Attention players with Compromised Accounts

[Kalisa]

I hit up the POL webchat not because of a hacking, but because I wanted to unlink a POL ID from an Xbox Live gamertag. We got into a side conversation when I got someone FOUR HOURS LATER, and apparently the best reason anyone can come up with for SE not requiring a security question is "but then people would call because they forgot their security question."

No, seriously. I had the transcript mailed back to me when I was done:

You have been connected to (Support Guy).
Support Guy: Hello, thank you for contacting the PlayOnline Information Center. Just a few moments while I review your question, please.
Support Guy: You need to get your ID unlinked from the gamertag, correct?
Me: Yes.
Support Guy: For security reasons, we are unable to address your account issues without first verifying your identification. Please respond with the following information:
Support Guy: PlayOnline ID
Full Real Name
Birthdate
Complete Mailing Address
PlayOnline Registration Code
Current Credit Card information, first 4 and last 4 digits only.
Me: [insert full verification info here]
Support Guy: Okay, one moment. I'm getting it unlinked for you.
Me: Why are wait times so bad today? I've had this chat window open for nearly four hours.
Support Guy: Well, let's just say it's best to play on console right now. There was a hole discovered in Flash Player that allowed people to access your PC using flash ads.
Me: I'm aware. My PC had the hack, but I'm not an idiot like most people and clean my crap off when I get weird error messages.
Me: So everyone's slamming support today over that then? SE/PoL should really require you to answer a security question when you want to change your password...
Support Guy: That would be a good idea, unfortunately we would likely get calls from people who forgot their security questions.
Support Guy: On another note, the gamertag has been unlinked. You're all set.
Me: Would you rather get 5 calls a day from forgetful people or 500 calls a day from people who got hacked... really, I'd appreciate it if this suggestion could get passed up the chain
Me: ok well, thanks, enjoy your overload
Support Guy: If you want the suggestion to go somewhere, you would have to use the form on the site.
Support Guy: Any suggestions to the reps here don't really go anywhere.
Support Guy: The website bypasses America altogether, though. They go straight to Japan.
Me: lol, sounds like an awesome job when the management doesn't care what you (or we) have to say. Anyway, thanks, goodbye~
Support Guy: Thank you for visiting PlayOnline Chat support! Take care and hope to see you online!
Thank you for visiting our PlayOnline Chat line. Take care and hope to see you online!

So, everyone really needs to find whatever channels they can find for suggestions to Playonline and slam them with demands for a security question; asking support reps to pass your suggestions along does nothing for you, and if there's enough demand, it could get fixed. Maybe. :\

[ronin sparthos]

Thats a silly excuse because SE already requires you to have your POL codes but they cant squeeze in room for a security question which you should have to answer before getting a World Transfer.

Alot of this bottlenecking is happening because SE not only has to do Game Data Recoveries but also pay back money for fraudulent World Transfers.

Simply temp close the World Transfer Service until a security question -> email system can be setup or a simple:

'you have to call in the POL center in order to transfer, providing the POL codes located in the manual only the owner of the account should have.'

Its not without flaws, but it beats having to undo the chaos of RMT getting accounts banned while selling gil on legit accounts and refunding tons of money that never should have been taken in the first place.

[Regal]

Not sure if this is the right place for this post, but...
If I use "Dell PC Restore by Symantec" to restore my computer to "factory state," should I be worried about any malicious files (such as smart.dll) remaining on my pc? I wasn't really sure if "Dell PC Restore by Symantec" is the same thing as a formatting process or not...

[grover]

Not sure if this is the right place for this post, but...
If I use "Dell PC Restore by Symantec" to restore my computer to "factory state," should I be worried about any malicious files (such as smart.dll) remaining on my pc? I wasn't really sure if "Dell PC Restore by Symantec" is the same thing as a formatting process or not...

I'm not a computer security wiz (apparent by my compromised account), but I don't believe that would get rid of any virus/malware.

[Tlieaxu]

well since I used to work for Dell I guess I can answer that for you lol.

Yes it formats everything. It will clear everything except boot sector viruses which well need to be done a whole different way, but boot sector viruses aren't really used much anymore for anything.

update about Nyphani's account SE still useless, still waiting since Dec 17th..
a RL friend of ours has also been hacked Gakun of Titan on between last Wednessday and Sunday.

Also I had my account back in April? I forget now. Still have not recieved refund for charges that were not mine. Has anyone got refunded? They claimed it may take a month, but it's well past that.

[Vauce]

Also I had my account back in April? I forget now. Still have not recieved refund for charges that were not mine. Has anyone got refunded? They claimed it may take a month, but it's well past that.

I got that run around from SE too, so I just bypassed them and went straight through my bank (US Bank) and got the funds placed back into my account in 3 days (filed fraudulent charge claims). My two chars on Diabolos are still MIA, nothing from SE since March.

[Purrrfect]

Also I had my account back in April? I forget now. Still have not recieved refund for charges that were not mine. Has anyone got refunded? They claimed it may take a month, but it's well past that.

