Nintendo Urges To Secure Your Account As Many Switch Users Face Repeated Hacks
Image via NLobon / Shutterstock.com
It comes as no surprise that people are spending more time on video games these days to stay occupied during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this might mean greater success for malicious parties attempting to hijack gamers’ accounts.
Nintendo Switch users are reporting that they have had their accounts accessed by overseas third parties.
Among them is Pixelpar, founding editor of game news site LootPot. Pixelpar explained that he had received 47 emails detailing unauthorized account logins despite having set a password with a random string of characters. He added that numerous users on Reddit and Twitter have complained about the same issue.
Over at gaming forum ResetEra, several Nintendo account owners have described similar experiences, with some even revealing that unauthorized third parties had used their accounts to make purchases worth hundreds of dollars.
Pixelpar suspects Nintendo is facing a “major security breach,” but the company hasn’t confirmed this.
Incidentally, Nintendo recently took to Twitter to remind users to properly secure their accounts. The video game giant shared that the best way to protect your account from being breached is by enabling two-factor authentication.
If you haven’t completed your setup for 2FA authorization, now is a crucial time to do so. Nintendo has a full guide on how to go about doing that.
I suspect Nintendo may have had a major security breach. My account was accessed numerous times overnight.
— Pixelpar (@pixelpar) April 19, 2020
My password is a unique string and my PC is definitely clean (not that I ever login via it).
Lots of similar reports on Reddit/twitter.
Unlink PayPal & enable 2FA folks!
— NiXiE (@NiXiE_es) April 19, 2020
Maybe I’m just noticing it more because it’s hitting more close to home, but it seems breaches in general have increased dramatically during the virus. My Uber just got hacked the same week a family member’s amazon account did, and I’m hearing about new cases every day.
— Nothing (@nothingmuch999) April 19, 2020
To all my Nintendo Switch owning friends, my Nintendo Account was hacked this morning and they made off with $100 for Fortnite crap. So I'm about to tell you what to do to stop it from happening to you, and what to do if it does.
— Terran Sherwood (@TerranSherwood) April 4, 2020
the OS and browser information can't be retrieved so it looks like whatever/whoever is doing the accessing is running a script. kept receiving account notifications after I changed my pw (after like, 5min) so nonzero chance this could be on Nintendo's end pic.twitter.com/lJ1lI9z63s
— chaos pigeon suztan (@suztan) April 19, 2020
Yup. I got hit a few weeks back, someone spent 200$ in a matter of minutes before I changed my password. Still disputing it.
— Mystical Ninja Starring Duncan (@DuncanKetcheson) April 19, 2020
Some little bitch is trying to hack me through my Nintendo account! Sounds like they’re using a VPN based on all these random locations.
— Axel (@aoleos) April 19, 2020
I TOOK OFF MY SAVED CREDIT CARD ON MY ACCOUNT 💳 AND CHANGED MY PASSWORDS SO TRY ME BITCH 😤 😡 pic.twitter.com/bjvb8AnXEV
Everyone who has a nintendo account, change your passwords and two step auth because nintendo got hack, and i noticed some shady stuff on my account and i had to change my stuff too. Lucky it hasn't happened anymore to me but still kinda scary.
— jess (@Blazekken) April 21, 2020
To everyone on my Twitter, enable 2 step authentication on your Nintendo Switch and remove your card/PayPal info from the Switch. Switches have been being hacked and people have been spending money linked to the account they hack. A friend of mine just lost $150 due to this.
— Brendan Nuscis (@Brendan_Nuscis) April 23, 2020
[via BGR, cover image via NLobon / Shutterstock.com]
