PSN outage caused by credit card scam?

By Fred Dutton Published 25 April, 2011

Sony pulled plug to stop piracy – report.

The current PlayStation Network outage started when Sony pulled the plug on the service to thwart hackers who had found a way to steal content using faked credit card numbers, according to a new report.

As detailed on VentureBeat, a poster on Reddit.com called chesh420 has claimed that PSN went down shortly after new custom firmware hit the web.

Called Rebug.me, the mod let users access a developer network where they could enter a fake credit card number and download content at their leisure.

The latest version of Rebug.me went live at the end of March, with guides explaining how to use the credit card exploit appearing a week or so later – shortly before the PSN downtime began.

"Now, you can believe Sony's PR team which has kept you completely in the dark, or you can see the list of events above and come to your own conclusion," chesh420 wrote.

Sony hasn't commented on the reasons for the outage beyond blaming an "external intrusion". Earlier today it announced it was "rebuilding" the network to "provide the system with additional security."

The latest update on the PlayStation Blog from corporate communications boss Patrick Seybold reads:

"I know you are waiting for additional information on when PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be online. Unfortunately, I don't have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time.

"As we previously noted, this is a time intensive process and we're working to get them back online quickly. We'll keep you updated with information as it becomes available. We once again thank you for your patience."

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (60) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Markusdragon #1 1 year ago

    This is why we can't have nice things.

  • betrayerofhope #2 1 year ago

    you have to be an absoluete shameless saddo to steal games from sony's servers. I guess some people are not satisfied with stealing physical media.


    this is fraud and sony should go after these theives

  • Dannyboy1100 #3 1 year ago

    hacking=/=fraud

    Fraud-using stolen/fake credits cards.
    Hacking- finding to download stuff for through hacks.

    Learn the difference EG

  • Progguitarist #4 1 year ago

    Something tells me this is going to go on for quite a while...

  • chasejamie #5 1 year ago

    While the true gamers that work hard for the joys of gaming are the ones that suffer.

  • the_dudefather #6 1 year ago

    YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CAR

  • darkmorgado #7 1 year ago

    If they're rebuilding the PSN from teh ground up, I wouldn't hold your breath to be playing online anytime soon.

    Rather annoying, actually, as one of my mates wants to play portal 2 coop with me (im on steam, he's on PS3) but we're a bit fecked atm.

  • Afro_Matt #8 1 year ago

    @Dannyboy1100 ummmm hacking involves finding a flaw in any computer program and exploiting it without permission i.e. using fake credit cards to trick the machine.

    Learn the difference noob

  • rotmm #9 1 year ago

    I have trouble believing this, if only because of the timelines.

    The story goes "As detailed on VentureBeat, a poster on Reddit.com called chesh420 has claimed that PSN went down shortly after new custom firmware hit the web." (emphasis mine)

    In this modern digital age, shortly means minutes, possibly hours. Looking at the original forum post, it's stated there that this superclever firmware was released on the 31st March.

    20 days between the release and PSN being taken off-line is most definately not 'shortly'. And even if it was another few days for insrtuctions on how to commit this fraud to become available, we are still a million miles from a digital age 'shortly'.

    Of course, it could all be true. But it smells like a few guesstimates too far for me.

  • grayn #10 1 year ago

    YOU WOULDN'T SHIT IN A POLICEMAN'S HELMET

  • coolbritannia #11 1 year ago

    I dunno, 20 days seems like the average reaction time for Sony.

    If I was a PSN gamer, I would be furious that Sony would take the entire network offline to save them more dollar instead of taking a loss while they worked on a fix in the background.

  • lockload #12 1 year ago

    It's not a credit card scam, it's just a dev debug mode from what I've read

  • beep #13 1 year ago

    Unfortunately this is a roll on effect from running custom firmware and Sony are teaching all of us a lesson, guilty or not.

  • number3son #14 1 year ago

    This explanation makes sense to me, since the very first error message I got back on Wednesday night when I tried to sign on read something like: "Your attempt to automatically add funds to your wallet has failed," or similar to that. I just hope my card info didn't get nabbed.
    Edited by number3son at 26/04/11 @ 00:37

  • rotmm #15 1 year ago

    @coolbritannia, "I dunno, 20 days seems like the average reaction time for Sony."

