Pro gamer gets XBL account stolen for Halo 3 armor
by Griffin McElroy 
{ Dec 30th 2007 at 11:30AM }
Skyllus vBi, member of the professional gaming group Team vBi, just can't seem to catch a break. After being recognized by Bungie for making a very popular Halo 3 video, Skyllus was rewarded with the incredibly rare in-game "Recon Armor", which only Bungie employees and a select few Halo community members have. Of course, it didn't take long for some of the shadier members of Halo 3's player base to grow green with envy -- Skyllus has reportedly had his Xbox Live account hacked three times since late October.
The latest hack that Skyllus has suffered has been particularly difficult on him, due to Live's uncooperative customer service. After being told that there was nothing he could do to regain control of the account, and being given the runaround for a few hours, Skyllus had to settle for the promise of an investigation into the account in question.
Keep in mind that any kind of identity theft is illegal, especially if the hacker touches the victim's credit cards (which are easily accessible through information on an XBL account). We hope that the digital notoriety that comes from wearing rare armor in a game is worth the risk of going to real-world jail.
(Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chris @ Dec 30th 2007 11:41AM
you have to be a nerd to hack and a bigger nerd to hack someones account for their virtual armour.... =|
Jhongerkong @ Dec 30th 2007 4:02PM
Someone who hacks an account for Halo armor is a loser.
Someone who hacks an account for Horse armor should just kill themselves.
Platinum_Skeet @ Dec 30th 2007 5:45PM
To bad this isn't a victim of a hack it's just XBL poor customer service skills. Microsoft needs to stop outsourcing their work and keep them in America.
In case you don't believe me anyone that has worked in a call center can tell you. You only need to provide one piece of information and for the info to populate the workers screen. After that it's to their discretion on if the info is needed to be verified.
This guy just sounds like he got a piece of his own medicine. The clan he's apart of goes to customer service and steals others accounts all the time. He just got a piece of his own medicine and I wouldn't be surprised if one of his clan members did it...
roxxxo @ Dec 30th 2007 11:42AM
wow that's retarded
brym @ Dec 30th 2007 12:35PM
I don't blame Microsoft's customer service for being unresponsive. Microsoft's servers are secure, so if this guy's account has been "hacked" three times, that means the guy has just been falling victim to phishing or other social engineering techniques. If you're dumb enough to inadvertently give out your password 3 times, maybe you deserve to lose the account!
Lifted 0ne 4l9 (NDF - Fire!) @ Dec 30th 2007 2:06PM
if thats what happened then agreed brym, like the retards that fall for being phished on myspace multiple times there complete idiots that shouldnt be allowed access to the internet to begin with.
Au @ Dec 31st 2007 2:19PM
That reminds me, brym, Lifted, I can totally get you guys the Recon Armor, all I need is your xbl tag and password.....
Brian @ Dec 30th 2007 11:51AM
Well, with the mass "gimme recon" orgy on Bungie's site, it could be anyone... Even YOU.
LaughingTarget @ Dec 30th 2007 7:47PM
Don't point your finger at me, I don't even like Halo!
*eyes dart around wildly*
Zach S @ Dec 30th 2007 11:52AM
Yes, it's very smart to hack someone's account for armor that ONLY A FEW PEOPLE HAVE!!! Cause, uh, you know, that's not just a little CONSPICUOUS! Oh yeah and ILLEGAL. Yup, those two go together just perfectly.
Jim Ray, aka JadeDr4g0n @ Dec 30th 2007 11:55AM
"Live's uncooperative customer service"
Customer Service and any reference to Xbox Live should be kept at least 20 pages apart... Customer service... Dumb people...
eugene @ Dec 30th 2007 2:17PM
No kidding, MS treats their Live customers like they were doing us a favor or something and not ripping us off for a "service" that everyone else does for free.
Hey MS, if you're going to take our money, at least provide us with some service when we get screwed over by your complete lack of any real security on Live.
Truepatriot @ Dec 30th 2007 12:00PM
wait was it hacked with a pc and getting into live servers and getting the info or was it hacked by talking to him and getting him to reveal his info?
Lifted 0ne 4l9 (NDF - Fire!) @ Dec 30th 2007 2:10PM
probably phished, either talked to or tricked to log in to a phony login made to look exactly like the log in they have setup to view your account on your comp. which if thats the case the kid is an idiot for falling for phishing schemes multiple times.
Orenthol James Simpson @ Dec 30th 2007 12:03PM
While I think this is stupid...
