Microsoft revealed last week that they were going to whip out the ol' banhammer and start knocking pirates off of Xbox LIVE by making their accounts inaccessible. So, how's that going for them so far?

Well, The Guardian (via G4TV.com) reports that Microsoft says around 60,000 to one million of the 20 million Xbox LIVE users around the world have been banned for playing with pirated programs. The company has apparently not tipped its hand regarding how they identify modded machines, though it seems that even having a non-Microsoft hard drive is enough to get the job done.

"All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live," Microsoft said in a statement.

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Typically, it's not easy for a pirate to find sympathy when they've been busted, but Destructoid has found that if you pirate games and get banned from Xbox LIVE as a result, the BBC will apparently give you a column in which you can talk about it.

That's what happened to Radio One listener Raz, who relates his story:

At first I was in shock, I mean it's always at the back of your head using pirate games you know there's that possibility but you haven't heard about it, there's been no warnings and you haven't heard it happen to anyone in the last two years.

I wasn't expecting it. I was just like, 'OK, what do I do now? Is this just a joke?' So I thought, 'Let me restart the Xbox'. I restarted, signed in again, same message. I did that three times, same message. I was pulling my hair out thinking, 'No, why me?'

It's like telling someone their dog's just died. It was pretty much like that for me. I love it, I love playing Xbox live. I play with my mates all the time. It's just a good laugh, we all sit there chatting, playing games. Now I don't know what to do.

And from there, he goes on to lament the prices of games and using that as his excuse to steal. "...I said to myself I'll pay £75 to get it chipped, after two games I've paid the money back."

He adds that saved about £600 and has copied "roughly 30 or 40 games." And now, he doesn't know whether to get a PlayStation 3 or get another Xbox 360.

Destructoid adds that "this article is unbelievable, and I'm amazed the BBC is hosting it. I could understand if he was banned for no reason, as happened to me once, but to whine because you ripped Microsoft off and got caught is ludicrous. I'm sure Roman Polanski's thinking 'Why did I do to deserve this?' as well."

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And of course, that makes for the perfect segue into our third and final chapter of this story, one of Consumerist reader Jeff, who says he was banned for no reason and that Microsoft won't hear him out:

My console and my fiance's console were caught up in the Mass Banning going on by Microsoft in their latest Pirate Witch Hunt. My fiance is a chef, and plays games like Viva Pinata, Arcade Games, and can't figure out how to remove the battery pack, much less tear apart her system to "mod" anything.

...

The only "mod" I have ever done to my Xbox 360 was replace the crapped out 20 gig drive with an official 120 gig drive I purchased at Best Buy (I know, don't hate on me for buying at Best Buy...) and that was almost 5 months ago. Of course I had a RRoD, but that was over a year ago (which was another horror story all together).

He notes that he has purchased two 360 consoles, 68 games, "several hundred dollars worth" of LIVE content and DLC, "another several hundred on disks that were scratched by faulty first gen consoles," extra controllers, the works... oh, and a faulty 20GB hard drive which Microsoft refused to honor the warranty of. He figures his total expenditure on Xbox 360 being around $5,200, and he's fine with that, even with the problematic areas. But clearly, this is too much.

He has tried contacting Microsoft to resolve the issue, but has met with some strong resistance from their outsourced support team, or as Jeff puts it, "support" team. "At one point a man who called himself 'Charles' told me that it was my problem and I should learn to follow the rules, then hung up on me," he recalls.

Jeff checked out a thread on the official Xbox forums, where "[a] supposed Microsoft Support Rep named 'StormShadow425' belittles a concerned customer and at one point tells him 'But this is what you get back for tampering the console.' Said customer's mistake was apparently being dissatisfied with the three-week turnaround time for past repaired consoles and getting someone local to do it.

Jeff notes "I checked the Xbox Live Forums and while I am sure that some of the people posting in the Account Suspension and Player Feedback forum have probably done something to their consoles, I find if hard to believe that ALL of the people posting in there have modded their systems or whatever it is Microsoft has been flagging for."

All in all, Jeff is less upset over the loss of Xbox LIVE than he is over the shoddy customer support he has received and seen others get. "...especially right before the Holiday season when people are looking to spend on gifts?"

"I was considering picking up an Arcade bundle for my nephew," he adds, "but I think I have pretty much crossed that off the list, ha ha! He will have to settle for a Nintendo DSi or possibly a PS3 now that they are cheaper."

The Consumerist poses the question of whether anyone accused of modding and banned from Xbox LIVE has managed to get the ban lifted without purchasing a new console. "[T]here must be some way for Jeff to get out of this mess."