PlayStation Network Fraud

At 1AM on 16 April, I received an e-mail with the subject “Thank You For Your Purchase” from PlayStation Network. It was an email receipt for $135 of digital purchases. However I did not make these purchases and have not used my playstation for some time. Clearly my account was compromised in some fashion. Later that day (once it was open) I called Sony Customer Service. While on the call i discovered that a PS3 had been associated with my Sony Account, I have never owned a PS3, only a PS4 and a Vita. Talking to the customer service representative the rogue PS3 was dissociated from my account, password was changed. However, I was told that to get a refund on the fraudulent transaction, the higher up would need to look in to it and would get back to me. I would not get to speak to them, they would only look at the notes that were taken by the associate that i did speak with

On 27 April I finally received an e-mail response:
"Thank you for your recent contact with PlayStation Support.

The transactions have been made via the web interface on your account, however we cannot offer a refund for these transactions.
As outlined in our Terms of Service, the account holder is responsible for all use of the SEN account, including all purchases, and agrees to pay for all orders placed using their SEN account.

We will investigate this further and take any appropriate action however we will be unable to share details of this with you.

The billing details have already been removed from the account, However we advise you to change the password on your account to ensure updated security.
In case you wish to review your transaction history, you can do so by logging into https://account.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com.

Should you have any further enquiries please do not hesitate to contact PlayStation Support using the contact details below or by replying to this email.

Regards,

PlayStation Support Centre”

That seems to be very poor. I am sole responsible for my account, yet its sony that secures and controls all PSN accounts and won’t share what they find out about my account. Seems like that is a major loophole that companies can exploit. Seems like it incentivises fraud, if a company takes revenue from a transaction and then deems it fraud, and not have to deliver the product. Is that legal?

To be clear there was never any billing details (credit card numbers) on my PSN account. I had a positive account balance from redeeming gift cards.

I have not contacted Sony since their last e-mail, seems they are determined to be very unhelpful. I am not the best with arguing over the phone. But I’ve been the victim of fraud and do not want to drop this. Could use some advice about what to do next, what would you do in this position?

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Comments

  • +1

    Was it charged to your credit card? Do a chargeback through the back if it was.

    Wasn't PSN hacked not too long ago too?

    • +1

      "I had a positive account balance from redeeming gift cards."

      • Also charge back equals instant PSN ban. In their eyes you either bought a game or didn't protect your personal details well enough.

        • +2

          That seems incredibly heavy handed and just right stupid.

        • @Drew22: I'd imagine it would seem like that were you genuinely in the right but looking at it from their point of view I can understand they want to protect their interests as well.

        • "didn't protect your personal details well enough."

          From my understanding, banks similarly won't compensate your accounts for the same reason, even if they recognise the unauthorised access.

        • @plmko: if you get scamed from your bank account and its proven then the banks will give you your money back.

        • @Hotkolbas:

          https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/managing-your-money/banking/un…

          "When you won't get your money back - You didn't keep your PIN or password secret"

          We're not talking about the same thing.

          Also nice resurrection of a dead thread.

  • Same thing just happened to me, but its 450AUD of transactions (8 total transactions at 4pm today). Called bank immediately and they're helping me charge back. They informed me it can take upto 3 months. After waiting an hour on hold with psn support number, they told me that it wasn't my account that had been charged. I asked whether they could verify which account my transaction number had been linked to and they refused to give out that info.

  • I have to say I almost shoot myself but remembered that I removed my card details from the psn account and if I need money I'll transfer some over through PayPal.

    Can't do it through the Vita but most of my games for that have come from coke rewards.

  • +1

    happened to me. got txn reversed by paypal so Sony then barred my account. They investigated it and confirmed it was someone in russia had created a sub account and bought stuff. Had my account frozen for 2 weeks.Sony customer service is terrible… my recommendation is never leave any cards, banks or paypal accounts on your sony account.

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