Attention players with Compromised Accounts

[Gustave]

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. Due to the timeframe of the account being banned we are unable to determine if the cause was due to compromise. At this time the account will remain banned and we will not be returning access to this account. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

I had no strikes against my account at all.

[setzor]

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. Due to the timeframe of the account being banned we are unable to determine if the cause was due to compromise. At this time the account will remain banned and we will not be returning access to this account. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

I had no strikes against my account at all.

looks like they changed the wording of the "well, we made you wait months in anticipation, but go ahead and bend over for one last good reaming without lube" email. incomprehensible...

[cdgreg]

hacked May 19th, received the e-mail today June 12th.

We have completed our investigation based on the information you provided. At the conclusion of the investigation, we were able to find evidence of the PlayOnline ID being accessed by a third party. Due to this, we were able to fulfill your request for game data restoration and have released the log-in restriction for the PlayOnline ID.
Please log onto Final Fantasy XI and confirm the recovered data.
If there are any issues with the recovered data, please do not reply to this email. For further assistance, please contact the Information Center.

Please be aware that as the recovery request has been fulfilled, we will be unable to process any other game data recovery requests for a compromised account in the future from you, regardless of the reason.
To prevent the account from being compromised, please keep the log-in information safe.

My question is, were they stupid enough to set the PW to what it was when they changed it after the hack? Or do I need to call POL and have them give me a new PW to log in? I'm at work for the next 8 hours

[Aryea]

Despite not having received my email yet for my account, during one of my phonecalls to the POL center, I received my password, and it was in fact changed. If you call them, they'll give you your password to get in, so no worries. However, my account is still- being worked on, so there's a GM chat screen that blocks me from going any further into POL after I login.

[Mystics]

cool ill plan on calling them tomorrow since im off and when u say its being worked on do u mean rollback?

[Purrrfect]

Got my account back at the beginning of last week and checked it just to make sure before I went to the data restore. Talked to SE for a restore around tues/wed, yesterday I got an email saying they couldn't find a 3rd party access and wouldn't restore my account. I told them back in december... and they had my account for half a year just to say "yeah your account info was changed, your character moved, every content id reactivated and then deactivated after everything of value was taken, BUT we can't find a problem here". Man SE phails so hard.

[Syllna]

Got my account back at the beginning of last week and checked it just to make sure before I went to the data restore. Talked to SE for a restore around tues/wed, yesterday I got an email saying they couldn't find a 3rd party access and wouldn't restore my account. I told them back in december... and they had my account for half a year just to say "yeah your account info was changed, your character moved, every content id reactivated and then deactivated after everything of value was taken, BUT we can't find a problem here". Man SE phails so hard.

I too just recieved that email last night... here's to hoping that was an error on their part once again....

[Aryea]

When I said it's still being worked on, I did in fact mean the roll-back. Tomorrow will be 1 month since my account was stolen, and Monday will be 1 month since I initiated the roll-back with the POL Call center. Everytime I call I get a different reason as to why it's taking them so long. They did tell me that they proved it was compromised, and they are doing the roll-back. They said some of my chars were deleted or something (mules, not my main chars).

[FFXId00d]

Got my account back at the beginning of last week and checked it just to make sure before I went to the data restore. Talked to SE for a restore around tues/wed, yesterday I got an email saying they couldn't find a 3rd party access and wouldn't restore my account. I told them back in december... and they had my account for half a year just to say "yeah your account info was changed, your character moved, every content id reactivated and then deactivated after everything of value was taken, BUT we can't find a problem here". Man SE phails so hard.

I too just recieved that email last night... here's to hoping that was an error on their part once again....

May I ask a question of clarification? From what I can tell.... you were able to have your account returned to you but when you asked for a "rollback," they denied the request because they did not find 3rd party access? If this is what you mean, people need to stop calling "rollbacks" "Character Restores." I realize SE may use this terminology, but it's a bit confusing.