It's even more stupid for Bungie to hide content from people who paid the game to fuel their egos/stupid lie of being a community friendly developer (One of the big guys, LukeMS, won't even respond to PMs, and they typically, on the board in general, won't respond to many comments, and will lock threads if it asks a question they don't like).
I'm still EXTREMELY bitter over what went down when it was found out that no custom game search existed, and how Bungie reacted on their boards (i.e. ignoring everyone, and deleting their posts)
Shaq @ Dec 30th 2007 12:09PM
http://www.team-vbi.net/teamvbi/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3826&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
the "hacker" is apparently posting and bragging on team vBi's message boards... why doesn't their admin just track the kids IP?
xX Twilight Xx @ Dec 30th 2007 12:13PM
They are, they got his IP before he started usiong proxy 's. Its somewhere in rode Island.
Shaq @ Dec 30th 2007 12:22PM
oh, really? get the cops on that! kid needs to be taken down. perhaps with a 'nade to knock down his shield and then quick melee by the police.
Lifted 0ne 4l9 (NDF - Fire!) @ Dec 30th 2007 2:12PM
haha happened in my neck of the woods huh
CanadianZero @ Dec 30th 2007 12:15PM
wow, hacking for some virtual armour for a game...
you know you have no life when...
Van Faulk @ Dec 30th 2007 12:26PM
I'm sorry for this guy's trouble but if he has had this happen 3 time sthen it is his fault. Either he compulsively gives out his account info or he is so biblically unlucky that we must conclude that god hates him.
Habiib @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:02PM
It wasn't "hacked."
They called customer support and asked to recover it over to their xbox. Customer support was stupid enough to comply without any further information given.
Just read about it here:
http://www.team-vbi.net/teamvbi/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3826&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
James @ Dec 30th 2007 12:29PM
Meh... Halo 3 is a POS anyway. People still play that tired ass game?
JakubK666 @ Dec 30th 2007 12:46PM
People will play it as all rednecks and 8 year olds are playing CoD4 now. Halo 3 is way better since CoD4 launched :)
Jake11 @ Dec 30th 2007 1:33PM
yeah, about 900,000 unique players a day...ass
Thief @ Dec 30th 2007 2:11PM
Oh, quiet fanboys. Halo 3 is "just another shooter"
Its user fanbase is the only thing remarkable about the game... and that's a bad thing.
nxtiak @ Dec 30th 2007 12:38PM
Who the heck is this guy? Who cares. The guy is stupid. He gave away his info/password or whatever or shared his account etc..
And the armor, is that it in the picture? WTF? It looks stupid. Looks like some plain stupid basic armor.
Halo3=Gayness
donscully @ Dec 30th 2007 12:46PM
I know the vBi guys and the attack was a social engineering hack. Skyllus did not reveal his info. If you read the vBi forums they guy brags about calling XBOX and gettin all the info needed to recover the account. He said it only takes 15 minutes to get CS at XBOX to give up your accout info. Major security flaw. Skyllus runs their website, so I am sure he knows about password security.
The Quagster @ Dec 30th 2007 1:32PM
I love halo 3, but i have no interest in that armor, as I have no interest in the samurai armor. "OMG I HAVE A SWORD ON MY BACK I BET NO ONE ELSE HAS THIS!!!!!!1ONE!!"
and, really, it's very easy to spot one out of the not even 10 people who have the armor.
Jason @ Dec 30th 2007 12:43PM
always amuses me to see the douchebags who claim that the victim is at fault..
in this day and age, where everyone's person information is somewhere online, it's too easy to get anything you want on anyone....
i'm real sure he's out there giving everyone his personal info, username, login, all that jazz....yeah....
i know if i was professional gamer, i'd be doing that..."here have my account! i don't care!!"..
seriously, do some of you people even think before you post the drivel that you do?
playwhutyalike (hates games lists) @ Dec 30th 2007 1:16PM
I know a few people who used to play the Diablo and the same thing happened to them. When they were in a room some random guy posing as one of them came on and said "I need (logon name's) password to grab some stuff". Only one of those people didn't fall for it, because they would call each other by thier real names when they were in battle. One guy out of four didn't get his shit stolen. The other three are pretty stupid for letting that happen to them. So, yeah, it happens. Not everybody has common sense.
Mighty Healthy @ Dec 30th 2007 1:37PM
Amen.
It truly is vomit-inducing to see people blame their fellow gamers, instead of a MS customer service that on average doesn't speak your native language, and now is easily susceptible to social engineering tactics used by teenagers.
