Xbox Live has a real spambot problem — and it's getting worse

As Xbox Live expands beyond Xbox One, the rise of spambots has retaken the spotlight.

[Christopher]

***Spambots are a natural setback with any social platform in its infancy***

I hope they're not inferring that XBL is in its infancy.

At least it's not as bad as Skype for spam, but, yeah, any improvements would be good. Limiting automation of messaging would go a very long way as well.

[WilliamSheridan]

So I have been getting spammed on PlayStation for the last 5 years to the point that I won't even read messages anymore.

I've had Xbox Live for over 15 years and just started getting spam. It's pretty few and far between. It's still annoying, but anywhere there are people there will be spammers...

[THRASHMOUTH]

Set your PS4 up to only allow messages/requests from either friends or friends of friends.

[Rude-ro]

Just started.
😂😂😂&# 128514;😂😂ԅ 14;😂😂😂& #128514;
No

[KickSpinFilter]

I get maybe one every 6 months on PS, but pretty few and far between.

[RomanPSX]

I know me too.

[PowerOfTheCloud]

William

You shouldn't have answered to one of that -*girls looking for love*- spambots lol. That will probably get anyone bombarded with spam mails once the reply to this. I report and delete them and only get one 3 or 4 times a year.

[UnHoly_One]

Yeah every time I get on PSN I have a ton of spam messages.

I get them on Xbox occasionally but not often.

[Christopher]

That sucks. I guess I'm lucky on PS as I leave my convo open and don't get spammed.

And, yeah, the spam is fairly new on XBL as it was integrated with the PC environment and so the same people who spam Hangouts, Skype, and other messaging applications automate it on PC.

[No Way]

Not really sure why "414gamer" got flagged as inappropriate, but... okay. They're not wrong.

[81BX]

The past 2 yrs I've gotten spam from my ps4 this month I started getting xbl spam. Don't care how long it's been going on.... i don't like it :(

[rainslacker]

I barely ever get any kind of spam message on PSN. It's usually someone trying to push some cam site or something. I get plenty of spam in my email acounts, one of which is Hotmail, but that's just an internet thing. I don't really know if there is much that can be done about it if you open it up to PC messaging. There's no way to really do it effectively on a closed system like consoles, and AFAIK, there is no way to send a message outside the console. There was an app for a while for PSN that allowed it.

[Kaze24]

I've had Xbox live for about 7-8 years now and probably only gotten 3 or 4 spam messages that entire time, usually about some webcam show. Do I feel left out? Not really, but I wonder why some get more spam than others.

[Christopher]

Could be region-based as well as access to lists of user data that people find online.

[Atom666]

I've been getting these for the last decade on Xbl (and PSN to be fair). It does seem to increase and decrease over the years. I have no real idea why, but I'm guessing the spammers find ways around whatever MS does to combat it quite easily.

Or people really are interested in hooking up with me over at the sexysingles dating site. Who am I to judge?

[Varodor]

The more noise there is, the more news there will be about it the faster Microsoft will fix it

[yarbie1000]

They told IGN they were fixing it in 2015 lol https://uk.ign.com/articles...

[WilliamSheridan]

When do you think PlayStation will fix it?

[Abnor_Mal]

@WilliamSheridan

Why would PlayStation fix XBox spam problem?

[Christopher]

Okay, have to admit, you fell into that one @WilliamSheridan :P

[WilliamSheridan]

Xbox actually did fix it in 2015. It came back this month with PC integration.

PSN I basically can't use messages because of the sheer numbers of spam I get.

So in response to why PlayStation would fix Xbox spam problems... Clever witty play on words, but also even better deflection of the real issue.

Clever word twisting seems to be all the Sony folks are good at. Really good at, actually. That is most of their marketing...

[meka2611]

Both consoles get these. Except for the switch.......so far.

[WilliamSheridan]

I get it worse on other platforms, but it's all good

[meka2611]

You talking like android or pc?

[gtxgamer2]

It's a problem on psn too. It's a problem everywhere you go. Anything with social features will likely attract spam bots. I gotta say it's really getting out of hand.

[WilliamSheridan]

Yeah it's definitely worse on PSN but maybe I just think that because I use it less for communication

[BehindTheRows]

It's not worse on PlayStation for a lot of people (myself included). Anecdotal, of course (just like what you're saying). Happens on any platform people exist. Of late, I've noticed a spike on XBL, however, which is why I get the existence of this article.

[Kaze24]

Yeah it's been happening on both consoles for years but some think it's not as bad on their console, think about who has the most sold consoles this generation, it's obvious bots gonna target that first. I personally haven't had any new messages from bots for years and I don't have my xbox to only accept messages from friends.

[BizarroUltraman]

B b b but it happens on PSN too. Ok but not as much as Xbox Live, thats facts! I had both and I maybe got a handful to the hundreds on Xbox Live. And I'm a Xbox guy, so i don't want to read no BS replies about it not being true.

[Kaze24]

I would disagree sir, I also have xbox live for years and I rarely get any spambot messages.

[OneLove]

I have never not even once gotten spam on xbox even on 360

[Bourne414]

Was watching Game of Thrones on the xbox last week and got one of these messages. Wanted me to go check out her pictures lol. You can always tell who is REAAAALLLLY lonely when you check the accounts profile and they have 2 friends. Those 2 dudes need friends.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

I just received a couple of spam messages in the last couple of weeks, which is something that I have rarely seen, but I've been getting tons on PSN for years. I also barely get any spam on Steam.

[RobLoPR]

I think Xbox should only allow you to send messages once you achieve a gamer score of 200 - 500. Maybe this would help with the spambots

[OneLove]

Never had spam on xbox before and that's over 8 years

[CrustifiedDibbs]

i get these bots on both platforms, but xbox may be a little more. especially recently...

[FanboySpotter]

What spambots? Haven't seen that at all on xbox nor ps4.