What to do when your PSN account gets hacked

PS4, PS3 and PlayStation Vita owners should follow these steps to regain access to their accounts and get any stolen money back.

[Niceman91]

SUE SUE SUE!!!

[Aenea]

And who would you sue then, hmm? Yourself for being stupid enough to use a password that they could guess or that you used somewhere else??

[dirkdady]

What do you do? Basically what you would do when your Xbox account is hacked. What they are talking about is the fact anyone's account can be compromised via social engineering. Just make sure you don't provide your login to anyone despite how official an email looks like.

https://support.xbox.com/en...

[TacoTurtlePower]

I'm pretty sure hackers don't go guessing passwords, probably a bit more to it than that haha

[Christopher]

***I'm pretty sure hackers don't go guessing passwords***

True, but don't ignore the part where he said 'used somewhere else' which is the most common way they get access to an account. There are specific places that sell database leaks from various sites that people buy and then use to attempt to gain access to accounts across a very wide array of services. PSN, XBL, and Steam are pretty high up on the list.

[Aenea]

@taco
With guessing I also include password crackers who try combinations of often used phrases and such, but also like dirkdady mentioned 'social engineering'. If you use parts of things from your real life, birthdays from yourself and significant others or pets, names of those, feed them to a little program, etc. And of course they can just as easily pretend to call/email you, etc.
Other possibilities are that you already have malware installed on your desktop machine or phone/tablet.

But most of the times it's simply a matter of using the same password on more than one site and when all the username+emails+passwords of one site you once frequented are out on the street people will try to use those on other popular sites/services like PSN/XBL...

A great website to check if a website you once used has been compromised is: https://haveibeenpwned.com
Just type in your email and you will see a list of websites where you used that same email address. And yes, the site is trustworthy...

@Christopher
It's she actually :)

[C-H-E-F]

Hack it back duh!!!

[SolidStoner]

yeah.. or change the password in PSN account AND e-mail!

[Eidolon]

I'd be worried about my trophies more than the games I purchases in a flash sale..

Best option is to remove convenience from your account, just because there is some slight possibility of it being hacked? I'll take the chance and cancel my cards.

[NotoriousWhiz]

I just buy digital money from Amazon if I need to buy anything from PSN. I trust Amazon far more than any gaming company.

[C-H-E-F]

You do know or are aware that Sony and Microsoft use Amazon Web Services??? So technically, if they are hacked then Amazon is "hacked" as well... lOl... however, I used to buy cards now I just have a debit card specifically for gaming, and I transfer funds to it as I see fit :D.

[Pro_TactX]

If your PSN account gets compromised (not hacked), it's probably because you have weak security practices. The biggest mistake I see people making is using the same email address and password on different websites.

[majedx9]

still sony should find another way better then the six month BS "like microsoft phone message code verification or steam method to verify your account".

[Pro_TactX]

I don't disagree with that. I would like multi-factor authentication. I have that enabled on every account I have that offers it.

[Aenea]

Almost every single time when someone claims their account has been hacked it just means someone somehow either got the password for their PSN account or their email account associated with their PSN account because they've been using the same password on other accounts.

They should write an article about "How to prevent your PSN account to be 'hacked'".

Use a strong password on both your PSN account and the email account that is associated with it, both need to be different and neither should be used on any other account...

-----
A great website to check if a website you once used has been compromised is: https://haveibeenpwned.com
Just type in your email and you will see a list of websites where you used that same email address. And yes, the site is trustworthy...

[Corpser]

Or Sony can take security seriously and have 2 factor authentication, even EA has that. Someone login to my steam account with the correct password once but because of 2FA nothing happened

[Aenea]

Yup, that would be damn handy as well. They are going to add in, probably waiting for firmware 4.0 for it...

[trywizardo]

so forget about refunds,will they give us back our account ?

[curtis92]

Stick to prepaid cards, people. My friend's account got hacked yesterday, he woke up to over $600 in charges because he had a bank card and paypal enabled as payment methods. Don't mess around!

[DragonDDark]

I started using then since the 2011 hack. Never paid from my card

[RosweeSon]

Luckily haven't had this problem with Sony... Microsoft on the other hand helpful as a chocolate teapot... Yeah well change your email address to a completely random one and lose you access to your 10-15 year old email account that is no longer available and you'll have to set up a new email address and transfer this over in a month or so to the one we've put in place with no help.... Shouldn't you do all that for me. My account was secure? Thought that's why I bought Xbox Gold for 9 years!?
Being absolutely ignored has its benefits tho... No I bought Tony Hawks 1 HD myself anything after that is not being done by me, I don't need a refund for Tony Hawks just everything after, refunds me for Tony Hawks, sure it might have been generosity but they'd normally say we're doing this as a GWG, however I feel it was more the fact they weren't listening and clear language barrier being as everyone who answers Microsoft U.K customer services gets an Indian... Nice people but don't go off script.

It can happen on any online service tho at the end of the day I guess its just changing passwords regularly not using same ones, using obscure ones... Password?!... No. 1234 ;( haha.
And also not giving your details out freely on Facebook/Twitter or randomly in the street helps.

[Aenea]

We can safely agree that all these big companies have crap support. Sure most of the time it might be good enough or great but there are always situations were that's not the case at all... Fact is, support people are human too and can have a bad day or are only allowed to follow a script....

[rightway]

Seeing more people reporting about this lately on different sites. Sony needs to have a better network to stop the gangsters hacking accounts and taking your money. Its their console and network it should be better protected.

[Aenea]

If I give you my userid+password should I then complain afterwards when you use it?

Yes, I know, that's exaggerated but if you're not careful enough and use the same passwords on multiple sites and one of them is being hacked and all the passwords and emails are out there to see for everyone and they use it to try to see if you have a PSN account using the same info and it works then who is to blame? Sony? Because you feel they have to make it more secure? or you who were too careless and used the same passwords on multiple sites?

Seriously, Sony hasn't had a hack since 2011, everyone since then claiming "I've been hacked!" is the result of those users being careless with their info!

Not saying that Sony shouldn't do anything at all and keep it like it is, nope, they can add 2-factor authentication and have a better way to be able to help people who still are being victimised by these nasty people who do this.
What I mean by the last part is that I find it reasonable that they would know which devices have been using your account and if a new one logs in that they might warn you, but if they don't that they at least register it so when you call them that they can clearly see it's a new device all of a sudden after years of having it been another and not making you wait for 6 months in certain cases before you have full access back...

[GNCFLYER]

Lets not forget a big percentage of the people who claimed to get "hacked" happened by gamesharing .

[Kokyu]

You cry gaint tears of Impatient rage. Then make a new account.

[deadwiseman85]

You scream really loud, and then fall to your knees with floods of tears then you hope that you have no money left in your bank account for the hackers to steal because you spent it on all the great ps4 games in your collection.

[Master of Unlocking]

Good read. I'll know what to do if my PSN account gets hacked, but here's hoping the 2011 fiasco won't happen again. The little brats who do that need to get a life and use their particular talent to turn the life of the boneheads working for ISIS into hell.
Just sayin'.

[Silly gameAr]

I would write hit bait and get back all of the money I hypothetically lost.

[iTechHeads]

lol 'hacked'