OmaliMMO Business CorrespondentMemberUncommonPosts: 1,177
Originally posted by JoeyMMO
Originally posted by Omali
" I have been banned for no reason whatsoever. "
Usually around this point you know the OP did something that they aren't admitting to.
How's that? Is that something you'd do or something? People that work for Blizzard can't make mistakes? What with that attitude? Because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it won't. At least give people the benefit of the doubt.
Because I've worked as a GM for several MMOs, and the exact same people we banned for everything under the sun, buying/selling gold, spamming in local/area chat, harassing other players, shouting racist words, cheating, etc, would come on to MMORPG.com or other sites and scream about how they did nothing wrong, all they wanted to do was buy a game which they enjoyed except for the poor customer service, how we were all corrupt, overzealous, etc.
After a while you start to notice patterns that most of them follow when they write up their 3rd party forum complaint, and OP's follows it exactly. It's hard to give the benefit of the doubt when you've personally warned three times, then banned someone for running through an in-game town screaming the N-word over and over to have them go on the forums and complain that they were banned for "no reason."
" I must have been the one responsible for having done something wrong, and say I told you I didn't. "
Your account's safety is your responsibility, so unless they get your password by cracking Blizzard's database, it is still on your head.
Like I said earlier I also suspect it is an issue with your account being stolen. That doesn't mean it is still not blizzard's customer service at fault here, they have terrible response time and absolutely no secondary measures in place to prevent people from accessing your account.
Well, i'm not a Blizzard defender, i actually kinda hate them for what they did to Diablo, but...
I've never heard of anyone owning an Authenticator and being hacked. It seems to me as the best measure that anyone can take to protect themselves. Probably there were situations of accounts with authenticators hacked, but how many, 10-15 people? I know the thing costs a bit of money, but there's a free version for phones. Not to bash anyone, but the physical version costs under a month's sub. If you buy a 60 bucks game and you love to play it, and gonna play it for a long time, it's worth it. If you consider the game a piece of garbage (as many do), why bother, just let it go.
It would be an inconsequential cost for them to implement even the slightest form of secondary measures on their end. IP checking, a pin system from aion, coin lock from rift, phone verification like google (and like blizzard claims to have until you use it and OH WE DIDNT MEAN THAT ACTUALLY WORKS), email verification, name of your first best friends uncles dogs squeaky toy on new pc connect, name of a character on the account ala guild wars, your birthday ala many websites, locked to your pc only and other PCs you register ala many forms of DRM, really I cannot list all the various things they could do.
I can however say that they are the only company I have dealt with online that does not have any secondary measures on their side. Instead you must buy an authenticator, and then wait for their horrible response time because they don't hire enough CS to deal with the massive amounts of compromised accounts they would otherwise be free of with a little common sense and a tiny investment.
Blizzard is pretty disgusting.
Edit: Please be aware all harshness is directed at blizzard's incompetence, not your rational thought.
Edit2: Glad you got it figured out, be sure to clean your pc thoroughly and it if you used your old pw anywhere else be sure to change it (ideally with a site specific password to each place). Good luck
So, since the universe really seems to love irony, as we've all been going back and forth here, Blizzard did finally decide to get back to me, and I have in fact been completely vindicated. To quote from the reply
@ have been compromised. We found evidence of an exploitive IP accessing your Diablo 3 and using a farming bot while on the Korean servers. That is what triggered the ban on the account when our system detected the bot. I went ahead and removed the ban though since it does appear to be a hacker and I sent a password reset to your registered email. So you should be able to log in now and as far as we could see there was no damage done to your characters, the account was only being used to farm."
I'm mildly let down that my inital thoughts on this having been related to the 1.0.3 changes turned out to be untrue, but can't be right all the time. I am however quite pleased at being able to now turn to everyone who was so convinced that I must have been the one responsible for having done something wrong, and say I told you I didn't. Hey, whaddya know, someone claimed they were telling the truth, and they actually were. Surprising I know...
I'm just happy it worked out for you. Btw, get an authenticator or make a complete clean new e-mail address and password, which you will use only and only for Diablo.
Usually around this point you know the OP did something that they aren't admitting to.
How's that? Is that something you'd do or something? People that work for Blizzard can't make mistakes? What with that attitude? Because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it won't. At least give people the benefit of the doubt.
Well you need to understand that over the years, in multiple forums, we have seen these type of threads pop up. And the more questioning that occurs, the more we begin to see that there WAS a legitimate cause for the ban.
Take this thread for example. It sounds like the guy's account was compromised, not banned. How was it compromised? That is between the scammer, Blizz, and the original poster.
Another example: A SWTOR player wrote that he was banned for simply going to Ilum (high level zone) and being low level. This received a huge uproar on the SWTOR forums and many cried foul. What actually happened was the player was using a powerleveling exploit and was appropriately banned.
Just thought I'd add this in for reference sake. Here is the relevant part of the original e-mail I recieved from Blizz, and why I used the phrase "for no reason whatsoever" which was admittedly a poor choice of words. I suppose that technically they did give me a reason, it just would have been tough for it to have been any more ambiguous if they tried. Plus there's that fun part where they more or less say we have a specific reason, but we can't tell you what it is.
"A user of this account has recently been involved in actions deemed inappropriate for Diablo III by the In-Game Support staff of Blizzard Entertainment. This decision was made after a thorough investigation of the situation as a whole. Though we are unable to discuss the outcomes of our investigations due to privacy concerns, rest assured that this incident has been looked into very thoroughly, and the appropriate actions have been taken on all involved accounts."
