Banned for no reason

[Deleted]

Those people could also get a new account and avoid the behavior that flagged them, or share their findings with the botting 'community'.

There's a reason Blizzard isn't transparent about their findings, it's called security through obscurity (not the best form of security by far, but every layer helps).

[Deathgoose]

So many people in this thread still beliving Blizzard never bans innocent players.

Yes, but the "Innocent Players Banned vs Guilty Players Banned and then Lie About it on MMO for Sympathy" ratio is even more disproportionate than the worst of the Horde vs Alliance ratios on certain servers.

[Deleted]

72 hour ban for botting is pretty rare, as most of the time they just close your account instead.

72 hour ban are more in the way of exploiting an exploit to gain a personal advantage over others. Perhaps farming a bugged node?

[AndaliteBandit]

By chance, were you farming cloth?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/9234473389

Someone on the forums posted a screencap of the message they received for farming the mobs at Verlok Stand too much.

http://i.imgur.com/RRthXc8.png?1

Greetings! Game Master ***** here!

Thank you for contacting us concerning the recent action taken against this World of Warcraft account. After a thorough review of the circumstances involved in this action, the account has been reopened and access restored.

Please take a few moments to look over the World of Warcraft Terms of Use (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/wow_tou.html), as we take matters involving the integrity of the game environment very seriously. Please understand that should another incident of this nature arise in the future, it is possible that a different outcome will be reached, up to and including Account Closure.

It looks like you have been farming the Verlok mobs a lot in Deepholme to grind gold. I would like to politely ask you to please refrain from this behavior, as this behavior could be seen as possibly exploitative. As this account has been banned twice now for such in game behavior, we will not be overturning the next account ban that hits this account for this kind of behavior.

Again, to make sure we're perfectly clear, the next time your account gets flagged for this behavior, we may be in a position to uphold it next time. That being said, please stop killing the Verlok mobs.

Again, thank you for contacting us, and I hope you enjoy your stay in the World of Warcraft!

Game Master *****
Customer Service
Blizzard Entertainment
http://www.blizzard.com/support

[breadisfunny]

Blizzard don't ban people for botting unless they are 100% sure. Lesson learned, don't bot again.

blizzard also makes mistakes. there have been instances where bans have been reversed because either the person reporting it was mistaking someone being consistent for a bot or their system making a mistake. also blizzard sort of creates its own problems by having obscene amounts of mats required for some quests can you really blame people for wanting to be efficient? (not by botting by following the same route.)
for example when doing the thunderfury quest it requires 100 arcane crystals. now you can either spend 2000-4000g on my server for them or spend 10+ hours farming them. 20+if its busy. at 10-15% a node thats not encouraging. even worse they cannot be prospected from ore.
there are numerous other tedious quests/items that require insane amounts of materials like this. not everyone has or wants to spend loads of gold for outdated legendarys.
(i realize this is a legendary quest but it is a valid example.)

[AndaliteBandit]

blizzard also makes mistakes. there have been instances where bans have been reversed because either the person reporting it was mistaking someone being consistent for a bot or their system making a mistake.

I was once banned for exploiting the economy.

What really happened was I participated in a DKP run, and was banned for trading too much gold... from my own bank alt to my main character. When I appealed the ban, it was of course overturned as I had done nothing wrong, and it was confirmed that the act of simply trading an excess amount of gold was what tripped the security.

Turns out there is an automated system in place, likely a part of Warden's design, that will ban players for trading too much gold or for acquiring too many items in a certain about of time. With how widespread botting really is, rather than investigate each case individually beforehand, it's much more efficient for Blizzard to simply ban everyone who could potentially be botting and then investigate the people who actually come forward and appeal their ban.

Yes, innocent people of course get caught in the crossfire. Remember the guy who leveled (and made repeated attempts to level again) from 1-90 in a single sitting? He was banned for botting, even though everything was streamed live, proving that he wasn't botting. If your behavior isn't typical (too much gold, too many items, too much playtime) you will trip Warden and be banned. This idea that Blizzard never bans unless they're 100% certain you're a bot is pure fantasy, as it isn't even always a human being doing the banning.

