Playstation account hacked and purchased a digital copy GTA V

Dugganator · 2 Oct 2013 at 15:57

Wonder if anyone can help!!

My account was hacked about a 2 weeks ago and during that time during the early hours my account purchased GTA V. Now I already have GTA V a nice hard copy purchased on release date which I installed and was playing well before this purchase took place.

I called the PlayStation support line the very next day the second they opened to which I was only hold for 30 minutes got through and then cut off after 30 seconds of being on the phone to them. Another 18 minutes I got through and explained it looked like my account has been hacked and purchased this. I have changed my passwords and email address and spoken to my credit card company who have cancelled my card asking me to speak to you first before they took action.

So today I get a call to say they can see that the transaction took place via their website and was downloaded on to a different machine and wasn't by me but through my account. Now here is the bit that gets to me they won’t refund me the money as there policy is they don't refund digital purchases. And they aren't responsible for my account I can understand the account bit but the fact they can see it wasn't me is ******* me off.

Now I can understand this done to some degree for people that buy something and claim their account was hacked because they don't like the game or something but why would I buy two copies of the same game.

The gent on the phone didn't sound like he cared one bit just kept saying it our policy that we don't refund digital purchases and it’s not our policy to let you know who did this due to the data protection act. So great I’m down £50 I admitted my account was hacked yes could have been my fault but I don't keep my passwords the same, it was my email account by the looks of it so I guess they got the details from there. The other thing is I don't even know if my credit card details were save to the account I only ever purchased one thing through my ps3 account and that was the expansion for red dead a long time ago so if that was saved there I wonder why as I never save my account details on anything for this reason. They wouldn’t confirm if my details were saved or not maybe that’s something they couldn’t check or just don’t know.

If I do a charge back through my credit card they will ban my account for being in a minus balance. So not only do I lose 50 quid I can’t do a charge back otherwise they ban my account wonderful.
Before I get everyone jumping on me saying its my fault I understand that my account was hacked but the time frame of finding this out and changing everything was to short for me to be able to do a thing.

Maybe I'm wrong to feel this way and I should take Sony's view point but I wonder what everyone else thought here. I have the head office address and will writing a letter in the hope they do something but doubt they will. I will also be calling my bank shortly to ask them what they can do as well.
Sorry for the long rant if I have missed anything Ill do my best to fill the gaps once im back from the gym grrrrr.

Edit: typed in rage to many grammar and spelling mistakes lol

Xordium · 2 Oct 2013 at 15:59

Can you not escalate it up customer services. I would threaten to take it to the police as fraud and I would strongly suspect that they would rather refund a fraudulent purchase than have all that hassle. Otherwise maybe contact one of the gaming sites.

Anyways I wish you luck.

AtreuS · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:02

Give trading standards a call.... not refunding digital purchases is one thing, not correcting fraud is another.

This one reason why I have a separate bank account I use for all online transactions... it cannot go overdrawn all that happens if someone tried to buy something would be a decline and maybe a snotty letter from the bank. If I want to buy anything I move the funds to this account via online banking then buy as normal. Never ever EVER have your main back account linked to anything like steam, ebay, Microsoft, sony or any of them.....

Raumarik · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:04

I doubt they're legally obliged to refund you, but your CC company should do so as part of it's fraud investigation.

Scougar · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:05

Report it to the police, get a case number and call customer services back giving them the case number. It's a start. The policy is there for purchases that are legitimate, and at least shouldn't be there to support fraud, and I would be writing them a letter if you don't get any further with it.

AtreuS · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:05

Halfmad said:
I doubt they're legally obliged to refund you, but your CC company should do so as part of it's fraud investigation.

They will... and he will get a refund, that's not the problem... the problem is once that happens sony will ban his account for being in -tive credit

Dugganator · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:19

Xordium said:
Can you not escalate it up customer services. I would threaten to take it to the police as fraud and I would strongly suspect that they would rather refund a fraudulent purchase than have all that hassle. Otherwise maybe contact one of the gaming sites.

