Unauthorised Purchase PS4 Account

[Silvver]

On the 7th March i woke up to find that i was signed out of my PSN account and had four lovely notifications in my inbox that I had added a total of £120 to my wallet and purchased Assassins Creed 4 as well as Gran Turismo 6 with all the trimmings.

The only problem is I didn't do this, the Playstation 4 is recently bought directly from Sony and no one else has access to my account.
I live with my girlfriend but she has never been one for pirate role play or into racing so i have discounted her!

Anyone have any experience of a similar incident? What was the outcome?

Even though i called them immediately i was still billed while they investigate so I am out of pocket and subsequently any future Long Island Ice Tea's.

 

[Frezzato]

This has to be fraud.

Can you log into your PSN account?
Does your PSN account share any passwords with other accounts such as email?
Can you log into the email account associated with your PSN account?
Which card type is associated with your PSN account? Is it a debit or credit card?

I would start playing detective here, and if it were my account I'd be paranoid as hell. To me there are two possibilities: 1.) Your PSN account password has been compromised, which you should be able to identify. This could be the password or the password recovery options, which I'm not aware of. 2.) The email associated with your PSN account has been compromised.

Before you start cancelling anything, I would verify that you can still access all of the above items. Check every detail associated with those accounts, such as the billing address, etc. I would START with logging into both your PSN-associated email AND your primary email and change the passwords.

I'm just guessing here, but for your email accounts, are you using passwords that: are shorter than 6-8 characters, don't use special characters, are combinations of common words, or are shared with other accounts such as Facebook, etc.?

 

[Silvver]

This has to be fraud.

Can you log into your PSN account?
Does your PSN account share any passwords with other accounts such as email?
Can you log into the email account associated with your PSN account?
Which card type is associated with your PSN account? Is it a debit or credit card?

You hit the points right on the head, having done a lot of research (when one does when things go wrong) your list and queries are spot on.

Having never experienced it i panicked like never before. I was signed out of PSN account (had to change password)its what caught my attention initially. The password was used for an email account a few months back which i rotated and the card was the one associated with the account.

Its very frustrating as i called them when it happened, but Sony did not stop the charge going through even though its being investigated. The bank also simply said we cant do anything until the money has gone out. All these decisions seem counter intuitive.

The problem lies in the fact that Sony and the Bank can simply say correct details were entered it must have been you or someone you gave permission to. I am hoping the IP address of the person who done it and tried to unsuccessfully download it four times will be my saving grace.

Also did some research and the PS3 had a similar wave around December 2012 where FIFA exploit was used and customers had charges made to their accounts. This is purely Playstation Network orientated as i only use that card on very specific, very legitimate websites and have never had a fraud issue before. Couldnt find it happening to anyone else though. Hoping i am not at the start of a new PSN fraud Vanguard.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

What sucks is that I think getting a few games fraudulently bought under your name are the least of your worries. It's possible that whoever did this to you likely has access to a lot of your information and could do more damage if they wanted.

I would definitely change all the details associated with your account, including security questions. My main concern is your primary email account, or the account used for billing. I would change the challenge questions for that as well (in addition to the password, of course). And I think things will definitely change for the better once you get a new card. Oh right, and you should change your online bank login information as well.

Another big concern is the possibility that you were compromised via social engineering. The innocuous challenge questions used for sites and accounts drive me nuts, so much that for every site (and I mean EVERY site) I use different answers, all of which are nonsensical. You should also consider social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter being natural weak points because of any publicly listed geography, education, birth date, etc.

For my personal passwords, everything is different, and I do mean everything. Every password, every challenge question (when it can be helped) is different, and I have to maintain a database in Notepad. Unfortunately I'd be screwed if my PC was ever hacked, which is a remote possibility, but still a possibility in this day.

 

[Silvver]

Update for anyone interested

Well great news, Sony stated someone had used another console to make the digital purchases from my account. But according to their TOS i am liable because someone else had used my account details to commit the fraud and they will not be refunding me.

I was also told that should i go to my bank to dispute the transactions and try to reclaim my money that my online account with Sony will be 'burnt' and my console will be banned. As a matter of principle i will be contacting the bank.

At best if i wanted to swallow it i cant use the content anyway as its apparently for the PS3.

What utter nonsense!