    No disrespect (ie: disrespect intended ;)) but that is just a stupid fanboy comment with little basis in reality.

    If any custom firmware and/or instructions was released into the marketplace, even if it was only over private networks, Sony (like all other media companies) have more than enough cyber-spies out there to find that out in minutes. And even if it weren't spotted for a day or two (certiainly NOT a couple of weeks or more), there would be enough back-end analytics to immediately highlight unusual behaviour and transactions, even (or probably ESPECIALLY) within the dev network.

    To me this all sounds more like a guerilla disinformation campaign, so that by the time the real reason for the shutdown comes out there are enough loyalists out there spreading the "rumours as facts" that it was all because of Anonymous, or a custom firmware (and therefore actually Geohotz doing) compromising the network itself. The result is that the real reason will be lost in that quagmire because, in all likelihood, it's far more damaging to the reputation of Sony than the rumoured "reasons" would be.

    But as I said earlier, I could be wrong and the single "insider" poster from whom came this original story, who heard it from someone in the company who knows someone in the canteen who overheard someone talking in the meal queue who was sitting next to someone earlier in the washroom who was speaking on a phone while taking a dump to his wifes sisters husband who works at a Sony Style store, may have it 100% right.

  • Ror1984 #16 1 year ago

    Hmm.. I think I'll be taking my CC info off PSN... when it's working again. Best to be on the safe side, eh?

    :|

  • sfp_noodle #17 1 year ago

    @coolbritannia

    I fail to see what is wrong about taking away a service that was free to begin with in order to protect personal interests. If we were paying for it, sure, cry in outrage. When Xbox Live had their outage in 2008, it lasted over 2 weeks and the best MS could do was give away one of the shittest arcade games they had on their network. The worst part was that they didn't even inform their customers over the availability of this arcade game as I missed out on it despite it being offered for a week. There were no e-mails sent and nothing advertised on the dashboard.

    Look, we all know you love your 360, I do too, but for some reason MS' penis seems a bit too far up your arse. Even they had the deceny to admit that what's happening to Sony right now isn't good, which suggests that in the same situation they would do the same. So please, put your fanboy shit to one side for a moment and see the bigger picture. You would do the exact same as Sony if put in the same situation. What kind of idiot would risk losing potential millions in revenue at the expense of a free service? NO-ONE.

    This outage is annoying but now I've learnt more about it I'm not as bothered. It helps that I also own a 360. It helps even more that the sun is shining outside. If anything, it'll teach the 12 year old COD fiends to be a bit more social.

  • rotmm #18 1 year ago

    @sfp_noodle, "When Xbox Live had their outage in 2008, it lasted over 2 weeks..."

    No. it didn't.

    "...one of the shittest arcade games they had on their network..."

    http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/...

  • coolbritannia #19 1 year ago

    people are stressing, everyone's uptight it seems...

  • coolbritannia #20 1 year ago

    'What kind of idiot would risk losing potential millions in revenue at the expense of a free service? NO-ONE. '

    So PSN+, Netflix and the other paid services are still running? I wasn't aware of that. I withdraw the criticism.

  • moophace #21 1 year ago

    if this is true it makes all the people blaming anonymous look like morons

  • coolbritannia #22 1 year ago

    yep. handy scapegoats.

  • Kenshin001 #23 1 year ago

    The Reddit post says:

    Edit #1: To those of you saying that this is speculation, you are correct. But, it is speculation based on a lot of facts and the outcome seems to make the most sense.

    Maybe Fred can add that to the article.

  • darkmorgado #24 1 year ago

    Indeed. Everyone rushed to blame Anonymous, ignoring the fact that they issued a public statement saying this was nothing to do with them.

  • Snake_2011 #25 1 year ago

    HACKERS are screwing us over HOPE THEY GET CAUGHT ASAP.

  • ucankurbaga #26 1 year ago

    This gets screwed up more and more I read...

  • chessboxer #27 1 year ago

    @coolbritannia

    Netflix? Really? You brought up Netflix? Netflix which has been around since before the PS2 launched? Netflix which works without a PS3? Netflix which still works on the PS3 as it doesn't require PSN access as it has its own subscription service? I'm surprised you didn't claim that iPlayer, ITV Player and 4oD all stopped working because the PSN is down.

