Account stolen last night at 2:53 AM EST

[ronin sparthos]

I want to fire off two letters to SEs General Headquarters, while it usually holds true that lower ranking employees usually dont care for much more than keeping a job - perhaps if i get someone from slightly higher up the food chain to read about how SE treats someone that is a long standing fan and buyer of all things 'Final Fantasy' that something might compel them to address issues like this differently....

Meh, writing a letter is easy but hoping i dont get form lettered back is the main reason i havent already fired off two priority letters to California and Japan ~.~

[Sonomaa]

I have a detective from the Florida Police Department on this case. I'm getting a subpeona issued to me when my police report is filed.

This person will pay. There's no fking way in hell I'm giving up 4 years of work, and I'm not quitting till this person is punished for their crimes.

they are in wajoam woods right now, time to go hunting

[Sonomaa]

found you
http://sonomaa.com/images/andrene.jpg

edit: ran my ass around chasing you in wajom on WHM then besieged on monk then back to whitegate, caught you leaving the mog house, strange subjob combo there, especially with no gear

[Secksi]

This actually happened to someone in my linkshell a while back as well, he also got a subpeona and is still trying to get his account back. Last I heard he expects to have it back by the end of the year.

All we know is he got moved to Leviathan(hi a bunch of other jacked accounts). Dunno what his name was change to though. Anyone remember any Dring/Haut/Mbody/etc Pld's showing up in the last couple months on Levi? lol

[Eggroll]

Damn, swampdonkey got his account jacked? ; ;

[ronin sparthos]

ugh.....

Who knows what irreversible damage has been done to the character now...

[Ahnuld]

GDI I'm sorry to see this happening... I hope to god you get your account a lot sooner than later. gd se

-Junyi

[Okuza]

Find the person that can say "Yes". I think you have only talked to people who can't use that word. They have no other option except saying "No". Until you find the one that can use that magic word, you're wasting your time with flunkies. Insist on speaking to a manager when someone says "No". Keep climbing up the ladder.

If you think this might go to court -- and it sounds possible -- get a tape recorder for all calls you make regarding this issue; not just calls to SE, but to others like the police, too. Always ask for the person's full name, position, and manager's name before you actually get down to business. Let them know the call is being recorded, too!

BTW, since you'll be recording things, be very polite, but insistent. If they prevaricate or start ranting at you, you win big when it comes to perception of wrongdoing.

Got $50k? That's about what it would cost to hire a lawyer for this. SE is counting on you not being able to afford that. If you win or settle, costs should be recoverable; ie. SE would have to pay your lawyer and court fees.

[LinktheDeme]

Couldn't there be some way to plot this against SE and say they reason they have such bullshit tactics to counter this is because they too are in on it to sell the gil for real life money?

[sleekmotorwurkz]

Damn that sucks Sorry that happened to you. I think its complete bullshit that they go by the current CC info ONLY. Thats the first fucking thing they change when people get hacked.

On the other hand, if they let you use past CC info, whats to stop people from selling their account to rmt, then calling SE and giving their old cc info and taking it back? Hmm i can see how that would be a problem, they would rather keep the rmt happy then protect their loyal players.

[Izzy]

Damn that sucks Sorry that happened to you. I think its complete bullshit that they go by the current CC info ONLY. Thats the first fucking thing they change when people get hacked.

On the other hand, if they let you use past CC info, whats to stop people from selling their account to rmt, then calling SE and giving their old cc info and taking it back? Hmm i can see how that would be a problem, they would rather keep the rmt happy then protect their loyal players.

How is that a problem?

Bet you people wouldn't fucking buy accounts anymore that's for sure. If anything it's a counter-RMT measure.

[Sodaru]

I would like to add my account to the list who was stolen...Sodaru, Dietsoda(mule), Cherrysoda(mule), Orangesoda(mule) and Silvos(mule). They were all stolen, moved to Asura, and sold geer. It appears that they're using my seals and everything...someone on Asura please lookout for Sodaru and track them out ; ;...

Yahoo: Dragonz12345
AIM: Blazerdragon00
MSN: [email protected]

[Jeny]

I would like to add my account to the list who was stolen...Sodaru, Dietsoda(mule), Cherrysoda(mule), Orangesoda(mule) and Silvos(mule). They were all stolen, moved to Asura, and sold geer. It appears that they're using my seals and everything...someone on Asura please lookout for Sodaru and track them out ; ;...

Yahoo: Dragonz12345
AIM: Blazerdragon00
MSN: [email protected]

When did this happen?