Yes, it's a bot that bans bots. Fight fire with fire.

[Scinder]

Blizzard probably made a mistake. They did this to me a few weeks ago. I was given a 72 hour ban. It took them two days to overturn it. They are flat out told to ignore the initial appeal. My second appeal is what got my ban overturned.

Here was what happened to me. I should also note that I received no compensation, nor did I ask for any from Blizzard. Long story short. Stay on their ass if you truly did nothing wrong. They will make up some ridiculous excuse but they will reopen your account.

Account Name: <snip>
Type of Violation: Intended Exploitation
Details of Incident: Abuse of game mechanics
Investigation Concluded: <snip>
Consequences for Account: Account suspended for 72 hours and, if applicable, items/currency removed

Greetings,

This account has recently been identified as being involved in actions deemed inappropriate for World of Warcraft.

This may include, but is not limited to the following:
* Use of add-ons, "mods", external hardware, or any unapproved third party software to automate gameplay.
* Abuse of game mechanics or "bugs".
* Any behavior that has been found to be outside the intent of the game.

This action has been taken in accordance with the World of Warcraft Terms of Use http://us.blizzard.com/company/legal/index.html and our game policies http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/policy.

Any further inappropriate behavior could result in penalties ranging from a temporary suspension to account closure, and may also include the loss of any rewards the exploitive character has received.

-----------------

First appeal

Dear <snip>,

The status of your Customer Support ticket <snip> has changed to “Resolved.”

You can view your ticket details or check its status by clicking the link below:
<snip>

If you can’t click the link above, copy and paste the entire URL into your browser.

This is the latest response from Customer Support:
Greetings,

Thank you for your follow-up contact. An additional review of the previously communicated action taken against the World of Warcraft account (WoW1) on (<snip>) has been completed. Unfortunately, we have confirmed our initial findings. The account action will not be reversed or amended.

We base all of our actions on the severity of the violation, and take previous violations into consideration. This action has been taken in accordance with the Terms of Use (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/wow_tou.html) and our In-Game Policies (http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/policy), which all players acknowledge and agree to prior to participation.

While we understand that you may disagree with some of the policies or conditions, the bottom line is that they allow us to maintain a fun and safe game environment.

-------

I sent a harshly worded appeal back and here is the final response.

Dear <snip>,

The status of your Customer Support ticket <snip> has changed to “Answered.”

You can view your ticket details or check its status by clicking the link below:
<snip>

If you can’t click the link above, copy and paste the entire URL into your browser.

This is the latest response from Customer Support:
Greetings,

Thank you for patience while we investigated action taken against the World of Warcraft account. After a thorough review of the circumstances involved in this action, the account has been reopened and access restored. Initially, the account had been locked due to an issue that awarded players an extreme amount of loot. This has been addressed, and access has been restored to the account.

We apologize for the delay in investigating the matter. Thank you for your continued correspondence in regards to your account and for respecting our position.

Regards,

Blizzard Entertainment
http://battle.net/support


-----

I never received an inordinate amount of loot or anything that could have been misconstrued as such. Blizzard made a stupid mistake and completely ignored me the first time. This was exponentially bad as I am the GM of my guild and the Main Tank. Needless to say raid night did not go as planned.

[stripesrus]

So many Blizzard fanboys in this thread thinking the OP actually botted or is guilty some other way. Blizzard has given me a permanent ban for buying gold when in fact it's impossible to trade or open mail in a trial account (the banned account was a trial). When I told blizzard of their mistake, they tried to blame it on account hackers and tried to convince me that my account was hacked after they reopened my account.....It's almost impossible to hack my account without me knowing since I have an authenticator, and email & sms alert.

Anyways, I have great sympathy for such people accused of botting as not only have they lost their accounts for no reason, but also the majority of the blizzard fanboys do not believe that these people are actually innocent.

