Xboxist

Used Xbox 360 Consoles: Buyer Beware

Video game consoles are one of the hottest sale items this holiday, with many families looking to join the HD gaming craze, or simply pick up another machine to round out their collections. But a certain amount of caution is needed if you are planning to go bargain hunting for a pre-owned machine. Many of these systems have problems or -- worse still -- could be already banned from connecting to the Internet over Microsoft's Xbox Live service.

One major reason for consumers to be careful is that some used consoles could be concealing a dirty little secret. In an effort to deter pirates from modifying the internal hardware of their consoles to play pirated copies of retail games, Microsoft periodically does an online check to see who is using illegally modified hardware. It then flags that machine and bans it from connecting to the Xbox Live service, effectively making it impossible to play online games or connect with friends, a major appeal of the Xbox 360 console. This month it was reported that the company may have banned up to a million pirate machines, in the wake of intense piracy of the latest game Modern Warfare 2. After last week's mass banning of pirates from Microsoft's Xbox Live service, a flood of consoles inevitably began turning up used in local newspaper classifieds and websites like Craigslist and Ebay. Not all of the sellers are being up front about the reason why they are selling their consoles, hoping to lure in an unsuspecting consumer who doesn't know the risk.

How can you spot a modified console on Craigslist? There are some ways that you can protect yourself. First of all, remember that the whole point of modifying a console was to play pirated games. That means the seller of a modded and banned machine won't have many games to bundle alongside it, or the games will be the older ones that came packaged with the machine. Try to avoid consoles that are being sold without a good selection of retail-bought games that work on the machine. The seller of a modded and banned console is probably not going to want to face any repercussions for selling you a piece of junk, so expect them to want to avoid identifying themselves as much as possible. If they want to meet away from their home to offload the merchandise from the trunk of their car -- exercise caution. Also, remember the age-old rule about prices: if something appears too good to be true, it probably is.

Have you been the victim of a used console scam? Let us know in the comments below, so other consumers can avoid the risk.

Imagine the disappointment if you see this message on Christmas morning.