JH

Kudos to Susan for not sitting back and take this, I feel many others will do the same thing. I was hacked on New Year's Eve showing that I played FIFA 12 and getting three achievements, despite the fact that I have never played a FIFA game. On New Year's Day it showed that I purchased four FIFA 12-related items and noticed all 10,000 points I had in my account were drained. What I find very interesting is that my account had been fine for seven years and then all of a sudden on December 28th I played my Madden 12 for the first time entering in the Online Pass code, and then three days later I noticed the FIFA hack, which is also an EA title. I suspect this is somehow related to that.

Microsoft support claimed they have never had an account hacked (um, yeah right) and that I must have given my information to a friend. Untrue. They claimed I had downloaded the stuff, which is untrue and the four items in question didn't come out to 10,000 points either. I wasn't even in town on the 1st of January, having not gotten home until late January 2nd, and they had no comment.

They suspended my account until the end of January to watch for any activity but more than likely they will do nothing. Microsoft has a PR nightmare on their hands, they won't acknowledge this problem until they are forced to, because they know it will ultimately cost them millions in losses, and don't want to be compared to the PS3 hacking from last year.

The best course of action is a class action lawsuit, which will eventually rise from all of this and rightfully so.

Three words everyone...CLASS. ACTION. LAWSUIT. To think I was the only person up until today that had this problem, and then I saw this article and realized just how big this issue is.

Count me in one of the many people who have had their accounts hacked and my 10,000 Microsoft Points balance has been set to zero. After being on XBOX Live since it's inception, this is the first time I have had this problem and after reading a lot of the posts here, Microsoft has a major problem on their hands and they don't seem to serious about combating it. My guess is because of the Playstation hacking from last year which caused a lot of issues for Sony, Microsoft wants to sweep this under the rug and deny it has happened to their service.

Some have mentioned it is tied to playing an EA sports title online, and I am starting to suspect this as true. In my case up until recently I haven't had any issues. I had a copy of Madden 12 that I hadn't played and I decided to give it a try. I loaded the game up and entered the "Online Pass" code. I played one multiplayer game over XBOX Live and then turned off my system. Up until this point I had exactly 10,000 points on my account. The last purchase I had made was back in the middle of November for a Saints Row the Third item.

On 12/31/11 the only game I had played was BF3 and an arcade title. On the morning of 1/1/12 I left for my folks to visit them and came back home late on 1/2/11. I logged into my XBOX.com account from my computer and noticed my points balance was zero. It then showed that I somehow played FIFA 12 on 12/31/11 which is impossible since I don't even own the game and not even a soccer fan. It had unlocked three achievements as well which again was baffling.

I searched under "purchase history" and it showed four purchases related to FIFA 12 items on 1/1/12. Again, impossible since I was not even home on that date, and I don't own or have ever owned FIFA 12. I checked the purchase history via my console and it showed the last purchase as the one for Saints Row 3. It was odd that my purchase history via the website shows something completely different than the purchase history on my console.

Because phone support was closed, I went into a chat session with an XBOX Live representative who pretty much blamed me and said I, or someone I know, purchased the items. Up until this point I didn't know about this "FIFA glitch" that many have reported and this article. I explained to the rep that there was no possible way and I had him verify that I had 10,000 points in my account on 12/31/11. He acknowledged that was true but that I must have redeemed them all. I clearly did not and kept being told how XBOX has "never had an account hacked" which clearly isn't true. To me it seems as if Microsoft is afraid to acknowledge this problem because it will show a security glitch in the system and that would spread like wildfire causing a loss in revenue and perhaps trust in the service.

I was told to call back the next day which I did and spoke to a guy who clearly didn't know how to escalate it to their investigation team. He wasn't aware of the problem at hand (I find it very hard to believe that this issue has been going on for months from what I have read yet no one seems to "know what's going on" within XBOX support) but said he would escalate it. He took down all of my information and said I would be banned from the service for 25 days. The ban should take effect within 24 hours of the escalation report being submitted. In a few hours it will be 24 hours and up until 30 minutes ago I was still able to sign-in.

The fact of the matter is, there is a major issue, and so far it's still ongoing. I was told to change my password and secret question answer on my Windows Live ID which I did, but I find it very odd that I didn't have this problem until after I downloaded the Madden 12 Online Pass code which is an EA sports title, as is FIFA 12.

