AN online gamer fears he may have fallen victim to fraud.

Matthew Coleman, who plays against Xbox users all over the country, first suspected something was wrong on Monday when he received an email that said he had bought 7,500 points from the Xbox market place.

After looking at his Xbox account more closely, the 26-year-old said he realised payments related to games he did not even own, and therefore could not have played.

He rang Microsoft and reported the issue as fraud and his account has now been suspended for 28 days while an investigation takes place.

"I do feel like I've been violated," said Mr Coleman, of Bulwell. "It's like someone coming into your home and rummaging around all your stuff.

"People don't take it as seriously but essentially it's the same thing. Someone has taken something belonging to me and while I might get it back I'll be very wary using my Xbox in the future."

Xbox came under fire from a national newspaper on Tuesday after it emerged thousands of Xbox account users had fallen victim to phishing attacks, where users are sent an email asking for their details.

Mr Coleman, who works for IT company HP, said he would never give his personal details in an email.

Instead he suspects his details were left vulnerable when he signed up to the EA Sports website to play the Xbox game Battlefield 3.

Mr Coleman has lost £90 in the alleged scam.

"The money is a worry, especially this close to Christmas," he said. "But for me the overriding effect is not the money, because I do expect to get it back, it is I just don't feel my personal data is safe anymore.

"It's a tricky one. If they come out and admit there's a fault somewhere I'd be okay but if not I'm not sure how I feel about trusting Xbox again.

"It was only £90 this time but it could have been £900 and I know I'm not the only one experiencing a problem."

A Microsoft spokesman said: "We do not have any evidence the Xbox LIVE service has been compromised.

"However, a limited number of members have contacted us regarding unauthorised access to their accounts. We are working with our impacted members directly to resolve any unauthorised changes to their accounts.

"We highly recommend our members follow the Xbox LIVE Account Security guidance at www.xbox.com/security to protect their account."

'Thousands of victims' report phishing emails

IT was reported earlier this week that thousands of other Xbox users had fallen victim to a phishing scam.

Gamers claimed they were tricked into revealing vital information after receiving emails pointing them to bogus websites offering free Microsoft points that can be used to buy games.

The personal details entered by users enables fraudsters to access credit card information.

The usual behaviour of 'phishers' is then to take small amounts of money over several weeks, making them hard to detect.

The average loss to gamers in the 35 countries that use Xbox is reported to be around £100 each, but some individuals have had £200 taken.

Microsoft has said it will offer refunds if users can prove they did not give passwords away but that there is no evidence the Xbox service has been compromised in any way.