Desi_D @ Dec 30th 2007 12:43PM
XBL is dead half of the time anyway!
http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/30/xbox-live-up-and-running-now-with-no-caveats/
How come 'stiq hasn't been covering this?
James @ Dec 30th 2007 1:19PM
They don't post bad news about the 360 here is why =)
Jhongerkong @ Dec 30th 2007 4:19PM
Its because Ryan Block is an Apple fanboy and takes any opportunity to bash Microsoft
jynxycat @ Dec 30th 2007 12:45PM
lul.
Chris @ Dec 30th 2007 12:52PM
After going into some research this guy is actually a 16 twat part of a clan named infamous who hijack accounts through microsfts shitty customer service by pretending to be the users account. So this kid isnt a hi-tech uber nerd sending out super bug but some stupid kid calling stupid people.... =|
Jhongerkong @ Dec 30th 2007 4:31PM
Then that makes Microsoft the idiot then, doesnt it?
Zeus the God @ Dec 30th 2007 5:53PM
They have to know most of the info to even get a part of their information from customer support. Its not like you just ask and then they just tell you everything.
D4RK$0N-XD @ Dec 30th 2007 12:57PM
....that's all you can expect from microsoft...and halo 3....PC GAMING FTW! (j/k)
quickshade @ Dec 30th 2007 12:57PM
I thought it was general knowledge that Live was secure but Customer Service was terrible and gave away this information. guess not. Anyways if they had his IP address they can easily get the original ISP to do a backtrack to his house and track where he lives. It sucks that he has to deal with MS support as someone like Major Nelson would have this handled in 10 minutes.
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Dec 30th 2007 1:01PM
Live is a cesspool.
People are just too nusto competitive on there. Blame it on 13 year olds if you want, but MS' efforts to make "must-have" online items like special armors and achievements just feeds the beast.
Next story will be about an IRL PK over a Live item.
It's too bad MS can't figure out how to separate the Live community into the people who are so ultra-competitive as to do things that reduce others enjoyment for their gain from us other people who just want to have a good time. I know they tried to do it in a couple ways already, but it isn't working, and the failure of this really casts a pall over Live for those of us who want to play online but not with these people.
Vidikron (FU) @ Dec 31st 2007 10:58AM
Heh... I know what you're saying. Some people take it way too seriously. If you play a game like PGR4 online there are people that will freak out and give you a negative rating just for bumping them in a race... even if it was purely an accident. I think the key is to try and get a bunch of good people on your friend's list and try to play with them most of the time.
Tony Bowman @ Dec 30th 2007 1:21PM
my only real complaint with live is that you can't put change a preference setting to only play with 18 or older people.
i'm tired of pubescent pissants ruining teamchat.
RogueStorm @ Dec 30th 2007 1:39PM
I agree, I HATE playing online with most of the little annoying punks who frequent the games. I'd love to be able to track them down, fly there and beat their asses in a way that their parents never have.
Geist @ Dec 30th 2007 2:18PM
You know all those irritating ones would just set their age as something high enough.
Ed @ Dec 30th 2007 1:32PM
er... So I don't get it. How could one hack someone else's account? What are they doing, brute forcing the password? The only other obvious way is if Live gave out password info, which would just be really stupid of CS.
OTAM @ Dec 30th 2007 7:30PM
Which is exactly what happened. He got the information through the customer support and recovered the guy's account using the info he tricked the phone reps into giving him.
Kyrra @ Dec 30th 2007 2:54PM
So, I haven't followed Halo3 since I beat the single player (I don't like console FPSes in general). But I'm assuming their forums are moderated like many other game company forums:
* There is a TOS/rules to follow when posting, many people break this.
* There are already threads about a specific topic and people are needlessly creating threads that cover the exact same topic rather than posting in existing threads.
* Bungie is trying to keep the forums cleans so people who have real questions can be seen.
* When you are working with consumer level customer service, it's normally crap as margins are already small on products sold and every time a customer uses support lines, it further cuts into those margins.
With that said, it sounds like Bungie decided to take it into their own hands and award specific people with in-game content as they chose. If this is the case, it seems like a very bad decision on how to run a game. They should have set goals people need to reach to be able to get any specific piece of content so players at least feel they have a chance of receiving it.
cjcamilla @ Dec 30th 2007 3:34PM
Hello, I am one of the people vBi asked to spread this around. Thanks Joystiq for posting this up. We just need teh gaming community to know about this huge security hole.