EA Origin Users Fall Victim To Account Hijacking

It's not a good day for a number of Origin users, as we're getting news that accounts are being hijacked by some of the more unsavory people of the world. Eurogamer first reported on the breach earlier today, but it seems these hijackings have been going on for at least a few days now. NeoGAF user Shaneus – one of the users who had their account stolen – posted a selection of Electronic Arts forum threads that show other users running into problems when trying to log in to their account.

Apparently, most or all of these members received an email from Origin customer support claiming that their username, password, and/or email address on file had all be changed. Naturally, that makes it a bit hard to recover the account in question, and many users who have been affected seem to be having a difficult time reclaiming their account. In other words, it may not be a bad idea to change your password as soon as you can.

Since EA requires an Origin account for a lot of its games, there could be a decent number of dormant accounts that have been stolen. If you created an Origin account for the sole purpose of playing a game like Battlefield 3 but haven't signed in for a while, it couldn't hurt to attempt a login to make sure that you still have control over your account. EA made a statement to Eurogamer, but unfortunately the company didn't say anything that's actually worthwhile, only stating that it takes security questions seriously and that anyone who can't access their account should get in touch with Origin Help or talk to EA's customer experience group at help.ea.com.

Obviously, if your account has been hijacked and you've used your Origin username and password for other online identities, you should change those as soon as possible. We'll update when we hear anything of substance from EA, but in the meantime, keep an eye on those accounts! Has your Origin account been hijacked or is everything still in order for you?