72 Hour Account Suspension (Now unbanned)

[Frojax]

EDIT: Added the full email, minus the non-english sections.

Well, it's happened, I popped my cherry. My first ban for being a boxer.


Greetings,

We are writing to inform you that, unfortunately, we have had to temporarily suspend your World of Warcraft account and place a final warning on it.

Account Name: **********
Type of Violation: Involvement in online trading activities
Investigation Concluded: 18/02/2009
Consequences for Account: Account suspended for 72 hours, Password Reset and Final Warning issued.

It is with regret that we take this type of action, but it is in the best interests of the World of Warcraft community as a whole, and for the integrity of the game. After your suspension has expired, you will be able to access the World of Warcraft servers again.

Please note that should any further violations of our Rules and Policies occur, this will almost certainly lead to the permanent closure of your account.

Online trading refers to the exchange of in-game content for real world money, and includes, but is not limited to, the sale or purchase of gold, the sale or purchase of experience in the form of powerlevelling, and the sale or purchase of honor points, reputation or items.

Account access is the responsibility of the account owner and account sharing is against our Terms of Use (http://www.wow-europe.com/en/legal/termsofuse.html). Therefore, should you believe someone other than yourself (the account owner) has committed this violation of the Terms of Use with your account, these sanctions would still apply, as our action is taken against the account, not the individual.

To protect the account’s security, we have also reset your password and issued you with a computer generated one, which you will receive in a separate e-mail. You will be able to change this password at your leisure, using the Account Management feature on our web site, located at: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/

Your password will be sent from noreplyeu@blizzard.com. If you do not receive it after one hour, please add this address to your email address list so that it is not rejected by any spam filter you are using, and reply to wowaccountrevieweu@blizzard.com informing us that you have not received the password.

Please do not disclose your new password to anyone, including Blizzard staff, or change it back to one of your previous passwords as this could result in your account becoming compromised.

As a precautionary measure we have also removed your recurring subscription details from the account; if you wish to continue your subscription you will need contact our billing department, via our webform: http://www.wow-europe.com/support/webform/billingDefault.html?lan=en or by phone http://www.wow-europe.com/en/support/accountbilling.html

We strongly suggest you review our current Rules and Policies to avoid further action in the future, they can be found at:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/policy/So, 72 hours without WoW and all for paying for and playing 5 accounts, let me get this right, I pay them, they ban me? :)

Anyone been through this and managed to get the suspension overturned, or at least managed to continue playing without getting a total ban? As I see it, I've been banned for doing quests and using my guild bank to ferry money to my next teams that are also in my guild so they can train skills.

Oh, it's a sad day, I'm going to have to play the new GTA4 expansion now...

...THREE DAYS WITHOUT WOW!!
I have the shakes after 5 mins :(

[Sajuuk]

Dispute it.

Bans have been overturned before. If you haven't done anything wrong, you shouldn't be punished.

E: Just explain what you've been doing. Some processes related to account action are automated.
Ev2: Don't worry, 'final' decisions have been reversed. Oh, and as far as "boring" us with the rest of the email, it can provide some clarification

After a quick Google, I found the 'rest' of the email. (First link was a wow-europe link)


Online trading refers to the exchange of in-game content for real world money, and includes, but is not limited to, the sale or purchase of gold, the sale or purchase of experience in the form of powerlevelling, and the sale or purchase of honor points, reputation or items.

Account access is the responsibility of the account owner and account sharing is against our Terms of Use (http://www.wow-europe.com/en/legal/termsofuse.html). Therefore, should you believe someone other than yourself (the account owner) has committed this violation of the Terms of Use with your account, these sanctions would still apply, as our action is taken against the account, not the individual.

Ev3: Might be a good idea to make sure your computer hasn't been compromised. (To be on the safe side)

[Malekyth]

Yeah, I think to some extent they do "ban first, ask questions later," probably figuring that the guilty won't bother to contest it. Or maybe we just hear about every one of the occasional incidences of an unprovoked ban, so it looks more common than it really is. I dunno ... but as was already suggested, go ahead and dispute it, and they'll set you right. It's a big, big, big game, and accidents and downright incompetent cock-ups are bound to happen.

[Frojax]

Yeah, i'm guessing that this has been some kind of autoban, I know that they have a lot of detection scripts running in game, so perhaps me pushing money through my guild bank to my lower level teams flashed up flag.

It's annoying being accused of something you wouldn't dream of doing, especially when you have to run an addon like SpamMeNot, just to escape the hordes of real gold sellers.

/me is disappointed :(

[algol]

If you bought gold etc, you need to not do that again. If you did nothing wrong, you need to contest it immediately.

