Xbox Live Debit Card Withdrawals

Bassbeastie

Hello there, I wonder if you could assist me with a Debit Card Problem?
My son was given an Xbox Live system for his christmas and soon afterwards he asked me if I would purchase him points so that he could buy a football team, I did this using my Debit Card, soon afterwards he complained that somone had hacked into his system and stolen his players!!.

After a busy few months and lots of letters etc pilling up I finally found the time to open up my Bank Statements and found to my horror that approximately £1500 was missing from our account and it was being taken in small ammounts, I reported the matter to my bank Lloyds Tsb and then contacted Microsoft to start an investigation.

I have since been contacted by Microsft Xbox Live telling me that they are satisfied that there was no security breach and that the transactions were valid.

My son is only 13yrs old and the one off payment was as far as I am concerned was, a one off payment and I want to recover the rest of our money preferably from Microsoft.

Our debit card is covered by visa and is the the Premier account but Lloyds are saying that if the transaction is proved to be valid it looks like we may not get our money back.

I did not authorise any more than the original payment of £17 and would like to know how we stand in recovering our money?

Bassbeastie

Theblueone

Looks as though a couple of things could have happened:

1. Someone has hacked into the xbox live account and is using it to purchase points,players etc

2. Or your son has inadvertently 'bought' points, players etc? without knowing it actually spends real money

Do the transactions on your bank statement have any sort of description on them?

It sounds like you need to find out which if either of these things. In the meantime don't use that xbox live account (not sure if you can get it deleted by Microsoft but have a feeling you can't but google it to find out).

Get a new debit card from your bank as this could still be happening if you don't get the card cancelled.

Just a word of advice don't use a credit/debit card with xbox live. I was told this when paying for the xbox live subscription as they will keep renewing your subscription using the details!

Always get your membership via a package from tesco/play.com/game etc as a one off each time to prevent this. Same with buying points. It safeguards you for one thing from them keep taking money annually, three monthly or whatever length of time you originally bought and also it is generally cheaper especially from play.com!!

Same with Microsoft points buy these as you need them as a one off card.

Hope u get it sorted.

Russe11

Your son must have one heck of a good team now then for £1500, have seen articles in newspapers about kids using parents cards on such games and ringing up massive overdrafts so its not a one off occurance, once you card is saved in the system then it can be used time and time again, key point is maybe whether they ask for the 3 digit on the back of card for each transaction?

gnaril

They do not require the last 3 numbers on the back of the card for further transactions. (CVV).

I have xbox live and can literally just accept that i am buying more points and thats it done on screen and my card charged.

Your right this happens all the time with parents paying for their kid on xbox not fully realising exact what they are doing - also the kid really should have a part to play in this. I would probably think like the previous poster has suggest is that the kid didnt know each time they were buying packs online on Fifa that it was actually real money that was being taken.

The kid must be fairly young as i guess someone older would be aware of what was going on.

I am assuming that your IP address is flagged when making a purchase and that is maybe how they have stated that all transactions are genuine im not sure.

Dont think you have much hope tbh OP.

All the best thou

Theblueone

Just done a google search and one piece of good news you can get your card details removed off the xbox live account!

Can't post a link but just google xbox live remove card details and this will show you how to do it:T

Can't really help with getting your money back but you should be able to stop it reoccurring however it has happened:j

Atom

I'm sure your son knew exactly what he was doing - he just thought daddy wouldn't know any better - my nephew same age done the same thing a year ago and he knew fine well what he was doing, was not the same amount but same thing.

dreavi

Okay starting from the top this isnt Microsoft's fault as your card details were saved when you put the card on there. Its all in the T&Cs.

As to who has spent the money either your son has bought a lot of stuff and is lying to you. Or that he has given his account details to someone else who has then hijacked his account, found the saved card details and then used them to buy all the downloadable content.

Finally a claim for fraud is made more difficult as this has been going on for months and you havent raised it.

You might have to take this one on the chin unfortunatly

Theblueone

I agree chances of getting any money back maybe slim so I think the money may be in microsofts pocket for good but let's help the OP stop this happening again and hopefully warn other unsuspecting parents getting the same treatment.

I believe it is wrong of Microsoft to operate this type of policy in the first place (regardless of their t's and c's) and the more people we can warn the better.

Just as an aside the same thing can happen with iPhone apps, facebook points etc so people need to be very,very wary especially with young children who really would not know better!!!!

I also have a son the same age who does know this happens but only because I have told him! I would not suggest for a minute that the OP's son knew what he was doing and had been deceitful, it is not my place to say. I just hope that others read this thread and learn from it!

Remove your card details and pay as you go for your Microsoft stuff. It's not worth running the risk!

coolesticeking

I understand that Microsoft are trying to save your card details to make it easier to purchase things without having to type your details in again, but with it being a game console I gather quite a lot of under 16's will have an XBox and wouldn't think twice about hitting the "Purchase" button or even read the messages on screen!

Why would they bother even if they did read it? I guess it's not coming from them so don't care if someone else has to pay for the credits even if that is Mum or Dad.

Come on Microsoft, I think you need to make it a bit more clear the details will be held!

DebtHater

I am a regular user of Xbox Live, and can appreciate how instances like this can happen.

It is very easy for your son to have charged those items himself - what you will need to do is prove whether it was downloaded to his console.

If you log into xbox.com with the email address and password, you will be able to view the "Download History" via the account menu. You will then be able to print off a list, which you can then go into the Xbox console's hard drive to see if the two lists add up. If your son knows nothing of these transactions, they will NOT appear in his hard drive. If you can match the hard drive contents to the download history held by Xbox, then your son has authorised the payments using your saved card details.
If you need any help, post back and I can help you further with regards to finding the download histories, etc.

And regarding being hacked, Xbox's cant really be "hacked" from the outside world without the email address and password, there are methods but Microsoft seem to have clamped down on those, making Live a much safer community. There are scammers on Live, and they will actively spam messages around to other users trying to trick them into revealing their passwords. This may have happened. If it hasnt, I cant really see what other way they could have hacked the console, its a pretty sturdy system is Live! If your son follows the same rules that, say you or I would on the internet, then the Xbox will be safe.

And I would have imagined that Visa could have been more supportive, even if your bank cant. I know its not the same as credit cards, but there is the chargeback method which your bank can attempt.

And dont forget to telephone Microsoft to request they remove your debit card details - this has to be done by phone and CAN NOT be done online.

Hope it works out for you.

coolesticeking

DebtHater wrote: »

And dont forget to telephone Microsoft to request they remove your debit card details - this has to be done by phone and CAN NOT be done online.

You can remove the Card Details yourself as long as you have the Username & Password by going to:

https://live.xbox.com/en-GB/Flows/EditCreditCard/SelectPaymentInstrument.aspx

And select "Remove"

If I remember, you do have to call them if you have an active Gold sub which you no longer wan't and they cancel this over the phone for you.