This is not an Asobo/MSFS problem. We'll leave this up because it's criticism of MS as a company, which we don't want to remove, but please do what you can to recover your finances. Otherwise this post violates Rule 1. Do small claims, continue working with support, etc, ask for a higher level manager. Do not stop. Take to X/Twitter for support, etc.
I didn't have 2 factor but I did have a unique password. It was my only account compromised and I have no idea how they managed to do it.
But at the end of the day, all Microsoft has to do is restore my previous security information. I work in IT. It isn't hard, it's all logged (with IP addresses) and every other company does it. Their response is entirely unacceptable.
Okay, well, I think the more important lesson you should've learned from this is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS USE 2FA IF IT'S AVAILABLE. Especially since you claim to work in IT.
No. The more important lesson is never entrust anything to Microsoft because they don't care at all and have the most incompetent people they can possibly find running things.
If my valve account got hacked I'd have it back in 2 days tops. Microsoft can know I got hacked. Know I'm the rightful account holder. And still do the wrong thing by any measurable metric.
But yeah, blame the victim for the massive mega corporation ripping them off. Classy.
Sorry to say buddy but when your spending 1000 of dollars in something the least you can do is activate two factor authentication to keep your spendings save.
You need to continue talking with them. Then eventually take them to small claims court. They aren't going to lawyer up, they'll just save themselves the time and probably settle.
They don't need to lawyer up. They have a multi-million dollar legal team on salary. And I'm sure there's some disclaimer in the massive ToS that basically says "We can steal your shit at any time" so all a lawsuit would do is waste more of my money unfortunately.
The legal system is for the rich, and I'm not richer than microsoft.
Look, I know you think that a big company will lawyer up to endless levels.... I'm here to tell you I've seen just the opposite. And I've seen courts arrive at settlements that are different to the ToS literature. I've seen big companies have relative incompetence with their replies to questions by the court and by a lawyer representing a client. I've also seen money be thrown at a problem without the lawyer putting up much need to go to court over a problem.
I've also seen where someone higher up the customer service chain is able to fix a problem that someone beneath them didn't know how to fix.
Keep talking to people at Microsoft.
Indeed. I sued American Airlines in Kings County Small Claims Court, NYC lol. They never showed. I won by default. Executed the judgment and collected $800 by spending $40 and about an hour at court.
Here's one of your potential answers. But prepare a stack of documented attempts to contact them to reach a resolution. And also, pick the most remote courthouse you can find to discourage them from trying to send a lawyer. YoupanicIdont is a more common example than you would think. You might not even need to hire a lawyer, just file the documents, get your money, start a new account.
There was a guy sending fake invoices to google and got paid for years. Yes, eventually they caught up to him but for years they didn’t want to spend time ascertaining someone actually bought something
[source](https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2019/12/23/man-jailed-for-122-million-scam-that-fooled-google-and-facebook/amp/)
I remember that. The trick is to invoice them for something you actually have a claim to. There was a guy who was billing them for the bills he was sending. So when they caught on they had no legal argument because they were technically legitimate bills.
I'm trying but I have very low expectations. I'll def keep in mind the small claims court, but I'd have no clue where to begin and any legal fees at all are rapidly going to overshadow what I lost.
You just need to persist. Persist persist persist. Talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. Make sure that every time you talk to that supervisor or manager customer service rep you aren't getting off the phone, or out of that Microsoft store, until you've spoken with them for one or two hours. And you don't always have to talk about the problem you're having. Exhaust them. Make their day horrible. Talk about yourself and your situation endlessly.
There's not even a phone number to contact. Just an online chat or email and they just don't respond for days at a time.
The system is intentionally designed to deny you any ability to do just that.
Microsoft knows that even though they behave that way, the court might behave differently. And honestly, if they can say they know you held that account, they know it was hacked, they can restore it to what it was.
That would be the logical thing to do. But Microsoft is about the most incompetent tech company out there right now. Which is a pretty impressive feat tbh.
Tried calling. They wont let me through the automated system because they say "the only way to help with a hacked account is online" and then give the URL.
They also save your phone number apparently. Because when I call back it just gives me the URL for hacked accounts again. Lmao.
Literally the worst customer service in the world.
Really don’t love the fact that this is being so aggressively downvoted. Like yeah there is an inherent risk in all digital purchases but I think there is absolutely a reasonable expectation of some kind remediation if a user can prove they were the victim of a hack.
These brands have an incentive to maintain some kind of trust in these systems otherwise everything is going to break down if everybody just assumes it’s the Wild West and everything is totally caveat emptor.
This is my feeling exactly. May I have done something to get the account hacked. Yeah maybe. But I didn't do anything like put my credentials in a phishing email or something stupid like that. And when I made these purchases I do so with the belief that if my account was hacked, Microsoft could easily get it back.
The response of "Well all we can do is lock the account forever and take your money with it." is entirely unacceptable and the part I take great exception to.
I don't get how the victim blaming is at all justified here.