[Frojax]

If you bought gold etc, you need to not do that again.

Guilty until proven innocent, seems everyone else but me gives people the benefit of the doubt.

I've never bought or sold gold, I love my accounts too much to put them at risk, never did it when I was only playing one character, why would I start now that I run five? *Shakes his head*

[Goldie_Locks]

Damn!! I am shocked this happened to you!

[Tonyx]

How much gold are we talking about? I've transferred a couple K golds (not a lot of money, I see) to alts with no problem at all.

[Frojax]

How much gold are we talking about? I've transferred a couple K golds (not a lot of money, I see) to alts with no problem at all.

I got my DK team to 65 and dropped their cash in my guild bank, i've been using that for my other teams, I'd say between 1.5-2k gold. Though yesterday, I decided my mages didn't need the 200gold each of them had, so I dropped it into the bank, then only my new druids. I could see a problem if I was rolling in it, but the only teams I have with mounts right now, are my DK's, Warlocks and Pally, for obvious reasons :D

[Fef]

Scary.

I have five accounts, four active groups, and a total of three guilds. One of them is a traders only guild, with a lot of gold in the bank. I very often transfer between guilds and accounts. 8000g is quite typical to get a group started (buy mounts, power-level mining and enchanting, etc ...). I usually transfer money back from my level 80 group when characters get to 1500 or 2000g, that's again 8 to 9K transfers.
Very scary to think that I could get banned just for that.

You should definitely fight it. It is better to stay in Blizzard's files as an account that was once wrongly banned than as a account that was already banned once for whatever reason.

[Tonyx]

Maybe the problem that Blizzard saw was "emptying" all your pocket at once, like if someone hacked your accounts and was trying to rob all your alts? Just a wild guess here.
I hope that a quick call to the customer support (emails won't do as they are quite slow to answer) will fix what is clearly a mistake.

[Frojax]

I've emailed them with a dispute, but didn't realise I could phone them about it too, that would be a lot quicker, I'll do it now. I've finally gotten around to ordering a Blizzard Authenticator too. I've just finished a full, deep virus scan and I'm totally clean. I scan ever week, so I doubt it's an account integrety problem, but, another level of security won't hurt.

[beyond-tec]

damn...

at first: I'm sorry this happened to you. Write down an email asap and explain the situation so that the
flag on your account will get removed - else your account will get perma banned next time.

that "auto-ban" scares me, too. I've taken 4K gold from the guild bank and handed it to my new druid team
which launched on new accounts to get the RAF bonus. They're not even in my guild but needed $$$ for
learning all spells and buying mounts/epic-mounts (when lvl60).

please keep us updated

[Khatovar]

Yeah, I'd get in touch with them and see what their problem is. I wouldn't think that using your own guild bank to transfer money between toons would be a bannable offense, no matter the amount. Person to person transfers, maybe. Nuetral auction house transfers, maybe. But how many gold sellers would create a guild, invite a customer to said guild and then use the bank to give them money?

[beyond-tec]

Yeah, I'd get in touch with them and see what their problem is. I wouldn't think that using your own guild bank to transfer money between toons would be a bannable offense, no matter the amount. Person to person transfers, maybe. Nuetral auction house transfers, maybe. But how many gold sellers would create a guild, invite a customer to said guild and then use the bank to give them money?I've gifted two friends of mine their epic flightmounts (10K Gold) via trade window without any problems.
So I don't think gold transfer should be a problem.

@Authenticator:
Very nice thingy. Buy one, connect all accounts to it and simply login with pass+authenticator code with you keyclone tool/hardware.
I love it... funniest / saddest thing: my world of warcraft account is safer now than my bank account...

[Khatovar]

Oh, I know you can transfer large sums of money person to person without issue. The vast majority of my cash has usually been either on my main or my bank alt, so I've had to transfer up to 7k each to 4 other toons at a time {flight + epic flight + cold weather flying + spells/respecs and such} several times.

I just know that transfers of large sums of money can raise a flag on your account. I should have elaborated that it can draw attention to transfer money person to person or via the neutral AHs. Guild bank, transactions, however, probably shouldn't. Especially if they look at the account/toon the money was coming from and going to...they would all be his and that should have negated any suspicion that he was buying/selling gold.

And yes to the authenticator. I literally slept better at night knowing I had one on my accounts. More than once I had nightmares about waking up and finding someone had pilliaged my guild bank and my personal bank. I just wish all games had them!

[algol]

Guilty until proven innocent, seems everyone else but me gives people the benefit of the doubt.

