Attention players with Compromised Accounts

[Ruch]

Yea, we are. You're in the wrong forum. Maybe this is why account recovery has been so slow, they're doing data recovery instead?

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/rule/uacs01.html


Game Data Recovery

If you discover that the game data has sustained any problems due to unauthorized access, please contact the PlayOnline Information Center within 7 days of your account's recovery. Game data may be recovered for customers who fulfill the following two requirements.

* You have not had your game data recovered since April 23, 2008.

*Game data recovery is different from item recovery where you request the return of lost items.

* It is still within 3 months of your account being accessed by an unauthorized third party.

[ Step 1: Contacting Square Enix ]
Please contact the PlayOnline Information Center by telephone. If the line is busy or it is outside of the hours of operation, please contact a GM through a GM call.

[ Step 2: Agree to the Terms For Game Data Recovery ]
You will need to agree to the terms listed below (please read them carefully before contacting the PlayOnline Information Center).


Terms For Game Data Recovery

* By utilizing server backup data, the game data will be returned to its state before your account was accessed by an unauthorized third party.

However, we cannot specify exactly to which point in time the data may be returned. We also cannot return the data to a time designated by the user.

There are cases where, according to certain circumstances, the backup data isn't saved and game data recovery is not possible.

* Game data recovery can only be requested once per customer.
(Multiple accounts can be dealt with on a single recovery request)

* There are cases where your character's name may not be available due to a world transfer or other circumstance where another character with the same name already exists.

* You cannot use the account until the game data recovery has concluded (generally takes about one week).

* If it is discovered that you have made a false game data recovery request, action will be taken according to the PlayOnline User Agreement.
When the recovery work has concluded, we will contact you by e-mail.

Please verify that your registered e-mail address is up to date and is not set as your PlayOnline e-mail address.

* If we cannot find any evidence of unauthorized access through our internal investigation, the game data will not be recovered.


[ Step 3: Wait for Restoration Confirmation E-mail from PlayOnline ]
PlayOnline will contact you by e-mail with the result of the recovery once it has concluded. Recovery generally takes one week, but if you have still not received an e-mail after a week, please contact the PlayOnline Information Center.

[Purrrfect]

Got another email from lolSE just a few hours ago. It was nearly identical to the email they sent around 3/27/08 to a few of us asking for our isp and last login. The first one was from a [email protected], and this one is from a [email protected]. Why they made a whole new email user for this makes absolutley no sense. And asking for the same info over a month later looks a lot like no one there is A) doing anything, or B)not knowing wtf is going on. I'm almost willing to bet it's actually both at this point. At this rate I expect to hear back from them again in mid-June, but that might be giving them too much credit...

[Dalmbraast]

Got reply from SE back.. they have recieved Copy of my driver license, but still not enough infomation for me to get my account back .. they need me sending more shit ( my Social Security Card #, my Credit card, and Bank statement.) now.. I swear to god this is getting too old-.- im just gonna quit..

They shouldn't need to ask for this information from you. I'd personally be leery about giving any banking or social security information to these people. They have your credit card and driver's license, which should give them access to just about any verification information they might need. Anything further seems a bit dodgy to me.

Sucks that they keep creating new hoops for different people to jump through. Lame and a half. I've personally given up on my character. I'd rather play a game I don't like as much (WoW) for a company that seems to care about its players and will restore compromised accounts in fairly short order.

[setzor]

Dear Customer,

We appreciate your patience while we continue to investigate your compromised account claim. At this point we need to collect additional information to help complete our investigation. We apologize for the length of time of our investigation and would like to assure you that we are doing everything possible to resolve this situation for you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Please contact us at 858-790-7529 & Option 1 with additional information (Internet Service Provider) as this will assist us greatly in the investigation of your account.

* Please provide the ISP that you normally used when you had access to the account.

Also, when calling you will need to verify the PlayOnline ID for the compromised account this is regarding.

Thank you

Note: Please do not reply to this email. For all questions or concerns relating to this matter please contact the PlayOnline Information Center by chat or phone.

i already verified that after getting the banned email. what in the fuck...

[Tig]

Same thing here...

Asking the same info.

