During this week, a website surfaced that was offering people free Microsoft Points. Those sort of websites are a dime a dozen, except this one was really offering free, completely illegal MS Points. Needless to say, Microsoft dispatched jetpack lawyers with lightsabers and terrifying legalese to deal with the problem.
The website is now dead. It did, however, last long enough to accumulate $1.2 million (just over R8 million) in lost revenue for Microsoft. The demand on the website was so great that prior to it being expunged by the aforementioned jetpack lawyers, it was spitting a 404 error to would-be pillagers.
Hackers had figured out that you could substitute certain characters on expired redemption codes in order to generate a fresh one. Sometimes the refreshed codes didn’t work, but plenty did; enough to accumulate the $1.2 million.
In addition to MS Points, the website offered a program for people to download that would generate codes for Halo: Reach goodies and 48-hour Xbox Live Gold memberships. Crafty buggers.
Source: Destructoid
Last Updated: March 10, 2011