| JOKA_ said: "What they're doing is, in a nutshell, contacting Microsoft, pretending to be the legitimate account holder, and through poor security and a whole lot of bluffing (usually making excuses as to why information was incorrect or why passwords could not be remembered), getting hold of the necessary reference numbers and information they need to then go on and access a stranger's Xbox Live account." |
My guess is that kind of exploit is a very, very small part of the total. Most of what was outlined in that article is going to fail most of the time. Generally speaking, you'd probably have to call dozens of times to get an account that way. The email part, especially, would send off dozens of red flags.
Getting enough information on someone to access their account, however, is not that hard. You can get most of what you need for verification off a person's Facebook page. Gamertag, name, phone number, address, then use that to grab the rest. There are also all the re-used passwords out there that come from elsewhere. The vast majority of compromised accounts come from consumers not being careful enough.
