MS Point fraud reported (Updated)
Reader Drew shares a worrisome tale about unauthorized MS points on his passport account following the XBL down time—when it was impossible to purchase points:
Just before Live came back up today, I got an email thanking me for my purchase of 500 MS Points on the Live Marketplace. The fun part is that I live alone and had not turned on my console today or yesterday--so I was curious as to how I could be charged for points--especially when the Live was down and unavailable for such transactions. At first I thought it was just an example of clever phishing, but when I turned on my 360 to find out, sure enough, I had more points than the last time I turned it off. I checked my passport account online and it said the points had indeed been purchased today. I called MS Support and they agreed with me (and not my cynical friend) in saying that it was impossible for me to buy points today--at least before Live came back up and that they would escalate the issue and I should expect a waiver of the 'no-refund' policy pending investigation--given the strange circumstances. Could be a one time thing--or just my luck, but if it happens to another guy somewhere, maybe it's news.
Disturbing story. Has this happened to anybody else?
(Update: Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and are crediting the affected accounts. From the Xbox.com forums: "All affected users will be getting refunds, none of you is going to have to pay for our mistake. And you'll be able to keep the extra points too. We are still working out the details, and it could take a few days for all of this to be fully resolved, but I wanted you to know that we absolutely will be taking care of this, no one will have to pay for any of these charges." Makes me wish my account was affected too!)
