There's a large group of Xbox Live users who have apparently found their accounts hacked for one very specific purpose.
According to a report on Arstechnica.com, an alarming number of gamers have fallen subject to the person or people responsible for the hacks, and noticing that their account activity shows purchases for FIFA 11 and FIFA 12 in-game content.
Users need not own the FIFA games to be targeted for the attack. The hacker or hackers only need to be able to access the Xbox Live Marketplace from anyone's account.
The FIFA franchise is the world's most popular sports game because of the universal appeal of soccer. The most recent installments have included the ability for gamers to purchase additional content.
And it looks like apparently someone wants all that extra content but doesn't want to pay for it. Whether it's just someone typing in common everyday passwords for every Xbox Live username he sees, or something more malicious, remains to be seen.
When asked for comment in the report, Microsoft said in an e-mail, "We do not have any evidence the Xbox LIVE service has been compromised. We take the security of our service seriously and work on an ongoing basis to improve it against evolving threats. However, a limited number of members have contacted us regarding unauthorized access to their accounts by outside individuals. We are working with our impacted members directly to resolve any unauthorized changes to their accounts. As always, we highly recommend our members follow the Xbox LIVE Account Security guidance provided at www.xbox.com/security to protect your account."
