World of Warcraft and Blizz's Ridiculous Bans.

[Dhalin]

Well, my 2nd account (aka mom's account) has been banned again.

The first time, a hack attempt was made on our account. We survived, because of an authenticator. That was a 72-hour suspension, and we got account access restored early, and I changed my login info and everything.

The Second time, however, there was no attempted hacking, nothing. *WHAM*, "Account Closed. Reason: Exploitation: Abuse of Economy".

So I'm thinking "what the heck!?" and then I disputed the ban. Got access restored, and they gave me a warning that it was because of "Excessive Farming" and "The amount you farmed made it appear as though third-party programs were involved".

Nevermind that no GMs sent me tells to see if there was indeed a human at the keyboard at any point during that.

Well, I got the account back, but understandably, mom was very... hesitant to log on whatsoever.

Fast-forward 2-3 months later, I sell off a battered hilt because Cataclysm is coming up and said item won't be needed then, and it will be worthless. Mom gets on two days later, does one 5-hour farming session. We also sell off some old stock, and then I level one of her characters for a few hours.

Two days later, she does another 5-hour farming session with another character. She logs off, logs on a couple hours later and her account is closed.

Same thing: "Exploitative Activity: Abuse of Economy".

That was Thursday.

Sunday, no reply to the dispute email.

This is absolutely ridiculous. We have always been very highly against goldselling/RMT practices, and have been very vocal about it. We've never used third-party tools (beyond legal LUA addons), and have always followed the rules.

So, to VI I say this:

Thanks for not being so full of yourselves like Blizzard. I swear they let their huge playerbase go to their heads, they figure that treating a few users like crap won't hurt their bottom line. Hopefully you guys continue to treat your customers, like customers.

To Everyone else:

Those who play WoW, watch what you do. They can, and will ban you at the drop of a hat, with no attempts at gathering evidence or proof whatsoever.

Oh, and don't buy 6-month subs. I re-subbed that account just a week prior, and if I don't get that account back, that's $60 they stole from me.

[Dragonboy]

Only 1 reply for that.
Time to start playing a different game full time... Like Istaria.

(I would probably have quit after the first unagreable ban)

[Dhalin]

Update:

They denied my appeals, and said that the ban was "merited" and that I was found to have been using "Third-Party Software".

This is strange, for I wasn't using any Third-Party Software.

Arrrgh.

I'll try scanning the computer for viruses/malware/adware, but I doubt I'll find anything, as I actively run such protection software to stop these types of threats in the first place.

*sigh*

And of course, nobody on the o-boards can help, they're always saying "Well you DID something!" as if it is absolutely, 100% impossible for Blizz account admins to make a mistake...

[Teto Frum]

I had similar problems with WOW...I've never used a cheat am generally friendly in game. One day I let my son play my account....he's ten and not game savvy or computer savvy. he was following around another character who filed a complaint for kill stealing, which my son did do accidently, though it was a kill steal of ZERO importance. My account was banned, no chance of reinstatement, luckily I only played WOW for friends who played and loathed the game so wasnt much of a big deal to me other than the sry we dont need you attitude of Blizzard.

[Sigi]

If you have to take these hard mesures the playerbase must be awfull...

[Dhalin]

If you have to take these hard mesures the playerbase must be awfull...

WoW is a very large and popular game, with 11.5 million users worldwide, the last time figures were released.

Being _that_ popular of a game, opens the doors wide for people to try and make a quick buck off of innocent/gullible people.

Hackings are rampant, and stupid people are buying gold left and right (which supports illegal activities) just to save themselves a few hours' worth of money-making in-game.

I understand why they have a harsh stand against hacking, botting, gold-selling, and gold-buying, but jeez. They could have at least tried to hear me out, and at least find _some_ way of getting proof I really was using third-party tools before banning me for supposedly using them when I wasn't.

[velveeta]

don't spread it around, but the only wow i have played was on a private server, so i never had all those probs. and it sounds to me like i will not be playing wow anytime in the future and certainly not pay to play it.....
thanx istaria, for being a reasonable game to deal with......

[Hakiem]

All I can say is WoW.

(World of Why (the h*ll did I buy and play this game in the first place!!!!))

