In the world of games, shady key resale sites like G2A are nothing new. On PlayStation 4, however, things are a little different. Many sites sell entire PSN accounts with the promise of delivering particular games on the cheap. Would you be shocked — shocked, I say — to hear that some of them aren’t exactly legit?
Waypoint‘s Patrick Klepek (who?) recently published a lengthy report on sites like PSN Games, where these sometimes illicit transactions occur. The story opens with a nightmare scenario:
“A few weeks ago, Mic Folk got a weird email. The person writing it claimed they’d been playing Overwatch on a PlayStation Network account for more than six months, but the password had changed recently. But why would Folk know anything about this random dude’s account? As it turns out, they’d ‘purchased’ Folk’s account through a website called PSN Games, one of many businesses trafficking in the selling of cheap games by sketchy means.”
Why do people use sites like these, despite the fact that they’re definitely not above board? Because not only do they get a cheap copy of, say, Mass Effect: Andromeda, but accounts they buy might have other games on them, too. It’s a bargain! A morally objectionable bargain!
It’s not difficult for “hackers” to get your account information and sell your account, either. If your login info for any number of sites has even been compromised, it’s easily searchable in a number of databases, giving would-be thieves a set of tailored lock-picking tools.
The full report is well worth a read. Also, I did a Google search, and it turns out that Patrick Klepek (still not ringing any bells) is known for precisely two things: 1) getting punched in the balls one time and 2) adoring anime. He isn’t known for any other things, which is weird, right? Oh well. I suppose some mysteries just weren’t meant to be solved.
Comments
3 responses to “A Look At The Sketchy Sites That Sell Hacked PSN Accounts”
There are some real turds in this world
This isn’t a PS4 (or even PSN) exclusive thing. Account hacking and re-selling has been going on for a very long time. The most common targets are MMOs and any platform that allows you to purchase games. Basically the take away lesson is don’t use the same password for different sites (It’s a 5 second check to see if one of your hacked credentials work somewhere else) and make sure you regularly check for any suspicious activity on your accounts. Two factor authentication helps a lot too.
I recently had to go through and put two step authentication on my psn and email connected to it and on tje new email login i changed it to as it looks like someone managed to get mine and then activate it as their primary account. The worst thing was on the actual playstation media site there is a deactivate your account on everything connected but you can only use it once every six months, mine had been used a week prior apparently and it says that even sony staff cant do it more than this in case you stuff up. Thankfully once i went through and changed everything i somehow was able to get my account back under a new email and its all good now