[grover]

Got another email from lolSE just a few hours ago. It was nearly identical to the email they sent around 3/27/08 to a few of us asking for our isp and last login. The first one was from a [email protected], and this one is from a [email protected]. Why they made a whole new email user for this makes absolutley no sense. And asking for the same info over a month later looks a lot like no one there is A) doing anything, or B)not knowing wtf is going on. I'm almost willing to bet it's actually both at this point. At this rate I expect to hear back from them again in mid-June, but that might be giving them too much credit...

My first email from SE with the notary form attachment was sent from [email protected] (1/30/2008) and my banhammer email came from [email protected] (3/27/2008)...go figure.

And to the person with SE asking for your SSN...I would never in a million years give them that info. I wouldn't give them my drivers license either.

[Raji]

Yeah, either:

a. Some asshole is trying to scam you

or

b. The people at lolSE who are responsible for customer service are well and truly R E T A R D E D beyond all hope

Kinda sad that it seems like a toss-up either way (although I would still be leery of giving out my personal information, ESPECIALLY my SSN and CC#)

[setzor]

Yeah, either:

a. Some asshole is trying to scam you

or

b. The people at lolSE who are responsible for customer service are well and truly R E T A R D E D beyond all hope

Kinda sad that it seems like a toss-up either way (although I would still be leery of giving out my personal information, ESPECIALLY my SSN and CC#)

yea, scam came to mind for me immediately. did you just get an email asking you to fax/email copies of that shit to them?

and worse yet, did you actually send that shit?!

[Hannibal]

Got my email too asking for same information. I called them and the rep told me that the emails were sent in error and that they don't need the information. I asked her if there was anything else that I could do and she said keep calling here once a week and checking your email. F'ING STUPID! No wonder their hold times are so f'ing high. They keep telling people to call the support center for nothing. We don't need to call every week. They don't need to send us an email once a month asking for same information. How many people called when they posted about the new Data recovery thing? I'm sure we were all told the same thing: "your account is still under investigation" after holding for 30 mins - an hour.

[banhero]

some of this shit i'm reading is just ridiculous. they're really asking for copies of your driver license, among other things, now? what the fuck are they thinking? what are they doing? i mean, even for se, the money grubbing failures at life that they are, none of this makes any sense. they don't have any legal liabilities to worry about with their own games content, much less after receiving an officially notarized form. you'd think getting their customers back on the bus and paying their unworthy asses would be something they would give priority. these guys are actually pushing their incompetence to an unbelievable level and the only thing we can do is sit around and take it. that sucks.

[Ravenskye]

Got reply from SE back.. they have recieved Copy of my driver license, but still not enough infomation for me to get my account back .. they need me sending more shit ( my Social Security Card #, my Credit card, and Bank statement.) now.. I swear to god this is getting too old-.- im just gonna quit..

Is all this being done by e-mail? and if it is you might want to call them. Notarized form should have been enough.

[Tlieaxu]

Ya, Nyph got the same "we need information you gave us already email" about ISP. They also told me it was an mistake as well... they are so retarded..

As for that needing all that info to confirm you, I think you really need to call them that looks suspicious. I know in the new restore policy it says they need drivers licence but the rest is really messed up.

[narusegwa]

just got off phone with SE..and the tech chic said they do require those infomation from me, or my account wiill be froze til i give them the infomation, i even asked why they need those infomation if notary form was send to them and i got account back for 2months, se's answer: sorry thats internal infomation, we can not talk about it.. Its totally fucked up -.-.. I'm just gonna quit ffxi and join my friend on wow..

[Postal]

Dear Customer, We appreciate your patience while we continue to investigate your compromised account claim. At this point we need to collect additional information to help complete our investigation. We apologize for the length of time of our investigation and would like to assure you that we are doing everything possible to resolve this situation for you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding in this matter. Please contact us at 858-790-7529 & Option 1 with additional information (Internet Service Provider) as this will assist us greatly in the investigation of your account. * Please provide the ISP that you normally used when you had access to the account. Also, when calling you will need to verify the PlayOnline ID for the compromised account this is regarding. Thank you Note: Please do not reply to this email. For all questions or concerns relating to this matter please contact the PlayOnline Information Center by chat or phone.

Is this a good sign, or one of many ways that SE tells you , "your screwed"??

