Forgot to mention it, but the thread idea was Ashington's, and of course anyone who has been banned or done any of this stuff should feel more than free to participate.
Was at school between classes when I started this, so didn't have time to say everything I wanted to in the OP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aceium
Are you sure this isn't merely a setback?
While that is a recurrent theme in WoW, I don't think it will be for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by krimson
What did you do to get banned? What kind botting took place?
I botted before Cata was released. I'm not really in the know on current botting trends, tbh, but I think people still use HonorBuddy with decent success.
I used mmoglider, otherwise known as wowglider before blizzard sued over the use of the term 'wow'.
For mmoglider, you would download a public profile (if you felt like being risky - it was pretty well known that some WoW GMs frequented the glider forums where you could obtain profiles) or just create your own, which included walking around a path, usually auto-adding waypoints, until you made a circuit. Then you log on your bot, start the profile, and then come back X hours/days later to find your bags overfilled. (need an auto-delete addon to help with that)
The greatest thing a bot can be used for, imo, at that time was to grind fishing. The $20 I paid for my mmoglider key was money well spent, since I didn't have to spend pointless hours on end grinding fishing. That's all changed now, mostly.
The other thing I used the bot program for was to level up toons to 60 or so and sell them. Buy an account, level for a while, sell the account. I didn't do this a ton, as I'm far too worrisome of a player/botter. Any time an alarm went off from the program I'd be ripped from sleep or something. Never once was contacted by a GM though, or had a bot account banned, so I guess I was doing something right.
I did recently get the ban-stick in a very weird, roundabout way.
As an account seller/buyer/trader, I've dealt in a fairly large number of accounts over the years. (compared to someone who has only had one or two accounts, say) The last account I bought had an 85 rogue with kinda crappy gear. The seller ended up recalling it around the time I had leveled a hunter to 70 and had geared up the rogue fairly well.
I got the account back no problem. The next time he recalled it, it was the day after I got the Firelands meta-ach/drake. My hunter was 85 by then. What he got, however, was the hunter leveled back to 70, and the gear the rogue had the last time he recalled it, no drake ach, none of the mounts I'd got, pets, etc. I got the account back with a little more hassle that time.
He did nothing for a while because it was obvious he wasn't going to reap the benefits of my efforts. I guess the final straw came when he saw my DK had got a legendary, because it was that same morning that he contacted a guildie asking for my email address, posing as a 'friend'. I immediately knew this was BS cuz I have no friends! >.< (Accounts with tough to get achievements and legendaries sell for a decent amount more - I assume he was going to sell it, try to run off with the money, and then sell it again until it got banned. I did get my money back, all of it from him at least.)
Anyhow, the last time I got my account back, I had purchased a whole new set of keys, used the same name to start that account, and moved the hunter/rogue over and had Blizz delete the original account. (Took an email to
privacy@blizzard.com or whatever + two weeks)
The reason for the ban was that Blizz now believed the two characters were moved to a new account without authorization of the account owner, so the new account was banned. The 2 toons were moved off my account first. For a little while I could still play. I was hoping Aceium would come online and hold on to my 100k gold 'just in case', but sadly, he's not much of a morning person.
I later received an email that went to my junk folder, though from the same GM, that said I was being banned for abusing glitches. Dunno what that meant, but at that point I didn't care. I told Blizz everything about buying the original account, provided links and proof and timelines, etc.
Now I'm just looking into how to get my money back from buying the extra account. Would be about an extra $150 in my pocket, so I'd love to get that sorted.
For posterity's sake, here's the transcription of the chat I had with a GM the day all this went down. Remember, I was working from the POV that I was the OO and my account had been hacked. (Gotta keep your story straight!) Notes will be added in parentheses:
10:30 [GM]: Greetings, this is Game Master (redacted). May I have a moment of your time?
10:30 [LK]: Surely
10:31 [GM]: The fact that a few characters on this account were transferred in violation of the World of Warcraft account policy has recently been brought to my attention.
10:32 [LK]: I'm not sure how that's a fact, but I have been repeatedly hacked, and from what I hear, the attacker has gone so far as to contact guildies trying to find out my contact information, assumably to try to resteal my account
10:32 [GM]: Due to the severity of this violation, the account is being locked at this time and the characters are being removed. After that has been completed, the account will be unlocked. Should not take longer than 20 minutes. (this was a lie, it took about 45 minutes to an hour)
10:33 [LK]: I'm sorry? What in the world is going on?
10:34 [GM]: I recommend submitting a dispute ticket through the [Battle.net] website outlining that. I am merely informing you of what is going on because I will need to remove you from the game. I am not a party to the investigations that led to this though.
