PSN accounts: criminals reportedly exploit PlayStation Family, Sony investigating

PlayStation Network users are reporting a new way of taking over accounts. It was described by the Polish site Spider's Web, citing the Japanese daily The Sankei Shimbun. Spider's Web published its article on 27 October 2026.

How the method works

According to these reports, criminals exploit the PlayStation Family feature, an option for family members. They are said to bypass account protections this way, including password entry and two-step verification.

Once they have access to the account, the criminals join the family group as child accounts. Under Sony's terms, child accounts cannot be removed in the standard way. A family manager can therefore add children but cannot remove them. That is why getting rid of unwanted users can be very difficult.

What criminals can do

The scope depends on the account settings. According to Spider's Web, criminals can launch games and buy products, charging the linked debit or credit card. They can also see account information and personal data, such as a full name. The site says similar cases have been reported worldwide.

On X, one user wrote that he woke up to find the email address on his PSN account had been changed. He blamed a flaw in family management, through which unauthorised members are added to an account. Another user replied that he had the same problem and that the system would not let him remove them.

Sony told Sankei Shimbun that it is "investigating" the matter. The article contains no official confirmation of the scale of the problem and no information about a fix.

A case from Poland

Spider's Web also quotes a post by a Polish gamer on X. He claims he lost an almost twelve-year-old account with 94 platinum trophies and about 250 digital games. According to this user, the account was stolen after a leak of login data from the WP service. The post does not suggest that this case involves the PlayStation Family method described above. The gamer wrote that the criminal may have deleted Sony's purchase emails from his inbox. In that situation, recovering the account would be difficult.

What this means for you

Many people in the UK use PSN accounts. Nothing in the source suggests that the problem affects the UK specifically. Spider's Web does advise checking your account settings:

• who belongs to the family on the account,
• whether the email address is correct,
• whether the history shows any unfamiliar purchases.

The site also points out that account security depends on protecting your email inbox. Checking active sessions and using additional authentication methods also matter.