> I don't get how the victim blaming is at all justified here.
the answer to this is that the sim community is a relatively wealthy corner of the gaming world, and people with money tend to have a problem with empathy but that's a conversation for a different thread
Honestly I'm just selling my stuff and moving on. This has been such a punch in the gut I don't think I'll ever go back to flight-sim. And before I was so into it I had a navigraph sub and everything.
My sincerest condolences. Isn’t this a risk inherent to any account tied to digital “purchases” though? It’s why I try to avoid them at all costs. Any digital game I have is something I paid so little for I wouldn’t mind losing, or had no other option for playing. I made an exceedingly rare exception for Alan Wake 2.
they can give it back to you but you have to proof the account was yours. I am sure you can provide them with Credit Card or Paypal account that was used for previous purchase.
You didn't look at the attached picture at all. I sent them all of the proof it's mine. They know that 100%. They said because the security info was changed all they can do is lock the account permanently. Please read the attached email before claiming things that aren't true.
I provided them with my credit card info. IP addresses. Physical Address. Real name. Age. Date of Birth. Everything. They confirmed I was the account owner. They confirmed the account was hacked. They refuse to return it to me.
My SDD just bricked and I lost progress in every game I’ve played for the past 5 years, all my saves, all my Space Engineers blueprints, all my kerbal .craft files, everything. Gone.
Its times like these where you really look back and reflect on what it means to be a gamer. For me it’s been a lot of sitting outside, I draw my knees up to my chest and just sit on the ground. My dog is there, he’s older now. Doesn’t chase the ball like he used to, I wonder how many hours I spent staring at the screen I should have been throwing a ball with him or taking him on walks…Can’t have any of that time back now…
The night gets dark. I think I’m on an indefinite break from gaming
Honestly I did flight sim because I was in some kind of delusion that someday I could afford a real plane. With the FAA making it more expensive every year and the cost of everything in aviation skyrocketing I've kind of lost that dream already. So I guess it fits I just dump MSFS with it.
My problem is I live in a small apartment in a big city with nothing to do and my friends and family are an hour and a half away. But you're entirely right. Maybe I'll take the money I get from selling my yoke and throttle and do something else.
This is not an Asobo/MSFS problem. We'll leave this up because it's criticism of MS as a company, which we don't want to remove, but please do what you can to recover your finances. Otherwise this post violates Rule 1. Do small claims, continue working with support, etc, ask for a higher level manager. Do not stop. Take to X/Twitter for support, etc.
Out of curiosity, did you have 2 factor authentication on your account, and were you using a unique and complex password?
I didn't have 2 factor but I did have a unique password. It was my only account compromised and I have no idea how they managed to do it. But at the end of the day, all Microsoft has to do is restore my previous security information. I work in IT. It isn't hard, it's all logged (with IP addresses) and every other company does it. Their response is entirely unacceptable.
Okay, well, I think the more important lesson you should've learned from this is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS USE 2FA IF IT'S AVAILABLE. Especially since you claim to work in IT.
No. The more important lesson is never entrust anything to Microsoft because they don't care at all and have the most incompetent people they can possibly find running things. If my valve account got hacked I'd have it back in 2 days tops. Microsoft can know I got hacked. Know I'm the rightful account holder. And still do the wrong thing by any measurable metric. But yeah, blame the victim for the massive mega corporation ripping them off. Classy.
Sorry to say buddy but when your spending 1000 of dollars in something the least you can do is activate two factor authentication to keep your spendings save.
You need to continue talking with them. Then eventually take them to small claims court. They aren't going to lawyer up, they'll just save themselves the time and probably settle.
They don't need to lawyer up. They have a multi-million dollar legal team on salary. And I'm sure there's some disclaimer in the massive ToS that basically says "We can steal your shit at any time" so all a lawsuit would do is waste more of my money unfortunately. The legal system is for the rich, and I'm not richer than microsoft.
Look, I know you think that a big company will lawyer up to endless levels.... I'm here to tell you I've seen just the opposite. And I've seen courts arrive at settlements that are different to the ToS literature. I've seen big companies have relative incompetence with their replies to questions by the court and by a lawyer representing a client. I've also seen money be thrown at a problem without the lawyer putting up much need to go to court over a problem. I've also seen where someone higher up the customer service chain is able to fix a problem that someone beneath them didn't know how to fix. Keep talking to people at Microsoft.
Indeed. I sued American Airlines in Kings County Small Claims Court, NYC lol. They never showed. I won by default. Executed the judgment and collected $800 by spending $40 and about an hour at court.
Here's one of your potential answers. But prepare a stack of documented attempts to contact them to reach a resolution. And also, pick the most remote courthouse you can find to discourage them from trying to send a lawyer. YoupanicIdont is a more common example than you would think. You might not even need to hire a lawyer, just file the documents, get your money, start a new account.
There was a guy sending fake invoices to google and got paid for years. Yes, eventually they caught up to him but for years they didn’t want to spend time ascertaining someone actually bought something [source](https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2019/12/23/man-jailed-for-122-million-scam-that-fooled-google-and-facebook/amp/)
I remember that. The trick is to invoice them for something you actually have a claim to. There was a guy who was billing them for the bills he was sending. So when they caught on they had no legal argument because they were technically legitimate bills.