I have no inside information on what is happening with D3 or what Blizzard is doing. My interpretation of events are as follows. GM’s are kicking players out of live games, and banning accounts. Blizzard has identified a data packet format as from a malicious intent. I don't believe this data stream will occur naturally in everyday play. The banned player is either actively using malicious software. Or they may be unaware that their machine is in fact a Zombie Computer. See also How Stuff Works Zombie Computer.
All Blizzard games are at high risk for ZC attacks. Because of the massive popularity of Blizzard titles, All websites may be infected in preparation for a Blizzard release. Anti-Virus will not detect it until the infection is identified, or if it is based on a previously identified infection.
I don’t know that this is why the OP was banned, I am only suggest that it might be. As soon as I first heard of the connectivity issues D3 was having, I thought Zombie Denial of Service attack. And these bans sound just like the thing I would do in that case. So long as machines remain infected or continues to be reinfected, players can expect to be banned.
Pardon any spelling errors
Konfess your cyns and some maybe forgiven Boy: Why can't I talk to Him? Mom: We don't talk to Priests. As if it could exist, without being payed for. F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that. It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
So, since the universe really seems to love irony, as we've all been going back and forth here, Blizzard did finally decide to get back to me, and I have in fact been completely vindicated. To quote from the reply
@ have been compromised. We found evidence of an exploitive IP accessing your Diablo 3 and using a farming bot while on the Korean servers. That is what triggered the ban on the account when our system detected the bot. I went ahead and removed the ban though since it does appear to be a hacker and I sent a password reset to your registered email. So you should be able to log in now and as far as we could see there was no damage done to your characters, the account was only being used to farm."
I'm mildly let down that my inital thoughts on this having been related to the 1.0.3 changes turned out to be untrue, but can't be right all the time. I am however quite pleased at being able to now turn to everyone who was so convinced that I must have been the one responsible for having done something wrong, and say I told you I didn't. Hey, whaddya know, someone claimed they were telling the truth, and they actually were. Surprising I know...
Im glad the issue has been resolved for you. We do understand the fustration and quite honoustly I definately understand the need to vent. But when you want people to believe you and get sympathy.. it really comes down to your tone of voice and how you pressent your case.
Lets hope you never have to go through this again.
Yeah, so it's definitely time for a complete security overhaul on the desktop once I get home.
As to how this specific account was compromised, that's difficult to say. It had lain unused for quite a few years after I stopped playing WoW, and somewhere along the line I must have been phished or hacked. Which I find a smidge surprising as I'm generally very careful about that sort of thing. Especially when it comes to e-mails, but it's not easy (or potentially possible) to catch every single piece of potential malware or spyware which crosses your path over what I'm guessing covers a 6-7 year period of time (during which this battle.net account existed) and crosses at least 3 e-mail addresses. And about once every year or two, I do something stupid and inadvertently click on a bad link and pick up a nasty virus.
I am relieved that the whole thing is taken care of now, and I can continue on in my attempts to enjoy a game which so many have such negative opinions of.
Like I said earlier I also suspect it is an issue with your account being stolen. That doesn't mean it is still not blizzard's customer service at fault here, they have terrible response time and absolutely no secondary measures in place to prevent people from accessing your account.
Well, i'm not a Blizzard defender, i actually kinda hate them for what they did to Diablo, but...
I've never heard of anyone owning an Authenticator and being hacked. It seems to me as the best measure that anyone can take to protect themselves. Probably there were situations of accounts with authenticators hacked, but how many, 10-15 people? I know the thing costs a bit of money, but there's a free version for phones. Not to bash anyone, but the physical version costs under a month's sub. If you buy a 60 bucks game and you love to play it, and gonna play it for a long time, it's worth it. If you consider the game a piece of garbage (as many do), why bother, just let it go.
It would be an inconsequential cost for them to implement even the slightest form of secondary measures on their end. IP checking, a pin system from aion, coin lock from rift, phone verification like google (and like blizzard claims to have until you use it and OH WE DIDNT MEAN THAT ACTUALLY WORKS), email verification, name of your first best friends uncles dogs squeaky toy on new pc connect, name of a character on the account ala guild wars, your birthday ala many websites, locked to your pc only and other PCs you register ala many forms of DRM, really I cannot list all the various things they could do.
I can however say that they are the only company I have dealt with online that does not have any secondary measures on their side. Instead you must buy an authenticator, and then wait for their horrible response time because they don't hire enough CS to deal with the massive amounts of compromised accounts they would otherwise be free of with a little common sense and a tiny investment.
Blizzard is pretty disgusting.
Edit: Please be aware all harshness is directed at blizzard's incompetence, not your rational thought.
Edit2: Glad you got it figured out, be sure to clean your pc thoroughly and it if you used your old pw anywhere else be sure to change it (ideally with a site specific password to each place). Good luck
They have free autheticators for smartphones. Also they have the phone text feature if you enable it.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Like I said earlier I also suspect it is an issue with your account being stolen. That doesn't mean it is still not blizzard's customer service at fault here, they have terrible response time and absolutely no secondary measures in place to prevent people from accessing your account.
Well, i'm not a Blizzard defender, i actually kinda hate them for what they did to Diablo, but...
