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August 11th, 2020
Many people play video games to pass the time as they are bored in their houses with nothing to do. Video games such as Minecraft, Destiny 2, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and many others have gained popularity throughout the years. These online games include the feature to chat amongst your friends with a headset and connect with players from all across the globe using Xbox Live. However, chatting with random people online does have its risks and can lead to you being a victim of Xbox Live scams.
How Are People Able to Use Xbox Live to Meet People?
In order to use Xbox Live to meet people, players must purchase the Xbox Live Gold subscription which costs either $10 a month or $60 a year. After they purchase the subscription, they can then play video games with their friends and interact with them through a headset plugged in their controller. They can also chat with them using the instant message feature on their Xbox.
Along with chatting with friends, you can also use your headset to talk to random people on the game you are playing. While this can be a fun feature to make lifelong friends, it can also be dangerous since scammers lurk these video games for their victims. They have numerous ploys to make people fall for their schemes, leaving people short thousands of dollars.
Types of Xbox Live Scams
Scammers Steal Xbox Live Accounts
Scammers call Microsoft support, pretending to be the account holder who forgot their password and wants to get back on their account. They then copy the reference number and call them back pretending to be another call center person and request to change the security answer to one of the questions. They then call back as the customer and say that they don’t have access to their email but remember the security answer, which gives them access to the victim’s account.
Free Xbox Live Code Scam
Scammers will put up ads on multiple websites and will start phishing their victims by email telling them that they have just won a free Xbox Live Gold gift card code. They will ask the victims to send them their information so that they can add the Xbox Live code to their account. However, what they are actually going to do is steal your account and change your password so that you can’t go back on your account.
Phishing Scams
In a phishing scam, scammers send emails or text messages with promises of a free membership code, free coins for their Xbox Live, free games, and more if they fill out their personal data on a link sent to them. On the link, it asks various questions such as for their Xbox Live log-in information, financial information, social security number, etc. With these answers, scammers can then access your Xbox Live and personal/financial information to steal your funds and account that you paid for.
Romance Scammers
Romance scammers come online and befriend people on video games, telling them all of these sweet things and pretending to have a lot in common with the player. This makes the player fall quickly in love with the scammer, and they form a relationship with one another. Eventually, the scammer asks for money for various things until the player drains their bank account for them. Once the scammer is done with them, they leave and block them like it was nothing.
How to Avoid Xbox Live Scams
- Don’t give anyone your Xbox Live username and password. If someone wanted to give you a code for a free Xbox Live Gold subscription or free coins, they wouldn’t need your account information to do so. They could just send you the code to have you enter it if that was the case. Instead, they use this as an excuse to hack into your account and steal it.
- Don’t give anyone your personal or financial information. There is no excuse or reason to give anyone your personal or financial information, especially over some free Xbox money or membership. If a scammer really wanted to give you these things, they would. Instead, they just need an excuse to steal your information so that way they can steal your money and commit identity fraud.
- Don’t open any suspicious links in your email. If you get a phishing email claiming to give you a free Xbox Live code or free Xbox coins, chances are that they are only saying these things to get your information. If you get an email like this, block and report the sender immediately.
- Report any Xbox Live member trying to scam you. If you feel like someone scammed you, report it to the Xbox Live community so that they can suspend their accounts.
- Don’t give anyone you don’t know your contact information. Unless you’ve video chatted with them to verify they are real, they can use outside contact information to get away with more scams. This is because Xbox can’t see the messages if it’s outside the Xbox chat room, so it is harder to obtain proof that these users actually scammed someone and therefore can’t suspend their accounts.
- If the relationship is too good to be true with a user, it usually is. Be wary if someone is falling in love with you too soon since this could be a sign that they are only a romance scammer trying to steal your funds.
Social Catfish is Here to Help You!
If you feel like you’ve been scammed on Xbox Live or another platform, Social Catfish is here to help you figure out who you were in contact with! We can help you reverse search any name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image to see who it is you have really been in contact with.
