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A furious mother claims she was forced to chase Microsoft for 11 months after fraudsters hacked into her son's Xbox account and racked up a credit card bill.

Mum-of-three Lesley Urwin said crooks had used her credit card details saved to the Xbox to purchase three rounds of points each costing £79.99.

After reporting the issue to Microsoft 11 months ago, Lesley claims she was "sent in circles" in trying to secure a refund and was eventually told by the tech giant the fraud wasn't visible on her account.

The crook bought 36,000 Fifa gaming points – and she only found out when Microsoft emailed her to confirm the spurious purchase, the Sunday Mail reports.

Lesley, 49, said: “I’ve lost count of the times I’ve phoned and emailed Microsoft.

“The boys have had no Xbox Live for nearly a year as a result because I won’t let them log in.

“I am fed up fighting and I want to warn others. None of this is our fault.”

Lesley, of Elgin, Moray, was alerted to the suspicious activity on March 22.

The mum to Nathan, 17, Liam, 14, and nine-year-old Scott, said: “I received an email which said I had purchased three lots of 12,000 points, each costing £79.99. I couldn’t believe it.”

The boys knew nothing about it so she called Microsoft and it told her to check the devices linked to the account.

She said: “I found two which did not match our Xbox One. We only own one Xbox. The boys share it. So I deleted the rogue devices and removed my card details.”

She was relieved when Microsoft said they’d issued a refund. But there was no sign of it in either the Xbox account or with her credit card provider, Tesco Bank.

Lesley, a school admin assistant, said: “Tesco told me Microsoft had traced the IP address of the crook to Warrington in Cheshire.

"That’s 400 miles from us in Elgin. And to think I’d been interrogating the boys when it all kicked off.”

She said she was promised a cheque by Microsoft in May, which failed to arrive.

By June 2, she received an email saying her case was closed and to contact Tesco Bank.

Lesley said: “I got on to Tesco again but it claimed it couldn’t uphold the fraud claim. I was aghast.

"I called Microsoft, who passed the buck and told me to get back in touch with Tesco. I was going round in circles.”

The final straw came when the tech giant claimed it could no longer see the rogue charges on her account.

Lesley called me in and said: “I’ve lost all patience. If I log in, I can clearly see the Fifa points – so why can’t Microsoft see them?

“I’m fed up and need the cash as I have a family to support.”

When the Sunday Mail's The Judge got on to the case, Microsoft sprang into action and refunded the money.

A Tesco Bank spokesperson said: “We have robust controls and processes in place to protect our customers from fraud and are very pleased to hear that the matter has now been resolved.”