    As for PS+ subscribers, seeing as the service is not required for online play, the only compensation anyone should realistically expect is for Sony to extend everyone's membership by however many days the service remains offline, and any deals available only for PS+ subscribers on the store to be extended.

  • rivuzu #28 1 year ago

    Dear PSN Hackers

    Let me know if you find a bear.

  • CloisterBlack #29 1 year ago

    YOU WOULDN'T DOWNLOAD A CAR!

  • davisorle #30 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 15:13:14 09-05-2012

  • CloisterBlack #31 1 year ago

    On a side note, if Rebug is the reason of the outage, why would Sony take down both the retail and the dev network since it's the latter that has been compromised and exploited? I mean the logical thing would be to just take down the dev network and short things out .
    As for Anonymous, I don't even consider them a possibility, since , being the attention whores they are, if it was them, they would be all over the place.

  • rare_uk #32 1 year ago

    I loaded Killzone 3 and the The Fight last night ( I was on a "Give me 3D" fest last night), and they wanted updates and they downloaded and installed, so some parts are still working.
    Edited by rare_uk at 26/04/11 @ 07:18

  • Beano #33 1 year ago

    "PSN outage caused by credit card scam?"

    I find it extremely unlikely that Sony would shutdown the entire PSN for 6+ days only to prevent credit card fraud. They could easily close that part of PSN down without affecting everything else. They have done that before.

  • Beano #34 1 year ago

    "I loaded Killzone 3 and the The Fight last night ( I was on a "Give me 3D" fest last night), and they wanted updates and they downloaded and installed, so some parts are still working. "

    Yes, game and firmware updates still work since that do not require the user to be logged into PSN.

  • Murton #35 1 year ago

    "I loaded Killzone 3 and the The Fight last night ( I was on a "Give me 3D" fest last night), and they wanted updates and they downloaded and installed, so some parts are still working."

    The patch delivery system is dealt with by regular internet rather than the PSN. You may have noticed that when patches are detected and start downloading you are automatically signed out from PSN for the update process.

    So far the outage hasn't really affected me, me and my co-op buddies haven't had a mutual day off during the outage so I've had no need of multiplayer services and my games still patch themselves where necessary. The only real loss is that I can't upgrade Fancy Pants Adventures to the full version and I've lost touch with my friends that I only know through PSN, no big deal.

  • Architect_z #36 1 year ago

    Is there any period of time where Sony is not 'outraged' by something.

  • photoboy #37 1 year ago

    Seems an unlikely reason to take down the entire network. Either disable purchases on all of PSN or just disable purchases on the developer version of the system. If there's no way to do that then PSN is architecturally flawed, but I would be surprised if Sony have been that incompetent in designing it.

    I think Sony have dealt with this problem very poorly. It's high time we had proper answers to whether or not our credit cards and personal details have been stolen. The silence is deafening.

  • black2 #38 1 year ago

    Yes, I am definitely waiting for more information on when Qriocity services will be online.

  • kosigan #39 1 year ago

    From the Serious Fraud Office website (http://www.sfo.gov.uk/fraud.aspx): "Fraud is a type of criminal activity, defined as 'intentional deception to obtain an advantage, avoid an obligation or cause loss to another person or company.'"

    So, obtaining goods or services (such as software) without paying for them - e.g. using a fake credit card number - is fraud. Hacking is what was done to the firmware in order to facilitate the fraud. Learn the difference, Afro_Matt, you ignoramus.

  • jebus #40 1 year ago

    the_dudefather
    "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CAR"

    I dunno - I reckon most would if the car was a digital copy and there was no come back

  • SeesThroughAll #41 1 year ago

    Fake credit card numbers? That's funny, I always thought that the gift codes system would be hacked first.

  • Steroyd #42 1 year ago

    Indeed. Everyone rushed to blame Anonymous, ignoring the fact that they issued a public statement saying this was nothing to do with them.

    Yeah but they're a bunch of strangers who met on the net or so I assume not an official group of sorts, it may not be Anonymous as a group, but it could easiy be that one turd from the group.

    Not that I'm saying it is someone from annonymous it could be anyone really but lets not be too quick to completely rule everyone out.

  • aphex187 #43 1 year ago

    I read of this sometime last year, you could buy a PSN account from some dodgy so and so in Asia for like $20 or summit and they would give you the details. You had to then log in and you had an auto amount of cash on the account which was pre-paid by whatever dodgy person was selling you it.

