Recommended For You


  • amber

    So I was looking at my bank statement and just found 3 charges that said Macy *xbo. I don’t even own an Xbox..

    • http://joshbenson.com Josh Benson

      Amber, thanks for the comment. I don’t own an XBOX either. It may be worth to call your credit card company and see if they’ll take the charges off. I ended up getting a new credit card sent to me because someone somehow got access to my number and was buying up ‘virtual points’. Good luck!

  • Frank Allsen

    Thanks for the info. This was driving me crazy. I still don’t know how they got my info. Asses.

  • Timothy

    Found chres o 0.69 on mycard assoiated i the same addess. alled them immdiatly and they stopped usng y card. They could not give me any other info stating all that they had was billing info in front of them at the time Do you know who I can contact to get additionl info. I would like to find out the email that the crook attached to the account so I can track him/her down

    • http://joshbenson.com Josh Benson

      Thanks, Timothy. I think they’re moving around as the person I tracked down couldn’t be reached. The best course of action is to just deal with the Microsoft LIVE company and the credit card company and they’ll get you fixed up. It was a hassle, but now it’s over.

  • Paul

    Just found a couple of $75 transactions and 5-6 $2 transactions all for Microsoft (MSFT) on my CC. Luckily the credit card company were on it before I contacted them, identified the fraud and blocked the card.

    • http://joshbenson.com Josh Benson

      Good to hear the CC company was on it. The problem is, the crook used my actual numbers and there weren’t too many charges, so the card company wasn’t flagged. I’m still baffled as to how they got my number. Good to hear a happy ending, Paul! Thanks for the comment.

  • Jane

    Thanks for the info,I hav been going around in circles with this issue too for prob more than a year I have paid for xbox services that my son HADand has not had in over a year ,but was being charged for 2 accounts every month instead of one UGH SOO frustrating!

  • Pingback: Fake Microsoft Email? Scam!? Fraud!?! HELP!?!? - Page 2 - XboxMB - Xbox Message Boards

  • http://Google Lucy

    Hi we have been billed for msft we are from Edinburgh and have never heard of this do u have number I could phine please

  • bthirkill

    same her have you got a phone no,im in leeds..

  • Glenn

    The phone # is 1-800-4MYXBOX
    However when I called they could not find a record of my card, and they thought that the thief had “disconnected” it from his account so could do nothing. Apparently if a thief uses the number and then takes it off his live account they can not track it. or the fact that it was ever used.

    I found this very hard to believe that they do not keep all these records. Bottom line they said tough luck. take it up with your bank

  • dalvi

    My credit card was robbed and the same thing happened my c.c was charged with $49.00, the thing is that it was robbed in Mexico not in the US.
    If you happen to have a Mexican complain number plese let me know, I don’t own an XBOX. thanxxx

  • Ginny

    Thank you for this information – you saved me a ton of investigation !!

    • http://joshbenson.com Josh Benson

      Thanks, Ginny. Great to hear that it helped out!

  • big Jay

    I just had all the above happen to me, the bad part is… I no who had my info” it’s my 32 year son, fipping out over some old Xbox stuff.

    I’m going to the bank and get a new card,this men has my Xbox with all the live info in it and he’s now the owner of 4000 xbox points.

    I should have game playing ass lock the F up for some B.S like that.

    well thanks for all your help, he has to fine someone else to F over
    and for that unlucky person who get it next” I’m sorry hope that you get that hicking M.F with his hands in the cookie jar.

    one bad black dad…

  • Benjamin Howell

    I just ran into a case of this in Cadillac, MI.

    Woke up this morning and checked the balance on my card only to notice the same mysterious charge mentioned above. Initially I wasn’t too concerned. Having been an Xbox Live member in the past, I just figured they managed to somehow reapply an old recurring 1 year charge at $59.99

    I contacted Xbox Live billing only to find out they had no record of the charge at all, which made a lot more sense after reading,

    “Apparently if a thief uses the number and then takes it off his live account they can not track it. or the fact that it was ever used.”

    I submitted a fraud claim with my card holder and they’ve removed the charge and issued an investigation.