I got that run around from SE too, so I just bypassed them and went straight through my bank (US Bank) and got the funds placed back into my account in 3 days (filed fraudulent charge claims). My two chars on Diabolos are still MIA, nothing from SE since March.

When I called back in about getting a data restore after I got my account back I asked them because they threw up a charge for Jan when the RMT had it. Rep said after they restore it, it can be refunded... IF they find it was compromised or something.

[Bungee]

Also I had my account back in April? I forget now. Still have not recieved refund for charges that were not mine. Has anyone got refunded? They claimed it may take a month, but it's well past that.

I got that run around from SE too, so I just bypassed them and went straight through my bank (US Bank) and got the funds placed back into my account in 3 days (filed fraudulent charge claims). My two chars on Diabolos are still MIA, nothing from SE since March.

I did the same. I went through my credit card company after SE didn't do anything about the World Transfer that was done by the people that took my account. They said they would investigate it, but I never heard anything from them after 2 months. It has been about 4 months now, and I still haven't heard a word from them....

[Regal]

Is the file smart.dll a malicious file no matter where it is found? I did a search and there is a smart.dll file @ C:\Program Files\Dell Support Center\HWDiag\bin.

[Jeny]

Is the file smart.dll a malicious file no matter where it is found? I did a search and there is a smart.dll file @ C:\Program Files\Dell Support Center\HWDiag\bin.

I found this file on my Dell laptop but not in the system directory, it's in the Dell/support directory ( if I remember well, I'm at work atm ). I didn't log on FFXI last night on my laptop and didn't bother with the file since it's not in the system directory. Should I get rid of it ? I never use the Dell Support Center anyway... lol

After reading this topic I did a search and found the same file as you

C:\Program Files\Dell Support Center\HWDiag\bin\smart.dll.

Scanned it with AVG and Macaffe and they said it was safe, I use firefox and no script so if this is the problem file i don't know how it got on my machine.

Anyone know if this is the same thing or nothing to worry about?

There are several legitimate smart.dll's out there. Windowblinds, RivaTuner, and some programs which check the status/monitor your hdds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T use it.

[Regal]

Is the file smart.dll a malicious file no matter where it is found? I did a search and there is a smart.dll file @ C:\Program Files\Dell Support Center\HWDiag\bin.

I found this file on my Dell laptop but not in the system directory, it's in the Dell/support directory ( if I remember well, I'm at work atm ). I didn't log on FFXI last night on my laptop and didn't bother with the file since it's not in the system directory. Should I get rid of it ? I never use the Dell Support Center anyway... lol

After reading this topic I did a search and found the same file as you

C:\Program Files\Dell Support Center\HWDiag\bin\smart.dll.

Scanned it with AVG and Macaffe and they said it was safe, I use firefox and no script so if this is the problem file i don't know how it got on my machine.

Anyone know if this is the same thing or nothing to worry about?

There are several legitimate smart.dll's out there. Windowblinds, RivaTuner, and some programs which check the status/monitor your hdds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T use it.

Went ahead and checked the wiki site, but I can't figure out if the file in question is a problem or not. I guess I'm not technical enough to make sense of the site.

[Ramuh2]

Dear Customer,

We appreciate your patience while we continue to investigate your compromised account claim. At this time, due to the information you have provided us, we are able to verify that you are the original registrant of the account in question. Currently, the account in question is set to a ?Banned? status. After additional investigation we will not be reversing the decision and the account will not be released. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Thank you


I am confounded...

[Manalek]

wow "not reversing"? man that really bites. i got that same email minus the "not reversing" part. just got my account back a few days ago. had it locked for another week while they attempt the character rollback thingy...

[banhero]

Dear Customer,

We appreciate your patience while we continue to investigate your compromised account claim. At this time, due to the information you have provided us, we are able to verify that you are the original registrant of the account in question. Currently, the account in question is set to a ?Banned? status. After additional investigation we will not be reversing the decision and the account will not be released. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Thank you


I am confounded...

got the same e-mail. not very mad about not being able to play (game wore off me a long time ago, but i wanted my character back anyways), just the incredibly lackluster job they did. -- five months of waiting, jumping through flaming hoops and general annoyance to receive this shit. i wish i were insane enough to go around popping se employees off with a shotgun or something because it'd feel very gratifying right about now.

anyways, congratulations to those of you who got/are getting their accounts back.

[UnknownGamer]

Not sure a security question for a PW change would solve the biggest of problems. That's while people are sleeping (it's like 3am to 6am in the U.S.) the hackers are logging in and doing server transfers or mailing all the valuables off. You still wake up the next morning and account needs a rollback. The PW change isn't the problem.

However, a security question prompted just by logging in from a different IP would be a pretty good move as long as it's not asked when you try to log in at your original IP. Maybe someone on dial-up can click off that option for their account. Forcing the hacker to log in through your computer (as if by proxy) would be a lot harder.

