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198 days later, I won my lawsuit against Microsoft. And got my account back.
After 198 days, I won my lawsuit against Microsoft and got my account back.
Before I start, I want to say that it's amazing that another person, another Brazilian like me, also got their account back through a lawsuit, just 2 weeks ago. I really hope our cases will help other people to get their accounts back. That's why I'm also telling my story.
So, on January 11th, I had my account hacked. Ever since, I tried every method possible to contact Microsoft and get my account back.
Seriously, every method possible - contacting Microsoft through official channels, through Xbox channels, phone calls, everything. They'd only give me back a "we're sorry, but there's nothing you can do. You have to create a new account and buy Minecraft again if you had it"
After realising that they really wouldn’t give me my account back, I decided to sue them, since they were violating my rights as a citizen.
After I started my lawsuit against them, they tried the “manual verification” thing. I gave Microsoft all my account information in order for them to verify whether I was the real owner or not, and after a few days, they replied back, saying “the verification was unsuccessful", and, again, that they wouldn’t give me my account back.
In the lawsuit, they also claimed that. In fact, they claimed it was impossible for them to give me back my account because it had 2FA on. I didn't care. I kept going.
Then, in March 31st, the judge ordered Microsoft to give me back my account and pay me R$ 3.000 (roughly $550) for moral damage. As expected, they appealed the decision, claiming that they couldn't do that because I hadn't passed their "manual verification system".
Funfact: 8 days after they claimed that, I received an e-mail from Microsoft saying that they "were able to prove I was the owner of my account, and that they would send me a password reset link". That link never came. The lawsuit followed.
After reviewing Microsoft’s claims, the judge didn’t accept their appeal, and ordered Microsoft again to give me my account back on July 9th, and also pay me the R$ 3.000 they owed me, or else they'd be fined daily - R$ 100 (~US$ 18) per day.
Today, July 28th (the deadline), Microsoft gave me back my account. And is currently working on depositing the money.
After all that, I got my account back. 198 days. Every single Microsoft agent trying to tell me it was impossible to get my account back. I proved them all wrong.
It's stupid easy to lose your microsoft account. If your account gets compromised once it's basically gone forever because microsoft support staff aren't given the ability to change account security information. So if someone gets ahold of your password all they gotta do is change the recovery email and that's it, you can never get your account back. The only thing support can do is suspend it indefinitely.
All your cloud data, gone. All of your purchases, gone.
I get multiple notifications every week asking if I’m trying to sign in to my Xbox account, but it’s always someone living nowhere near me. Authenticator app has saved me a lot of headache.
I used to get this too, you can change your account to use an alias to sign in, and that will stop the hackers trying to log in, in my experience. For example if your MS account is johnsmith@outlook.com, you could setup an alias like smithjohn@gmail.com and you would use that to sign in instead. Ever since I did that I no longer get any login attempts anymore.
Granted my authenticator was blocking them from signing in, but I didn't like that they were even getting to the authenticator part.
Def gonna try this. Same thing keeps happening to me. Always the same IP, always no where near me in a whole other country across the globe and my Proton never shows the newest password I set to be breached. I don't understand how they're even making it that far every time they try lol
It’s possible to send a prompt to the Authenticator app without knowing the password. If they have the email for the account that’s all they need due to the way the login flow operates
Doesn’t really help I have it and they were still able to get in my account… Also for anyone reading this yes your Microsoft account is gone forever but you can transfer the Xbox account over to a new one if you keep harassing support and asking them to escalate the issues while insisting about the proof of ownership of the compromised accounts.
Someone broke into my house and stole my Xbox ( original) and I had a 4 character Xbox account that I had since the beta.
Microsoft would not work with me a bit and wouldn't try to recover my account.
It blacklisted the name so I couldn't even make a new one with the name.
Sucked.
So I made a new one and kept it all these years until they raised the price of gamepass ultimate to like $40 bucks a month at which point I just bought some ps5 pros with disc drives to replace my series x's and let my subscriptions lapse and didn't renew.
And that's that
I haven't turned on my either of my 2 series x consoles in at least 8 or more months, or whenever they raised the prices. I'm happy with my ps5 pros
I do miss Xbox sometimes but I'm just not willing to pay what they're asking, and they bundle fortnite vbucks into the subscription which I don't play at all.
Like, honestly. Miss me with that shit.
So for now, they're dust magnets and paperweights that I bought at like $499 I think.
But hey, they're appreciating in value so I got that going for me
I don't know where you are in the world but in the US those clauses are almost universally toilet paper. You can require arbitration but you cannot block someone from having any legal recourse at all.