[AndaliteBandit]

So many Blizzard fanboys in this thread thinking the OP actually botted or is guilty some other way. Blizzard has given me a permanent ban for buying gold when in fact it's impossible to trade or open mail in a trial account (the banned account was a trial). When I told blizzard of their mistake, they tried to blame it on account hackers and tried to convince me that my account was hacked after they reopened my account.....It's almost impossible to hack my account without me knowing since I have an authenticator, and email & sms alert.

Anyways, I have great sympathy for such people accused of botting as not only have they lost their accounts for no reason, but also the majority of the blizzard fanboys do not believe that these people are actually innocent.

They've never personally been mistakenly banned, so they assume it could never happen. If they actually stopped for a moment and thought about it, why would Blizzard bother giving people the opportunity to repeatedly appeal if Blizz is always 100% certain that every ban is valid? And why then would some bans be overturned using that process?

[Methusula]

They've never personally been mistakenly banned, so they assume it could never happen. If they actually stopped for a moment and thought about it, why would Blizzard bother giving people the opportunity to repeatedly appeal if Blizz is always 100% certain that every ban is valid? And why then would some bans be overturned using that process?

I'm still super salty over my ban. I probably didn't do my sob story any favors when I decided to level all over from scratch rather than quit. I just didn't want my playing days to end on such a sour note. Can tell you one thing. I always have it in the back of my head that at any moment, I could have my account banned. It happened once, so can't be sure it won't happen again.

[GKLeatherCraft]

So many Blizzard fanboys in this thread thinking the OP actually botted or is guilty some other way. Blizzard has given me a permanent ban for buying gold when in fact it's impossible to trade or open mail in a trial account (the banned account was a trial). When I told blizzard of their mistake, they tried to blame it on account hackers and tried to convince me that my account was hacked after they reopened my account.....It's almost impossible to hack my account without me knowing since I have an authenticator, and email & sms alert.

Anyways, I have great sympathy for such people accused of botting as not only have they lost their accounts for no reason, but also the majority of the blizzard fanboys do not believe that these people are actually innocent.

Grow up yeh? Just because people don't believe the OP wasn't botting, is not because they are "fanboys" how about you stop using immature words, and use some real ones, especially when you use those words wrong.

[Sabretann]

There is always more to the story then just this.
And blizzard doesn't just give a perm ban, they gave a last warn, which means you have broken rules before.
Easier for them to ban you because you already had a bad past.

This is not true. I just got permaban 9. september 2015 with no such warning. Still don't know what I did, and never think I will. So no warning given, and no temp ban. Just plain perma ban and noreply response from tickets and appeal.

[HillaryJtrump]

necromancy 2 yr old thread really ?

[SPOONMONKEYDROID84]

This is not true. I just got permaban 9. september 2015 with no such warning. Still don't know what I did, and never think I will. So no warning given, and no temp ban. Just plain perma ban and noreply response from tickets and appeal.

check your email. from what i know most ppl were banned around that time for using rebot or similar program

[pansertjald]

i farmed for six hours to get 100 arcane crystals and i didn't get hit with a ban...

So because you din`t get a ban, meens that it can`t happen?????

I got a 72 hour ban after farming un`goro for 6 hours, farming for arcane crystals, for windseeker.
I called them up and told them what i was doing and they look it up and 30 min. later i was playing again. So YES this can happen.

[snuzzle]

There is always more to the story then just this.
And blizzard doesn't just give a perm ban, they gave a last warn, which means you have broken rules before.
Easier for them to ban you because you already had a bad past.

Not true. A friend of mine got banned for "exploiting the economy". He posts auctions but he doesn't even try to do the AH goblin stuff that I see a lot of people doing. It was his first and only offense, and it was a straight up ban. After putting in tickets and calling, he was able to get the ban removed, but sometimes they can and do close an account on the first "offense" and sometimes there wasn't even an actual offense.

Blizzard bans innocent people, whose accounts and/or computers have been compromised, all the time.

Blizzard occasionally bans innocent people who were doing something that caught the "eye" of automated checks for suspicious activity.

Blizzard almost invariably unbans innocent people when they call or email.

This is all true... but it took several calls and tickets before my friend was unbanned.