[Syllna]

May I ask a question of clarification? From what I can tell.... you were able to have your account returned to you but when you asked for a "rollback," they denied the request because they did not find 3rd party access? If this is what you mean, people need to stop calling "rollbacks" "Character Restores." I realize SE may use this terminology, but it's a bit confusing.

Yes thats right, I just got off the phone with them... this was the email i recieved... basically a reworded version of the successful emails

Dear Customer: We would like to give you an update regarding the game data recovery request for a compromised account. We have completed our investigation based on the information you provided. At the conclusion of the investigation we were unable to find any evidence of the PlayOnline ID being accessed by a third party. Due to this, we were unable to fulfill your request for game data restoration. We deeply apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you, and we appreciate your continued use of the PlayOnline services. PlayOnline Information CenterTelephone: (858) 790 - 7529Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Information Center or in-game support. Please do not respond to this email. This email is generated by an automated service.

Seriously wtf.... how can you not find any evidence of the my ID being accessed by a 3rd pt? My CC info was changed, my address on the account was changed, the server i was on was changed, I mean seriously WTF man.... Whats odd is that my character was moved to sylph but its now back on odin without the need to do a world transfer unless i choose to move the mule i made over to hold the items i was left with since i was used as a RMT farm bot. In all i can get about 1/3 of what was stolen back.

When i asked the rep why it wasnt suscessful he told me its POSSIBLY due to how far back i was compromised... I even gave him an exact time and location on when and where i was hacked... I'm terribly dissatisfied about this outcome but if somehow i am compromised once again, IF i get access to my character again and IF i chose to return, i can try another game data recovery but if I do get hacked once more, I'm just calling it quits... 6 months of waiting only to get back less than half of what i was stolen with...

[Azalee]

After I got my character back I was looking into having them do a data rollback, but a)they lock the account for a week and b)the data rollbacks only go back 3 months, and all of my stuff had been sold/dropped before that point in time.

I just took my losses and started farming to buy new shit.

[Purrrfect]

May I ask a question of clarification? From what I can tell.... you were able to have your account returned to you but when you asked for a "rollback," they denied the request because they did not find 3rd party access? If this is what you mean, people need to stop calling "rollbacks" "Character Restores." I realize SE may use this terminology, but it's a bit confusing.

Yes thats right, I just got off the phone with them... this was the email i recieved... basically a reworded version of the successful emails

Dear Customer: We would like to give you an update regarding the game data recovery request for a compromised account. We have completed our investigation based on the information you provided. At the conclusion of the investigation we were unable to find any evidence of the PlayOnline ID being accessed by a third party. Due to this, we were unable to fulfill your request for game data restoration. We deeply apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you, and we appreciate your continued use of the PlayOnline services. PlayOnline Information CenterTelephone: (858) 790 - 7529Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Information Center or in-game support. Please do not respond to this email. This email is generated by an automated service.

Seriously wtf.... how can you not find any evidence of the my ID being accessed by a 3rd pt? My CC info was changed, my address on the account was changed, the server i was on was changed, I mean seriously WTF man.... Whats odd is that my character was moved to sylph but its now back on odin without the need to do a world transfer unless i choose to move the mule i made over to hold the items i was left with since i was used as a RMT farm bot. In all i can get about 1/3 of what was stolen back.

When i asked the rep why it wasnt suscessful he told me its POSSIBLY due to how far back i was compromised... I even gave him an exact time and location on when and where i was hacked... I'm terribly dissatisfied about this outcome but if somehow i am compromised once again, IF i get access to my character again and IF i chose to return, i can try another game data recovery but if I do get hacked once more, I'm just calling it quits... 6 months of waiting only to get back less than half of what i was stolen with...

I'm waiting on hold right now in the exact same situation. I even asked when I first got my account back if they could restore since it was over 3 months back, and the guy said they could. And now them dragging ass for half a year keeps us from the restore designed specifically for this case? SE as a whole = /facepalm. I did see I could log back into my account last night, but didn't go to the game and see what server I was on, guess I could check that. Would be some sly shit if they moved us back, but then "oh we can't restore, fuck off".

edit: They moved me back to my server w/o the restore...