Thank you for being there Istaria <<<<huggles>>>>

Just Me,
Tim - Hakiem

[Carsia Wolfsong]

I can relate to your story Dhalin, because I currently play wow myself. Though I've got Istaria downloaded a properly installed. I'm waiting for certian people IRL to get their heads straight for me to return. Anyways, My whole guild has been hacked on the server I was on. ( Our guild is currently moving to a new server ) Even the GM himself was hacked. Most of my guild mates have Athindicators. I however havn't had it done to me yet. Though I have fears that it might happen. I won't worry myself till it does. I check my computer weekly. Malware daily. Alot of us have a suspition that there is an empolyee inside Blizzard itself causing all the problems. As of late, Things seemed to have stoped. But I'm not going to let my gaurd down. A word of caution though is adviced. Even if you get an Athinticator, Continue to scan your computer, They still will hack you even with it. To me, I think its a bunch of BS for whats happened to WoW.

[Romirez]

thank you for telling me to never play WoW. now i have a Stone-solid reason to not to play it.

the only MMO games i play are this one, and Eve Online. both free to download. cheap to play.

[Frith-Rae]

Yes as Carsia said I have known many hacked accounts, none of which were banned (once they were known to be reinstated to the proper person, which can take several days to solidfy though). How very wierd..

I have heard of SOE doing the exact same (with suspected botting/farming of the economy) and know several players who..well..wont' ever be playing an SOE game again.

But of all the stuff with Blizz honestly you'rs is the first I've heard of them mis-banning someone who didn't actaully have a third party program on their system. Regardless of if they were USING it. I'm nto saying your mom does at all, mistakes are made. I just know that of the people *I* knwo who were perma-banned; everyone of them had a third party program that would violate the rules. Even if they never used it to play WoW, they had it on their system. That's not allowed. Period.

And yes, WoW does scan for that in your system. Even if you don't use it - if its their they can ban you for suspicious behave. Though I hadn't heard of anyone being banned for botting anymore simple because it is so hard to get a program through their system undectected - lol.

Maybe they decided since you farmred for five hours you must have had a bot - noone's that patient! . Sorry, found that reasoning amusing even if your story sucks.

But I have an authenticator and I wouldn't advise anyone with an account to NOT have one (Carsia...) cuz its just asking for trouble. Most people I know who don't have have been hacked. None of them have ever been banned from their account after their IDs were reset and verified. ALL Of them now have authenticators. Dumbbutts...

I'm wondering "Abuse of the economy" is usually someone playing the AH - i.e. cornering markets or some such. I hope nothing bigger is going on with your accounts and/or information. I know players who have had dead accounts (i.e. weren't paid on or played for months or a year or so) revived by hackers and used without the original owners knowledge.

Not that it matters, when they close the case..its...your done and screwed.

[Carsia Wolfsong]

I totally agree with you. I just need to figure out on HOW to get one atm. Hopefully I'll beable to clear that soon and then I myself will get one

[Dhalin]

Update:

I had to call Billing earlier today for an unrelated issue, and I had the opportunity to mention that my mom's account was banned for "Third-Party Software" and the guy said "wait, I'll take a look at that..."

I explained the situation to him, and he was _very_ nice about it, and truly did his best to help me out.

He gave no promises, but he said he put in a ticket about our banned account and says there's a chance I could get it back, that I should continue to check my email. I truly wasn't expecting it in the least.

I'm still a little iffy/upset over the banning, but I will admit that I was very impressed with the level of professionalism, courtesy and kindness of the Billing Rep that I got ahold of on the phone today.

[Sigi]

What is an authenticator?

[Thicklesip]

What is an authenticator?

*sniff sniff* I can't tell if it's sarcasm! Aaah!

Well, if it's not (and for the benefit of the legions who haven't encountered one before): an authenticator is a little device about the size of my thumb with one button and a small screen on it. When you push the button, it displays a six digit number on the screen for 10 seconds or so. If you have added one to your World of Warcrack account and go to log in, there will be three boxes to fill in: account name, account password, and authenticator. You put the number the authenticator gives you into the authenticator box.

This is considered extra security because the number the authenticator spits out has an expiration date and changes frequently-- it's like a short second password that you only know if you have the actual authenticator on hand. It's not foolproof, but it does make stealing someone's account a couple orders of magnitude more difficult.

The main two reasons I've heard for people not getting one are "why should I pay an extra $5?" and "it makes logging in that much more of a bother." Personally I'm paranoid, and they bribe players by offering a baby corehound mini-pet for getting one, so that was my birthday gift to myself.

Also, you can't put a price on reducing the likelihood that you'll ever have to deal with tech support, as Dhalin has (unfortunately) demonstrated.

