Regarding Compromised Accounts

[Mhurron]

From PlayOnline

Jan. 30, 2008 11:00 [PST] From: PlayOnline

Regarding Compromised Accounts



Recently, it has come to Square Enix's attention that an unfortunate number of players have lost access to accounts due to their becoming compromised by a third party. As such, we have devised a process that will allow these players to regain access to their accounts.

Effective immediately, the PlayOnline Information Center will begin assisting those customers who have lost access to an account due to it being compromised. Through identity confirmation, the PlayOnline Information Center will be returning account access to the original registrant. This process is currently going into effect to help restore account access to the original registrant as quickly as possible. Once access has been regained, the customer will then be able to seek reimbursement for lost items per our current item restoration policy.

Please contact the PlayOnline Information Center immediately should you find you have lost access to an account. We cannot guarantee we can assist everyone in these cases, but we will attempt to restore account access when possible. Additionally, by contacting us as soon as possible, it will allow us to take action to limit changes to the account, and help restore access to the original registrant as quickly as possible.

[Mog]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

Holy carp. SE's doing something about it!

[Caspian]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

I'm curious if they'll do anything for people who's accounts were hacked prior to this.

[Mog]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

Probably not. SE seems pretty persistent on keeping it recent. Unless the person lies when their account was banned, it probably won't happen.

[Raydeus]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

Maybe you just have to report it again, is not like SE doesn't have records of credit card names/numbers and registration codes.

I know someone who would be reaaally happy if they could restore his stolen account.

[Mhurron]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

I'm curious if they'll do anything for people who's accounts were hacked prior to this.

I see no reason for them not to try. It's not like anyone really knows when this current rash of hijackings really started, just when it suddenly got out of hand. There were reports here and there about stolen accounts before there were hundreds of them at once.

[little ninja]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

From what I am hearing S.E is still not helping certain people with hacked accounts.

[Caspian]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

Well, a friend in dyna ls had his account hacked during dynamis on dec. 30. We called a gm and they said they would be able to restore anything rare/ex, but nothing tradeable, sure enough he had the banks for 2 or 3 ls's including ours, and about 30m in dyna currency he'd been working on. They wouldn't put a temp ban on the account until after the holiday (this was on a Sunday and with New Year's Eve and New Years they wouldn't open back up until Wednesday) and the next day about 6 people in the ls watched in Whitegate while they came out of the MH and proceeded to dump everything sellable onto a mule. GM's couldn't do a thing. Curious how retroactive this policy will be. If he hasn't heard by now I'm sure he will, maybe he can get something done.

[Phanex]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

Hey guys, just a quick post to tell you what SE told my roomy on how to get his account and stuff back.

1st. they emailed him a statement he must sign saying that he "hereby the laws of USA and NC, or w/ever state your from" owned this POID and this is the address where he lived when first acitivated, and his current address. The date it was comprimised, and that he never sold, lent, or gave out his password to anyone.

Then he has to sign it and have it notarized and mail it to the CA offices.

And if he gets his account, he will have to contact a GM in-game to report the items lost. What they will and won't return was never mentioned in the phone conversation.

Another thing the person on the phone said was that they can not promise to put his account back on the server it was the 1st time. His account is no longer on the server he was on when it got hacked, a common method after the accoutns were sold to another person.

I'll let you guys how it went after he hears something from them, probley another month or two. ^^

[Kittyneko]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

I would like to know if they're going to do anything about the people who did it. If for example all items/gil have been sent to another character, will SE be able to trace it and take it from that person? Will they inform the victim?
I think that wouldn't work, what if the gil has been spent? A GM decides to take some items of same value? Restore their account to right before they did anything? Block their accounts? What if the recipient of the items/gil wasn't actually involved in it at all?

Sorry to put all those questions at once
I wonder what would happen. If nothing happens, what would stop anyone to send a lot of expensive items to a friend, change password and call POL saying his account has been compromised, then restoring the items?

From what I understand.. the Item Restore policy only allows restoring items that have been lost due to bugs in the game, not any normal trading/sending/selling, no matter what situation.

It's a bit fishy as it is, or am I missing something?

Reading Phanex's post(#9), the official statement and the actual active involving of SE blocking the account for a while before the original owner gets it back, might scare people off.

[eticket109]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

There's been a huge debate on other forums over exactly those thoughts. I see 4 possible ways to handle 'stolen' or 'lost' goods.

1) leave sellable items alone, wherever they end up is where they end up.

pros: does not disturb or imbalance the economy by replicating billions of gil worth of items on each server, greatly deflating the economy. does not penalize those that unknowingly bought the stolen items. prevents fraudulent 'I lost my account' claims. no effect on current inventory system.

cons: seriously handicaps and fucks over the ones who get hacked/lose their accounts. does not deter account thieves from continuing to operate.