I've never bought or sold gold, I love my accounts too much to put them at risk, never did it when I was only playing one character, why would I start now that I run five? *Shakes his head*Read, then reply. It works better than putting things in other peoples' mouths.

It's not my ToS, and I really don't care about gold buyers or sellers beyond that the spam annoys me. Some people are dumb enough to do that, so I figured it made sense to outline the full set of options since I don't know you and have no basis to make any judgment whatsoever.

The fact that you immediately assume I'm assuming it does tend to make me assume it, though. Now that you bring it up. :thumbsup:

[Frojax]

Ok, finally managed to get through to support on the phone and they have said, due to their limited tools, they can't give details of what has gone on or why I have been banned in detail, but they could tell me that my dispute email has been received by the correct department and will be processed shortly. Ever get the feeling you're being fobbed off? :)

[Tonyx]

Unfortunately, looks like a standard "I am sorry but I am too busy for you, and 3 days without wow won't kill you" answer. Let's hope they are really investigating it.

[algol]

Blizzard CS is always that crappy and ambiguous, yes. When they answer the phone at all.

[Tonuss]

Ok, finally managed to get through to support on the phone and they have said, due to their limited tools, they can't give details of what has gone on or why I have been banned in detail, but they could tell me that my dispute email has been received by the correct department and will be processed shortly. Ever get the feeling you're being fobbed off? :)They're pretty strict about keeping stuff in its own channels. Account actions are handled via email, so calling them will just get the reaction you described (ie, "sorry, we cannot do anything about it, let account admin handle it and have a nice day!"). Depending on the amount of work they have, it can take a painfully long time for them to get around to you, but hopefully they can clear the ban from your accounts and possibly even extend your subscription for the amount of time you were unable to play.

[Tehtsuo]

And they'll be sure not to so much as apologize for the inconvenience. Chances are pretty good they'll give you a parting shot that your account will be monitored for "Further illegal activity" in the future. Blizzard Account Administration - Your friendly highly-corrupt internet authority.

[blast3r]

hope it gets worked out soon. i would be literally sick if they banned my accounts. i'm addicted, you know.

[Frojax]

Greetings,

We are writing to inform you that, after a careful investigation, we have agreed to remove the warnings and suspensions of all five of your accounts. We acknowledge the suspensions was applied in error and apologise sicerely for the inconvenience caused.

This change has already been put into effect, and your account should again be available for play.

Should you have other questions or concerns, feel free to contact us again, via our webform: http://eu.blizzard.com/support/webform.xml

We hope you continue to enjoy your experience in World of Warcraft!

If you wish to review our current Rules and Policies, they can be found at:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/policy/

Regards,


Ziywoqe
Account Administration Team
Got to say, that's a load off my mind!
/me does the "Happy Happy, Joy Joy" dance

[Owltoid]

Is this a MB first? An actual apology from Blizzard? Congrats!

[Tehtsuo]

"We acknowledge the suspensions was applied in error and apologise sicerely for the inconvenience caused."

Impressive!

[Catamer]

fight it and get a blizzard authenticator if you don't already have one, i love mine.

I've never used the guild bank for money transfers between my team.
I could see how it might be fast and convenient but bliz may have had to implement special safe guards (some type of auto bans) for people who steal accounts and raid a guild vaults. :cursing:
I have a bank toon that does all of my selling but when I need something on another toon I usually mail it or go meet the bank toon and transfer it that way.
I rarely work hard to make gold though, only when i'm in need like buying mounts do I bother working the AH very hard.

[beyond-tec]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Tonuss]

Is this a MB first? An actual apology from Blizzard? Congrats!Not to diminish it, but it's probably boilerplate. I'm surprised that they would not have included this in the past, it should be a standard part of the response when the other part is "we made a mistake when we banned your account(s)."

Edit- grats to the OP on getting it reversed!

[Dominian]

The main problem for the GMs is that they cant connect accounts for some reason.

So if im stuck on 5 chars on different accounts i cant send 1 mail because they arent "granted the rights" or allowed to do actions unless its comming from THE actual account.

My guess is that the GM were so insecure if you were selling accounts or not and decided to ban you because the outcome would be this:

1. You were selling the accounts so you most likley would not bother to file a complain.
2. You did not sell accounts and complained, now its sent to the account admins who got better access and can see the bigger picture alot easier.

This is just guessing but its my impression from talking to a GM.

Once the account is banned its actually out of the hands of the GM, even thought he most likley write some kind of note on the actuall account.

[Frojax]

The main problem for the GMs is that they cant connect accounts for some reason.


Yeah, it would be nice if they could link our accounts and perhaps give us a MB flag so that future GM's would know about us.