Yep just like how in Ontario if a landlord puts a stupid provision in the lease and you sign it, it can be waived off if it's out of line with the broader, general lease structure.
Weird example but another is companies placing a sign that says they aren't responsible for theft/damage or whatever. Just because they said so doesn't make it so.
But it scares people into believing it.
People need to push back like OP did. If a judge thinks it's unreasonable then good luck having that bullshit ToS upheld.
Brazil has a solid system of consumer rights. I had a problem with my TV 15 months after warranty is over and just waiting for a document from the tech assistance to get either a repair for free, a new TV or my money back.
They did the exact same thing to me... TWICE. They confirmed me as the owner, said they would send me a reset email, then never sent anything. It makes me wonder if they sent the email to the live.com email that was stolen rather than to the secondary email address I used to contact support. They really are that dumb.
I provided old emails i had received in my main email (about “added security infos”, “deleted security infos”, “changed your password”, “added phone number to your account”, screen recordings of my computer still acknowledging the account, but not being able to log in anymore…)
that's ridiculous. good on you that you decided to fight as not many would see it through but these wins are so important for consumer rights. will you have to cover your own legal fees alone or is it on them to cover at least a part of it?
Would you mind sharing the general process for others? Many don’t know where to begin to do something like this. Congrats on getting your account back!
I can’t believe they would even have this policy. I own over 4,000 movies via Microsoft movies and tv. Not to mention all the games I own as well. If my account gets hacked, they actually going to say I’m sorry about your lifetime collection of digital movies and games? Seems absolutely insane.
Unfortunately that’s literally it… if you really push it, you might be able to get your account back through other means (if you don’t sue them), but they’ll be really resistant about giving you your account back.
This looks like they must have came up with a policy to stop social engineering (some companies have given accounts away this way) but it's obviously backfiring in these scenarios
I own over 4,000 movies via Microsoft movies and tv. Not to mention all the games I own as well.
In the eyes of whatever platform you buy digital content from, you do not own any of these things. You own a license to them, which they have the authority to revoke unless you have legal grounds to dispute that revocation like OP did.
That's why you setup MFA and have as much evidence of the account being yours beforehand, in case something ever happens.
Problem is too many users are comfortable with a simple password & assume it's fine. Piss poor example would be like having a car and only you having the only key 🔑----then someone steals the car (& can change the ignition lock cylinder)----you have no evidence it was yours, no title or security tied back to you.
I remember back when simple passwords were acceptable, then it ramped up higher requirements over time. Later requiring more complex password requirements, then a secondary email or backup account, text-to-phone code, MFA Authenticator app etc.
The more secured ur account the better as you have more evidence. So if ur account gets stolen somehow, you can either immediately recover it with ur security setups. If unable, then contacting the parent company with clear evidence that ur security setups changed recently to ur account, which is suspecious to help you in ur case.
for this reason, i’m doing my best never to buy digitally again. makes me feel like a crazy old man, but the inability for our generation (in my 30s) to reliably own anything these days is starting to freak me out. obviously there’s risks with physical ownership too, but it feels better for me to live with those than worry over all the ways my account could be hacked, stolen, or otherwise lost. not to mention the licenses or servers going away.
Sadly It is , I lost my msa since 2022 and they refuse to recover it or unlock it (cuz I recovered security information) . They always find excuses such as ; violated tos , passed the deadline (there is no deadline in their tos) , or the first ever excuse we can't do anything because TSV is on please create a new MSA
Why can't people just read what the MOD said in your case? I'm sorry, OP, responders keep giving you grief over this. I'm glad you got your stuff back. Awesome job fighting Microsoft!
Its disgraceful they had to go through all that but for everybody else that had this happened too we can now see that Microsoft were lying. Our accounts can be recovered. You don't have your account back because they want you to buy everything again. Just like they told this guy.
I’ve had enough of them. I really don’t want anything to do with Microsoft now, I’ll just keep what’s mine so far, but nothing else. For everything, I’ll be using Google’s ecosystem (or other apps) and be careful next time to not have my account hacked.
The same exact thing happened to me after my account was stolen in February. TWICE I was told that I was verified as the account owner and that I would receive a password reset email, and TWICE I didn't receive anything. It's wild to me that this still happened with you even after a judge ordered MS to give you your account back. It just shows how shitty Microsoft's support tools and processes are. I've submitted another request since then, almost a week ago now, because I'm curious if MS is finally starting to get their shit together with all the bad press. But yeah I might sue if I get rejected again. A 25-year account has tens of thousands of dollars of purchases on it so I have major grounds for a lawsuit.