[FFXId00d]

Thank you for clarification. I suppose, my attitude toward getting my account back has been hopeful thus far, despite the fact that I understand there will be little or no gear left on the character. I suppose I'd simply be grateful for getting my account itself back.

With regards to not being able to do a roll-back, you are correct. There is a misconception about SE's attitudes regarding this process. I believe SE's goal regarding "compromised accounts" is merely to restore them to the owner, not to do anything to assist that person other than help them to establish new billing information. Due to that, they will happily grant you possesion of your account because not doing so will result in you contacting your bank/credit card company and telling them the charges are not yours. This would result in less money for SE since the RMT are unlikely to pay for the account.

It is odd, however, that they would give you access to your account (restore your access if you will) admitting that the account had been "compromised." only to turn around and say there is no evidence your account information was "compromised" due to third party information. Perhaps this is why SE chose the term "Compromised" as it is both extremely vague and nuetral.

[Purrrfect]

Thank you for clarification. I suppose, my attitude toward getting my account back has been hopeful thus far, despite the fact that I understand there will be little or no gear left on the character. I suppose I'd simply be grateful for getting my account itself back.

With regards to not being able to do a roll-back, you are correct. There is a misconception about SE's attitudes regarding this process. I believe SE's goal regarding "compromised accounts" is merely to restore them to the owner, not to do anything to assist that person other than help them to establish new billing information. Due to that, they will happily grant you possesion of your account because not doing so will result in you contacting your bank/credit card company and telling them the charges are not yours. This would result in less money for SE since the RMT are unlikely to pay for the account.

It is odd, however, that they would give you access to your account (restore your access if you will) admitting that the account had been "compromised." only to turn around and say there is no evidence your account information was "compromised" due to third party information. Perhaps this is why SE chose the term "Compromised" as it is both extremely vague and nuetral.

“Account Recovery” involves returning a compromised account to the original registrant of the account.

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.

They do not say restore, and there are 2 different recoveries. Fixing a compromised account is not limited just to letting you access your account again.

I don't see a misconseption, other than by "service" they mean to help their customers, which is so slow it is almost useless, and even when its done its prone to being incomplete for those who initially brought about this concern.

[FFXId00d]

“Account Recovery” involves returning a compromised account to the original registrant of the account.

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.

They do not say restore, and there are 2 different recoveries. Fixing a compromised account is not limited just to letting you access your account again.

I don't see a misconseption, other than by "service" they mean to help their customers, which is so slow it is almost useless, and even when its done its prone to being incomplete for those who initially brought about this concern.[/quote]

Within the first sentence of your post you identify three different terms. "Restore, Recovery, and fix." I'm struggling to see what you're trying to say. "The 2 different recoveries are: ......." might help me understand what you're trying to say. With regard to fixing... you do realize it's a completely SEPERATE process from the actual recovery correct? Likely you are talking about a process that goes through entirely different people at SE. Yes, the two processes are tied a good portion of the time, but you should realize that from a beuracratic perspective, they are different tasks likely performed by different people.

[Purrrfect]

I think we are meaning the same thing. Yes, 2 parts, and different groups handling sounds reasonable. They would both be under "Customer Service", which I was so slow that some of us are no longer eligible for part B, because they took half of a year to do part A.

I got through to POL support a little bit ago, and they also told me they couldn't perform a data recovery. It was funny, first they said 'yeah we could not find 3rd party access' and then after I pointed out about the fact they changed my infos/password, reactivated every content id, worldshifted the lot of them, and stripped every one of value and then cancelled them all, they changed their story to 'it was too long ago, we can't recover your data'. So basically the end result is they turned the account back over because they know it wouldn't be used anymore if they hadn't and they want to get all the money they can out of me. Its a no-loss situation for them, where as we get the joy of losing our accounts, having our shit taken, and then they can act like they are coming to the rescue when all they are doing is trying to make another buck on an otherwise useless account at that point.