I have ordered my Authenticator though, I wasn't willing to pay the express delivery fee, so should have it within 2 weeks, it will put my mind at ease a bit more.

[Bigfish]

I think they do flag us at some point. Generally if you start on a new server or have never been reported though, you can catch a GM off guard. Its been suggested every time you start on a new server you send the GMs a ticket so they can add the note to your accounts. Not that it does you a lot of good at this point, but for future reference.

[Kaynin]

I have no idea if the same department handles forum bans, but back when I only had one account, I was once banned permanently for posting info on windows XP registery settings that improved something I can't recall anymore now.

Took them 3 months to listen to my emails and lift the ban. :P

[zanthor]

Update your subject on the thread so it doesn't look like you are still banned ;)

[Sina]

I would be fuming if this happened to me again.
A suspension or a ban should have already been "carefully and completely investigated" prior to action being taken.

[Dominian]

I havent ordered the authenticator, but i belive its available in europe aswell now?

What i did was to request all my account passwords resetted and copy paste them into a .txt file on my deskope. Now they cant be keylogged atleast, but i guess they can keylogg my email...

[Tonyx]

So you copy the passwords from a file to wow? And you think you are safe? A trojan program can easily monitor your clipboard.

[Frojax]

I havent ordered the authenticator, but i belive its available in europe aswell now?Yeah, I'm in England and they have them on the blizz site. £4.50 + tax and shipping, comes to a grand total of £12.42



What i did was to request all my account passwords resetted and copy paste them into a .txt file on my deskope. Now they cant be keylogged atleast, but i guess they can keylogg my email... Yeah, the above poster is right, no files are safe on your machine, it's not just keyloggers you need to fear :)

I run a virus check and spyware check every week, plus my on access antivirus is always running, no matter what. The scare made me do a full/deep scan and I was safe. But there is no way I would keep passwords on my machine :)

[Tehtsuo]

.txt files are the epitome of high-security digital storage formats

\sarcasm off

[Taliesin]

Grats to the OP about getting the ban lifted. It would be a badge of honor, you could say, but I hope I don't get anything like that.

To other people that suggest that Blizzard jumped the gun or that a GM didn't do enough investigation first, keep in mind that the game has automated detection systems (Warden) running to catch suspicious actions and log them. Likewise, I would also suspect that repeated suspicious actions in a very short time frame may also prompt the system to take pre-emptive action to stop you and then flag your case as a high priority ticket for a GM to investigate further (such as a high volume of spam reportings on one character in a short timeframe).

My point simply being that it was probably the humans that did the correct thing in this case, rather than started the whole issue.

[Nisch]

What about if someone erroneously filed a report saying you were selling your accounts which is why you had 5 going at once??

I get a lot of people asking how much I would sell each toon for, and I'm assuming that someone can report you for the very same thing, although unfounded.......which may be what happened to you.

[Catamer]

make we wonder if his almost killed a pally ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=19368') episode isn't what started this whole thing.
maybe that pally QQ to just the right GM.

[elsegundo]

make we wonder if his almost killed a pally ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=19368') episode isn't what started this whole thing.
maybe that pally QQ to just the right GM.kids and the stupid things they try to pull...
lol

anyway... glad the OP got his accounts back!!

[Malekyth]

What about if someone erroneously filed a report saying you were selling your accounts which is why you had 5 going at once??

I get a lot of people asking how much I would sell each toon for, and I'm assuming that someone can report you for the very same thing, although unfounded.......which may be what happened to you.I'd be inclined to suspect that. Now and then some know-all will come up to me and say, "selling accts, huh?" I don't know how to respond to this, except, "no, just playing them," which probably isn't satisfactory to someone who's already made his mind up. That this kind of person would shake his head in dismay at the unscrupulousness of humanity and dutifully go report the multiboxing miscreant, wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Souca]

We acknowledge the suspensions was applied in error and apologise sicerely for the inconvenience caused. Interestingly, this isn't a standard template response. They have spelling errors. A GM actually wrote part of this.

- Souca -

[Vyndree]

I get a lot of people asking how much I would sell each toon for, and I'm assuming that someone can report you for the very same thing, although unfounded.......which may be what happened to you.I'd be inclined to suspect that. Now and then some know-all will come up to me and say, "selling accts, huh?" I don't know how to respond to this, except, "no, just playing them," which probably isn't satisfactory to someone who's already made his mind up.[/quote]

"You selling those accounts?"
"Why? Are you selling yours?"

[Fef]

Congratulations on getting your accounts back :)

The "do you sell characters once leveled up" question is the comment I get most frequently. A lot of people don't seem to see the point of multi-boxing, unless it is to sell characters. Weird.

