Hacked account got banned support refuses to help despite an incredible amount of evidence of ownership

[Damncrits.6074]

Does anyone know if there is a better way to appeal an account that's banned? It got banned after I lost the account to a hacker and we both tried recovering it. The e-mail address associated with it I don't have access to. I still have the physical disk copies from the account but support told me to not open any tickets regarding this issue anymore and that they would be closed immediately. I'm not sure what to do or say to get my account back, i've been a loyal customer for years with thousands of hours and thousands of dollars spent. I have around 50+ gem codes, my digital PoF CD Key, 2 physical copies that are on the account with a picture of today's date. What do I have to provide to proof ownership and get my account back ?

 

"Hello,

After researching the provided information, we will not be able to assist you with accessing this account. Any further replies or messages in regards to this account may be closed without a response.

Regards,

Decker
Guild Wars 2 Support Team" 

[Chaba.5410]

The problem is if both you and the other guy provide the correct information to prove you own the account, they are unable to tell who actually owns it.  Such contested accounts are usually terminated.

[Damncrits.6074]

The thing is that I have indesputable physical evidence and digital evidence he cannot possibly possess. The problem is they outsource support to people who don´t actually look into the issue properly and treat customers horribly. Hence why i´m looking to escalate the issue to someone who actually works at Anet.

[Linken.6345]

I know this happened to a friend of mine he bought an account from a guy that guy then tried to take it back since he dident think he got enough money for it.

He had the physical stuff but since my friend could also show he added stuff to the account it got terminated for both of them.

Its not allowed to sell accounts and support might think you have done so OP.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If you haven't already, you can ask to have your issue escalated to a Senior Team Member.  They aren't outsourced; I'm not sure anyone is, actually. 

You might consider looking into securing your email account, as the usurper, if there is one, may have access to your email account and can get access to all your emails to and from ArenaNet.

Good luck.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

3 hours ago, Damncrits.6074 said:

The thing is that I have indesputable physical evidence and digital evidence he cannot possibly possess. The problem is they outsource support to people who don´t actually look into the issue properly and treat customers horribly. Hence why i´m looking to escalate the issue to someone who actually works at Anet.

if they've banned the account it means the other person provided just as much evidence as you, and they suspect account sharing. this is especially common with friends, family members, or when someone hacks your email and gets your personal information from there. arenanet can also see all the information like whispers and party chats, and what ip addresses logged into your account over a period of time.

 

never share your account with anyone, no matter how much you trust them, because people change.

Edited September 18 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Damncrits.6074]

11 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

I know this happened to a friend of mine he bought an account from a guy that guy then tried to take it back since he dident think he got enough money for it.

He had the physical stuff but since my friend could also show he added stuff to the account it got terminated for both of them.

Its not allowed to sell accounts and support might think you have done so OP.

I'm starting to wish I did, atleast I would have gotten something for it. All these hours spent in game down the drain just like that, it's unbelievable.

[Damncrits.6074]

8 hours ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

if they've banned the account it means the other person provided just as much evidence as you, and they suspect account sharing. this is especially common with friends, family members, or when someone hacks your email and gets your personal information from there. arenanet can also see all the information like whispers and party chats, and what ip addresses logged into your account over a period of time.

 

never share your account with anyone, no matter how much you trust them, because people change.

Any idea if there's any extra info I could provide to improve my case ? I have bank statements and I could send a picture of my passport aswell. My actual name was used to create the account..

[Damncrits.6074]

10 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

If you haven't already, you can ask to have your issue escalated to a Senior Team Member.  They aren't outsourced; I'm not sure anyone is, actually. 

You might consider looking into securing your email account, as the usurper, if there is one, may have access to your email account and can get access to all your emails to and from ArenaNet.

Good luck.

All my accounts are secure now, bit late but yeah. I already asked them if they could escalate it from helpdesk to Senior support. If they don't close the ticket instantly I hope they do so. The weird thing is I contacted FF14 support and they took care of the issue in less than an hour and got me my account back. 

[Assolador.3598]

this sucks dude... hope u get it back. we should help this guy by commenting/reacting so it gets up on posts page

[Damncrits.6074]

3 hours ago, Assolador.3598 said:

this sucks dude... hope u get it back. we should help this guy by commenting/reacting so it gets up on posts page

I appreciate that man.. I hope so too. Just wanna get back to the game honestly

[eutha six.5647]

This is common with most MMOs' as it is to prevent someone from selling an account and then trying to get that account back- which happens often with account/gold sellers

[jusef.5261]

50 minutes ago, eutha six.5647 said:

This is common with most MMOs' as it is to prevent someone from selling an account and then trying to get that account back- which happens often with account/gold sellers

What happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? Until it support do their job in a professional manner and investigate it properly, nobody knows what had happened. Right now it seems that OP is merely trying to get their account back, no need for you to make up a story for it.

