How To Spot A XBL Hacker

I've spent most of the holiday playing Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer on Xbox Live and man o' man... the hacking is worse than ever! Truly unbelievable. There are at least 1 to 2 hackers in every single match. I just can't understand why Microsoft can't block these accounts because most of them are incredibly easy to spot.

As a public service, here's my easy to use clue list for spotting suspicious Xbox Live accounts. When you suspect someone may be cheating, check the following:

The Big 2 Clues - Achievements and Star Ratings.

Achievements - The most obvious. The majority of hackers have less than 300 gamer points and all typically come from either MW 1, COD Ww, Halo or GOW. However, there are more advanced hackers who haven't been caught cheating (yet) and have enormous gamer scores. They max out points through multiplayer achievements or they just hack their profile to unlock achievements they never actually earned.

Star Rating - Most careless hackers have 3 stars or less. Either because they're continually creating new accounts after each banning or hopefully, because other members took time to file complaints against them and give them negative feedback. Either way, suspicious game play plus a 3 stars or less rating should automatically place them on your avoid list.

Other Clues:

Gamer Tag - Most of these guys have been repeatedly banned so they use unoriginal, generic tags to try to hide their identity from MS. The tags always contain lots of X's mixed in with upper and lower case numbers. So when you see tags like xxxX3nB1xZxxx or xxNoObKiLleRX1xx, be very suspicious.

Gamer Picture - A blatant clue. It's always one of the following:

1 - Either a generic Xbox rings or Xbox Live logo.
2 - A Gears Of War logo gamer pic.
3 - 1 of the first 4 pic options when you create a new profile. Hackers are if nothing else, lazy. They almost always choose the monkey.

Gamer Zone - Almost all suspicious accounts are in the Underground zone. But there are some who make a comical effort to conceal their cheating by choosing Family or Recreation.  Ha, ha.   

There you have it. When you see players you think could be cheating, just run down this list. If they match more than two of the clues, do your part and file a complaint against them for cheating, system or feedback tampering and also place them on your avoid list. If they're not cheating, nothing will come of it when Microsoft checks their console based on your complaint. But if they are cheating, you've done your part to expose them and hopefully get them banned.

Happy hacker free gaming to all!