Microsoft reveals a Chinese gaming website, IGSKY, has been hacking Xbox accounts and selling the proceeds on the open market since 2015. Microsoft has filed a complaint against the company in a federal court on Friday.
The gaming company offer players the opportunity to buy cheap in-game credits and rare items for various games like FIFA, Grand Theft Auto 5, Pokémon Go, Madden NFL games, Forza Hoizon 3 and Final Fantasy 14. Many of those credits were coming from someone else’s wallet. Nearly $2 million in purchases through hacked accounts and their associated credit cards, using purchases as a way to launder the resulting cash.
Hacking Xbox Accounts
A Microsoft officer said, Microsoft is committed to providing customers with safe and secure online experiences. We filed these lawsuits to protect our Xbox customers from the illegal trafficking of stolen property.
Senior investigator Jeremy Beckley, said, From December 2016, Microsoft fraud investigators looking at the site, and purchased over 11,000 FIFA points for $60. After the purchase, the Xbox Live team received notice that the login information for an eight-year-old account had been changed. That account went on to purchase the 11,000 FIFA points for $127.54.
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The account’s linked email address and password was also changed to include a new email address from the free Chinese email service 163.com. Later, Microsoft customer service received a call from the original owner of the account saying he could not access his account and that unauthorized charges were made to his credit card.
Microsoft submitted that evidence to build its charges of fraud, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) violations, trademark violation, unjust enrichment and dishonest against iGSKY parent company ESTgames and Weiwei Chu, believed to be its operator. The judge on the case granted a temporary restraining order on ESTgames, freezing its domestic assets along with any associated PayPal accounts.