2) replace items and mark them with an 'ex' tag

pros: reimburses those that lost accounts. prevents fraudulent 'I lost my account' claims. does not penalize those that unknowingly bought the stolen items.

cons: less severe effect on economy but still negative overall as increased 'ex' items would impact players' abilities to recover gil upon changing jobs. less availability of sold items would drive demand up and make places like lolAery that much more fun. would require massive inventory system realignment as gear could not be DBoxed or muled in the current system. limited usage due to length of server logs vs recovery timeframe. does not deter account thieves from continuing to operate.


3) track items and return them to their original owners

pros: puts the initial lost account back the way it was. no effect on current inventory system. detailed item history tracking may result in punishment for those that 'stole' account.

cons: screws the buyer of said item who may not have known item was stolen/lost. much more complex overall ie: more likely for faults in the process. limited usage due to length of server logs vs recovery timeframe.


4) replicate items and give them to original owner

pros: puts the initial lost account back the way it was. no effect on current inventory system. does not penalize those that unknowingly bought the stolen items. no effect on current inventory system. detailed item history tracking may result in punishment for those that 'stole' account.

cons: does nothing to prevent abuse of system through fraudulent 'I lost my account' claims. possibility of great economy imbalance and deflation as billions of gil worth of items are introduced to the server.



There really is no right answer. Every solution has it's own problems.

[Raydeus]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

I'm sorry for people who got their account hacked, but restoring the character and only Ex items should be the way to go in my opinion.

Other ways to handle this are way too easy to exploit, and they also encourage players to be careless about their accounts knowing SE will give everything back.

Yeah, not really a happy ending here but better than nothing.

[Phanex]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

Yeah my room mate and I have been thinking about this too. And to be honest he'll just be happy getting his taru back. The other stuff we can farm or kill for. It sucks for me cause he had my V. Cloak and my Hauby on his account when it got hacked....bummer..

I would like to know if they're going to do anything about the people who did it.

Yes they should be able to find the persons if they really want to. My room mates computer is still compromised. He got another account, it still gets hacked, despite the fact he updated all of Window's security and used several virus scanners and de-wormers he could find/afford. He told SE this last time he had to all and get his new acount's password chanaged. SE told him that it sounded like a key logger..duh...and that he should format his hard drive and start from scratch.

(*little side note..this was the 4th time in calling SE over his 1st account, the other 3 times he called in response to this in service they provoded for the lost accounts, the SE Operators never took down his request or sent him the application)

So since his new account has the highest lvl of 31 the hacker never "stole" the account just the gill and any items that could sold. They never changed his Credit Card Info or Mailing Address. They just changed his password, so he has to keep calling SE every beging of the month to get another Password for his account.

Oh he did put this account of his 360, came to find out the last SE guy he talked to said that FFXI was the only game for the 360 that does not require the GOld Membership to play online. So he got a free silver membership for this account.

But long story short, they can just track an account that can get hacked and trace the trades to another account, see who's paying for that account, check other accounts with the same credit card number, and follow where the "mule account" is send the gill to after they sale itmes.

Sorry for the uselss and long post.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

It's about time ...

I mean really. What took them so long?

[Phanex]

Re: Regarding Compromised Accounts

LOL Aksannyi. Well we are not sure they are STill doing something about it. Just a quick run down of what my roomy has done since his account was hacked:

1) Lost it 12-2-07; called SE 12-3-07 Informed them, they said sorry your lost.
2) Called SE again 12-5-07, they told him sorry and call the local police
3) Got the cop to call 12-14-07; the Cop got mad and hung up the phone on SE.
4) Cop got copies of Roomy's account records, bank statements, Content Ids everyting and anything FFXI that proved he had the account up to that point and Faxed it to SE's Legal Dept.
5) Called SE 1-3-08, they dont' know anything about his report. Legal Dept is elswhere, have a good day. *click*
6) I enformed him of "SE's awarness" of hacked accounts and they are putting together a dept to handle and help players get their accoutns back.
7) He calls them up on as soon as it's availble. I think early Febuary, told them the deal, including the cop, they said they don't have any records of the reports by the cop but they will look into his claims.
8) calls back a week later, they have no idea he called the previous week and that he should have gotten an email from SE with a form to fill out and mail back to them.
9) He waited 3 days to see if they would email him the form, he called back on the 4th day, and the guy told him sorry, here's the email, and format your pc to make it safe
10) HE filled out the form last Friday, Got UPS to 2day air it to them, should be there Wednesday, he's calling thursday to make sure they got it.

Meh...bad track record for SE. I told him he needed to make 3 copies of his form and send all three in hopes one will actualy get read.