Game refund off of a stolen account

Tekno314 · Oct 7, 2022

My friend's Microsoft account got hacked. The hacker changed the assigned e-mail address, so it looks like the account just disappeared. Through Microsoft support I was able to locate the account since the Gamertag wasn't changed, but they told me they can't deal with this and told me how to contact Xbox support.

I contacted Xbox support and they sent me a form that I should send to my friend where he should fill out some info about the stolen account. We did that, waited for 5 days, then received an email stating, that there indeed was fraudulent activity on that account and that they are unable to make any changes to the account due to "security protocols that are set up". The only option they had was to suspend that account.

I gifted my friend Minecraft a few days back. Since we can't get that account back, I asked the support for a refund, but they said they can't do anything about it and escalated the issue to their "offline team specialist". I even sent the Minecraft redeem code, but they said that it was redeemed in another account already (duh).

How come an account has been proven to have been stolen and the verified previous owner can't request a refund for a game tied to that account? The game key was redeemed 13 days ago.

:)

JosefLBohorquez

Hi and thanks for reaching Microsoft Xbox gamer's community. My name is Josef.

I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft Xbox user like you.

Hope you're doing great today despite this Tekno314

If you gift them a redeemable code, once a code is redeemed is not possible to ask for a refund (your refund gets denied)

Is stated here:

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/subscriptio...

If you really want to get a refund, you may need to dispute the charge with your bank / financial institution

JosefLBohorquez

Yes, unfortunately redeemed codes aren't eligible for a refund. (and codes acquired outside xbox.com / Microsoft Store never are eligible for refunds because at Microsoft eyes, you payed $0 for it)

Your best option in this case is contact your bank and ask them directly for a refund

Tekno314

Thank you so much for the reply, Josef. I appreciate you giving me a detailed answer.

I forgot to mention one thing though. I didn't "Gift" my friend a code. I logged into their account and redeemed the code normally as they would. Do the conditions still apply? Can't I really refund a game if it was acquired from a redeemable code?

bigDblok177

My account got hacked and membership was stolen too.... Xbox didn't refund me for anything.... Lost $107 of my family plan....

Misiek55 PL

Hello,

These game codes on unauthorized resellers' sites are often bought used stolen cards and hacked accounts.

How do I know? Because I've just gone through the process of recovering my mom's stolen account and found out that it was used to buy 3 codes for COD MW2. I refunded the codes as the account was hacked and the games were bought using illegitimate cards, from an xbox located on the other side of the planet. MS support agreed and refunded the games. There's even a solid chance that you're the buyer of one of these codes.

Be glad that your account wasn't banned for buying stolen keys, as MS has banned people for that in the past. Only use legitimate sources to buy games. Do not support thieves and scammers.

What can MS do about these sites? It's a constant cat and mouse game trying to fight them and hackers always find a way. The solution is to stop buying games from thieves.

Game refund off of a stolen account