Ridiculous Permabans

[Oxyra]

So yesterday was the second time in a year that my account has been permabanned for "Abuse of the economy".

I finally got it unbanned after I was banned mid-raid no warning, as the main tank, took 24 hours to unban me.

"Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This account was closed because one or more characters were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for "real-world" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy"

This was when they unbanned me.

" We have restored access to the World of Warcraft account . You should now be able to log in with your old password.

Important: In order to prevent a repeat compromise; once you have regained access to your account, please change your email address to a new address via Battle.net account management."

And this is the response to when I asked why it was banned.

"Greetings

Recently, your account was actioned incorrectly as a result of our efforts to protect the World of Warcraft environment from exploitative behavior. As part of these efforts, we recently closed some accounts engaged in or associated with exploitative activities, including the use of third party programs. While our goal is to protect our players from such activities whenever possible, these closures were not intended to affect accounts that were either not engaging in the exploitative activity or directly connected to the exploitative activity.

Due to security concerns, we are unable to divulge full details regarding the actions taken on these other accounts that initially appeared associated with your own. When we perform these actions, we do act first and then give the affected parties a chance to dispute. We will never give 'warnings' or notifications of investigation prior to these actions.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and encourage you to contact us with any further questions or concerns you may have. Thank you for your patience and understanding."

Act first, and fuck over innocent players, then let them dispute it, seems like a reasonable method. Not even a GM contacting you and saying, hey you're gonna be b& LOL.


And finally, what I originally thought the ban was, was me and a friend trading 20k for 80M (I paid the 20k) WoW gold to D3 gold. I've traded larger amounts playing GCG, so I didn't even understand how that flagged me.

Here's a nice rage post by me that I sent to Crithto and Bashiok, who throughout all this, both replied to me on Twitter, and kept up an active response to me, so I'd like to say thanks to them if they read this at least, Crithto's first reply was in less than an hour, perhaps I caught him at the right time, or he just actually gives good customer service. (Bashiok was about 8-9 hours later, maybe he'd gone to sleep as I'm in Australia.)

textdump.net/read/1260/



Make of the whole debacle, what you will.

PS: The last permaban, was because my account was "compromised", because I was DEing a shittonne of epics I had saved up for when I'd maxed enchanting, as well as vendoring a ridiculous amount of shit from my banks on a few toons, doing some cleaning, they promptly sent me back all my greys that I'd vendored, banned my account, which remained for about 24 hours, sent me back my archaeology fragments and deleted what I'd solved, which included the rare Amber crystal thing that makes you a tiny amber crystal, one that I haven't gotten again to this day.

Just ridiculous the hoops you have to jump through.

[ducklino]

How about you bot a little less and play low for while? i think you're going to be ok.

[Rheckameohs]

Incidentally, I was banned for that exact same reason a year and a half ago. I never made a fuss about it; I simply opened a ticket, explained why the ban was bullshit and they were wrong, and then voila! I had my account back with an apology from Blizzard.

What I'm getting at is that I know the pain of seeing that message come up on screen when you try to log in. I've played this game for just shy of six years; I've supported Blizzard through my monthly subscription and constructive feedback whenever I see something wrong with the game, be it in beta, on the PTR, or live. It really doesn't seem fair to get banned for such a petty reason, or in my case, no reason at all based on some fabrication that I was exploiting the auction house.

Unfortunately, Blizzard can do that. No one is safe. The only thing you can do is follow the rules - to an extent - and don't get caught when you don't.

[-KeenaM-]

How about you bot a little less and play low for while? i think you're going to be ok.

Implying that he botted, blizzard has made mistakes about banning people who don't use third-party programs before, it wouldn't be the first.

[Bladeface]

sooo even though you WERE breaking the terms of service you feel as though you are "innocent"?

[Crawford]

Locking accounts that they believe have been compromised is a good security measure. I'd bet 99 times out of 100, when somebody vendors and disenchants all the shit they have in their bank, it's an exploit, and it's good for Blizzard to have automated systems to catch that. Trading large amounts of gold for nothing is also a huge red flag. There is big money to be made in RMT sales of WoW goods, and there are organized and aggressive groups trying to profit by compromising the game and its economy. It's good for the game for them to be extremely aggressive with bans, and to have automated systems in place to catch activity that looks like botting or exploitation.

[Justignoreme]

Act first, and fuck over innocent players, then let them dispute it, seems like a reasonable method. Not even a GM contacting you and saying, hey you're gonna be b& LOL.

They act first, and lock down the account in case it was compromised so that damage cannot be done. It's a good thing they do it too. You act very irrational and immature because you were inconvenienced. Get over it.