[Dragonboy]

Actually got an email from blizzard today about my trail account which I had played for the total of 8 hours about 8 months ago was comprimised... Well I say let them block it, I wasn't intending on using it anyways.

The only thing I was wondering is how they even manage to do this to an account which has been active for max 8 hours nearly 8 months ago. A character nobody knows and certainly nobody remembers because I talked to nobody.

Unless it is an inside job... Blizzard crew member hacking the inactive accounts in his/her sparetime.

[Sigi]

*sniff sniff* I can't tell if it's sarcasm! Aaah!

Lol no, nothing sarcastic about it
So thank you very much for explaing (and no, this isn't sarcastic either )

[Dhalin]

Authenticators are indeed nice.

They are one-time passwords (well, until that number gets chosen again several days later, but eh) that last, from what I could tell, roughly 2-3 minutes after generation.

The only known way to hack into an account that has one of these, is to get the victim to install a "Man-in-the-Middle" Trojan and be watching the account when the victim tries to log in (or have some sort of script that attempts to do this).

When they attempt to enter their login data, the trojan sends that to you, and causes the victim's computer to send a false authenticator. They get a bad username/password response; you get an authenticator key that lets you log onto their account, provided you do it within 2-3 minutes.

But there's a catch to that:

Getting ONE authenticator key will let you log onto the account, but if you wanted to _steal_ it, you need to do a bit more. Changing the password, for example, requires I believe 2 or 3 authenticator passwords. Changing the Authenticator, if I recall correctly, they made it so you have to call Billing, I think? And when you do that, you need things like the CD Key of the original install of the game. If you don't have that, then you have to send in a copy of your photo ID.

So, yes, an Authenticator helps bigtime. Not foolproof, but as long as you don't get a trojan on your computer, you're pretty much safe, even if someone somehow guessed your login user/pass.

[Frith-Rae]

I totally agree with you. I just need to figure out on HOW to get one atm. Hopefully I'll beable to clear that soon and then I myself will get one

Aye Carsia - if you haven't already here's how.

Go to the main WoW Community Site - on the right tabs shouold be an "account" button, or the "WoW Store" - either of those can take you to a place to buy your authenticator. Ultimately I think you're trying to get tio the Blizz-Store to buy it.

OR - and this is how you can get it FOR FREE (don't have to pay the 6.95) - if you have a smart phone (iphone, Andriod). There's a free Blizz Authenticator App you can d/l and use totally for free. Works the same way. Will give you a serial number unique to your Autyhenticator (just like on the back of the physical key fob) and then generate the number each time you use it/need it to. Just have to have your phone with you if you want to login to your account, the game, and soon/now post on the forums.

Just like I have to have my keyfob to access/post to any of the above (which means I can't play at a friend's house if I left my keyfob at home! HA! .

But yes an Authenticator is a little device that gets programmed to your account (or multiple accounts, you can use one keyfob on as many accounts as you want), where everytime you login to the game, or your account info., it asks for a number. The keyfob-authenticator has a litle button on it - you press that - get a new number. Its a randomly produced number from whatever math they are using to get it each time you push the little button (I've never gotten teh same number twice myself heh), and the number resets every 10 seconds or so between pushes.

So if you have a "hack" middleman - they literally only have a few minutes to use your stolen number before it will be useless. Because if you login before they do, their "keylogged" authenticator number will no longer be useful, and they can't use it (yet) to figure out what your random numb. generator will spit out next/later/whatever.

And yea Dragonboy - as I said - I've known several players whose "dead accounts" were hacked; and unless you're using same pw information for something else (i.e. have an active keylogger) or they caught it back when you used it and sat on it (entirely possible) - we're not sure how that's working either.

I still don't think its an "insider" job as that would be so bad for the company that I' imagine they have crapton of things in place to prevent that type of insider-job heh.

Just be careful if you EVER want to play again - because Blizz can and does ban accounts using IP addresses, keeping any computer from that IP address, regardless of account, from being able to login to WoW again. (that would go to anyone not just you DB heh).

[Dhalin]

Also, I'd like to point out, that now that WoW Accounts are tied to BNET logins, and BNET logins are your email address, if you use your normal, usual Email Address as your BNET login, you're opening up a can of worms right there.

If someone knows your email, and gets one of your passwords, they will enter the email into WoW and see if they can log in with it. If you used the same password for WoW that you did for other stuff that you did get hacked in, they'll get your WoW account too. Some people get hit this way.

Lesson:

Create a new Email for your BNET login, and don't use it for _anything else_.
Don't use the same password for WoW that you use for other stuff.