Banned

[Spyro]

Hey guys.

Yesterday I was boosting 4 of my chars in Scarlet Monastery using my mage (running IsBoxer as always) and today Blizzard has banned the account where the mage is. I have received an e-mail saying that I have been banned for using hacks/bots.

Has this happened to anybody else? Is there anything I can do?

Since I'm new to boosting and I'm bad at it, I was wiping a lot trying to learn how to do the pulls correctly, maybe is this behaviour (insistence/repetitive runs in spite of wiping) what has been detected as a "bot"?

[Xyl41]

ISBoxer did not get you banned. Most likely you were running another program that flagged it, whether that was intentional or not. Your only recourse is to appeal and state what you've stated.

[Spyro]

ISBoxer did not get you banned. Most likely you were running another program that flagged it, whether that was intentional or not. Your only recourse is to appeal and state what you've stated.
Highly doubt it was another program (not saying it was due to IsBoxer, which I have been using since Classic's launch), otherwise they would have banned all the accounts, they have banned only the WoW license of the boosting char.

I have appealed it, let's see what happens, if they don't unban it this is the end of my WoW career after 11 years, lol.

[sethlan]

What addons are you running? Mages boost everyone at SM all the time.

[azboxer]

Woke up today to a ban aswell. Running standard 4m+p setup. Nothing in my setup has changed, normal ISboxer setup, normal addons, etc.

The account banned is the priest which I drive from which I've had since early TBC so it's upsetting, hopefully it's an automated thing due covid and will be fixed once I appeal. Although it does say "Our support staff will not overturn these closures and may not respond to appeals".

The offence given was: "Offense: Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs (Hacks)"

Never done anything dodgey before. Usually I'll lurk and see these banned posts and roll my eyes thinking they've obviously done something wrong. But now it's happened to me.. I'll just have to see what happened after I contact blizzard.

[Spyro]

What addons are you running? Mages boost everyone at SM all the time.
Atlas, TellMeWhen, WeakAuras, Clique, Details, Spy... all the typical things, why? Has any addon caused bans? :eek:

[Spyro]

Woke up today to a ban aswell. Running standard 4m+p setup. Nothing in my setup has changed, normal ISboxer setup, normal addons, etc.

The account banned is the priest which I drive from which I've had since early TBC so it's upsetting, hopefully it's an automated thing due covid and will be fixed once I appeal. Although it does say "Our support staff will not overturn these closures and may not respond to appeals".

The offence given was: "Offense: Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs (Hacks)"

Never done anything dodgey before. Usually I'll lurk and see these banned posts and roll my eyes thinking they've obviously done something wrong. But now it's happened to me.. I'll just have to see what happened after I contact blizzard.
Exactly like me, I also received the ban e-mail just after woking up at 09:48 GMT+1.

[Spyro]

What server do you play on azboxer?

[azboxer]

What server do you play on azboxer?

Shazzrah EU. I'm pretty confident since I know I've done nothing wrong it'll be revoked but we'll see. It must be an automated ban due to reports since it's the guy I drive from that's banned. If it was due to software then surely my 4 slaves would be banned too.

[Spyro]

I'm on Golemagg EU.

My banned account is also the guy I was driving from, but... isn't too much of a coincidence that we have been reported a banned the same day? This looks like a Ban Wave to me, which means that I was wrong in my initial analysis thinking that this is related to what I was doing in-game (SM Boosting).

[Spyro]

azboxer Can you tell me the timestamp of the ban e-mail and your timezone? To see if we have received it at the same time (which would confirm the ban wave hypothesis).

[Wubsie]

False positives have happened on occasion. If you know you did not do anything wrong, contest the ban. Sadly with Blizzard's customer support being what it is, you will most likely receive a cookie cutter "we have now confirmed that the initial decision was correct" type response. It might take a few attempts to get them to hear you out, but keep trying. Be politely and explain what you were doing. Some have had luck getting incorrectly applied bans overturned.

[JohnGabriel]

Keep in mind that this suspension was not for what you did yesterday. It would have been weeks ago.