I've never heard of anyone owning an Authenticator and being hacked. It seems to me as the best measure that anyone can take to protect themselves. Probably there were situations of accounts with authenticators hacked, but how many, 10-15 people? I know the thing costs a bit of money, but there's a free version for phones. Not to bash anyone, but the physical version costs under a month's sub. If you buy a 60 bucks game and you love to play it, and gonna play it for a long time, it's worth it. If you consider the game a piece of garbage (as many do), why bother, just let it go.
It would be an inconsequential cost for them to implement even the slightest form of secondary measures on their end. IP checking, a pin system from aion, coin lock from rift, phone verification like google (and like blizzard claims to have until you use it and OH WE DIDNT MEAN THAT ACTUALLY WORKS), email verification, name of your first best friends uncles dogs squeaky toy on new pc connect, name of a character on the account ala guild wars, your birthday ala many websites, locked to your pc only and other PCs you register ala many forms of DRM, really I cannot list all the various things they could do.
I can however say that they are the only company I have dealt with online that does not have any secondary measures on their side. Instead you must buy an authenticator, and then wait for their horrible response time because they don't hire enough CS to deal with the massive amounts of compromised accounts they would otherwise be free of with a little common sense and a tiny investment.
Blizzard is pretty disgusting.
Edit: Please be aware all harshness is directed at blizzard's incompetence, not your rational thought.
Edit2: Glad you got it figured out, be sure to clean your pc thoroughly and it if you used your old pw anywhere else be sure to change it (ideally with a site specific password to each place). Good luck
They have free autheticators for smartphones. Also they have the phone text feature if you enable it.
My understanding is that the phone text feature does not work for diablo 3 at all, and on the games it does work on, it does not alert you until it is already too late.
Like I said earlier I also suspect it is an issue with your account being stolen. That doesn't mean it is still not blizzard's customer service at fault here, they have terrible response time and absolutely no secondary measures in place to prevent people from accessing your account.
Well, i'm not a Blizzard defender, i actually kinda hate them for what they did to Diablo, but...
I've never heard of anyone owning an Authenticator and being hacked. It seems to me as the best measure that anyone can take to protect themselves. Probably there were situations of accounts with authenticators hacked, but how many, 10-15 people? I know the thing costs a bit of money, but there's a free version for phones. Not to bash anyone, but the physical version costs under a month's sub. If you buy a 60 bucks game and you love to play it, and gonna play it for a long time, it's worth it. If you consider the game a piece of garbage (as many do), why bother, just let it go.
It would be an inconsequential cost for them to implement even the slightest form of secondary measures on their end. IP checking, a pin system from aion, coin lock from rift, phone verification like google (and like blizzard claims to have until you use it and OH WE DIDNT MEAN THAT ACTUALLY WORKS), email verification, name of your first best friends uncles dogs squeaky toy on new pc connect, name of a character on the account ala guild wars, your birthday ala many websites, locked to your pc only and other PCs you register ala many forms of DRM, really I cannot list all the various things they could do.
I can however say that they are the only company I have dealt with online that does not have any secondary measures on their side. Instead you must buy an authenticator, and then wait for their horrible response time because they don't hire enough CS to deal with the massive amounts of compromised accounts they would otherwise be free of with a little common sense and a tiny investment.
Blizzard is pretty disgusting.
Edit: Please be aware all harshness is directed at blizzard's incompetence, not your rational thought.
Edit2: Glad you got it figured out, be sure to clean your pc thoroughly and it if you used your old pw anywhere else be sure to change it (ideally with a site specific password to each place). Good luck
They have free autheticators for smartphones. Also they have the phone text feature if you enable it.
My understanding is that the phone text feature does not work for diablo 3 at all, and on the games it does work on, it does not alert you until it is already too late.
Do you even know what a authenticator is? Its not something that would alert you..
Like I said earlier I also suspect it is an issue with your account being stolen. That doesn't mean it is still not blizzard's customer service at fault here, they have terrible response time and absolutely no secondary measures in place to prevent people from accessing your account.
Well, i'm not a Blizzard defender, i actually kinda hate them for what they did to Diablo, but...
I've never heard of anyone owning an Authenticator and being hacked. It seems to me as the best measure that anyone can take to protect themselves. Probably there were situations of accounts with authenticators hacked, but how many, 10-15 people? I know the thing costs a bit of money, but there's a free version for phones. Not to bash anyone, but the physical version costs under a month's sub. If you buy a 60 bucks game and you love to play it, and gonna play it for a long time, it's worth it. If you consider the game a piece of garbage (as many do), why bother, just let it go.
It would be an inconsequential cost for them to implement even the slightest form of secondary measures on their end. IP checking, a pin system from aion, coin lock from rift, phone verification like google (and like blizzard claims to have until you use it and OH WE DIDNT MEAN THAT ACTUALLY WORKS), email verification, name of your first best friends uncles dogs squeaky toy on new pc connect, name of a character on the account ala guild wars, your birthday ala many websites, locked to your pc only and other PCs you register ala many forms of DRM, really I cannot list all the various things they could do.
I can however say that they are the only company I have dealt with online that does not have any secondary measures on their side. Instead you must buy an authenticator, and then wait for their horrible response time because they don't hire enough CS to deal with the massive amounts of compromised accounts they would otherwise be free of with a little common sense and a tiny investment.
Blizzard is pretty disgusting.
Edit: Please be aware all harshness is directed at blizzard's incompetence, not your rational thought.
Edit2: Glad you got it figured out, be sure to clean your pc thoroughly and it if you used your old pw anywhere else be sure to change it (ideally with a site specific password to each place). Good luck
They have free autheticators for smartphones. Also they have the phone text feature if you enable it.