[Purrrfect]

Dear Customer, We appreciate your patience while we continue to investigate your compromised account claim. At this point we need to collect additional information to help complete our investigation. We apologize for the length of time of our investigation and would like to assure you that we are doing everything possible to resolve this situation for you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding in this matter. Please contact us at 858-790-7529 & Option 1 with additional information (Internet Service Provider) as this will assist us greatly in the investigation of your account. * Please provide the ISP that you normally used when you had access to the account. Also, when calling you will need to verify the PlayOnline ID for the compromised account this is regarding. Thank you Note: Please do not reply to this email. For all questions or concerns relating to this matter please contact the PlayOnline Information Center by chat or phone.

Is this a good sign, or one of many ways that SE tells you , "your screwed"??

Check the last 2 pages.

[Raji]

Is this a good sign, or one of many ways that SE tells you , "your screwed"??

On the off chance that this is an honest question and I'm not being whooshed...
My money would be on SE trying to build your hopes up, again, so they can mercilessly crush them, AGAIN
It's like something out of a fucking sitcom.

[setzor]

Is this a good sign, or one of many ways that SE tells you , "your screwed"??

On the off chance that this is an honest question and I'm not being whooshed...
My money would be on SE trying to build your hopes up, again, so they can mercilessly crush them, AGAIN
It's like something out of a fucking sitcom.

especially for those of us stolen for over 5 months now.... 5 goddamn months...

1st month- understandable if it's a large influx of compromised accounts at once.
2nd month- still somewhat understandable seeing that first month happened during the major holidays, but still very lame.
3rd month- becoming rediculous, especially because most of us already sent in our notarized forms which prove who we are.
4th month- absolutely rediculous, borderline retardation, and blatant disregard for customer service to loyal fans.
5th month- complete retardation and complete dismissal of customer appreciation/service... given up all hope of any redemption by the company.

And at this point, I don't care if they give the account back anymore...and the only thing i miss the most are all those manhours I WASTED on the game to build up a pointless virtual character. People say they play for the "friends", but when you get hacked, they will give an "aw that sucks" but continue on their merry way like you never played to begin with. So yeah, I'm done, I have nothing to come back to anyway.

[Dalmbraast]

I got this email myself today. I'm going to call them when I get home from work here, but unless they're going to give me a game data restore (which I KNOW they have access to, as how would they be investigating an account they don't have information for... though after reading that sentence, I realized that it IS SE, afterall...) I don't really want to give them money. Do I still want to play the game? Hell yeah, but not with a stripped character. Screw that.

EDIT:

Just spoke with a rep called Christine. Gave her my ISP info, blahblahblah, still have to wait, she doesn't know if this means it's near the end or not. However, something I did ask was whether or not I would qualify for a game data restore, as I'd been hacked for longer than 3 months. She told me (with confidence and no hesitation, so I think their keeping it on the downlow and not announcing it) that people can request a game data restore for as far back as November of 2007, but that's as far as they can go. With the wide variety of rep information, who knows if this is true or not, but there it is.

Against my better judgement, I have hope. I'm sure it'll still be another month before I hear back again. And at this point, I need to decide whether I want to still play or not. Heh.

[PrincessMinnet]

I don't know why I keep hoping SE will do SOMETHING...ANYTHING redeeming in all of this. For those lucky people who did get their accounts back, congrats for everyone else...do we want to give these assholes any MORE of our time and money? I mean come on. It is NOT that hard to check the logs to see that the ISP's it was on after being reported stolen arent event the same damn country. It's NOT that hard to give the rightful person access to the account again. AND it's NOT that hard to restore the account to the MOMENT it was compromised. SE simply doesn't care enough to do these things. As for being like a freaking sit-com....at least Sit-Coms are funny.

[ronin sparthos]

I don't know why I keep hoping SE will do SOMETHING...ANYTHING redeeming in all of this. For those lucky people who did get their accounts back, congrats for everyone else...do we want to give these assholes any MORE of our time and money? I mean come on. It is NOT that hard to check the logs to see that the ISP's it was on after being reported stolen arent event the same damn country. It's NOT that hard to give the rightful person access to the account again. AND it's NOT that hard to restore the account to the MOMENT it was compromised. SE simply doesn't care enough to do these things. As for being like a freaking sit-com....at least Sit-Coms are funny.

Yeah, it'll come down to if the players whose accounts they've held for months are eligible for even a partial restoration to see if they ultimately fail at something so simple. I still cant get a straight answer outta SE. They did have possession of the accounts so they cant exactly pull the 'we dont know if your screwing us' card.