repeated security breaches.

OP just needs to present to a court that Sony could have done more to protect him, he doesn't need to tell the court that his password might have been compromised on another site. Sony can say that, but it would just be conjecture without any evidence.

I've been to court a few times, and although none of them were for digital purposes like this, the courts tend to take a common sense approach and would just see that in the spirit of the law he should obviously be allowed his money back.

OP - I wouldn't hand around with applying for court, or sending a letter (on paper) to Sony to instruct them that you're planning to. Depending on where you are, there can be quite a wait for a court session.

Clearly he should and he could easily win but he is still at fault (which he shouldn't mention).
 

igor

Member
See this stuff is just unacceptable.

It's like the wild west on PSN. It's just absurd.

I really don't know what to do, I am purely on their mercy now whether they reply to my email or not. I can't call because I'm too broke to do this.

This stuff should be given spotlight - and game journos should actually bring to attention the abysmal quality of service sony provides - one article and Sony would be much more touchy about it. But I guess that's not gonna happen because #gamejournos
 

vypek

Member
I really don't know what to do, I am purely on their mercy now whether they reply to my email or not. I can't call because I'm too broke to do this.

This stuff should be given spotlight - and game journos should actually bring to attention the abysmal quality of service sony provides - one article and Sony would be much more touchy about it. But I guess that's not gonna happen because #gamejournos

Maybe publicly tweeting their accounts for help with hijacking? Once I had an email account stolen so I contacted with types of emails that were there, small history of passwords, where it was registered, where it was normally accessed from and et cetera. Maybe its possible to email that way in the sam regard to prove ots you. (Unless your hijacker is local).

OP could try something similar. If the webstore purchases are far from his normal location then that could prove he didnt purchase those games.
 
i warn everyone on here, please delete your card info, after every purchase on gaming consoles, is not safe, ive learn to do this over the years.
 

Hubble

Member
My account has been hijacked as well, on the 3rd of January. I got an email saying that my email login has been changed about a week ago. I called the customer service, spending all my credit money in the process ;__; and I gave them all the details correctly but it seems my name on the account has been changed as well - I was told to send a photo ID to confirm my identity but before I could even do that I got another email saying that they won't accept it because... the name on my account is different. WTF.

I am waiting for the email back but they are not replying back and I simply can't afford another call to UK.

Another problem is that at the time of making the account, good 6 years ago if not longer I put my date of birth wrong because I wasn't 18 at the time. (I did give them that DOB correctly over the phone though). If I don't get my account back, Sony is over for me to be honest, I poured enough money into it and they can't provide a safe service.

Wow.
 

Jburton

Banned
In an ideal world, an account provider should be held liable for any account fraud if they can't offer security standards to their users.

In 2015, it seems entirely reasonable to expect to find a kind of 2 step authentification on a service like PSN.

Users are fully aware of the security features available and setup said account as is.
 

Jburton

Banned
A small claims court works on evidence and balance of probability. I don't think it would be hard for OP to convince a court that it's Sony's lack of security/protection that lead to this issue. The fact that they have no check when games are downloaded to a new console for example, the fact they don't have two-step authentication, the fact they are subject to repeated security breaches.

OP just needs to present to a court that Sony could have done more to protect him, he doesn't need to tell the court that his password might have been compromised on another site. Sony can say that, but it would just be conjecture without any evidence.

I've been to court a few times, and although none of them were for digital purposes like this, the courts tend to take a common sense approach and would just see that in the spirit of the law he should obviously be allowed his money back.

OP - I wouldn't hand around with applying for court, or sending a letter (on paper) to Sony to instruct them that you're planning to. Depending on where you are, there can be quite a wait for a court session.

I would be wary of lying in court about the party responsible for the password compromise.

This should be handled better, the poster deserves their account back and the stolen money.


However it is known beforehand that two step authentication etc is not available, so be crying the fact after user negligence leads to this scenario is not going to stand up.
 

igor

Member
Maybe publicly tweeting their accounts for help with hijacking? Once I had an email account stolen so I contacted with types of emails that were there, small history of passwords, where it was registered, where it was normally accessed from and et cetera. Maybe its possible to email that way in the sam regard to prove ots you. (Unless your hijacker is local).

OP could try something similar. If the webstore purchases are far from his normal location then that could prove he didnt purchase those games.

I went about the wrong way, and had a little rant :( https://twitter.com/ibrodecki but seriously the way they go about it is ridiculous. In any case I'm going to send them an email twice a day until they reply.
 

hodgy100

Member
My account has been hijacked as well, on the 3rd of January. I got an email saying that my email login has been changed about a week ago. I called the customer service, spending all my credit money in the process ;__; and I gave them all the details correctly but it seems my name on the account has been changed as well - I was told to send a photo ID to confirm my identity but before I could even do that I got another email saying that they won't accept it because... the name on my account is different. WTF.

I am waiting for the email back but they are not replying back and I simply can't afford another call to UK.

