It has come to light that a number of Xbox Live accounts have faced punishment for boosting their gamerscores through nefarious means. In a most cruel form of justice, those caught unlocking achievements without actually playing games properly have had their scores reset to zero.

Major Nelson explains what his team has been up to in dealing with the "most serious offenders" who have been flagged:

The steps today takes the form of the following:

• Resetting the entire Gamerscore for an account to zero
• The account will be unable to regain all previously obtained achievements and Gamerscore, however, the players will have the ability to gain future Achievements by earning them fairly, like the majority of the Xbox LIVE community does. 
• The account will be clearly labeled as a cheater for the community to view on xbox.com. You can see an example here. In dash, the personal view of the gamercard will be labeled as well. 

Pretty brutal stuff, both fitting and humiliating. While I'd love to revel in the misery of so-called "score whores," I always worry when Microsoft does this stuff -- primarily because I'll never forget them banning my store-bought Xbox 360 from Live without ever telling me why, and I still to this day cannot work out what it was I did wrong. 

Nevertheless, for as long as my account remains untampered with, I'd like to offer a big "HAHA" at those who just got owned. Serves them right.