Problems getting a refund after account hacked and games purchased fraudulently

Eugene Battini · Dec 15, 2022

I recently found out my Microsoft Live account had been hacked, when I had a text from my bank asking if a payment of £99.99 to Microsoft was actually me.

I replied no and thankfully they declined the payment. I immediately logged in to my Microsoft live account to see that 2 games had been purchased on Nov 1st, both for £69.99. They both said 'gift for..' with a different email address for each one. I checked my bank account and the money was paid, so I was down £140. I went through the refund process, and one has been refunded, but the other has not, citing that it's not eligible under section 16 of their terms of sale. This makes no sense to me, as both games were purchased at from what I can see exactly the same time.

I tried the refund process for the second game three times, the first two I had a response stating 'There are no charges on your account matching the description, so we are not able to refund your order placed'. with the exact same wording, even though the second time I sent them quite a long email with screenshots of my account clearly showing both games appearing, and bank statement as proof of money taken out.

The third attempt at a refund for the same game I get a reply stating that it's not eligible under section 16. I'm guessing they are automated replies. The fact I've been given two different reasons why they can't refund makes no sense. I feel disgusted that I've been fobbed off in this way. I have seen in the T&C's that there is a limit of 30 days after purchases have been made to claim a refund, but surely that's for legitimate purchases, not one made fraudulently after an account has been hacked? I'm really not sure what to do now,

If any one could point me in the right direction I'd be extremely grateful. I have removed payment card and changed the password btw.

:)

Eugene Battini

OK Nursemorph, thanks for the advice. Should have known better.

Microsoft has deleted my email thankfully, but not the address of the gift recipients. Can't seem to edit it now it's been sent.

It certainly wasn't a deliberate 'name and shame', although I don't feel too bad about it as they hacked my account and stole money from me.

Thanks for the advice anyway

Eugene Battini

Yes I did, many times. As in the screenshot above, after answering all the questions, it says phone calls and chats aren't available for this issue. So I click on the 'Request a refund' box.

This takes me to Home > Subscriptions & billing 'Request a refund for digital games'. The game is not listed. It says 'We didn't find any purchases on this account. Check "Why don't I see my purchase in the list" for more info.

So I click on 'Why don't I see my purchase in the list', then I click on 'I don't see a purchase in my order history'. Here is a screenshot of my order history showing the purchased games:

I filled out the 'request a refund' form as follows:

This will be the 4th time I have done this. As I said in the original post, I have been given 2 separate reasons why the game cannot be refunded, which of course makes no sense as one game has indeed been refunded. It is also annoying that in the 'tell us who made the purchase', there is no 'unknown' option for cases like this one.

I'm guessing you're going to tell me to wait for a response, but forgive me for not putting too much faith in getting a resolution to this as it is, as already stated, my 4th attempt.

I would also like to ask do you actually follow up hacking cases like this? Surely with all the resources at Microsoft's disposal, it would be possible to trace the IP address where the game was actually downloaded to.

Regards,

Eugene

***Removed personally identifiable information (PII) from picture. Please see the Microsoft Community Frequently Asked Questions for more information on how you can protect your privacy. ***

Eugene Battini

Hi Fatima

Thank you for the reply.

I've tried to contact live support on 3 separate days now. Each time I've ended up at the virtual agent, even when I click on 'request a call'. The virtual agent screen just says 'Hello', but doesn't allow me to type anything in. Other times it tells me it's having technical. I have found the virtual agent NEVER WORKS.

Please tell me what I can do Fatima. I'd love to talk to a human Microsoft representative, but the system doesn't give me any way to do that.

Regards,

Eugene

Fatima_J

Hi Eugene Battini ,

Thank you for posting to the Microsoft community.

Based on the description, it seems that you are having a problem on getting refund since your Microsoft account was hacked.

I'm so sorry to hear about it, this is not the experience we want you to have.

In your case, I would suggest contacting live support for this for them to check the gift card since they have the tools for that.

Press the Xbox button  to open the guide, and then select Profile & system > Xbox Assist.

Select Learn more for details about what features are available on Xbox Assist.

or you may click the link below.

Contact us | Xbox Support

Thank you for understanding.

Truly Yours,

Fatima

Microsoft Moderator

Fatima_J

Hi Eugene Battini ,

Good day!

Thank you for your response.

In your case, I would agree if you wanted to contact the bank since we don't have access on advance tools like on live support - and this is a billing concern so it would be better to share your contact info in bank or live support because it is a sensitive info about money.

About refunds - we got a disclaimer on the site that : Request a refund for digital games | Xbox Support)

"Be aware that submitting a request doesn’t guarantee a refund, especially if it doesn’t meet the above criteria.

Thank you for understanding.

Truly Yours,

Fatima

Microsoft Moderator

Problems getting a refund after account hacked and games purchased fraudulently