http://kotaku.com/5897461/hackers-can-steal-credit-card-information-from-your-old-xbox-experts-tell-us

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116568-Beware-Your-Old-Xbox-Stores-Personal-Information 

( Escapist link for anyone that doesn't want to give Kotau page hits ;) )

So, fair warning to anyone throwing out their old Xbox. Not only is this a thread for fanboys, it is also useful for anyone who doesn't want scummy types using their credit card!

You might want to use

"a specific formatting application likeBoot and Nuke to completely erase information from the magnetic disks. "

because

"all of your personal information is stored on the console's hard drive - even if you wipe the drive clean. 

Ashley Podhradsky from Drexel University in Philadelphia experimented with common tools and applications on a refurbished Xbox 360 and easily grabbed the previous owner's sensitive bits like credit card number, address and real name." 

Neat, huh? 

you mean like all hard drives???? YOU DON'T SAY.

This isn't very surprising news since it applies to all hard drives. If hackers want something bad enough they are going to get it.

Hmm.. your credit card number shouldn't be on the console's hard drive though.

Except a company should not store your personal data, unencrypted (or at least poorly encrypted, as the article claims the extraction process is very easy) , client side on your HDD, and not even warn you about it. 

This isn't exactly anything big. Even if I throw away my computer, I keep my hard drives and either re-use them internally or externally or take them apart completely to destroy them before throwing them away so that no one can ever take any information I wouldn't want taken.

That said for the average consumer this might be a bit of a problem. I always thought the credit card info was stored on Microsoft's website encrypted rather than on your HDD. That seems very odd to me.

Ohh noes!!! jokes I use USB for my xbox memory.

Indeed, the worrying thing is the information that is stored on the HDD, not the fact that the HDD is like any other HDD. I wonder if PS3 HDD is the same? I hope not. Still not planning to sell the PS3 ever. I'll keep it until it dies, and then smash the HDD into little bits.

This is an error by MS.

But there are an aweful lot of easy ways for your credit card to get stolen.

*Yawn*