I suppose the moral is to not go to any website, since there will always be a new hole for assholes to exploit. And you can't rely on the stored password to be safe (example = me). Trust no one?

[Mystics]

Could try to convince them even though we know what the outcome would be.. Purrrfect I know u was in the same RMT ls my charecter was in that could be a little something to show SE.. thx to Daniel doing some SS's it could be usefull... the SS even have a GM in the pic.. check the the big hacked charecter forum under Page 17 u can see every charecter was wearing rare/ex gear and it was stated a few pages before they went to DA to camp fafnir..

That sucks only way id be happy is to find 400mil on my charecter if its naked its gonna suck logging into a naked charecter after 4 yrs has been put on it.. What sucks even more is that they had the power to restore it when it was reported stolen... Btw has anybody in the December hackings that recently got their account back did they go through a rollback that put everything back on?

[ronin sparthos]

As of 3:30 EST PM today i got my account back finally with the restoral completely and besides the loss of Marduk's Shalwar (need the 15 again) and Denali Kecks (got right before i was hacked) i have all of my items. The character restoral was a complete success. (besides having to have GM unjail me off POL and waiting 2hours on POLs phonelines to process a chargeback...)

6 months yet the battle protect my account anew begins....

Paranoia... i feel like a rape victim ~.~

Good Luck everyone, im still pulling for everyone affected - my paranoia towards this issue will keep me here checking on everyone else.

[KittyFantastico]

Random-esque question for those folks who have successfully gotten access to their character AND a character roll back... my account was compromised one week before the lovely security updates -- and I was wondering how exactly the character roll back works? Do they only have specific dates they roll back to (ie, backing up characters once a month, they go back to that date) or are they able to restore to the specific time you lost the character?

The biggest question I have, specifically, is delivery box. With the stupid mog bonanza marbles, I had been running on very little open inventory, which was especially challenging considering i was working on levelling up my dancer when it happened (which was about 20ish) ~ so I had been dboxing some of my items to myself when I changed jobs (things like elemental staves mostly)... I can see how they could easily not consider the inbox on a character rollback, focusing on gobbie bag, safe, locker, storage; I was just wondering what to expect if I manage to successfully complete this process.

I haven't been hounding them on the phone yet, but given how lovely the update sounds, I might start soon. The rep I talked to on the phone when I reported it told me he'd seen it take anywhere from 1 week to 4 months; and I'm trying to be patient given that it's only been two weeks so far, but four months is kind of a scary maximum time given the notes people just have been posting in this thread recently about the rollbacks only going back 3 months. ><

[cdgreg]

Random-esque question for those folks who have successfully gotten access to their character AND a character roll back... my account was compromised one week before the lovely security updates -- and I was wondering how exactly the character roll back works? Do they only have specific dates they roll back to (ie, backing up characters once a month, they go back to that date) or are they able to restore to the specific time you lost the character?

The biggest question I have, specifically, is delivery box. With the stupid mog bonanza marbles, I had been running on very little open inventory, which was especially challenging considering i was working on levelling up my dancer when it happened (which was about 20ish) ~ so I had been dboxing some of my items to myself when I changed jobs (things like elemental staves mostly)... I can see how they could easily not consider the inbox on a character rollback, focusing on gobbie bag, safe, locker, storage; I was just wondering what to expect if I manage to successfully complete this process.

I haven't been hounding them on the phone yet, but given how lovely the update sounds, I might start soon. The rep I talked to on the phone when I reported it told me he'd seen it take anywhere from 1 week to 4 months; and I'm trying to be patient given that it's only been two weeks so far, but four months is kind of a scary maximum time given the notes people just have been posting in this thread recently about the rollbacks only going back 3 months. ><

They appear to roll back to the most recent "legit" /logout. As for dbox in the e-mail they send you they specifically say we can not guarentee anything you had in your dbox. Lastly as to hounding them I think it's pretty pointless, POL outsources the roll back/investigation to a different department and doesn't know anything about the status. Took me between 3-4 weeks for the roll back.