My understanding is that the phone text feature does not work for diablo 3 at all, and on the games it does work on, it does not alert you until it is already too late.
Do you even know what a authenticator is? Its not something that would alert you..
I am well aware of what a phone authenticator is, and have said repeatedly that blizzard should not refer to the calling service as an authenticator because that is not what it does.
edit2: While I agree it is good that they offer the mobile authenticator and the phone app, it seems to me that they very deliberately leave accounts far too vulnerable. As far the motive for doing so, I am not sure.
Like I said earlier I also suspect it is an issue with your account being stolen. That doesn't mean it is still not blizzard's customer service at fault here, they have terrible response time and absolutely no secondary measures in place to prevent people from accessing your account.
Well, i'm not a Blizzard defender, i actually kinda hate them for what they did to Diablo, but...
I've never heard of anyone owning an Authenticator and being hacked. It seems to me as the best measure that anyone can take to protect themselves. Probably there were situations of accounts with authenticators hacked, but how many, 10-15 people? I know the thing costs a bit of money, but there's a free version for phones. Not to bash anyone, but the physical version costs under a month's sub. If you buy a 60 bucks game and you love to play it, and gonna play it for a long time, it's worth it. If you consider the game a piece of garbage (as many do), why bother, just let it go.
It would be an inconsequential cost for them to implement even the slightest form of secondary measures on their end. IP checking, a pin system from aion, coin lock from rift, phone verification like google (and like blizzard claims to have until you use it and OH WE DIDNT MEAN THAT ACTUALLY WORKS), email verification, name of your first best friends uncles dogs squeaky toy on new pc connect, name of a character on the account ala guild wars, your birthday ala many websites, locked to your pc only and other PCs you register ala many forms of DRM, really I cannot list all the various things they could do.
I can however say that they are the only company I have dealt with online that does not have any secondary measures on their side. Instead you must buy an authenticator, and then wait for their horrible response time because they don't hire enough CS to deal with the massive amounts of compromised accounts they would otherwise be free of with a little common sense and a tiny investment.
Blizzard is pretty disgusting.
Edit: Please be aware all harshness is directed at blizzard's incompetence, not your rational thought.
Edit2: Glad you got it figured out, be sure to clean your pc thoroughly and it if you used your old pw anywhere else be sure to change it (ideally with a site specific password to each place). Good luck
They have free autheticators for smartphones. Also they have the phone text feature if you enable it.
My understanding is that the phone text feature does not work for diablo 3 at all, and on the games it does work on, it does not alert you until it is already too late.
Do you even know what a authenticator is? Its not something that would alert you..
I am well aware of what a phone authenticator is, and have said repeatedly that blizzard should not refer to the calling service as an authenticator because that is not what it does.
Do I need to have an active cell phone signal or access to a wireless network in order to use the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator? Why is airtime required for use?
Airtime is only required to enable your Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for the first time, or in the rare case when you may need to re-sync or reset the authenticator. Once you have enabled the authenticator, you do not need to be in range of an active cell phone signal or have access to wireless service in order to retrieve a code to log in.
What is an Authenticator code and where do I see it?
The authenticator code is an eight-digit numeric code that is produced when you select View Code in your Battle.net Mobile application. Each code is unique and is valid only once.
As I said above I am completely aware of what an authenticator is. I was showing you how flawed that phone authenticator is.
edit again: The authenticator may keep you secure, by you going through additional steps on your end that still do not make you 100% secure. Blizzard adding any number of far cheaper options that would be dealt with 100% on their end would be far more affective. This is why every company that offers some form of authenticator service only offers them as an additional, unnecessary layer of protection. The very fact that they are necessary for blizzard accounts but not included in the box is very telling.
edit 2 for this post:
I think that while we both agree that the authenticator is a good thing, we disagree on if it is enough on blizzard's part. You seem to be of the opinion that blizzard offered the players with a tool to stay safe, fulfilling their obligation to the customer's account security. I am of the opinion that the tool is not enough, and that the safety should be their responsibility.
It's too bad the list on thread topics will only include "Ridiculously overzealous banning policies..." instead of a topic labeled "Blizzard did an awesome job saving my account after it got hacked because I was too cheap or stubborn to get an authenticator like everyone else"
Oh well, seems like pretty much everyone on these forums hates Blizzard anyways, so it doesn't matter. They could cure cancer, but would be accused of doing it in a greedy backhanded way.
As I said above I am completely aware of what an authenticator is. I was showing you how flawed that phone authenticator is.
edit again: The authenticator may keep you secure, by you going through additional steps on your end that still do not make you 100% secure. Blizzard adding any number of far cheaper options that would be dealt with 100% on their end would be far more affective. This is why every company that offers some form of authenticator service only offers them as an additional, unnecessary layer of protection. The very fact that they are necessary for blizzard accounts but not included in the box is very telling.
It obvious you dont. Its a connectionless add, it generates a seemingly random code, you need to sync your authenticator or mobile authenticator once so Blizzard's system knows the incryption key to decode the code it generates and regonise it to originate from your authenticator. Its actually very safe, even banks use it to add an additional layer of security to online banking.
Now you obviously are unaware of how acount hackers work too. They dont hack blizzards system in order to find your acount ( if they did why bother wth your acount if they can go straight for your personal details and CC when they can just.. view it there anyway)
No hackers ussually hack into your mailbox directly or through phishing mail or keyloggers. To get your login and Password. Effectively that means YOU are giving them YOUR acount details.
