With reports of people still being affected by fraudulent charges coming from their Xbox Live Account, all gamers should take the necessary precautions so they don’t end up being a victim. Whether you call it Hacking or Phising, gamers are still having money stolen from their accounts to purchase Microsoft Points. So the best thing to do right now is to remove any method of payment on your console.

To do this you can either contact Microsoft Customer Service or login online at xboxlive.com. Choosing to deal with Microsoft’s customer service might be the best way to ensure that you’ll have all payment methods removed, but doing it online might be faster. If you chose to do this via xboxlive.com, you’ll find it in the “My Account” section under “Manage Payment Options.”

Doing  this will mean that you will have to purchase Microsoft Points and Xbox Live Subscriptions online or at a retailer, but if that means you won’t lose money if your account is hacked, than who cares. That’s what these people use it for, they need you to have an automatic payment method in your account in order to benefit off of it, so take that out and they have no reason to get into your account. For those who live in the U.S., buying points from Aamzon.com is the best way to go. You’ll get the code sent right to your email so there’s no waiting. Plus, buying an Xbox Live Subscription is always cheaper online. I got my 12-month Gold Subscription last summer for $35.

If you were already hacked, I detailed the best way to get your money back in a separate article which you can find here. In reality, we should learn from this and the much bigger PSN hacking incident. With so many places to purchase digital cash, there’s no reason gamers should have any payment information tied to their Xbox Live or PlayStation Network account. It’s clear that gaming companies, including those with MMOs, aren’t really set up to defend against these attacks, so take the initiative to make sure you aren’t affected by these attacks in the future.