Does switching regions to purchase games cheaper count as fraud?

Nach0-69A7F611-2C18-40C7-8B20-040DE64995DD · Jun 27, 2015

I've stumbled across a forum where people are bragging about setting their Xbox One's region to US when they live overseas in order to buy games cheaper. (This isn't about compatibility issues - they claim the games they've bought work fine.)

The thing is, I found this line in the Code of Conduct:

Do not attempt to use or share fraudulent methods to obtain content or Microsoft Points.

...and fraud is defined as "wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain". Does changing your region count as deception, and does that make this fraud? Some of the comments in the forum make it sound like you have
to add a fake address from the region you're swapping to, and that sounds like deception.

:)

The Viral Cyrix · Jun 27, 2015

Problem understanding pricing in Microsoft Store

USA prices don't show tax until the point of purchase that is why it seems so cheap. Most other regions include the tax in the advertised prices on the store.

You also shouldn't be changing region to purchase games cheaper as that is against terms of use

Mister Maka · Jun 27, 2015

Xbox Live Game pass PROBLEM

Hey there Koto2006.

Does the region of your account match your physical locale? Cross-region accounts aren't supported and will often cause purchasing troubles such as the one you're experiencing. If you're using a cross-region account, try switching over to your current location
and try making the purchase again. Let us know

Smwutches · Jun 27, 2015

Yes it does. At one point I think some people found a glitch where they could change their account to Oman and get a bunch of stuff cheap/free from the marketplace. They all got banned for it.

Smwutches

Yes it does. At one point I think some people found a glitch where they could change their account to Oman and get a bunch of stuff cheap/free from the marketplace. They all got banned for it.

[Farscape]

not sure about the storage question but the changing of region to get cheaper products is classed as market place fraud and will lead to a ban.

prices are set for each region for a reason.

Farscape247

circumventing region locks to get games early or cheaper can result in market place fraud and result in a perma ban for the account. do it to many times and they will ban the console.

ngocphi

You could.Do it properly by going to a Australian etailer and make the purchase

You cannot gift another region

It is region locked on xbox live

As you can see switching region which is never recommended when you don't live in that region has consequences

This is to prevent fraud and bypassing restrictions like getting lower value cards or live

His Pet Leaf

Not what Im saying at all. Might be some bad explanation on my part.

You can buy the game from America and purchase the DLC from your country. But if the DLC is cheaper like the game you purchased you can switch to America and buy it there.

Gift cards aren't required, but if you ever get ahold of a gift card from a separate country you'll need to switch to that region and redeem it, then you can switch back.

Like I said Xbox One is region free, so games and DLC can be purchased from any form of retail and work perfectly fine no matter what country.

Does switching regions to purchase games cheaper count as fraud?