  • http://Msft*xboxLiveBill.xbox.comWa Anna Johnson

    Well, the AZ Jerk is still at it. I thought my husband was going to have a stroke when he saw the charge on our account. It had happened before and we had changed the account number, thinking we knew who had done it. We live about 30 miles from Glendale AZ. Just FYI, in AZ we can legally carry guns. Thanks for the info Josh. Wanna join a posse?

    • http://joshbenson.com Josh Benson

      I lived in Tucson 5 years. I know all about the Wild West! Someone needs to stop this punk! Good luck.

  • Nadjib From Tx

    Hey!!! i have the same problem. i have been charged 4 times. $ 21.62. it says i purchased something and im pretty sure i didnt. help please!!

  • http://MSFT*XBOXLIBILL.XOBX.COMWA LIZ BENOIT

    I WAS CHECKING MY FIANCE’S ACCOUNT THIS MORNING & NOTICE 5 CHARGES FROM THAT VERY WEBSITE 3 IN THE AMOUNT OF $81.65 2 IN THE AMOUNT OF $43.54 1 IN THE AMOUNT OF $32.65 & LAST BUT NOT LEAST $21.76, NEITHER ONE OF US OWNS AN XBOX. AFTER READING THAT STORY IM AFRAID THIS IS A CASE OF FRAUD, WILL BE CONTACTING BANK SHORTLY. JUST MAKES ME WONDER HOW THEY GET THE CREDIT CARD NUMBER THE SECURITY NUMBER ON THE BACK IT’S TOTALLING THE AMOUNT OF $386.44.

  • Joshua r

    Ever since the middle of august I have been getting £5.99 charges to my account each month anyone know a UK number I could call?

  • Olivier CLEMENT

    Hello,
    I am french so please, forgive me for my English.
    I received October 29th 2012 a mail saying that they confirm my XBOXlive account. And another one where I would have buy 800 pts…
    After seaching on the web, I noticed that lots of people have the same problem.. It means that it is not the fact of only one people… I guess it is an organized team witch sell accounts or credit cards number to young people (or old who knows ?).
    It is a good idea to do the best to stop those bad guys but what about the “team” ? Who will crush it ?
    Whatever, good thing for me, even if I received this txo mails, I have no charges in my bank account.
    Thx for you to open this place where we can speak together all over the world.
    O.C.

  • http://Msft*xboxLiveBill.. Dianne sutton

    I have 3 charges on my cc also. Same address as yours Josh. Going to take care of it asap. Wanted to note that I have been fighting with XBOX live for a four or five years (along with my cedit card co.and/or my bank debit card charges people.) I see the yearly charge on my bill and try to cancel thru credit card company (because you will get zero help from XBOX) C C comp. notifies me it has been taken off and my card blocks future charges-only to have the charge reappear on bank debit statement then again on my CC 11 months later. So far I have not gotten my original “wrong” charge back!

  • gorty1268

    my bank was charged $82 from xbox and we don’t know why. So iam just gonna canseling my live gold. and stick with PS3.

  • henk wallays

    Thanks for this nice post, we too have no XBOX live and just got 9 debit’s on our card too … Now I know the path to follow.

    • http://www.joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      Henk: Thanks. Glad I could help you out. Keep us posted on any issues you have.

  • http://Msft*xboxLiveBill.xbox.comWa stacey elizabeth pepe

    Dear Josh,

    The amount of time you saved me, I can never thank you enough.
    My Sears card was stolen from my purse by a contractor doing work at my home. I recieved the bill, I do not even know what is was. I called the number, they were so nice. I got the names, address, phone numbers and thier email address. I called the police.I will press charges and I hope his room mate in his new living quarters name is BIG BUCK!!!!!

    • http://www.joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      Stacey: Great to hear you took action. What an awful experience. Thanks for posting and I hope the guy gets what he has coming to him!