It's too bad the list on thread topics will only include "Ridiculously overzealous banning policies..." instead of a topic labeled "Blizzard did an awesome job saving my account after it got hacked because I was too cheap or stubborn to get an authenticator like everyone else"
Oh well, seems like pretty much everyone on these forums hates Blizzard anyways, so it doesn't matter. They could cure cancer, but would be accused of doing it in a greedy backhanded way.
It certainly seemed like this thread was mainly somewhere everyone bashed on the OP, not somewhere where everyone bashed on blizzard even though it was their lack of effort that caused the problem and the confusion.
It's too bad the list on thread topics will only include "Ridiculously overzealous banning policies..." instead of a topic labeled "Blizzard did an awesome job saving my account after it got hacked because I was too cheap or stubborn to get an authenticator like everyone else"
Oh well, seems like pretty much everyone on these forums hates Blizzard anyways, so it doesn't matter. They could cure cancer, but would be accused of doing it in a greedy backhanded way.
It certainly seemed like this thread was mainly somewhere everyone bashed on the OP, not somewhere where everyone bashed on blizzard even though it was their lack of effort that caused the problem and the confusion.
Actually it was the OP who didnt bother to contact blizzard at first, but when he did the issue was resolved in give or take a hour.
As I said above I am completely aware of what an authenticator is. I was showing you how flawed that phone authenticator is.
edit again: The authenticator may keep you secure, by you going through additional steps on your end that still do not make you 100% secure. Blizzard adding any number of far cheaper options that would be dealt with 100% on their end would be far more affective. This is why every company that offers some form of authenticator service only offers them as an additional, unnecessary layer of protection. The very fact that they are necessary for blizzard accounts but not included in the box is very telling.
It obvious you dont. Its a connectionless add, it generates a seemingly random code, you need to sync your authenticator or mobile authenticator once so Blizzard's system knows the incryption key to decode the code it generates and regonise it to originate from your authenticator. Its actually very safe, even banks use it to add an additional layer of security to online banking.
Now you obviously are unaware of how acount hackers work too. They dont hack blizzards system in order to find your acount ( if they did why bother wth your acount if they can go straight for your personal details and CC when they can just.. view it there anyway)
No hackers ussually hack into your mailbox directly or through phishing mail or keyloggers. To get your login and Password. Effectively that means YOU are giving them YOUR acount details.
Do I need to take a picture of my old ass blizzard keychain authenticator before you believe me? I am well aware of everything you already said.
The authenticator however does not make your account completely secure. It certainly pushes it a long way in that direction, but the responsibility should not be on the customer.
Assume your computer is compromised, like many others have been. Assume it is through a keylogger, as more and more people are becoming aware of account phishing, and several security applications help protect you from it. From this keylogger this person has access to everything you type on your computer.
That means, most likely, your full name, address, phone number, credit card info, any and all game accounts, and any other information you happen to put through your computer.
Out of all those things, the only thing they take is your blizzard account. Why?
No secondary security on blizzard's end, and terribly slow customer service. I get faster customer service from NCSoft, and that is saying a lot.
These people will not even bother attempting to use the other information they have gathered from you - everything else has far more layers of security and far faster account recovery times. Blizzard is so far behind in these categories that it is actually easier for them to focus solely on blizzard accounts, ignoring the other mass of information they gather from players even though it would be insanely profitable for them.
It's too bad the list on thread topics will only include "Ridiculously overzealous banning policies..." instead of a topic labeled "Blizzard did an awesome job saving my account after it got hacked because I was too cheap or stubborn to get an authenticator like everyone else"
Oh well, seems like pretty much everyone on these forums hates Blizzard anyways, so it doesn't matter. They could cure cancer, but would be accused of doing it in a greedy backhanded way.
It certainly seemed like this thread was mainly somewhere everyone bashed on the OP, not somewhere where everyone bashed on blizzard even though it was their lack of effort that caused the problem and the confusion.
Actually it was the OP who didnt bother to contact blizzard at first, but when he did the issue was resolved in give or take a hour.
Please reread the OP's post. He waited 3 days for them to reply to his appeal, and they never even explained to him that his account was compomised in the ban message. I doubt that is standard, but it was pretty bad.
As I said above I am completely aware of what an authenticator is. I was showing you how flawed that phone authenticator is.
edit again: The authenticator may keep you secure, by you going through additional steps on your end that still do not make you 100% secure. Blizzard adding any number of far cheaper options that would be dealt with 100% on their end would be far more affective. This is why every company that offers some form of authenticator service only offers them as an additional, unnecessary layer of protection. The very fact that they are necessary for blizzard accounts but not included in the box is very telling.
It obvious you dont. Its a connectionless add, it generates a seemingly random code, you need to sync your authenticator or mobile authenticator once so Blizzard's system knows the incryption key to decode the code it generates and regonise it to originate from your authenticator. Its actually very safe, even banks use it to add an additional layer of security to online banking.
Now you obviously are unaware of how acount hackers work too. They dont hack blizzards system in order to find your acount ( if they did why bother wth your acount if they can go straight for your personal details and CC when they can just.. view it there anyway)
No hackers ussually hack into your mailbox directly or through phishing mail or keyloggers. To get your login and Password. Effectively that means YOU are giving them YOUR acount details.
Do I need to take a picture of my old ass blizzard keychain authenticator before you believe me? I am well aware of everything you already said.
The authenticator however does not make your account completely secure. It certainly pushes it a long way in that direction, but the responsibility should not be on the customer.