[Purrrfect]

Not sure a security question for a PW change would solve the biggest of problems. That's while people are sleeping (it's like 3am to 6am in the U.S.) the hackers are logging in and doing server transfers or mailing all the valuables off. You still wake up the next morning and account needs a rollback. The PW change isn't the problem.

However, a security question prompted just by logging in from a different IP would be a pretty good move as long as it's not asked when you try to log in at your original IP. Maybe someone on dial-up can click off that option for their account. Forcing the hacker to log in through your computer (as if by proxy) would be a lot harder.

Its not that a security question/verification procedure would keep this from happening, its that said measures would reduce the time SE takes to verify ownership from half a year to a few minutes. This thread wouldn't even exist if SE moved faster than a continent. You'd only have a thread about the virus that caused issues. And SE would be tied up investigating. But they lurve inefficiency...

[UnknownGamer]

Okay, so it's a thing about convenience rather? Losing your password to someone else is a big deal, forgetting your own password a more common nuisance.

If you mean a security question can replace a password, I'd worry about that. A security question is usually easier to crack than a password.

If you don't mean that, then when you lose your password, you still gotta call up SE and give them your original reg info, same thing we do right now. And if you can't do that, it's notary public which can take a week just to reset your PW.

So I don't see where this fits into convenience without being a huge loss of security.

[Mystics]

Dear Customer,

We appreciate your patience while we continue to investigate your compromised account claim. At this time, due to the information you have provided us, we are able to verify that you are the original registrant of the account in question. Currently, the account in question is set to a ?Banned? status. After additional investigation we will not be reversing the decision and the account will not be released. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Have u ever been suspended before? that could be something SE is looking at when under investigation

EDIT: Just got out the chat with a PO rep. Basically my wait continues, but here's my convo I edited a few unnecessary things but asked some questions that could be useful for some readers as myself u can decipher whether they were true statements or lies to get me off the chat ASAP. (BTW it was a 2hr wait from 11:30 to 1:50)

You have been connected to PO Rep.
PO Rep: Hello, thank you for contacting the PlayOnline Information Center. Just a few moments while I review your question, please.
Mystics: wow finally lol
PO Rep: Unfortunately when it comes to investigations, we will not be able to give an ETA as to the status. We will simply email you when it has been completed.
PO Rep: Are there any other issues I can assist you with right now?
Mystics: i wanted to see exactly if I didn't recieve an email
Mystics: bc i've been doing RPT chat for a month then 1 day i called in and I was told an email was sent to the old email
Mystics: and during that month that i was doing the RPT chat every monday nobody didn't tell me anything about an email asking for my ISP was sent
Mystics: I was just seeing if anything has been sent plz check b/c it wouldn't be the first time i hadn't recieved an email when i was supposed to
PO Rep: What is the new email address the email is going to be sent to upon completion of investigation?
Mystics: (email) is that on the account?
PO Rep: Yes.
PO Rep: I show this as the new contact email address.
Mystics: and can u answer me this... once the investiation is over does it come back rolled back? or does it has to go back in locked state for rollback?
PO Rep: The email with further instructions will provide this information.
Mystics: and also could this new wave of hackings prolong my account from being recovered b/c i find it unfair that I've been waiting since Dec 9 and people are getting their accounts back before I am not to mention i replied as soon as the Notary was avaliable well I sent the Notary out March 4th
PO Rep: I cannot say, I do not have this information.
PO Rep: Thank you for your patience.
PO Rep: Are there any other issues I can assist you with right now?
Mystics: i see 1 more thing who does looks at the accounts to get them back to the owners?
PO Rep: We have a team of investigators in Japan.
PO Rep: Are there any other issues I can assist you with right now?
Mystics: but really its rediculous that I've been waiting 6months now since hacked and 3months since notary.. I just want answers
Mystics: no thats all I check on the status everynow and then thx for ur time
PO Rep: Thank you for visiting PlayOnline Chat support! Take care and hope to see you online!
Thank you for visiting our PlayOnline Chat line. Take care and hope to see you online!

[Ike]

Eikechi, stolen February 8, 2008, returned June 9, 2008.

[Dalmbraast]

Dear Customer,

We have verified the information you have provided on the notary form. Our records match the information you have given. Please contact the PlayOnline Information Center for further assistance with your account. We ask that you have the following information ready when you contact us. It is understandable that you may not have everything requested below, however please have the information that you have provided in past conversations with the PlayOnline Information Center.

Name:
DoB:
Address:
PlayOnline Registration code:
First 4 and last 4 digits of the credit card:
Email address that the Notary form was sent to:
Confirmation number of receipt of this email: XXXXXXX

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.

Hacked: Jan 6th, 2008 6:02pm PST. Returned email: June 9th, 2008 1:44pm PST. Five full months later (and it only makes me feel that much worse for those who were hacked in December and are still waiting). After I've got a 70 WoW toon and joined a budding endgame guild and am getting some good gear. Now to decide if, after all this waiting and hassle and verification and notarizing and mailing costs if I really want to support this company. Has anyone who got their character back NOT started playing again?