  • Emma

    Please excuse me for my poor spelling , my iPhone is near death so if it doesn’t change words for me an creates new sentences then it doesn’t bother at all ! So my typing might just be like a bad phone line lol , for the past 3 years iv been fighting against barclays and xbox live ! I for one am a mother with 3 young children. ! Some people might find the time to play xbox and be a parent but I have no time to sit on my own and read the bills let alone game with thousands all over the world! But for the past 3 years iv been paying quarterly bills for some little ass. Hole! I contacted xbox about this and was told if I didn’t know the gamer tag or my 3 numbers on the back of my card then no information could be given to me ! Like I knew at the time if i didn’t know what a gamer tag was the. I obviously had no idea what Wat an xbox looked like switched on and load up! They even tried to accuse my kids of doing it purposely or accidentally ! My eldest was 2 and my youngest was just a year ! And my baby well she’s wasn’t even considered at the time !
    Barclays are just as good for fraud really considering they decided to cancel it after 2 years then a year to the day it stopped I noticed it had started again ! Ringing the bank feeling rather peed off! They then tell me Theyv found a further 3 transactions since i noticed Saturday ! Not only did they fail to stop it they also failed to tell me it had started again ! And now on top of that Theyv relised they never refunded me ! And I was told it would go back I’n today ! Still w8ing since 9:30 am ! Iv rang them plenty of times to day from my mobile contract te first phone call was 46 minuets and so many seconds long ! After I complained the cheeky buggers told me to download an app! Probably so they didn’t have me keep ringing them up telling them how pants they are ! My nan banks with barclays and she can’t use her phone let alone an app! So there’s no hope for the oldies and I think it’s selfish she’s been with the bank 50 years she opens mine 24 years ago ! All before all of this technology crap yet we and they are the ones left behind with no consideration ! Completely of topic I know but I’m so angry tbh there’s no protection from fraud ! Someone going to get ur pennies wether u do all u can or not family menses murdered each other for money! Some stranger just won’t think twice! The moneys gone with I’n instant seconds but yet it takes a week to put back ! It’s my money ! I feel like running I’n barclays grabbing £30 and running shouting behind me ! It’s ok it’s not daylight robbery I’ll bring it back I’n a week !

  • Stephen Johnson

    This is ridiculous. I’ve been fighting these mysterious charges for two days. I say we band together and fight this! Use every social media you have access to.

  • jen

    I called that #,1-800-4MYXBOX , thank you, and they were able to take off a mo. $19.99 fee. I have 4 charges, but it was because my son signed up.. big mystery is how they got my CC info. anyway they only could reverse one charge, but that was a least something. They were very nice and cancelled the account. Maybe I have to change my bank account #.

    • http://joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      Thanks, Jen: Glad to hear it worked out for you somewhat. Yes, I found that when I called the number, they were very helpful. I bet they get this a lot. It’s a scam that seems to be pretty prevalent. Thanks for keeping us posted. This thread’s comments helps a lot of people, so thanks to all!

  • kelly

    i am a gamer it happened to me i had to get a new card .and a mod erased my games how can they do that erase a disc yhey need to shut them down before they make the wrong person mad

  • Mama Moose

    My son had gotten a new Xbox for Christmas and he received the xbox live gold free for 1 month so I purchased the membership for 1 year $59.99 and the next day there were 4 unauthorized charges totaling $252.02…needless to say I was non to happy about that; how are these game system people allowed to just hack our bank accts. Why isn’t Microsoft being more responsible with their customers information, it’s bad enough you have to purchase these packages just the kids can play these games and with his friends but then the software enables unsuspecting individuals account information to be compromised. Of course an Xbox rep did not see these charges & referred me back to bank :/

  • Angie

    We are having this problem right now. My husband is on the phone with a rep from Xbox. Will let you know what happens.

  • Angie

    Xbox is no help at all. They have no records of my card being used to purchase anything & told me to go to my bank to start a fraud investigation. Apparently these idiots can just use your card information to buy whatever they want, the charges will show up on your cc account & the charges may or may not be removed, you’re stuck with the bill and the idiot can go happily on their way playing their xbox game(s) because they can just remove the cc # from their account & Xbox is none the wiser??? This doesn’t make sense to me. Xbox can apparently lock out any Xbox from anywhere in the world if something goes wrong, but they can’t figure out who is charging stuff to my account because the number has been removed already from the gamers account??? I seriously think Xbox needs to keep better records … especially since what they are really doing right now is helping people to commit fraud/theft.

