Xbox Live hacks

It's a security heads-up for users of Microsoft's gaming community Xbox Live (and a good story). Well-known, obviously highly skilled gamer "Colin Fogle gained widespread acclaim in gaming circles after posting a video showing how it was possible for a Halo 3 player to shoot and kill himself with his own sniper rifle," The Register reports. For that feat, the game's makers gave him (or his game character, rather) a special piece of virtual armor, after which his Xbox Live account was stolen three times. According to The Register, "he was suddenly logged out [and] when he tried to log back in, he got error messages saying his password didn't match his user name." The problem, here, is the hijackers can in this way obtain not only the special piece of virtual armor, but also credit card numbers, address, and info used to log into other Microsoft-type accounts (e.g., Hotmail, IM). What the hackers frequently do, The Register adds, is call the toll-free number and pretend to be the account's owner, providing the Xbox Live ID and ask for one bit of info (e.g., address), then call back later and ask for more (e.g., phone number) until they have enough info on the person "to convince a support person they are the rightful owners of the account." Be careful out there, gamers.