Hackers stealing PSN accounts using Sony Customer Service(why physical PS4 games are better)

The Long, Weird Story Explaining Why I Bid $700 For a Stolen PSN Account

Justin has been using the same. PSN account for 13 years. Then, someone tricked Sony into giving it away. Here's how I tracked it down, and started negotiating for its release.

$1,200. That’s how much someone is asking for a PlayStation Network account I’ve been investigating for the past few weeks. “Secure,” the person calls it, claiming the account will “never be touched” by the original owner again. “He won't be getting it back,” they claim. More than a thousand dollars? That’s a little rich for my blood, and so I counteroffer: $700.

-Patrick Klepeck

Digital games are more convenient but if Sony doesn't care about the security of PSN accounts and digital games I feel like the only option is to go back to physical games.

Eh, no thanks

Patrick in da house

Probably should stop using credit and debit cards and go back to paying cash for everything.

Thank heavens no homes have ever been robbed.

Maybe if there was a distinct and real punishment for lack of accountability for these companies we might be more secure in making these purchases and giving information away. Sometimes it feels like consumers are weighing convenience not realizing that when it comes to online security, its not just an arms race but the Wild West.

It's a good story but these things aren't about to change my view on digital services.

The notion that something bad could happen is not gonna make me go back to physical, it's not gonna make me go back to cash, and I'm not gonna be terrified of appliances that connect to the internet.

It's disgusting that not only can someones account and sensitive information be stolen, but that Sony handles this so poorly that they end up locking the original user out of their own account. It's really fucking sad to put it bluntly.

This is why I started buying physical versions of digital games I own already. I read the reddit PS4 forums and every day there is a new victim of Sony Customer service so this is crime is pretty much common place now. I also do not have any credit card info stored on Sony's services and only use PSN cards. The one time I have had to deal with their customer service the CS rep could barely give a F about my issue and sounded bored out of their mind. I love my PS4 but their customer service is one of the worst in the industry.

We're never going back to physical products, and most companies aren't going to enforce one iota of consumer protection beyond what they're legally obligated to do.

Why should they? I've heard horror stories about account loss about every major tech provider - but none of us are going to stop using Sony, Microsoft, Valve, Google, Amazon, are we? Buyer beware, be paranoid, be secure - and realize you could still lose everything if a hacker somewhere decides to make you a personal target. There are a LOT of black hats out there.

Edited to add: Case in point, somebody wrote a bot to post spam to the forums today. I don't know how wide spread the GB forum software is - I guess with Gamespot and Comic Vine at minimum it's a wider target profile - but somebody cared enough to write something custom for the CBSi forum software. That's how freaking crazy the world is today.

It's a bad setup: No consequences for Sony, no consequences for the hacker, potentially thousands of dollars lost for the consumer that does everything right. Sounds like PSN's frontline customer service reps have too much power. Perhaps disabling 2-factor authentication should be something only a manager can do as I'm sure there are legitimate instances where that would need to happen.

The problem is, I'm not sure what to do to protect myself. Maybe I need to cull my friends list (I was already thinking about doing that) and update my privacy settings to make my purchase history and play history less visible? If they can't easily get to my most basic information that they could use for security checks with customer service, then they would certainly move on to some other sucker, right?

5 reasons how you could secure your PS account more.

Step1 Give me all your Vbucks.

On a serious note pretty good article Scoops wrote.

Sony could definitely use a audit or two on this process it's looks like it's full of holes.

@ghoti221: I stopped using Sony, Microsoft, Paypal and Amazon services. At some point I will stop being lazy and move my gmail. If your reaction to crappy corporate behaviour is meh don't care, why tell us? Corporations only improve their behaviour when people give them or lawmakers enough grief over it, instead of rolling over and inviting them to treat customers like garbage.

My God what a nightmare. Sony has to do better by the consumer and end user, they need to have better safeguards in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future.

My friend's apartment got broken into a couple years ago, she lost her 3DS, Vita and iPad. She is still very bitter about losing her Monster Hunter 4 and Pokémon saves.

So physical is just a different way to lose your games. But Patrick's story about the hackers getting around the two-factor auth is troubling.

Yeah I never realized this was a thing until I read Patrick's article (which is top tier as usual). Im kind of terrified right now cuz I buy pretty much everything digitally. Still even if youre only buying physical games, you'll still need access to your account for DLC and cloud saves.

The only option is to not support PSN.

This isn't really hacking, nor is it a question of security.

At a previous job my boss needed some things changed on her company credit card. She asked me to do her a favor, since I sat right next to her and she was very busy trying to finish a document before a high level meeting: call the credit card company, get the information changed. This could normally only be done by the cardholder, so I had to keep confident. I knew her name, and her place of work. That was it. The customer service rep asked if I was her. I said, in my masculine voice, yes. I got some information wrong, claimed it had to do with desk moves, guessed on some of the other bits of information, all to the amusement of my boss who was now fully distracted from her writing... especially after deep-voicedly (yep... made up word) claiming to be her. I had the information changed, a charge reversed, and some new features added that sounded pretty handy. Confidence, perseverance, even if I was very clumsy at times.

A handful of years back a package delivered to a depot with some rather personal and sensitive information pertaining to myself. I was not in the country, so I asked my mother to stop by and see if they would give her the package. They refused at first... she wasn't me, after all, and the package was marked private and confidential. She stated "He's my son, and cannot come and get this himself." The clerk took this to mean "My child son cannot, as a child, drive over here and get this all by his wee child self." I'm 40 years old, by the way. My mother realized pretty quickly what was happening... and just didn't argue.

Ha ha, funny, in these instances because of the circumstances: person A asked person B to do something. Person B happened to come across a customer service rep who was just having an off day and screwed up. This story isn't a situation where Sony's security isn't good enough, or an indication that digital media is lesser to physical media (the latter of which is easier to steal, I might add). A customer service rep made a mistake. It happens. It's a sign that policies maybe need better enforcement or tightening; but there will always be moments where somebody makes a mistake. It happens to Sony, it happens to credit card companies and package outlets and Gamestops and Best Buys, and it often doesn't take anything elaborate or ingenious. Lord knows that I basically Mr. Magoo'd my way through the credit card conversation in a manner that was artless, to say the least.

The only issue that I see is the proceeding over-correction where the original account holder could not regain access to their PSN account. That's all. And that does need some work.

Social engineering is one of the hacks no one can protect themselves against. It's not limited to Sony but any company who has your details and a phone number.

So by your logic OP, cancel everything and live as a hermit on a craggy island.