    • http://joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      Surprising, because they were pretty easy to deal with on my end. I’m sure they are aware at how big this problem has gotten, so they need to tighten up their payment system for these ‘points’. Keep me posted if you get any satisfaction and post your followup here. Thanks for the post.

  • http://joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

    Great to hear it worked out, Alison. It’s so frustrating! I guess a lot of people are having the same issues. Hope you get the card and get back on track soon. Thanks for telling us your story.

  • MamaT

    I keep seeing charges for $59.99 on our bank statement. Seems like monthly at this point. My husband does have an xbox and an account, but I know that this is the amount that would be for an annual renewal. I’m thinking they’re renewing as they wish, or someone else is renewing with our card. Regardless, I am going to show my husband these charges. It’s really too bad people do this. Thanks for the info!

    • http://joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      Yes, it’s a pain. Best idea is to fight the charges and have the CC company send you a new card with a new number. Turn around time is pretty fast. Good luck and thanks for the post.

  • Summer

    This just happened to me, 74.99 and 49.99, from my debit account. My bank does not do a good job with investigation, there for I had to request to cancel my card to get a new one, which is obvious, and then they said they could not reverse the charges without a police report and I have to contact xbox. Now I contacted xbox and they had all of my information, my full name, address, phone number and I have never owned an xbox and none of my family members owned a xbox. The guy did not cancel my account but said he removed the card and labeled the account as unauthorized, whatever that means. He also would not give me the email address that was used, but did state it was a different email address than mine, obviously, or I would have gotten xbox emails before. I think xbox needs to tighten their security for the future potential gamers, because someone has figured how to open up fraudulent accounts. Now I am waiting for a deputy to call me back in order to make this police report, which I have never done in my life, thanks crappy bank for not handling this stuff for me.

    • http://joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      Thanks for the post, Summer. Yes, It’s maddening as hell. Surprised that your bank wasn’t willing to work with you on it a bit more. I was using a credit card from a big agency, so they face fraud investigations all the time. But you use a debit card, so I’m glad that you brought that up. It’s interesting that the bank required a police report to make this happen. How frustrating. Well, keep us posted. One day we’ll get to the bottom of this and shut these people down (let’s hope!). They’re scum. I attached a picture to show kinda what I felt that day. I’m sure you feel the same. Good luck.

  • karla Perez

    I just saw my credit card transactions and i found a this: “PURCHASE MSFT XBOX LIVE ON “for $10.69…. and i dont even have an Xbox…. can you help me with this?

    • http://www.joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      Hi Karla: Did you get this resolved? Did you try the number and have the card number removed? Let me know how it’s going. I had several charges too. Just a few phone calls and the issues stopped. It’s a pain, but worth doing.

  • karla Perez

    ok I just found out I have 4 more charges….. in different months …

  • Jg

    Hi thank for the info cking my bank statement and saw a charge for 74.99 I hit the roof I don’t have an Xbox don’t know how to play a game or how my card it got use this has to be stop thank god I ck my statement every month call the number u gave was able to have my card number remove thanks so much

    Jg

  • JG

    Hi thank for the info cking my bank statement and saw a charge for
    74.99 I hit the roof I don’t have an Xbox don’t know how to play a game
    or how my card it got use this has to be stop thank god I ck my
    statement every month call the number u gave was able to have my card
    number remove thanks so much

    Jg

    • http://www.joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      JG: Thanks for the comment. It’s great to hear that this post helped you out! I felt the same way, when I saw those charges I almost hit the roof too. Thanks for letting us know that you had your problems resolved. Take care.