[Dotalot]

That sucks ... but glad thay said sorry :D

[Ualaa]

Congrats on your vindication; authenticator is cheap and worthwhile.

[Solon]

I have a friend who received a similar email, only this friend doesn't box, and had not logged in in 3 months. As he was a guild leader I requested leadership in the guild be transferred to me (via GM ticket) until he returns. Within 6 hours this friend calls me screaming that I am trying to sell his account. Finally calmed him down explaining I wasn't gonna risk my 5 accounts by doing anything at all with his. When he contacted Blizz by phone they stated they couldn't give details on the phone, after some correspondence with Blizz, turns out the email was a phisher. It's damn dangerous online anymore.

[Gadzooks]

Grats to the OP about getting the ban lifted. It would be a badge of honor, you could say, but I hope I don't get anything like that.

To other people that suggest that Blizzard jumped the gun or that a GM didn't do enough investigation first, keep in mind that the game has automated detection systems (Warden) running to catch suspicious actions and log them. Likewise, I would also suspect that repeated suspicious actions in a very short time frame may also prompt the system to take pre-emptive action to stop you and then flag your case as a high priority ticket for a GM to investigate further (such as a high volume of spam reportings on one character in a short timeframe).

My point simply being that it was probably the humans that did the correct thing in this case, rather than started the whole issue.I'd bet on a new GM not understanding what he/she was seeing, and flagged the accounts after a report. If they had set new flags in Warden, we'd see a lot more of our accounts being banned - remember, we're all using *very* similar setups, as far as accounts go.

Judging on how fast it was reversed, I'd bet on a newbie GM.

[Gadzooks]

What about if someone erroneously filed a report saying you were selling your accounts which is why you had 5 going at once??

I get a lot of people asking how much I would sell each toon for, and I'm assuming that someone can report you for the very same thing, although unfounded.......which may be what happened to you.The selling of our accounts always cracks me up - like I'd sell any of my characters! :) I've put WAY too much fun and work into them, and we all know MBing is not the most efficient way to level characters.

Heck, even the scuzzy account thieves don't use MBing to level accounts. A good solid questhelper, a case of redbull, and a couple bags of Cheetos is more efficient to powerlevel characters than MBing.

[Taliesin]

I'd bet on a new GM not understanding what he/she was seeing, and flagged the accounts after a report. If they had set new flags in Warden, we'd see a lot more of our accounts being banned - remember, we're all using *very* similar setups, as far as accounts go.

Judging on how fast it was reversed, I'd bet on a newbie GM.

You could very well be right, as I'm just speculating as well. I wasn't trying to suggest that anything about our setups would flag anything at all, but what I was referring to was suspicious activities (emphasis on "activities"). If you had, say, 30k gold, and spent an entire day just simply trading it from one toon to another for no good reason but in quick succession, that may be enough to trigger something by hidden big brother software, and impose a short lockout for a day (pending GM review) after say 20 transfers.

GMs are not sufficient at trying to stop goldsellers, so I would suspect that Blizzard is relying more on automated processes to try to catch these types of things, even if its only a slight improvement. This was essentially what I was trying to point out, if I was unclear.

[Frojax]

The best game I have known for fighting gold sellers is Warhammer Online, damn, they went to war on them and just kept going. They even had a special heading for tickets so that they got on them fast. Hundreds of accounts were banned in the first month, it was great to see :)

[Ogloo]

since when is it only a 72 hour ban? i thought for trading it was account closer?... even though u did nothing.. wtf?

[Yamio]

They give 72 hours for investigation. If it was a new GM, Blizz may have a policy in place that no GM's employed under a certain amount of days can perma ban any accounts. Also, I would think perma bans probably require a senior GM.

Just speculation.

[beyond-tec]

Removing a ban can only do the account department.

So I don't think any GM can close down an accout - they can only lock it.

I bet that only the account department can do that and that the GM forwards it to them.

[Skuggomann]

Clearly anoter case of child molestation.

[Taliesin]

Clearly anoter case of child molestation.

:huh:

Is there something else we should know?

[AtroxCasus]

Sometimes it's something more simple than all of the above theories. Maybe you missed a tell from a GM who was investigating a report of your multiboxing. You're questing, doing your thing, he watches and after not getting responses from you, decides you are botting and bans you. On the other hand, it probably was a GM unfamiliar with MBing who didn't try to find out what was up. The really bizarre thing is, after MBing on 2 servers, it seems like a majority of people I encounter know MBing when they see it, even though it isn't very common on either server. You'd think this would be something they "train" GMs on. Of course, it could just be that at about 10 bucks an hour, the average in game GM just doesn't give a hoot about investing time to research anything....