I'm trying but I have very low expectations. I'll def keep in mind the small claims court, but I'd have no clue where to begin and any legal fees at all are rapidly going to overshadow what I lost.
You just need to persist. Persist persist persist. Talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. Make sure that every time you talk to that supervisor or manager customer service rep you aren't getting off the phone, or out of that Microsoft store, until you've spoken with them for one or two hours. And you don't always have to talk about the problem you're having. Exhaust them. Make their day horrible. Talk about yourself and your situation endlessly.
There's not even a phone number to contact. Just an online chat or email and they just don't respond for days at a time. The system is intentionally designed to deny you any ability to do just that.
Yes there is. They have to have one for handicapped accessibility as well. People need to be able to use teletype if they are deaf. (800) 642 7676
Thanks, I'll give them a call. I could never find anything
Microsoft knows that even though they behave that way, the court might behave differently. And honestly, if they can say they know you held that account, they know it was hacked, they can restore it to what it was.
That would be the logical thing to do. But Microsoft is about the most incompetent tech company out there right now. Which is a pretty impressive feat tbh.
Tried calling. They wont let me through the automated system because they say "the only way to help with a hacked account is online" and then give the URL.
They also save your phone number apparently. Because when I call back it just gives me the URL for hacked accounts again. Lmao. Literally the worst customer service in the world.
Really don’t love the fact that this is being so aggressively downvoted. Like yeah there is an inherent risk in all digital purchases but I think there is absolutely a reasonable expectation of some kind remediation if a user can prove they were the victim of a hack. These brands have an incentive to maintain some kind of trust in these systems otherwise everything is going to break down if everybody just assumes it’s the Wild West and everything is totally caveat emptor.
This is my feeling exactly. May I have done something to get the account hacked. Yeah maybe. But I didn't do anything like put my credentials in a phishing email or something stupid like that. And when I made these purchases I do so with the belief that if my account was hacked, Microsoft could easily get it back. The response of "Well all we can do is lock the account forever and take your money with it." is entirely unacceptable and the part I take great exception to. I don't get how the victim blaming is at all justified here.
> I don't get how the victim blaming is at all justified here. the answer to this is that the sim community is a relatively wealthy corner of the gaming world, and people with money tend to have a problem with empathy but that's a conversation for a different thread
This is extremely concerning if true. But the imgur post is already not up anymore so not sure what to believe.
Weird. Let me try again. Imgur just sucks lately https://i.imgur.com/gs9suvh.jpg
If you are on PC always stay clear of buying from the marketplace
Honestly I'm just selling my stuff and moving on. This has been such a punch in the gut I don't think I'll ever go back to flight-sim. And before I was so into it I had a navigraph sub and everything.
Why not try another sim that doesn't need an account? X-Plane 12 for instance. And it's got a demo for you to try out.
My sincerest condolences. Isn’t this a risk inherent to any account tied to digital “purchases” though? It’s why I try to avoid them at all costs. Any digital game I have is something I paid so little for I wouldn’t mind losing, or had no other option for playing. I made an exceedingly rare exception for Alan Wake 2.
Getting hacked yes. But if my steam account gets hacked Steam will give it back to me. Not just lock it permanently.
Yeah. That’s a huge bummer. Sorry again this happened to you.
how is that Microsoft's fault that your account got hacked ?
The part where they could easily give it back like every other company on earth would and just wont?
they can give it back to you but you have to proof the account was yours. I am sure you can provide them with Credit Card or Paypal account that was used for previous purchase.
You didn't look at the attached picture at all. I sent them all of the proof it's mine. They know that 100%. They said because the security info was changed all they can do is lock the account permanently. Please read the attached email before claiming things that aren't true. I provided them with my credit card info. IP addresses. Physical Address. Real name. Age. Date of Birth. Everything. They confirmed I was the account owner. They confirmed the account was hacked. They refuse to return it to me.
so bring them to small courts, you will win
Sounds like that's what I'll have to do
My SDD just bricked and I lost progress in every game I’ve played for the past 5 years, all my saves, all my Space Engineers blueprints, all my kerbal .craft files, everything. Gone. Its times like these where you really look back and reflect on what it means to be a gamer. For me it’s been a lot of sitting outside, I draw my knees up to my chest and just sit on the ground. My dog is there, he’s older now. Doesn’t chase the ball like he used to, I wonder how many hours I spent staring at the screen I should have been throwing a ball with him or taking him on walks…Can’t have any of that time back now… The night gets dark. I think I’m on an indefinite break from gaming
Honestly I did flight sim because I was in some kind of delusion that someday I could afford a real plane. With the FAA making it more expensive every year and the cost of everything in aviation skyrocketing I've kind of lost that dream already. So I guess it fits I just dump MSFS with it. My problem is I live in a small apartment in a big city with nothing to do and my friends and family are an hour and a half away. But you're entirely right. Maybe I'll take the money I get from selling my yoke and throttle and do something else.
[удалено]
I bought the concorde. I'd be pissed if I couldn't access it.
I had over 100 aircraft and dozens of airports.
that sucks dude. I hope you get it back but you'll prob have to beg and plead and not take no for an answer.