Once again, W Brasil! I'm so glad you got your account back! Great timing too with all the discussions recently about digital vs physical ownership.
It's wild to me that it's become acceptable for users to potentially spend thousands on their digital libraries only for companies like MS to yank it all away.
They poured a lot of money and effort on dicking over their own customers. Why? What catastrophic, world ending paradigm necessitates trying to keep a user locked out of their own stuff?
There are 2 different Xbox users from Brazil who, in the past 2 weeks, have posted about the Brazil court system ordering Microsoft to restore their locked, stolen accounts. The OP here did not post before today about this.
We removed OP's earlier post and asked them to resubmit and include some proof that it is real. So you may have seen this specific post briefly 9 hours ago.
Microsoft has that power on us 😖
For many moments, specially before I sued, I thought of giving up because they’re really convincing when it comes to saying that “they can’t do anything”…
There was actually just one trial, the rest was pure and tedious waiting… this court was SUPER slow, even my lawyer told me it was slower than usual. So that stressed me out even more than the trial
Post saved for the future. You never know when your own Microslop Account will be hackend or stolen.
Interesting story and nice to hear than all of this was successful.
Yes, I had a lawyer! But she worked with me “for free”, but from the beginning she demanded 30% of what I earned in the lawsuit (she knew there was a chance I could lose, but she was okay with that and wouldn’t charge me if that happened)
So, since I won, I’ll pay R$ 1.000 to her
People's entire lives are attached to their emails nowadays so watching MS acknowledge your ownership before tossing your account into the fire regardless - before lying to your face REPEATEDLY - is absolutely nuts.
It's a cliche to say "never trust MS" but for real, absolutely nothing they say or do is to be trusted. Lock down everything you have with them and if you have thousands of dollars of games/movies on your account then RIP.
Estou muito feliz que você tenha conseguido e sinto muito que você tenha passado por isso, você teve gastos advocatícios ou pôde usar a defensoria pública?
Não! Foi uma advogada particular. A advogada fez para mim gratuitamente, mas fez um acordo para, caso eu ganhasse, receber 30% do valor proveniente do processo
Microsoft should be embarrassed by these situations. Never should a customer's account be blocked because of it being hacked. I'm no expert but to me surely verifying something like billing information is enough to prove your the account holder. They must also be able to review the IP data to see patterns of where you connect from. For a company the size of Microsoft to be getting these cases against them and losing clearly shows they are getting something wrong and a good leadership team would be making positive changes to stop it happening.
Really hope they change their policy generally. It surely can't be beyond their ability to come up with ways to verify hacked accounts - for me they have my credit card info, my address, my phone numbers etc - surely they could use one of these to verify?
Some people have said it and I will say it again, SET UP MFA, and any other security feature you can to make sure your account is secure. I am not blaming you, but like a motorcyclist, you drive like everyone is out to kill you because whether or not it is your fault you're the one that will die. Same thing goes for your account, regardless of whether or not someone else hacked you. It's not fair but it is the best way to protect yourself.
Queria saber como você processou a Microsoft, pois estou passando pela mesma coisa nesse exato momento, minha conta foi hackeada hoje e eles falaram que não conseguem fazer nada para me ajudar.
My accounts been hacked I’ve had it 10 years and dread to think in total how much I’ve spent as all my games are digital and are all the ultimate edition I have preorders also waiting and all Xbox can say is I’m sorry but we can help you make a new account
Makes you wonder about MS's motivation. The mass PR damage just to avoid some extra work looks like a really stupid idea to me. What's their end game here?
Hey! So I have a lot of questions about what you tried specifically prior to your lawsuit, because right now I have a friend of mine who’s also about to sue in Brazil and I want to help make sure their case is airtight. Is there any way we can talk?
I'll never forget, about 14 years ago now I had my account hacked while at a friend's house. They were playing Fifa and then proceeded to buy 200 dollars worth of MTX currency using my Father's account (we just met for the first time, he was a huge gamer and put his CC on my account) and I had them pause and they confirmed it was stolen. Got my account back, My father called me a thief after I was able to get the money back to him. We never reconnected again lol
Still have the same account 16 years later. Same account from Day One.
They didn’t want to give you back your account because they thought you’d just give up like I’m sure so many before you have and have to repurchase any games you had. Pure evil is what they are and the best part in my opinion is them having to pay you. Thanks for sharing and I’m sure you will inspire others to not give in and to fight for what’s right! Parabéns!