Assume your computer is compromised, like many others have been. Assume it is through a keylogger, as more and more people are becoming aware of account phishing, and several security applications help protect you from it. From this keylogger this person has access to everything you type on your computer.
That means, most likely, your full name, address, phone number, credit card info, any and all game accounts, and any other information you happen to put through your computer.
Out of all those things, the only thing they take is your blizzard account. Why?
No secondary security on blizzard's end, and terribly slow customer service. I get faster customer service from NCSoft, and that is saying a lot.
These people will not even bother attempting to use the other information they have gathered from you - everything else has far more layers of security and far faster account recovery times. Blizzard is so far behind in these categories that it is actually easier for them to focus solely on blizzard accounts, ignoring the other mass of information they gather from players even though it would be insanely profitable for them.
What is an Authenticator code and where do I see it?
The authenticator code is an eight-digit numeric code that is produced when you select View Code in your Battle.net Mobile application. Each code is unique and is valid only once.
--
Do I need to have an active cell phone signal or access to a wireless network in order to use the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator? Why is airtime required for use?
Airtime is only required to enable your Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for the first time, or in the rare case when you may need to re-sync or reset the authenticator. Once you have enabled the authenticator, you do not need to be in range of an active cell phone signal or have access to wireless service in order to retrieve a code to log in.
--
But you do realise you just acknowlaged the problem is on the user side right? Blizzard is NOT responsible for the security on YOUR computer.
"The authenticator however does not make your account completely secure. It certainly pushes it a long way in that direction, but the responsibility should not be on the customer."
I completely disagree. Blizzard, nor any compny, can monitor the security of every customer's PC. Thy cannot stop their users of sharing their account with others. They cannot stop their customers from not maintaining proper computer security.
It's up to the customer to do that. And if the company offers an extra layer of security, and the customer refuses, who's fault is it? It sure as hell isn't the company's.
There is no online gamers computer that is not going to have malware on it at some point. Even the most vigilant person will not be able to keep their computer that secure. There are some things the consumer simply cannot prevent.
The responsibility lies 100% with the company to protect the consumer. Like I pointed out above, there is a reason only the blizzard accounts are compromised after all of your information is taken. Blizzard is seriously that far behind literally everyone else in account security.
You can really compare this to any other company and not have the same issue. If your account information from blizzard is stolen, then all your other accounts are also stolen. It is not some kind of unbelievably poorly designed malware that keylogs your blizzard password but not your credit card number. People getting their blizzard accounts stolen don't also see their bank account wiped out, their other mmo characters stripped and penniless. It is a simple matter that every company save blizzard has extra layers of account protection, and faster customer service.
It's too bad the list on thread topics will only include "Ridiculously overzealous banning policies..." instead of a topic labeled "Blizzard did an awesome job saving my account after it got hacked because I was too cheap or stubborn to get an authenticator like everyone else"
Oh well, seems like pretty much everyone on these forums hates Blizzard anyways, so it doesn't matter. They could cure cancer, but would be accused of doing it in a greedy backhanded way.
It certainly seemed like this thread was mainly somewhere everyone bashed on the OP, not somewhere where everyone bashed on blizzard even though it was their lack of effort that caused the problem and the confusion.
Actually it was the OP who didnt bother to contact blizzard at first, but when he did the issue was resolved in give or take a hour.
Please reread the OP's post. He waited 3 days for them to reply to his appeal, and they never even explained to him that his account was compomised in the ban message. I doubt that is standard, but it was pretty bad.
You are right, it took 3ish days, not bad considering it was weekend and if you really want to get technical, they do not even have to restore your acount, there is something in the TOS about acount sharing, they rather keep people as client so they DO investigate and learn ussually learn the acount details where obtained through keylogging, phishing mail or keyloggers.
THey take the time and efford to check up what happened to an acount due the lack of security on YOUR end. They dont do it because they have to, they do it because its fairly cheap for them to check and re-instate your acount, customer happy and stays.. a customer.
Comments
Because I've worked as a GM for several MMOs, and the exact same people we banned for everything under the sun, buying/selling gold, spamming in local/area chat, harassing other players, shouting racist words, cheating, etc, would come on to MMORPG.com or other sites and scream about how they did nothing wrong, all they wanted to do was buy a game which they enjoyed except for the poor customer service, how we were all corrupt, overzealous, etc.
After a while you start to notice patterns that most of them follow when they write up their 3rd party forum complaint, and OP's follows it exactly. It's hard to give the benefit of the doubt when you've personally warned three times, then banned someone for running through an in-game town screaming the N-word over and over to have them go on the forums and complain that they were banned for "no reason."
" I must have been the one responsible for having done something wrong, and say I told you I didn't. "
Your account's safety is your responsibility, so unless they get your password by cracking Blizzard's database, it is still on your head.
It would be an inconsequential cost for them to implement even the slightest form of secondary measures on their end. IP checking, a pin system from aion, coin lock from rift, phone verification like google (and like blizzard claims to have until you use it and OH WE DIDNT MEAN THAT ACTUALLY WORKS), email verification, name of your first best friends uncles dogs squeaky toy on new pc connect, name of a character on the account ala guild wars, your birthday ala many websites, locked to your pc only and other PCs you register ala many forms of DRM, really I cannot list all the various things they could do.
I can however say that they are the only company I have dealt with online that does not have any secondary measures on their side. Instead you must buy an authenticator, and then wait for their horrible response time because they don't hire enough CS to deal with the massive amounts of compromised accounts they would otherwise be free of with a little common sense and a tiny investment.
