All purchases and progress are gone…
One Xbox player’s world was turned upside down recently when they discovered that their account had been compromised and thus locked, resulting in the loss of fifteen years of purchases and progress.
Long-term accounts can be worth their weight in gold because gaming is an expensive and time-consuming hobby. However, as internet security becomes easier to circumvent, our accounts are no longer as secure as they once were, as discovered by one Reddit user.
One Xbox gamer recently revealed on r/xbox that Microsoft had terminated their 15-year-old account after it was compromised.
“I haven’t slept in 24 hours; I’ve been gathering information on my account. Searched through emails dating back 13 years to find information for Microsoft that would aid in my account recovery,” they said. “I just spent 40 minutes on the phone with support pleading to talk to a supervisor or manager that would have some power in my account being recovered. After providing card numbers, transaction history, and the date of the account being compromised, Xbox support ultimately permanently suspended my account without the option of an account transfer due to unauthorized access.”
They went on to say, “Somebody out there is able to help me but they won’t hear the voice of 12-year-old me who first created my account and shared so many memories with friends and since deceased family members over that time.”
This terrible news, as expected, caused other Reddit users to become concerned about their own accounts. “This is a dangerous precedent when [Microsoft] wants us to make digital purchases,” one Redditor commented. “This tells me I can lose access to my entire library of games at any time due to malicious actors.”
It remains to be seen whether the original poster will be able to reclaim their account, but with 15 years of purchases and history, it will be a huge blow.