[Royal Grand Majesty.9852]

8 minutes ago, jusef.5261 said:

What happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? Until it support do their job in a professional manner and investigate it properly, nobody knows what had happened. Right now it seems that OP is merely trying to get their account back, no need for you to make up a story for it.

I believe what Eutha Six was merely suggesting isn't beyond the realm of possibility.

If OP does indeed have "indisputable physical and digital evidence" which no other individual can provide and yet after all this GM Decker still denies their appeal after an investigation was made.

One can only assume as to why this may be the case.

[Chaba.5410]

38 minutes ago, Royal Grand Majesty.9852 said:

I believe what Eutha Six was merely suggesting isn't beyond the realm of possibility.

If OP does indeed have "indisputable physical and digital evidence" which no other individual can provide and yet after all this GM Decker still denies their appeal after an investigation was made.

One can only assume as to why this may be the case.

The OP says the other person also opened a support ticket asking for recovery of the account which means that person has some evidence too.  It's a disputed account because both parties are giving evidence that it is theirs so Anet just closes the account instead.

What's really bad is when someone gets a second-hand account like this thinking that the original owner got rid of it and then purchases an expansion.  Now they have a key too.  So this guy who now tries to recover his old account would get access to an expansion he never purchased because you think Anet should give disputed accounts back?  How is that fair?

If you don't like this: keep your email secure with 2FA, keep your ArenaNet account secure with 2FA, don't share your account, wipe your data from public computers, don't sell your account, and don't buy accounts second-hand.

Edited September 19 by Chaba.5410

[Royal Grand Majesty.9852]

9 minutes ago, Chaba.5410 said:

The OP says the other person also opened a support ticket asking for recovery of the account which means that person has some evidence too.  It's a disputed account because both parties are giving evidence that it is theirs so Anet just closes the account instead.

What's really bad is when someone gets a second-hand account like this thinking that the original owner got rid of it and then purchases an expansion.  Now they have a key too.  So this guy who now tries to recover his old account would get access to an expansion he never purchased because you think Anet should give disputed accounts back?  How is that fair?

If you don't like this: keep your email secure with 2FA, keep your ArenaNet account secure with 2FA, don't share your account, wipe your data from public computers, don't sell your account, and don't buy accounts second-hand.

The interesting thing is, if OP did indeed just share their account with a 'Family/Friend' who turned against them.

How would this 'Family/Friend' have enough evidence to compete with the original account holder?

Theoretically speaking, If I was to share my account with a friend, I wouldn't provide them with all the 'Information of Account Ownership'.

Yet the other individual is able to provide such information.

Something isn't adding up....

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

9 minutes ago, Royal Grand Majesty.9852 said:

The interesting thing is, if OP did indeed just share their account with a 'Family/Friend' who turned against them.

How would this 'Family/Friend' have enough evidence to compete with the original account holder?

Theoretically speaking, If I was to share my account with a friend, I wouldn't provide them with all the 'Information of Account Ownership'.

Yet the other individual is able to provide such information.

Something isn't adding up....

Often, nefarious people not only hack the game account, but hack the email account, as well, giving them access to all information residing there and/or sent to ArenaNet.  Also said nefarious people often come to the forums claiming they can't get 'their' account back.  We've seen it over the years. 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Gaile Gray is no longer here.  🤷‍♀️

[Luthan.5236]

This surely seems like the email got accessed - with a mail stored their with an old key. Doubt there can be any "better" evidence where the support would not have to assume that mit might be fabricated (photoshopped physical/printed key).

I wonder how this can happen. Usually mail accounts nowadays require strict security. At least in my country and for newly created accounts. Older accounts might still have weak password - but that should have been noticed from an earlier hack ... unless the account had been used pretty rarely (only for GW2 and a small amount of other sites) and only has been discovered lately in a "list" (breach) cause some of the other small sites got hacked and same password used there - unencryptedly stored or a weak password that got brute forced.

Or if the hacker used malware and a keylogger.

All of that might (not sure if there is a paragraph in the rules or ToS) conclude a violation of ToS already - from the account owner ... if they have a rule that says that you have to secure your account and that it is your responsibility if not using safe passwords and getting hacked. It surely is weird that someone aimed straight at the GW2 account though. The mass hacking/abuse of email accounts usually usees them only to send automated spam.

(Had it once in my early days when I was new in the internet. Account got automatically blocked and I could contact the proviader per phone and they unblocked it and I had to reset the password to a safe one.)

