Character Name Security Check

[Souca]

So I'm trying to log into some of my old accounts, and even after resetting the password, I fail the "Please enter the name of a character on this account" check half the time. I have 17 accounts and don't even remember the names of all my characters, the spelling, or who was where. Anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this? I thought I'd use API keys (I have a complete list of those; full and limited), but EveMon can't get info on deactivated accounts. Do I have to open a bunch of tickets?

Thanks for any ideas.

- Souca -

[Fiddlesticks]

So I'm trying to log into some of my old accounts, and even after resetting the password, I fail the "Please enter the name of a character on this account" check half the time. I have 17 accounts and don't even remember the names of all my characters, the spelling, or who was where. Anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this? I thought I'd use API keys (I have a complete list of those; full and limited), but EveMon can't get info on deactivated accounts. Do I have to open a bunch of tickets?

Thanks for any ideas.

- Souca -

Sounds like you pretty much have to. Unless you are able to log into the account on the website, on the left there is a "My Characters" button.

[Souca]

So I opened a ticket and finally got a response:

Before we can give you information on the accounts we need to establish that you are the original owner. Therefore we ask you to please provide the information listed below. Note that it is vital that the information provided is as accurate and detailed as possible.

1. The full name used when the accounts were created (your name).
2. The last 6 digits and the expiration date of the credit card used to pay for the subscriptions (if a credit card was used).
3. The billing address for the credit card used to pay for the subscriptions (if a credit card was used).
4. The date of birth registered at account creation.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Best regards,
GM Spotted
EVE Online Customer Support Team

Number 2 is a little annoying, since I don't have any good way of knowing the expiration date of cards that have been replaced now. Though it is interesting that using a credit card makes the process worse with two extra questions to answer.

Luckily for me I found an old EveMon config file that has all my accounts and at least one character name. Even with this info, getting past the security check is a pain. Entering the correct information still refuses your login, claiming you entered it incorrectly... for the first couple attempts. Then it lets you in with exact same info. Gotta love QA on those rarely used features.

TL;DR; - I lucked out and got around this.

[RobinGBrown]

grats, I'm lucky in that I've written down all my character names or I'd have got the shaft with this too. Their increased security measures over the last year have made it a lot more difficult to play in the stop and start style that I use.

[Souca]

Yea. Given the value an Eve account can have, and the insane amount of real world spying and Meta-gaming, I'm really surprised that they haven't added the option of an authenticator to the game. I can think of a couple reasons they might not have which might prevent such a system from getting used for a while.

1. How much do the auth makers charge the game owner? There are server side components to the system, be it software or hardware, and I doubt it is cheap. Judging from the fact that the dongles are insanely cheap, I'm guessing that the real revenue stream for Vasco is on the server side.

2. They aren't available in all the countries that CCP cares about. I know that there are different versions for the US and EU, I'm guessing due to crypto laws or patents. Maybe Vasco's system can't support more than one type, or a large enough percentage of the customer base lives in a country that wouldn't be allowed to buy authenticators, Russia maybe?

Random thoughts.

- Souca -