Charging the victim of E-theft?

[gulpy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? - New York


I'll try to make this story as concise as possible.

Several months ago an online game account of mine (Which wasn't being paid for at the time; IE: Inactive) was terminated due to violating the terms of service of said game. I found this odd since I wasn't paying for it nor playing it. It turns out that a hacker took over my account and used it to commit e-fraud within the game itself. After contacting the company who runs the game, they quickly restored my account with apologies and acknowledging that my account was indeed compromised by an outside source.

After this incident I finished up using the gametime the Hacker put on my account and it went back to being inactive. 2 months later I recieve an email from the company saying that this hacker used a stolen credit card to reactivate my account. Now this company says I am responsible for paying them back because the credit card was rightfully canceled. So to put it bluntly... They are making me pay for their lack of security.


Do I have a potential case here, or is it just another story of big companies taking advantage of unknowing consumers?

 

[Mass_Shyster]

I finished up using the gametime the Hacker put on my account

You took the benefit of the stolen card. Sounds to me like you owe for that gametime.

 

[gulpy]

But I did not know the card was stolen. It wasn't made aware to me until they wanted me to pay it back. A lot of these hackers use prepaid time to reactivate accounts because the objects on the accounts are far more valuable then the money they spend to activate it. This is what I thought happened.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

But I did not know the card was stolen. It wasn't made aware to me until they wanted me to pay it back. A lot of these hackers use prepaid time to reactivate accounts because the objects on the accounts are far more valuable then the money they spend to activate it. This is what I thought happened.

The point is that you used gametime that you didn't pay for. It doesn't matter that you thought you were stealing from a hacker. You still owe for the gametime that you used but did not pay for.

 

[gulpy]

Alright. Thanks for your help.