[Spyro]

Keep in mind that this suspension was not for what you did yesterday. It would have been weeks ago.
Yeah that was what I was thinking when @azboxer said he has been banned this morning too.
I have never done anything against the ToS tho, just normal boxing.
It's very likely that other multiboxers have been hit by this.

[sethlan]

>>> This scares me, as i'm also leveling mages and a priest. :-/ maybe someone thinks its a BOT? and got many reports? which is weird because they have to look into it before they take action_ I almost don't wanna level anymore chars....

[JohnGabriel]

>>> This scares me, as i'm also leveling mages and a priest. :-/ maybe someone thinks its a BOT? and got many reports? which is weird because they have to look into it before they take action_ I almost don't wanna level anymore chars....

I would not worry. I have so far taken three teams through SM for the 26 to 42 leveling range.

Even the false positives are usually from some red flag behavior. All night farming session, flooding AH with hundreds of stacks of ore, non-participation in BGs, avoiding the queue, layer hopping for kills, different b.net accounts, etc.

Appeals take time, lets wait and see.

[StephenMB]

You know I watched this and knew it was going to create some issues...having not played WoW for long so I didn't really know what that would be:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqd3UobeyJA

That could have triggered a lot of reporting, specifically around 3:50. /shrug

Just saying, could have caused a wave of reporting boxers and tripped a few switches.

[Lyonheart]

You know I watched this and knew it was going to create some issues...having not played WoW for long so I didn't really know what that would be:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqd3UobeyJA

That could have triggered a lot of reporting, specifically around 3:50. /shrug

Just saying, could have caused a wave of reporting boxers and tripped a few switches.

Interesting listen. Gives you a good idea of how the masses think about what we do.. but i think its mostly angst against PvP boxing.

[jak3676]

Several reports on Reddit about people getting banned this week as well. Most seem to think it has to do with them buying mass black lotus for thier guild. In many cases my bet is that the person doing the farming was botting, then when the other other person bought something for over 1000g, it looks as if they're in on it.

I'll bet a lot of the current wave of bans is catching people like that - catching not just the botters, but people interacting with them as well. I've heard some of the SM and ZF farms are being botted now.

[jak3676]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqd3UobeyJA



Or you know, they could ban streamers too. I'll guarantee you the queues have more to do with streamers than the few of us MBers. /shug

[Spyro]

With how easy is for Blizzard to end multiboxing (by just removing /follow), it's pretty clear that they WANT multiboxing to be a thing to increase their income. Hell... why did they even create /follow for? to me it looks like something specifically made to support boxing, lol. Before I started boxing I never used /follow at all.

[Wizeowel]

Before I started boxing I never used /follow at all.

I discovered /follow and /train in the first weeks of ever playing the game. Met some people in game, started questing with them daily. Getting to know them while doing quests in e.g. darkshore and ashenvale, some of those quests have long runs north to south. So used /follow to allow socialising; typing in party chat while someone else is driving the /train...

[azboxer]

azboxer Can you tell me the timestamp of the ban e-mail and your timezone? To see if we have received it at the same time (which would confirm the ban wave hypothesis).

Sorry for the late reply been quite busy. Time was 08:48 BST. Still no reply on my appeal but I expected a long delay due to the lockdown.

Regarding what someone said about it being something that was flagged weeks before, I recently returned from a 2month break. This ban occured 9 days into my new subscription. So whatever it is which had my account flagged happened within quite a short period. I'm certain it's automatic due to player reports and not the system flagging isboxer itself. I noticed much higher hostility towards multiboxers on my server upon my return than before my break.

[jak3676]

I don't know if its still true, but all a group of mass player reports will do is create a ticket for a GM to work. Then a GM has to observe you in game, or observe what was reported (logs of you being profane, etc). But Blizz does not ban based on player reporting alone.

[Spyro]

Time was 08:48 BST
Exactly the same time as me, hahah.

[Svpernova09]

Think this has taken its course. These issues are always between you and Blizzard.