Microsoft has warned against Xbox Live account sharing and gamesave tampering. Xbox Live director of programming Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) on his blog advised that gamers who share account information are violating the Xbox Live terms of use and could permanently lose their account.

Don’t do it. It’s not worth it

He warns that your account will be cancelled and that you will never be able to get it back. It gets worse, Major Nelson also added that “In addition to losing your Gamertag, you’ll also lose your Gamerscore, saved games and any points you have on the account.” Ouch.

The second warning is in connection with tampering with Gamerscore and achievements. According to the Major, “If you decide to employ some nefarious techniques to artificially increase your Gamerscore or obtain achievements by manipulating the Xbox software without playing the game, bad things will happen. What type of bad things? For one thing we may remove the entire Gamerscore for an account that contains manipulated gamerscore.”

We know how to find out

He continues “Let me be more clear: If you use tampered gamesaves to boost your Achievements and Gamerscore, you may sign in to Xbox LIVE one day and discover that we have removed your Gamerscore. Once we do that, you will never be able to re-earn those achievements on that account. Even worse, you might have your account and/or console banned from Xbox Live.”

He warns that “we know how to find out if you do this and we do take action. And we’ll continue to do so.” He advised that you be a real gamer and play the game to increase your Gamerscore and earn achievements.