GameSpoon - Protect your Xbox Live Account

People, this is a real issue that could have a very negative affect on your Xbox Live experience, and I'm not talking about the new interface. IGN wrote up an article about a real hacked event that occurred to one of their journalists, Dan 'Shoe' Hsu.

In this article, Dan explains what happened to him and how he found out that his account was hacked! It's important to know that you may have been hacked and not even know about it. Please consider Dan's (IGNs) seven tips to protect your account:

Seven tips to avoid being hacked on Xbox Live - courtesy of IGN.com

Here are a few things you should do to protect your Xbox Live account, compiled from other users (special thanks to MDK x2002x), my own experiences, and Stephen Toulouse:

1. Don't answer your secret question with the real answer. Instead, select something completely unrelated (for example, First Pet = Will Tuttle) that you can remember, effectively giving you a second password.


2. In the "address 2" line of your profile [My Account - Contact Info], put down: "XBOX SUPPORT DO NOT ASSIST WITH ACCOUNT RECOVERY" to help automatically raise a red flag when a customer support rep looks up your account.


3. If you're planning on gaming away from your default console, put your account on a memory card or move it with your hard drive, as opposed to recovering it on another machine.


4. Never reveal any personal details about yourself while gaming over Xbox Live.
   On that same note, go ahead and leave your profile's bio blank. No need to tell everyone where you live.


5. Limit the amount of information you put out there for everyone to see on social networking sites...or any website for that matter. Especially ones where you also have your Gamertag listed.


6. Create an Xbox Live passcode if you haven't already. To do this, select "My Xbox" on the Xbox dashboard and go to your profile, then go to "Account Management" then "Xbox Live Pass Code."


7. And try to keep track of your purchases on Xbox Live as well as your Microsoft Points balance, so if you ever do get hacked (knock on wood), you'll be able to help customer service facilitate your refunds more efficiently.