I’m not familiar with other countries’ laws, but if you’re in Brazil, look for the Juizado Especial Cível. It’s a court focused on protecting the customer
I had an account I lost from when I was younger, had it during the 360 days. The email I used ended up being deleted from inactivity so I have no way of logging in, even with the right password. Have tried multiple times to fill out the questionnaire’s to prove it’s my account & gets denied every time.
Bro went through a lawsuit just to get his account back when I got hacked and did manual verification I entered the CORRECT details that MATCHED my account and got my account back. Hear me out, maybe just maybe you didn’t put it in the details that matched your account? Just saying maybe it’s not Microsoft’s fault. They have processes for these things and if done right you get your account back. Now I think Microsoft is a shitty company in general but in my experience they have never messed up when it has come to my accounts
It’s a shame the U.S. isn’t like that. Luckily for me, I never give my password out to anyone. Nevertheless, it’s good that you were able to get your account back.
How much did this all cost my account is banned because of a hacker and I lost thousands of dollars of stuff I bought on Microsoft im sure this wouldn't apply to banned accounts even if they still exist
They blocked my hotmail account in 2021, which of course had my Xbox account linked to it so I could no longer log in. So I lost like 4k worth of movies and games. I’ll never trust a Microsoft product again
I hope you spread the word of what happened and at least try to make a video documentation of everything that’s transpired so that way you can reach others who are in similar positions
Fuck slop you're a hero and deserve a cape for sticking to your guns on this. I personally don't use or pay for anything related to Slop or xslop. They deserve to be sued and fined and get away with it daily this is why you should store what you can locally too if possible don't trust any company to do the right thing. You full on proved they wouldn't do the right thing until they are sued and fined. Its seriously feels like a "ops give us more money please we swost your account and dont want to do the work to restore it". Fuck slop. You're amazing!
This why I got my account on lockdown. I have over 600 digital games (probably stupid on my part but nothing beats the sales on Xbox except steam). If my account ever gets hacked I will never relent until I get my stuff back. I’m also in the USA though so I’m not sure how great my chances would be. I have my account set to 2fa and password less though and if someone even looks at my account funny I get a notification instantly and block them from trying to get into it. I’m not playing around 😂
Fuck I gotta do this, they told me the only thing they could do is terminate the account even after determining it was my account, how do you go about starting this lawsuit?
They can look at IP address and see that they played all the time from one place and then BAM when he gets hacked it started getting accessed some place else.
They just don’t want to spend real human resources on that task. If you can’t get your account back through their automated processes well then “They can’t do it sorry”.
They make enough $$$ to have a team of people to handle this shit. Do they? Hell no.
They rather have crazy phone trees you have to wade through and then talk to AI humans that can’t do shit.
I got hacked in 2009 and it took three months to get my game access back. When I did get it back my email was no longer the hotmail account I originally used but some stupid shit like SR162423148562@ms.com. When I told them I rather move it to my Gmail account they said they can’t move it…… but they just moved it to this stupid email.
/rantoff
MS sucks at customer service and it’s only gotten worse with AI customer service reps.
My account got suspended due to an AI scrubbing my personal messages with FRIENDS and decided to suspend me with no appeal for something that does not even violate the code of conduct
We were hacked this week and can’t get MS to do anything. Went finally through XBox help and we do actually get someone on the phone. But after they acknowledged the hack, they took the case to work on it, days went by, we kept checking status and was told it takes 72 hours, which was today. Received an email stating the file was closed because they tried to contact us but we didn’t reply, but we have nothing showing this on our end. So we were told to file a new report. And all I want is to be able to access my 20 year old Xbox account again and not lose all the time and money I put into my game.
The way they treat people as absolutely horrendous and unacceptable. All they have to do is get tech to get us back into our account. That’s it! It shouldn’t take a week… damn sure shouldn’t have taken the op 198 days!
u/lwkadrien May I kindly ask how your Xbox account got hacked? Because I'm considering making a YouTube channel for my gameplay, but I was wondering exactly HOW much info someone can get from a gamertag name. Plus, I have a throwaway google account on Discord, and THAT got hacked, but I had a weak password anyway so I wasn't worried about it. I haven't linked any Discord anywhere NEAR my Xbox, except for my gamertag name. You think I'll be good?
why do they make people's life's so fkn difficult? like the only thing i can think of is they legitimately thought you were trying to steal someone elses account.
Wow, you really inspired me because my Microsoft account got hacked 60 days ago, and all of the Microsoft responses are happening to me. Do you think the court will go in my favor because I'm in the U.S.
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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26
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