Stealing Microsoft account information has stopped

While the subject of fraudulent purchases with stolen information is a serious matter for many, there are a lot of companies that are willing to pillage information from users and then use it to make fraudulent purchases under illegal conditions. Such is the case with the Chinese company iGSKY, a gaming website that oftenly sold Videogames and in-game items under low prices.

Microsoft recently filed a complaint against this company, claiming that it was made “to protect our user’s Microsoft Accounts” and to seek reimbursement to the victims of said fraudulent purchases. “Microsoft is committed to providing customers with safe and secure online experiences,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “We filed these lawsuits to protect our Xbox customers from the illegal trafficking of stolen property.”

According to the information provided by the company, iGSKY sold copies and content from various games including (but not limited to): FIFA, Forza Horizon 3, Grand Theft Auto V, Madden NFL 17, Rocket League along with many other games that weren’t just from Microsoft, but also other games from third parties. In order to prove the fraudulent means of the website. Microsoft made 6 purchases to iGSKY and effectively corroborated that the site sold fraudulent merchandise without authorization from the affected users.

Jeremy Beckley, a Microsoft Senior investigator, talked about some of the purchases they made to accomplish this goal. One of them being a $59.79 USD purchase for 11,000 FIFA points through Paypal. The same day, the investigation team made the breakthrough they expected when they received an e-mail from IGSKY where they asked to use the points as quickly as possible, and also included the user information from the stolen Microsoft account which the stolen merchandise was bought from. Shortly after this, Microsoft got a complaint from the user of the account in question, who confirmed the stealing of his account and that unauthorized purchases were made.

Based on the evidence discovered in the investigations, Microsoft has brought charges of fraud, trademark infringement, conversion, CFAA violations, and racketeering conspiracy under RICO, naming alleged parent company Gamefest and alleged proprietor Weiwei Chu.

This isn’t the first case however, since many other pages have made fraudulent purchases with stolen information before. There was even an occasion where a developer had to warn people about fake Halo 4 Beta’s .

If you see a page claiming to allow you to sign up for a Halo 4 beta be advised, IT'S A FAKE. http://t.co/YkLdqB9f

— David Ellis (@DavidEllis) January 17, 2012

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