    Not sure if this is the same thing but it sounds like it, what's even more disturbing is that i'm sure this type of activity has been going on since 2009.

  • Zozzilla #44 1 year ago

    @Ror1984 - ditto, I'm not leaving my card details on there after this.

  • RodHull #45 1 year ago

    So they pulled the plug not to protect us PSN paying users but to protect themselves from their own sloppy programming. Very poor show, Sony.

  • coolbritannia #46 1 year ago

    RodHull, agreed. Eurogamer comments are not indicative of the wider world (the success of Kinect being a great example) and Sony are getting absolutely hammered in the press about this. I'm surprised at how many people see Sony as victims here, when it's their own lack of investment in their online architecture that has allowed this to happen. I'll be called a fanboy by the usual flag waving, irony light crowd, but if this happened on Live I'd be furious. More so given the costs involved.

  • CloisterBlack #47 1 year ago

    This is an interesting read and explains what the "credit card fraud" was.
    However the question remains: Why shut down both the retail and dev networks ?
    Edited by CloisterBlack at 26/04/11 @ 09:37

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #48 1 year ago

    I agree. The service isn't exactly free when you use it as a plus point to buy your system over your competitors.

    Whatever caused the outage, 6 days seems quite long for a company with Sony's money and resources. I suspect that the PSN was never allocated a large amount of cash to be setup and maintained due to it being a loss leader.

    Personally I think it's got something to do with Steam integration. ;)

  • el_pollo_diablo #49 1 year ago

    And they all said CFW was just for OtherOS. Thanks hacking nerds!

  • SeesThroughAll #50 1 year ago

    @el_pollo_diablo: I can't +1 you enough. While Sony definitely are being irresponsible for not disclosing the current state of private information, no amount of rhetoric can justify criminal activity.

  • davisorle #51 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 15:13:14 09-05-2012

  • Refrenz #52 1 year ago

    Netfix might well be working, and iPlayer, ITV player and 4OD are all working, but if you want to use LoveFilm, you are fucked.

  • Mydoom #53 1 year ago

    ok first off lets get this right even if some peoples credit cards and personal info had been access it's is within sony own right to track and identify who's infomation had been access b4 making a public statement so that they can make arangements to contact these people first hand. that been said about 90% of banks have safe guards on(limits track records off peoples spends patten on there credit cards and will normal contact either by phone,email or snail mail of any large or unsual buy, and the norm for these banks would be to cancel your credit cards or surpend they can also at the extreme recover the lost money through there fraud department.

  • freethinker101 #54 1 year ago

    fraud
       [frawd] Show IPA
    –noun
    1.
    deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.
    2.
    a particular instance of such deceit or trickery: mail fraud; election frauds.
    3.
    any deception, trickery, or humbug: That diet book is a fraud and a waste of time.
    4.
    a person who makes deceitful pretenses; sham; poseur.

    So quite simply put if you are using a hack to defraud a company then it is still fraud, regardless of how it is done.

    Get a dictionary @dannyboy1100

  • rottingyoda #55 1 year ago

    This is going to get me negged heavily but...

    "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CAR "

    But I'd download one if I could.

    Sorry. Just reminded me of when I first heard that said.

  • adzengland #56 1 year ago

    Truth : PSN became self-aware and just shut itself down out of embarrassment.

  • RodHull #57 1 year ago

    For all those comparing this to the outages on Xbox Live in 2008, the problems then were intimittent. I only had one issue being unable to connect and all the other times involved the occasional slowdown when downloading. Most of the tome it was working fine.

  • DigitalDelay #58 1 year ago

    Now that it's pissing down outside, could all you orange Dale Winton lookalikes stop tellin us to get out in the sun? Thank you plz. :D

  • DigitalDelay #59 1 year ago

    The mere mention of dale winton and he shows up tryin to sell some ghay shit! (post above) O_o

    Edit: ahem, comment above got deleted, was spam, selling womens clothes :D
    Edited by DigitalDelay at 26/04/11 @ 16:13

  • Marshall2008 #60 1 year ago

    @sfp_noodle

    erm, I do pay for the service, I have a PSN+ membership. So, no, they are not depriving me of a free service. So far they are due me 1 week of service and counting, plus the inconvenience involved.