If the exploiting is a result of EA sports online pass codes and XBOX Live combined, there is some serious damage control that needs to be done. Of course I feel sorry for the countless number of people who have encountered this problem and not sure what to do, and those who haven't even noticed it yet. Microsoft has a potential lawsuit on their hands if they don't put forth the effort to patch this glitch per say and make things right with those of us who were hacked.

I would like to personally thank Joystiq and Alexander the author for this article as I was thinking I was the only one with the problem but clearly many others are as well.

@Munniz: Yeah that is a great statue, I have the Frank Miller Black and White one in my collection. The action figures are great, they did a terrific job capturing the likeness from the game. The Bane series 2 figure looks huge too.

In case anyone isn't aware of this, this past Wednesday saw the release of the "Arkham Asylum" action figures from DC Direct, which means the only place to buy them is at your local comic book store (as Target, TRU, etc aren't carrying them). They are based on the video game naturally and beautifully done. This first series 1 wave consists of four figures, Batman, Joker, Scarecrow, and Harley. Series 2 is due out soon, and will feature Armored Batman, Zsasz, Poison Ivy, and Bane. More series are planned as well.

Support your local comic book store and check them out, if they don't have them (as they are selling quite well), see if they can order the from their distributor.

For those who want to meet Felecia Day in-person, she will be one of the guests at the upcoming Emerald City Comic-Con here in Seattle. It is one of the largest Comic Book and Pop Culture conventions on the west coast, this year it will be 3-days (March 4-6th) at the downtown Convention Center.

At the end when he was naming off the gamer tags, what should have been added was....."all have never seen a woman naked before". Who wants to bet that after these guys unlocked this, they did the same celebratory dance in-person together in their underwear? Lame Easter Egg, but it doesn't surprise me that knobs get excited over this.

Was shocked to see no mention today of the Fable 3 Scavenger Hunt-like event that was going on in select cities for it's launch. Some sweet prizes were given out to the first 5 people who followed the tweets and went to the locations given out in clues. There were 5 locations in Seattle today, I managed to win at 2 of them but really no fanfare was to be found, except a Facebook announcement, etc. Anyone else attend one in their area?

@Lerkero: You sir are the type of person that should not be allowed to beta because you can't keep your mouth shut. Probably the type that also doesn't believe in stopping at Stop signs if no one is around. Always some excuse to justify your actions I can imagine too.

A friendly reminder to those who were in the beta this past summer, as I was, if you have already forgotten it is a violation to discuss the beta in ANY form, or provided images of the game/videos of the game play. I won't give my opinion either way, but everyone who was allowed into that very small initial beta, you should really honor what YOU agreed to before clicking "I agree" to get in on the beta. Remember developers really don't need to offer fans a beta of any game, they have internal quality control departments but many respect the fans to honestly keep their mouths shut for the most part, weather you like it, or you hate it. I have beta tested a large number of games over the years, one of the first to play the original Halo and only until after the game is released are you technically allowed to talk about it.

I don't mean to crap in your Lucky Charms people who feel the need to discuss the beta, but just calling it like it is, as you agreed to not discuss it, but you are, and that right there should prevent you from participating in another beta again. I realize though it won't stop, people will beta test, and talk about it, etc, so really what I have to say falls on deaf ears for the most part, but remember a beta is a rough form, in some cases in really rough form. Regardless if you thinks it awful or a lot of fun, remember it is an early build of the game.

While I realize that this may not get read, did ANYONE else who signed up for the Surprise Attack contest in support of Black Ops receive any email stating the following:

Attention, Soldier: Thank you for your participation in Surprize Attack. Pending verification, we will send your prize as soon as the validation process is completed. Be sure to play Surprize Attack each day for your chance to win prizes inspired by the game.

I know how the contest works having entered daily for the MW2 Surprise Attack contest, but this email to me sounds like I already won something, yet I don't know who to contact if that is the case. How they worked the contest last year was they didn't draw a winner(s) each day, you actually entered each day and after the contest was over did they draw the names of those who became winners. I assume they are doin the same thing this time, as I don't believe it is a "winner each day" that is chosen.

But this message was puzzling because I have entered each day since it started but only got the one email stating the above so far. Anyone else get it as well?