Blizzard is pretty disgusting.
Edit: Please be aware all harshness is directed at blizzard's incompetence, not your rational thought.
Edit2: Glad you got it figured out, be sure to clean your pc thoroughly and it if you used your old pw anywhere else be sure to change it (ideally with a site specific password to each place). Good luck
I'm just happy it worked out for you. Btw, get an authenticator
or make a complete clean new e-mail address and password, which you will use only and only for Diablo.
Well you need to understand that over the years, in multiple forums, we have seen these type of threads pop up. And the more questioning that occurs, the more we begin to see that there WAS a legitimate cause for the ban.
Take this thread for example. It sounds like the guy's account was compromised, not banned. How was it compromised? That is between the scammer, Blizz, and the original poster.
Another example: A SWTOR player wrote that he was banned for simply going to Ilum (high level zone) and being low level. This received a huge uproar on the SWTOR forums and many cried foul. What actually happened was the player was using a powerleveling exploit and was appropriately banned.
Just thought I'd add this in for reference sake. Here is the relevant part of the original e-mail I recieved from Blizz, and why I used the phrase "for no reason whatsoever" which was admittedly a poor choice of words. I suppose that technically they did give me a reason, it just would have been tough for it to have been any more ambiguous if they tried. Plus there's that fun part where they more or less say we have a specific reason, but we can't tell you what it is.
"A user of this account has recently been involved in actions deemed inappropriate for Diablo III by the In-Game Support staff of Blizzard Entertainment. This decision was made after a thorough investigation of the situation as a whole. Though we are unable to discuss the outcomes of our investigations due to privacy concerns, rest assured that this incident has been looked into very thoroughly, and the appropriate actions have been taken on all involved accounts."
CASE CLOSED BOYS.
Gotta love the Blizz haters that come out of the woodwork.
I have no inside information on what is happening with D3 or what Blizzard is doing. My interpretation of events are as follows. GM’s are kicking players out of live games, and banning accounts. Blizzard has identified a data packet format as from a malicious intent. I don't believe this data stream will occur naturally in everyday play. The banned player is either actively using malicious software. Or they may be unaware that their machine is in fact a Zombie Computer. See also How Stuff Works Zombie Computer.
All Blizzard games are at high risk for ZC attacks. Because of the massive popularity of Blizzard titles, All websites may be infected in preparation for a Blizzard release. Anti-Virus will not detect it until the infection is identified, or if it is based on a previously identified infection.
I don’t know that this is why the OP was banned, I am only suggest that it might be. As soon as I first heard of the connectivity issues D3 was having, I thought Zombie Denial of Service attack. And these bans sound just like the thing I would do in that case. So long as machines remain infected or continues to be reinfected, players can expect to be banned.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Im glad the issue has been resolved for you. We do understand the fustration and quite honoustly I definately understand the need to vent. But when you want people to believe you and get sympathy.. it really comes down to your tone of voice and how you pressent your case.
Lets hope you never have to go through this again.
Yeah, so it's definitely time for a complete security overhaul on the desktop once I get home.
As to how this specific account was compromised, that's difficult to say. It had lain unused for quite a few years after I stopped playing WoW, and somewhere along the line I must have been phished or hacked. Which I find a smidge surprising as I'm generally very careful about that sort of thing. Especially when it comes to e-mails, but it's not easy (or potentially possible) to catch every single piece of potential malware or spyware which crosses your path over what I'm guessing covers a 6-7 year period of time (during which this battle.net account existed) and crosses at least 3 e-mail addresses. And about once every year or two, I do something stupid and inadvertently click on a bad link and pick up a nasty virus.
I am relieved that the whole thing is taken care of now, and I can continue on in my attempts to enjoy a game which so many have such negative opinions of.
They have free autheticators for smartphones. Also they have the phone text feature if you enable it.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
My understanding is that the phone text feature does not work for diablo 3 at all, and on the games it does work on, it does not alert you until it is already too late.
Do you even know what a authenticator is? Its not something that would alert you..
I am well aware of what a phone authenticator is, and have said repeatedly that blizzard should not refer to the calling service as an authenticator because that is not what it does.
edit: see here http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/authenticator-add-dial-in
edit2: While I agree it is good that they offer the mobile authenticator and the phone app, it seems to me that they very deliberately leave accounts far too vulnerable. As far the motive for doing so, I am not sure.
Wow.. so you dont.. But yes you can get that option too but.
The mobile authenticator does the same thing as the authenticator, it generates a code you enter when you log in and the game asks for it,
Infact you dont even need any form of connection to any network to use it once its innitiated.
Mobile authenticator FAQ : http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/battle-net-mobile-authenticator-faq
Do I need to have an active cell phone signal or access to a wireless network in order to use the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator? Why is airtime required for use?
Airtime is only required to enable your Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for the first time, or in the rare case when you may need to re-sync or reset the authenticator. Once you have enabled the authenticator, you do not need to be in range of an active cell phone signal or have access to wireless service in order to retrieve a code to log in.
What is an Authenticator code and where do I see it?
The authenticator code is an eight-digit numeric code that is produced when you select View Code in your Battle.net Mobile application. Each code is unique and is valid only once.
