Sony refusing to refund PSN hack victim

The protection offered to those whose PlayStation Network accounts have been hacked has been called into question following the plight of one PS4 owner.

GameSpot reports that that a Reddit user named Kadjer saw his PSN account hijacked and $600 worth of content purchased through his account. Furthermore, his PS4 had been unlinked from his PSN account and replaced with another.

Sony, however, has told him that it has a maximum refund threshold of just $150, and that’s only offered in PSN credit, not actual cash.

To make matters worse, Kadjer is locked out of his PSN account, meaning he wouldn’t be able to access the funds regardless. To top it off, if he challenges the illicit purchases with his bank, Sony has said it will ban his PSN account and wipe his licenses, meaning purchases such as The Last of Us Remastered will be lost forever.

As the transactions came in, one-by-one, it became immediately clear that my account had been hacked. I immediately logged into PSN and removed my card from the account, changed my email and password, and simultaneously launched support chats with both Sony and my bank,” his Reddit post explains.

My account will not be able to activate a new system for six months, per Sony policy. I’m completely locked out of my own account until that date. I then asked about what would happen if I got my bank to reverse the charges, and he informed me that it would result in a banned account. I asked if there would be any way to restore my purchases, and he told me that there would not be.

Absolutely furious. Change your passwords, everyone. Better yet, don’t have your credit card on file with Sony – if something were to happen, you won’t be taken care of.”

The Reddit post also carries the transcript of a particularly brutal exchange with Sony’s chat service.