[deadzee]

Hey Jeny,

Really sorry to see this happen to you...I know exactly how big of pricks SE can be...I recently just got my account back (BARELY) but I did. When I 'quit' I gave my account to a friend, and at a point, he quit too, so I decided to let chronos/almanie use it. After that..Almanie gave it to fed and they shared it. And they didn't want to give it back. So I Just kept calling SE everyday until I had a good customer service guy (Daniel) and he was able to get his manager to look into it and freeze my account. That was the only way Fed would cooperate and give me my account back, with some sweet talking.

All in all though, keep calling until you get Daniel, he was the only one out of like 8 that helped @_@

Good luck and I'm sorry ; ;

[Xrave]

On the other hand, if they let you use past CC info, whats to stop people from selling their account to rmt, then calling SE and giving their old cc info and taking it back? Hmm i can see how that would be a problem, they would rather keep the rmt happy then protect their loyal players.

You're not supposed to sell your account in the first place, so this wouldn't be an issue.
Past CC info or registration codes.

[Tsukuyomi]

Hello, I'm posting because the same thing happened on Sunday night to my boyfriend - we saw his character logged running around to delivery NPCs, but the password was changed and we couldn't do anything about it. Since it was late night information center wasn't working. I think the credit card info was changed on a second time, since I saw the account logged on again, but only on POL, some hours later... anyway as you can guess, Square doesn't want to reset password for him since we don't have "all of our current info".

I talked to about 6 customer service people, 4 on web chat and 2 on phone I think?, two of them were relatively nice but the others were really horrible -_- They kept saying there is nothing to do at all even when I asked about legal means. Only one of them actually mentioned the subpoena thing.

Anyway, the character name is Toyer, from Ragnarok. Has PLD NIN WAR SAM DRK WHM BLM BRD BLU and MNK 75 and another couple jobs over 60, hume M with reddish hair. I actually can't find any trace of the character atm, none of his items have been sold on Ragnarok AH by suspicious names and I have no idea if he was server shifted. If any of you see a character that might be his it would be awesome if you could let me know


Good luck Jeny with your account, I guess we'll try to get a subpoena issued too >_<

[ronin sparthos]

Am i the only one noticing the new upward trend in account thefts?

[Mici]

Man everytime I read one of these I log in just to make sure I am still there

Think SE could fix this by making someone verify something like last 4 of current CC or current address, maybe birth day on the account before you can view or change any info

would be a lil bit of a pest but only when you are changing things and thats rare for me

then only you could change the PW after someone gets into the account

[Spekkio]

USB keys are an old technique for 2 stage authentication requiring not only "what you know" but "what you have." sell the keys as a service. extra buck a month as "insurance" as well as 10 bucks for the key itself (or whatever would price it as a profit.) i'd imagine a large number of players would purchase that service, which would not only reduce support call costs but increase revenue by selling a new service. in addition, SE could add another tier of security by examining "where you are." make it an option on an account (since some people share across continents) requiring phoning a registered phone number in the system before anyone can log in from another geographic region or alternatively change cc/password info. if an account thief can't get their hands on your phone (which they can't, i'm sure) they'd be unable to make off with the account. there are myriad ways to protect accounts, SE merely needs to examine more reliable account protection schemes. a password is known to be paper thin security and very possible to circumvent. the greatest game or system in the world is useless if users can't rely on it, and a gaping security hole doesn't lend that trust.

[Pyree]

This exact same thing just happened to my best friend about a week ago, and he has still been unable to get his account back. We both started while in high school, and we've been playing together for almost four years now, so I'm quite upset that his account is gone. He's gone for the weekend, but I'll make sure to direct him to this thread when he gets back. I'll go ahead and post whatever information I have now.

The account was hacked shortly before Friday, November 30, at 12:30am. This is when I received the phone call from him asking if it was me that kept kicking him off the game. I guarantee you that I am the only other person that had his account info, and he had no programs besides Windower. His password and credit card info were changed, just like for everyone else. All of his expensive stuff, which wasn't very much, mind you, was sold directly off his main character. I'm not sure if his character has jumped servers, but I do know that as of December 1 it is no longer on Carbuncle. I've done a friend search through PlayOnline and found no results on any server for any of his character names. Characters on this account include:

Lilpetah, PLD75, Rare/EX gear: Valor body and feet, Aegisjahlmr, Bomb Queen Ring
Danyori, NIN75, Rare/EX gear: Koga legs and feet, not much on this character
Telala, Marid, Lahotsie, Zukon, Kailie: His mules

In-game character models:

Lilpetah
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...e/lilpetah.jpg

Danyori
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y229/Pyree/danyori.jpg

Please try to keep an eye out for them on another server if they are going by a new name...

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention this, but when I spoke with a representative online, they actually told me that they care only about accounts, not the people behind them.