Another problem is that at the time of making the account, good 6 years ago if not longer I put my date of birth wrong because I wasn't 18 at the time. (I did give them that DOB correctly over the phone though). If I don't get my account back, Sony is over for me to be honest, I poured enough money into it and they can't provide a safe service.

the age on my account was also incorrect for the same reasons, but they didnt seem to have a problem with that on my end, i just took a photo of my driving licence and emailed it them then they sorted it all. or did you use a different name aswell. Keep badgering them though they can see the details have recently changed :/
 

igor

Member
the age on my account was also incorrect for the same reasons, but they didnt seem to have a problem with that on my end, i just took a photo of my driving licence and emailed it them then they sorted it all. or did you use a different name aswell. Keep badgering them though they can see the details have recently changed :/

They say the name on the account is completely different. I provided all of the details correct and I have everything t support it. However all my receipts are correct which means it happened along with changing my email address...
 

vypek

Member
I went about the wrong way, and had a little rant :( https://twitter.com/ibrodecki but seriously the way they go about it is ridiculous. In any case I'm going to send them an email twice a day until they reply.

Ranting is understandable when you are upset about this kind of issue. I hope they respond to your email as soon as possible. Twice a day really should spur them to finally respond to you.

They say the name on the account is completely different. I provided all of the details correct and I have everything t support it. However all my receipts are correct which means it happened along with changing my email address...

Tell them to check the date of the name change with the date that the account was stolen. They should probably have some record of prior names that were attributed to the account. So if they can see that your name used to be there, it should make some difference.
 

igor

Member
Somewhat a happy ending - I got my account back after losing about 20 euro on top up credit - they confirmed everything with me and reset the password. Yay!

But yeah, I could've spend that 20 euro on more games instead ;__;
 

ViciousDS

Banned
Yes, I only use PayPal for PSN purchases.....I'd rather not leave my credentials with sony......or any company for the most part.
 
This is really shitty of Sony... I mean, I had my account info stored on Origin, had my account hijacked, had $100 charged, and within 15 minutes of me noticing, EA refunded the money.


When EA is giving better support and service for things like this, you know you're doing something terribly wrong.
 
really sorry to hijack this thread, but my PSN account was compromised. The hacker changed my e-mail and password, and because I no longer have the original serial number of the PS3 I made the account with (Really Sony?), none of the three agents I spoke with can help me. :/

So what are my options, GAF?
 

i-Jest

Member
really sorry to hijack this thread, but my PSN account was compromised. The hacker changed my e-mail and password, and because I no longer have the original serial number of the PS3 I made the account with (Really Sony?), none of the three agents I spoke with can help me. :/

So what are my options, GAF?

If you have a credit card registered with the account then call the credit card company and have them freeze it. Call Sony's crap-ass CSR again and ask to speak to a customer service supervisor. Tell them the entire story.
 

Yagharek

Member
really sorry to hijack this thread, but my PSN account was compromised. The hacker changed my e-mail and password, and because I no longer have the original serial number of the PS3 I made the account with (Really Sony?), none of the three agents I spoke with can help me. :/

So what are my options, GAF?

What the hell? If this is the case, anyone like me with a launch PS3 unit has a good chance of being shit out of luck.
 

Persona7

Banned
I'm a little concerned when I checked SEN and saw a ton of games on my download list. Like 5 pages of this:

VNDnhK4.jpg


Now my account still has the funds that I put in a few weeks ago and my credit card hasn't been charged anything..... Hmm....

Last time I subscribed to PS+ it automatically brought all those titles to the very top of the list for some reason. it even had doubles for a lot of them.
 
OP, I would recommend not giving up even though you've already gone through one process with reps who refused you a refund. It's always difficult to get high enough up the chain on these things, but there is a person somewhere in that support team structure who can authorize a refund for you. Ultimately your best shot is to play the support roulette over and over. Call on the phone (reps have fewer tools to brush you off on a phone call) and whenever anyone tells you they can't help you, politely but firmly insist they escalate you to a supervisor or manager. If you can't get the rep to budge, eventually hang up, call back later, do the same with the new rep.

Ultimately Sony support is capable of issuing you a refund, and they've sold no physical goods so they have no material loss to absorb; the odds are strongly in your favor as long as you make yourself seem reasonable and be as unrelenting as possible.

(Failing that, twitter's your next best bet.)
 

Mike Golf

Member
OP, thanks to reading your troubles I have finally got off my butt and removed my CC info from the PSN. Honestly it would be a good idea to do so on just about any online service. Sure it's a hassle to have to put it in every time but well worth it if it avoids future BS like what you are experiencing.

Just wanted to stop in and say thank you for sharing even if the odds haven't gone back in your favor yet.
 
I don't understand why they have a fucked up policy like that, when they should just be able to revoke ownership of a digital game and refund the money. It's not like they have to prosecute someone and send repo men and bounty hunters to reclaim merchandise.

Fuck their ToS. I hope you can sock it the fuck to 'em without it having to cost more than you're trying to get back. Sony is on some seriously cocky, corporate bullshit sometimes... more imo since they've become dominant with consoles again and started eating off PS+.
 

antibolo

Banned
really sorry to hijack this thread, but my PSN account was compromised. The hacker changed my e-mail and password, and because I no longer have the original serial number of the PS3 I made the account with (Really Sony?), none of the three agents I spoke with can help me. :/

So what are my options, GAF?

Oh wow, good to know this is something they may ask if one ever gets their account hijacked.

I sold my original PS3 to my sister a while back, next time I visit her I should note its serial number just in case.
 
Funny thing is, I've attempted to add my CC to PSN multiple times, however, despite trying to enter the information a million different ways, I'm always denied. Says my number is wrong. I just pay with PayPal, but it sucks you can only add money in $5 increments. I guess I won't have to worry about getting fucked though.
 
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