10:34 [GM]: However, any disputes you submit in regards to these actions will be investigated to make sure the proper course of action is/was taken
10:34 [LK]: Ok, well I'm going to need a little more information that "just go to [battle.net]" to fix it. What is going on and how do I get this straightened out for the THIRD time?
10:35 [GM]: I will try to give you as much information as I can.
10:35 [LK]: Please do, as I just stated, this is now going to be the third time you have helped a hacker steal my account
10:35 [GM]: Basically two characters were transferred to this account back in November from another account
10:36 [GM]: And you are not losing this account, I want to make that clear, just the two characters.
10:36 [LK]: I started this account to move two characters here because my last account was compromised and Blizzard did nothing but repeatedly help a hacker steal it, twice so far
10:36 [GM]: Because we have received a dispute in regards to those two characters. And our Account Administration department has deemed to the dispute as successful. That means that the characters were transferred without the owner's authorization
10:37 [GM]: I understand, like I said you have the opportunity to dispute this as well. (this was not true, I was never given a chance to dispute anything - a random GM locked my account and asked me to prove my identity, I sent in the same stuff I'd sent in before to get my account back - which had worked before - and then they said I was banned for ToS violations)
10:37 [LK]: I don't understand how I will
10:37 [LK]: because I had my other account deleted just to be safe, which obviously hasn't worked
10:38 [GM]: Send in a ticket. In fact I'd imagine they will be expecting a ticket from this account in regards to losing these two characters.
10:38 [LK]: I've never had any help from submitting a ticket, so what else can I do?
10:39 [GM]: I do not have the details in regards to any closures or previous actions that took place, I am the one tasked to returning the characters. I am only contacting you now because like I said I have to take you out of the game temporarily while I do this
10:40 [LK]: Ok, but I'm telling you, in the past when this exact thing has happened before, I submitted multiple tickets and received no help
10:41 [GM]: Because of the nature of this issue, dealing with Account Action disputes, this has to be done through the ticket system. If this were a normal account issue you could contact our Account and Technical services department.
10:42 [GM]: However, as these actions today were approved by the Account Administration department, any disputes on your part need to go through them. They do not have a customer service department, but they do respond to every ticket they receive
10:42 [LK]: I seriously don't even understand what that means. What is a 'normal account issue' and what kind of account issue is this?
10:42 [LK]: And how do I submit a ticket to the account administration department?
10:42 [GM]: A normal account issue would be like, hey, I need help getting back into my account because I lost my Authenticator.
10:43 [GM]: This is in regards to an account action dispute, which our phone department does not do those investigations.
10:43 [GM]: You log into your [Battle.net] account through the website
10:44 [GM]: Go to the support area in the upper-right. There you will see tickets you have had in the past, as well as be able to create new tickets
10:44 [GM]: Just choose the appropriate categories, and write out what your issue is, in this case a dispute.
10:44 [
GM]: They will then review the actions that took place, and if they need anything from you, like verification or whatnot, they will let you know
10:45 [LK]: What are the appropriate categories, because I'm already livid enough as is without having to deal with regular level GMs giving me no advice and having to resubmit tickets over and over and over
10:46 [GM]: The easiest way to arrive to where you need to go is:
10:46 [GM]: When you get to the categories
10:46 [GM]: Select I can’t play at all because…
10:46 [GM]: I got banned or suspended and I wish to appeal
10:47 [GM]: Then just write out what your issue is.
10:47 [LK]: and that will go to the account administration department?
10:47 [GM]: Yes (This part was, until yesterday, total bull****. I did not hear from AA almost the entire time)
10:48 [LK]: Ok, and do you have any idea what I will need to do *next* time this hacker steals my account, or will this ever end? Am I just constantly going to be harrassed if I choose to continue playing WoW?
10:50 [GM]: If Account Administration decides that the character do not belong to this account, then that is the final say and you should not hear about these characters again. If they decide that you are the rightful owner of these characters, then they are yours
10:51 [LK]: Are you sure? Because I've heard that same line three times now
10:51 [GM]: And there should be no further investigations for this particular issue. However, I cannot comment on any other activites on the accounts.
10:51 [GM]: If you are unsure, I would highly recommend putting that in your ticket. As they handle these investigations, that would be a question better answered by the actual investigators that order these changes
10:52 [GM]: Do you have any other questions about what you need to do right now, before I proceed?
10:52 [LK]: Ok. If I can have a minute or two, I'm trying to find the whisper log from the guildie who told me about the hacker contacting him. Hopefully will just take a minute (At this point, he waited about 20 seconds then kicked me, fortunately WIM saved this info so I could retrieve it.)