Best to print key code mails. And delete them. Or store them locall only. (I still use good old Pop3 downloading mails lol. If the hard drive crashes and I have no backup - they are lost. :D)

[KrHome.1920]

If I read this correctly the OP has no access to the mail account associated with the GW2 account, but has the physical game keys.

The other guy has access to the mail account associated with the GW2 account, but not the physical game keys.

If this is the case and I was the support guy I would also terminate this account, as the physical stuff could have been sold and the account could have been hacked. So both persons could lie. At least it would be an EULA violation (you are not allowed to transfer your license), when two different persons claim ownership of the game keys and mail account.

If I was the OP I would contact the mail account support to get back the access to the mail account. That is not ANet's business.

Long story short: Secure your accounts via two factor authentication!

Edited September 21 by KrHome.1920

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

That letter/email from the GW2 Support Team seems odd;  I've never seen a response from a Team Member with just a name, it's always from GM Somebody. 

[Hesione.9412]

I looked back to my last support ticket, you're right, it is always GM something.

[Healix.5819]

1 hour ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

That letter/email from the GW2 Support Team seems odd;  I've never seen a response from a Team Member with just a name, it's always from GM Somebody. 

That response is a template, so you can search for it to find several samples with and without the GM. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2_Support_Team was updated recently by Lead GM Marauder with a lot of names, including Decker.

[Damncrits.6074]

On 9/20/2023 at 1:49 AM, Chaba.5410 said:

The OP says the other person also opened a support ticket asking for recovery of the account which means that person has some evidence too.  It's a disputed account because both parties are giving evidence that it is theirs so Anet just closes the account instead.

What's really bad is when someone gets a second-hand account like this thinking that the original owner got rid of it and then purchases an expansion.  Now they have a key too.  So this guy who now tries to recover his old account would get access to an expansion he never purchased because you think Anet should give disputed accounts back?  How is that fair?

If you don't like this: keep your email secure with 2FA, keep your ArenaNet account secure with 2FA, don't share your account, wipe your data from public computers, don't sell your account, and don't buy accounts second-hand.

I would gladly reimburse the dude who took it for anything he spent on it if that gave me my account back, it's not a money issue for me. I'm attached to the account, I made all the characters on it, I played with friends. For me the account has huge nostalgic value..

[Damncrits.6074]

On 9/20/2023 at 10:21 AM, Luthan.5236 said:

This surely seems like the email got accessed - with a mail stored their with an old key. Doubt there can be any "better" evidence where the support would not have to assume that mit might be fabricated (photoshopped physical/printed key).

I wonder how this can happen. Usually mail accounts nowadays require strict security. At least in my country and for newly created accounts. Older accounts might still have weak password - but that should have been noticed from an earlier hack ... unless the account had been used pretty rarely (only for GW2 and a small amount of other sites) and only has been discovered lately in a "list" (breach) cause some of the other small sites got hacked and same password used there - unencryptedly stored or a weak password that got brute forced.

Or if the hacker used malware and a keylogger.

All of that might (not sure if there is a paragraph in the rules or ToS) conclude a violation of ToS already - from the account owner ... if they have a rule that says that you have to secure your account and that it is your responsibility if not using safe passwords and getting hacked. It surely is weird that someone aimed straight at the GW2 account though. The mass hacking/abuse of email accounts usually usees them only to send automated spam.

(Had it once in my early days when I was new in the internet. Account got automatically blocked and I could contact the proviader per phone and they unblocked it and I had to reset the password to a safe one.)

Best to print key code mails. And delete them. Or store them locall only. (I still use good old Pop3 downloading mails lol. If the hard drive crashes and I have no backup - they are lost. :D)

Just to clear some things up about your reply, it wasn't only GW2 that was associated to the e-mail, it had a paypal account on it which I got their support to close during this issue. An FF14 account which I got back from SqEnix after talking to support for about an hour and a Runescape account which I got back from Jagex aswell, I had to provide FF14 with similar evidence and they recovered it, strangely enough all Runescape required was proof of membership purchases.

[Damncrits.6074]

On 9/20/2023 at 2:05 AM, Royal Grand Majesty.9852 said:

The interesting thing is, if OP did indeed just share their account with a 'Family/Friend' who turned against them.

How would this 'Family/Friend' have enough evidence to compete with the original account holder?

Theoretically speaking, If I was to share my account with a friend, I wouldn't provide them with all the 'Information of Account Ownership'.

Yet the other individual is able to provide such information.

Something isn't adding up....

If only support would communicate clearly what kind of evidence the other guy has or what kind of evidence they need from me to get this figured out I could provide or try to provide it and we'd be sorted but instead of that I got the response quoted in the post..