[Charge me Doctor]

You acted like a bot who clears stolen account and they banned you. Wow, it was unexpected.

[Xalzel]

1st, your activity's do look like a bot who clears accounts,
2nd, trading wow gold for D3 gold is TECHNICALLY against the terms of service, TECHNICALLY you can get banned for it, however they have to real way to tell if it wasn't just a gift.

[Kiteh]

They can't 'warn' you for obvious reasons, if you were part of a network of ill-mannered players you'd have plenty of time to also give your friends the 'heads-up'.

[Kurkon]

About 6 months ago they dropped the Ban-hammer on me.

What was I doing? Farming TBC instances for Transmog gear. Repeated and consistent entering of the same dungeon.

Umm yeah drop the bloody boots I need and I wouldn't have gone in 15 times in one day.

I get why they ban first and ask questions later...but still it's a major freak out when it happens.

[Oxyra]

Maybe, just maybe, it was alright the very first time, I could understand that.
The second time? I had logged on for about an hour. Started a raid, I hadn't been online for about 12 hours, explain to me how that looks like a compromised account.

For those mentioning, bot this, bot that, etc.
Please note, that was a separate event that occurred. April 2012. 8 months ago. As mentioned ^ Just there.

---------- Post added 2013-01-13 at 02:26 PM ----------

Locking accounts that they believe have been compromised is a good security measure. I'd bet 99 times out of 100, when somebody vendors and disenchants all the shit they have in their bank, it's an exploit, and it's good for Blizzard to have automated systems to catch that. Trading large amounts of gold for nothing is also a huge red flag. There is big money to be made in RMT sales of WoW goods, and there are organized and aggressive groups trying to profit by compromising the game and its economy. It's good for the game for them to be extremely aggressive with bans, and to have automated systems in place to catch activity that looks like botting or exploitation.

20k ain't large amounts. I've dropped 200k+ in the space of 10 minutes from GCG. Not a single thing was mentioned.

---------- Post added 2013-01-13 at 02:27 PM ----------

sooo even though you WERE breaking the terms of service you feel as though you are "innocent"?

If I was breaking the terms of service, would I not still be banned?
Apply your own logic please.

---------- Post added 2013-01-13 at 02:29 PM ----------

They act first, and lock down the account in case it was compromised so that damage cannot be done. It's a good thing they do it too. You act very irrational and immature because you were inconvenienced. Get over it.

The inconvenience comes with the ban for no reason, there was nothing to suggest a compromise. I log off the previous night, log on at 10AM same as I do, every week, for months. Form a raid group, enter Heart of Fear. Clear two bosses. Get banned.
~*~*~*~*~ Guess I was botting HoF ~*~*~*~*~*~

---------- Post added 2013-01-13 at 02:30 PM ----------

You acted like a bot who clears stolen account and they banned you. Wow, it was unexpected.

Log on, enter raid. Inside raid for ~2 hours. Banned.
Clearing out dat account. Mmph. DEing all them epix.

[Darsithis]

And finally, what I originally thought the ban was, was me and a friend trading 20k for 80M (I paid the 20k) WoW gold to D3 gold. I've traded larger amounts playing GCG, so I didn't even understand how that flagged me.

Well they ban first because you trip certain risk indicators. Nevermind the fact that trading WoW gold for D3 gold is a no no

[glowpipe]

Ive had the same shit happen to me. 8 years of play. Never exploited, botted or cheated in any way or form. Cought up by the automated system after leveling herbalism in one go on my dk and sending over 1000 herbs to my inscription alt

Luckily i got unbanned before raid started. Took about 2 hours after i called them.

And to the ones saying bot less and whatnot. Shoot yourself, so we dont have to listen to your bs, you obviously do not have a single clue about what you are talking about

[Anjerith]

Unfortunately, Blizzard can do that. No one is safe. The only thing you can do is follow the rules - to an extent - and don't get caught when you don't.

I think you mean, the only thing you can do is follow the rules and not give them a reason to catch you in the first place.

[Newcon12]

It's stupid I got banned for 2 weeks on Diablo 3 ban first, then YOU have to ask why you were banned and if they actually want to tell you then they will give you the most vague explanation ever. Rediculous!

[Immitis]

This just in! One of the largest mmos in the world made a mistake when told restores account and apologizes more news at eleven @_@

[Numeanor]

Like rest "cowboys": shoot first then ask questions if victim is still alive...

[Nalnik]

You broke the rules, got caught and got banned.

They restored your account, but didn't have to. Move on.

[Deleted]

To you guys verbally assaulting the OP, you are the ones coming off as d-bags here.

It is completely understandable why he would be wound up about this.