If there’s one thing we can take away from 2014, it’s that there might be some merit to going back to the good old days of offline entertainment. On the back of a significant cyber attack on PSN and Xbox Live, EA’s Origin digital download service has been receiving a number of complaints of suspicious activity.
Several users took to Reddit to report a number of brow-raising occurrences with their Origin accounts, such as unauthorized purchases being charged to their credit cards, failed attempts at making unauthorized purchases, achievements being earned for unplayed games, and so on.
One clue as to the nature of the potential culprits was gleaned from several users who reported that their Origin accounts were banned when someone used them to purchase FIFA 15 and illegally farm coins, an illegal activity that can result in real world money for the perpetrator.
One such user reported that the in-game language of the game was switched to Russian. Are you putting the dots together yet?
EA, for all the hate people give them, have been quick to respond to the situation. Many users on the same Reddit thread reported that a quick phone call to Origin’s customer service line remedied the situation, with accounts being restored and fraudulent purchases undone.
EA then reported to PC Gamer that:
We found no indication at this point of a breach of our Origin account database. Privacy and security of user account information are of the utmost importance to us. We encourage our players to use Origin user ID and passwords that are unique to their account, and to report any activity they feel may be unauthorized to EA customer support at help.ea.com.
In light of this scare, Origin has implemented a new two-step authorization phase that sends out messages to users should their account be accessed on an unfamiliar device.
In the meantime, the less criminally inclined of us can splurge our hard-earned cash on the Origin end of year sale, which concludes on January 6.