Anyways I wish you luck.

I asked to escalate it and they have said that it was and that's the reason they could tell who had done what. I guess they can see the trend by ip address and place/method of purchase and the fact the machines are different. Basically when I logged the call its was a help desk who couldn't tell me much and they escalated from there. This response was from there head office so I'm told. I wish I could have recorded the conversation so everyone could have heard it was like hit my head against a brick wall. When I asked if there was a manager or could I escalate it was I was told I could only escalate in writing.

Thanks for the advice gents Ill do that now. Will be back later to reply.

decmatt · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:24

This happened to my parents, they banned the account.

areksnumbr1sxylady · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:28

serves you right for straying to consoles.

To be honest, sounds like you have a choice a banned account or lose 50 quid.

manic111 · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:31

AtreuS said:
They will... and he will get a refund, that's not the problem... the problem is once that happens sony will ban his account for being in -tive credit

I thought that the CC company repaid the customer, and then claimed back from their insurers? It's up to the insurance company to claim back from Sony, so Sony won't lose any money until the insurers issue a claim.

Efour · 2 Oct 2013 at 17:30

The Cc-company will pay you back i think but either way you lost the 50 squid or the account cos it will be banned for Hax0ring.

Id lose the account i guess.... Maybe see if the name can be transferred?

Either way it sucks.. Ive only been hacked/pw stolen to my knowledge once and it was heart sinking moment.

muon · 2 Oct 2013 at 19:06

Doesn't PSN have fraud protection for everyone?

Raise it as high as possible and go the whole fraud route. I'd be surprised if in the face of obvious fraud they don't take reasonable action given the reputational damage they had after the hack a couple of years back.

Energize · 2 Oct 2013 at 19:08

"Hacked" or password guessed?

Unicorn · 2 Oct 2013 at 19:21

Get ur 50 back and loose ur account or loose 50 and hope to god it doesn't happen again. U can't win really

ic1male · 2 Oct 2013 at 19:24

I know it's a chore but delete your billing details after every purchase. I add them in manually when adding funds to the wallet but as soon as the transaction is complete, I delete them again. Alternatively use pre-paid cards to fund your wallet.

Puppetmaster · 2 Oct 2013 at 19:31

Are you able to sell your hard copy of gta 5 (i dont have a ps3 or gta v so not sure)

Energize · 2 Oct 2013 at 19:48

GrimsbyLAD said:
Get ur 50 back and loose ur account or loose 50 and hope to god it doesn't happen again. U can't win really

On the contrary, any thing which sticks two fingers up to $ony can be considered a total victory.

Dugganator · 2 Oct 2013 at 20:04

Energize said:
"Hacked" or password guessed?

either way the same result. The email account was likely the cause and its the only account that shares the same username/login. Should add my password was reasonable complex so unless my laptop was infected with a something that my antivirus didnt pick up is my other thoughts. To be safe I formatted my laptop to be sure and then burn the laptop with fire to be extra safe.

dowie · 2 Oct 2013 at 20:14

hang on - someone has stolen £50 from you and you've not called the police why?

As for 'data protection act' what complete balls... its your account - requesting the IP addresses that have logged onto your online gaming account doesn't breach the DPA... If it were an e-mail account some e-mail providers give you access to these by default - Gmail for example will display the last few IP addresses your e-mail account was accessed from... who's your e-mail with? If you think that has been compromised then perhaps ask them for IP logs and perhaps get the fraudster's IP that way... Either way report it to the police.

Dugganator · 2 Oct 2013 at 20:29

I will have to call the bank tomorrow now and see what options I have available. I'm most likely going to be losing the account to be honest as the whole process has made me angry. I understand my account inst there responsibility but they can see that it wasn't my machine using the account and it was downloaded via another machine. It seems horrible the way they handled it. I agreed to there investigate which they also agreed it wasn't me or my machine but yet I have to foot the bill. Maybe a good will gesture of something could have been a middle ground but it just seems insane. I mean it could have been a play station vulnerability but I don't they would admit to that on a small scale.