I've seen a lot of offers on ebay where you can get 6000 Microsoft Points for less than $25, which is a $75 value. I've read feedback and reviews and the people actually get the points but here's the catch; the person gives you an Xbox Live Silver account with the points on it and you have less than 24 (or sometimes 48) hours to spend the points and as long as you keep that silver account on your xbox 360, you can play those games you purchased with any gamertag.

There's gotta be something illegal going on here but I'm trying to figure out how they go about this. Are they somehow hacking their Xbox live accounts by adding MS Points and than selling them or are they hijacking accounts and using the credit cards on file to purchase the points and then selling them? I also read that some people are selling accounts that were awarded 6000 Microsoft Points by Microsoft for various reasons (such as a refund or compensation of some sort). I was so tempted to take one of these offers until I put a little more thought and research into it, I wouldn't want to risk getting involved with something that deals with Credit Card theft.

Does anyone know anything about this?

You can see examples of these auctions here:
6000 Microsoft Points on Ebay

Don't take the offer. I've spent a lot of time on the xbox forums over the years and have heard about the offers a good bit. There's a pretty decent chance the gamertag you buy could get your Xbox permanently banned, because it was stolen (let's face it, no one will give you $75 for $25).

They steal the gamertag by phishing information. Basically they set up a site that promises free Microsoft points if you log in or something. When you try to log in, they get your login info. They then log in and change the password, so you can't take it back. If you had a credit card attached, they use it to buy points and sell it. If you had games on it, they use it to play what you bought, and if it had nothing they try to sell it back.

There is a chance you won't get caught, but it's not worth it. If the original owner calls Microsoft and tells them their account is stolen they open an investigation to see if they are really the original owner. They lock the account during the investigation and if it's proven correct they give it back to the original owner. Which opens an entirely new possibility. You pay $25, and they say you stole the account. Then they get $25 for nothing.

soxfan849 : That makes a lot of sense. Yesterday I almost took up one of these offers but after I read into it, I completely changed my mind. But thanks for the info, hopefully we can inform others with this thread about this scam so no one gets involved with it.

No problem. Hopefully it helps raise awareness for phishing websites as well. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people fall for the free Microsoft point trick. Sometimes they're fairly crafty as well.

soxfan849 : That sound like a good explanation. Or they could've used one of those Microsoft Points generators. In case you don't know, they're programs that you download on your computer, and they generate Microsoft Points codes or Xbox Live codes. Completely illegal.

Hyperstar96 : They don't usually work. Like I said, I spent a lot of time (too much) on the Xbox forums, so I've seen those before.

Generally they spit out a fake code, and they have a button to click that says something along the lines of "Help. My code does not work." Then they ask you to enter your gamertag, windows Live ID, and password. Then they just take your account.

Every now and again it spits out a real code, though. It's not often, but they do it to generate "witnesses" who tell their friends it really works. As for the generators that you have to download, I never checked those out. I wouldn't download them.

Thanks for the info, I won't bother wasting my time.

Hyperstar96 : they don't work in the slightest microsoft points codes are activated when they are purchased generators are just virus/hackers getting free reign over your computer