As I said above I am completely aware of what an authenticator is. I was showing you how flawed that phone authenticator is.
edit again: The authenticator may keep you secure, by you going through additional steps on your end that still do not make you 100% secure. Blizzard adding any number of far cheaper options that would be dealt with 100% on their end would be far more affective. This is why every company that offers some form of authenticator service only offers them as an additional, unnecessary layer of protection. The very fact that they are necessary for blizzard accounts but not included in the box is very telling.
edit 2 for this post:
I think that while we both agree that the authenticator is a good thing, we disagree on if it is enough on blizzard's part. You seem to be of the opinion that blizzard offered the players with a tool to stay safe, fulfilling their obligation to the customer's account security. I am of the opinion that the tool is not enough, and that the safety should be their responsibility.
So, happy ending to the story.
It's too bad the list on thread topics will only include "Ridiculously overzealous banning policies..." instead of a topic labeled "Blizzard did an awesome job saving my account after it got hacked because I was too cheap or stubborn to get an authenticator like everyone else"
Oh well, seems like pretty much everyone on these forums hates Blizzard anyways, so it doesn't matter. They could cure cancer, but would be accused of doing it in a greedy backhanded way.
It obvious you dont. Its a connectionless add, it generates a seemingly random code, you need to sync your authenticator or mobile authenticator once so Blizzard's system knows the incryption key to decode the code it generates and regonise it to originate from your authenticator. Its actually very safe, even banks use it to add an additional layer of security to online banking.
Now you obviously are unaware of how acount hackers work too. They dont hack blizzards system in order to find your acount ( if they did why bother wth your acount if they can go straight for your personal details and CC when they can just.. view it there anyway)
No hackers ussually hack into your mailbox directly or through phishing mail or keyloggers. To get your login and Password. Effectively that means YOU are giving them YOUR acount details.
It certainly seemed like this thread was mainly somewhere everyone bashed on the OP, not somewhere where everyone bashed on blizzard even though it was their lack of effort that caused the problem and the confusion.
Actually it was the OP who didnt bother to contact blizzard at first, but when he did the issue was resolved in give or take a hour.
Do I need to take a picture of my old ass blizzard keychain authenticator before you believe me? I am well aware of everything you already said.
The authenticator however does not make your account completely secure. It certainly pushes it a long way in that direction, but the responsibility should not be on the customer.
Assume your computer is compromised, like many others have been. Assume it is through a keylogger, as more and more people are becoming aware of account phishing, and several security applications help protect you from it. From this keylogger this person has access to everything you type on your computer.
That means, most likely, your full name, address, phone number, credit card info, any and all game accounts, and any other information you happen to put through your computer.
Out of all those things, the only thing they take is your blizzard account. Why?
No secondary security on blizzard's end, and terribly slow customer service. I get faster customer service from NCSoft, and that is saying a lot.
These people will not even bother attempting to use the other information they have gathered from you - everything else has far more layers of security and far faster account recovery times. Blizzard is so far behind in these categories that it is actually easier for them to focus solely on blizzard accounts, ignoring the other mass of information they gather from players even though it would be insanely profitable for them.
Please reread the OP's post. He waited 3 days for them to reply to his appeal, and they never even explained to him that his account was compomised in the ban message. I doubt that is standard, but it was pretty bad.
I just linked the mobile authenticator FAQ.
http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/battle-net-mobile-authenticator-faq#q3
--
What is an Authenticator code and where do I see it?
The authenticator code is an eight-digit numeric code that is produced when you select View Code in your Battle.net Mobile application. Each code is unique and is valid only once.
--
Do I need to have an active cell phone signal or access to a wireless network in order to use the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator? Why is airtime required for use?
Airtime is only required to enable your Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for the first time, or in the rare case when you may need to re-sync or reset the authenticator. Once you have enabled the authenticator, you do not need to be in range of an active cell phone signal or have access to wireless service in order to retrieve a code to log in.
--
But you do realise you just acknowlaged the problem is on the user side right? Blizzard is NOT responsible for the security on YOUR computer.
"The authenticator however does not make your account completely secure. It certainly pushes it a long way in that direction, but the responsibility should not be on the customer."
I completely disagree. Blizzard, nor any compny, can monitor the security of every customer's PC. Thy cannot stop their users of sharing their account with others. They cannot stop their customers from not maintaining proper computer security.
It's up to the customer to do that. And if the company offers an extra layer of security, and the customer refuses, who's fault is it? It sure as hell isn't the company's.
There is no online gamers computer that is not going to have malware on it at some point. Even the most vigilant person will not be able to keep their computer that secure. There are some things the consumer simply cannot prevent.
The responsibility lies 100% with the company to protect the consumer. Like I pointed out above, there is a reason only the blizzard accounts are compromised after all of your information is taken. Blizzard is seriously that far behind literally everyone else in account security.
You can really compare this to any other company and not have the same issue. If your account information from blizzard is stolen, then all your other accounts are also stolen. It is not some kind of unbelievably poorly designed malware that keylogs your blizzard password but not your credit card number. People getting their blizzard accounts stolen don't also see their bank account wiped out, their other mmo characters stripped and penniless. It is a simple matter that every company save blizzard has extra layers of account protection, and faster customer service.
Blizzard just blames the user.
You are right, it took 3ish days, not bad considering it was weekend and if you really want to get technical, they do not even have to restore your acount, there is something in the TOS about acount sharing, they rather keep people as client so they DO investigate and learn ussually learn the acount details where obtained through keylogging, phishing mail or keyloggers.
THey take the time and efford to check up what happened to an acount due the lack of security on YOUR end. They dont do it because they have to, they do it because its fairly cheap for them to check and re-instate your acount, customer happy and stays.. a customer.