  • Bonnie Levandoski

    May 2012, my son found a “great” X-box Live deal. Two months for $2. They didn’t mention that they also auto renewed it every month.
    When I noticed the repeated charges, Brandon looked online and was recommended to go
    through his X-box and removed the debit card. Not good enough- he didn’t know that he had to cancel the auto renewal that we didn’t know he had.
    When I next noticed the charges, Brandon called to have Microsoft remove the debit card, but was told there was NO card attached to his account-Problem solved-Not So Much-he still didn’t know to tell them to stop the auto renewal, that magically knows the non-attached debit card number AND we don’t know about.
    In February, my debit card expired, thought “Problem Solved Now” I’ll get a new card. Oh No-Same number, updated expiration date. Credit Union still processed charges. Was told that it’s not X-Box’s fault if the credit union processed the charges-Excuse Me-unauthorized charges!!!
    Now it has been a year and enough is enough and I call when I see the charges still showing up.
    After over an hour on the phone, X-Box:
    1. went against policy and refunded 2 months-oh how nice- they are keeping 10 months.
    2. advised that if I wanted more money refunded, I should work with my bank and see what they would give me.
    3. removed my debit card from the account-hmm-thought that was done before.
    4. informed me that the floor manager that authorized the 2 month refund was the “top gun” that customers can talk to. If I call back Monday I will get another floor manager. Really, nobody higher will talk to customers?
    But here is the address for their legal department
    MicroSoft Legal Department
    Attn: X-Box Legal Group
    1 MicroSoft Way
    Redmond, WA 98052
    How do I know there will be no more charges? “Well, we took the card off the account!” Okay, Been there-Done that-Didn’t work!
    But what do I do if there are other unauthorized charges? Re-explained that this was the third time we tried to resolve the problem and were reassured it was taken care of. “Well, there is no record of the other call, maybe there was another account, I don’t know what your son did or who he talked to.”
    We didn’t even now it was an auto renewal subscription. “We do that to make it easier
    for customers.”
    Well it’s not, who can I talk to about this situation. Even if I can’t get my money back, something
    need to be changed, it’s crazy, the number of people on the internet with this sort of problem. I did give you the legal department’s address.
    Fine, but what do I do IF there are more charges? You’ll just have to call us back. Thanks for calling.
    Oh, come on-Really!?!?!?

  • nanyjan

    I’m 65yo. Don’t own xbox.

    Over 3 weeks time, I received 219 texts from 40404@xboxsupport. Always at 12:01AM, 3:05AM…plus other times. Never received any before last few weeks.

    I have Virgin Mobile cellphone. 3 times I called to block this texter. They could not do it… I finally had to block all text messaging.

    I just reported to 800-myxbox. At first I thought he was laughing at me!

    He didn’t seem serious. Well, it was serious to me..getting spam at all hours.

    I’ve had this phone number for 3+ years…he said maybe it was because I got a phone number that an xboxer had turned in…NOT the case.

    So far I’ve not had anything on my credit cards.

    • http://www.joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      Nanyjan: this is interesting. I haven’t heard about these text problems yet. But I myself received some strange texts related to another scam not too long ago. If you search ‘text’ on my website you can read the story. Aggravating. Luckily, they’ve stopped. But keep us posted on this story. May be worth another post specifically about the texting issue.

  • Duncan

    I see now that this is a global fraud. We live in Mexico. We do have XBOX live accounts at our home. However, we did not make any purchases of microsoft points or any other online products for XBOX . We found as many as three charges in the same day ( in Pesos of course ) . My husband was furious. Thank you Josh for your tips on where to start. We learned a lesson today: Carefully check credit card statements every month! These fraudulent charges have been happening for months, Does anyone know how these thieves are doing this?

    • http://www.joshbenson.com/ Josh Benson

      Duncan, thanks for your story! Interesting to see how wide-reaching this scam really is. It is very important to check statements every month. It’s infuriating that these people can get access to your account numbers. But with a little time it can all be fixed. I’m still trying to track down how they got the information in the first place. Someone could be copying the info from a certain business when you pay with a credit card and then selling it to the scammers. Who knows. Thanks again for your comment.

  • Peter Kelley

    I discovered the same problem $74.99 plus tax $81.74 Charge. I don’t own an X-box. I contacted Microsoft and they removed my credit card # from the account. i contacted the credit card company and they reversed the charge. NOW I received a letter from the Credit Card Company saying the charge is valid. Microsoft provided them information, a screen print, that had my credit card #, home address and cell phone # but the email was not mine. How can that be when they already agreed and removed the card from the fraudulent account.

    Now it has become a circle jerk with the Credit Card company telling me Microsoft says the charge is valid because they have my info. Microsoft support says they can’t help me.