Guild Wars 2

I wanted to play 1 or 2 hours today before going to school when I found out that my account was permanently banned for a violation of the UA and/or RoC. My account has been hacked since I’ve never been violating the UA and/or RoC.

I did a whole antivirus & spyware scan and my computer is clean.

I’m reading the forum and looking over google for people in the same situation as me and in a lot of case, people are still waiting for an answer and to get their account back, even after several days, over the ticket system.

How long will it take to get my account back ? (Reference #120905-002671)

Thank you!

At the rate they’re going, don’t expect anything for a week. I’ve been waiting over 5 days now for a wrongful ban without even so much as a response.

If you’re account was hacked, then you should have an email in your inbox saying that somebody tried to login from another IP and you would have had to approve the IP for them to login. So basically, if you were hacked your email might have been hacked along with it. Probably a good idea to change both them passwords.

Otherwise you may have broken a rule without realising it and therefore you might not be able to get the permanent ban lifted.

my account was banned to.
ive only been waiting a day by the looks of it i will be waiting a week

Slushey.8236:

If you’re account was hacked, then you should have an email in your inbox saying that somebody tried to login from another IP and you would have had to approve the IP for them to login. So basically, if you were hacked your email might have been hacked along with it. Probably a good idea to change both them passwords.

Otherwise you may have broken a rule without realising it and therefore you might not be able to get the permanent ban lifted.

This person should post everywhere.

@Slushey.8236 : My e-mail adress wasn’t verified so I couldn’t get the e-mail regarding the login from another IP.. But I see that someone tried to change the password tho..

someone one was making extra characters on mine i deleated about 4 of them. id be playing then get kicked off and in my character select screen i would have and extra character. then id delete them continue with my character then 30min later id get kicked off then find another different character there. i deleted that one then 45min later it logs me out and say i have a permanent band for assisting with gold or item sales for real world money.

Some steps you can take in an effort to have your account restored:

Check your email.

An email from sender ‘ArenaNet’ with subject title ‘Authorize login attempt’
Inside this email will be a link similar to the following:
https://account.guildwars2.com/allow-login?token=<A BUNCH OF NUMBERS AND LETTERS>&request=<A BUNCH OF NUMBERS AND LETTERS>&ip=<IP ADDRESS OF COMPUTER ATTEMPTING TO LOGIN TO YOUR ACCOUNT>

If you have that email, it means that you or someone else attempted to access your account at the aforementioned IP Address.

If this is the case, the computer/IP Address trying to login would have to be authorized , and that can only occur by clinking the link mentioned above. So ask yourself this. Did you click that link thinking it was some routine email verification from ArenaNet?

If you can recall clicking that link, you may have inadvertently authorized access to your account by a third party. If you are absolutely sure you did not click that link, then it is entirely possible your email account is compromised as well?

Do you use the same password for your email account that you do your Guild Wars 2 account? If so then this is entirely likely if not just possible. Since your email login would be identical to that of your Guild Wars 2 account login, and if the passwords are the same then the person who committed the fraud would have been able to access your email very easily.

If none of the above applies, then you need consider your actions in game. Have you done anything in game that could be considered a violation of the End User License Agreement or the Terms of Service? It may be something that would appear minor and insignificant by your definition. Regardless of severity of the offence, it could very likely lead to temporary or permanent suspension of your Guild Wars 2 account.

If your Guild Wars 2 account has been suspended or closed, ArenaNet would likely have provided you with an email notifying you of the account closure and the reason for it. While I do not recommend publishing the contents of this email on a public forum, which is likely against EULA & TOS and could further damage your efforts to get your account restored. You do have resources you can review to further investigate the matter yourself, and after you have done all this. Then present your case to ArenaNet. Doing all I have mentioned will further increase your chances of having your account restored.

I wish you the best of luck.

I confirmed my e-mail adress yesterday and since I did that, I can see some unfortunate login attemps on my acc like :

Address: 59.61.188.199
City: Fuzhou
Region: 07
Country: CN

I am located in CA so i’m asking my question again :

I have been hacked. How long will it take to get my account back ? (Reference #120905-002671)

Thank you!

i did click that link and it went to the guild wars website and said failure the link you clicked is expired or invalid.
i got that email the first day i brought the game and tried to start it.
but a few days later is when my account got hacked

this is my incident number [Incident:120904-002862] how long will it take to get my account back

kryzis.8647:

I confirmed my e-mail adress yesterday and since I did that, I can see some unfortunate login attemps on my acc like :

Address: 59.61.188.199
City: Fuzhou
Region: 07
Country: CN

I am located in CA so i’m asking my question again :

I have been hacked. How long will it take to get my account back ? (Reference #120905-002671)

Thank you!

Ok, now you see the login attempts. Did you ever authorize the logins by accident? The reason I ask is because we need to identify if the fraudster has accessed your email account as well or if you gave him access to your guild wars 2 account by mistake?

If you DID NOT click that link, and you are absolutely sure of that, then your email account IS COMPROMISED as well.

Do you use the SAME PASSWORD for your email as your guild wars 2 account?

If not then it is likely you have a KEYLOGGER installed on your computer. May keyloggers are very well programmed and can fool nearly all security software and anti-virus/malware programs out there. Even if your password IS the same, it is still likely you have fallen victim to a keylogger as it is the most common way people who commit fraud learn passwords, credit card numbers and such.

Your first order of business is to format your PC and reinstall windows fresh. Backup any essential data, but do not attempt to backup any installed software or system files. Doing so will just increase chances of compromising your freshly installed copy of windows.

Furthermore, make sure you include all of this information in your support ticket to ArenaNet.

Under the current circumstances, I see no reason why they would refuse to re-open your account, but patience is going to be necessary on your part. While I can understand the frustration of not being able to play Guild Wars 2, understand that ArenaNet is operating under a limited number of staff, and there are a great many other users who are experiencing the same problem as you are. They need to address everyone with equal priority and that may take some time.

What you CAN and SHOULD do in the meantime, is take steps to protect yourself and prevent this from occurring again in the future. You can do that by following the steps I provided earlier in this post.

In a case like this where a keylogger is likely evident, Do not take chances with a virus scanner. Start fresh with a new install of your Operating System (Windows). Also you may want to consider that any sensitive information that you have typed using your computer recently is likely also compromised. This includes Credit Card numbers, any account information for other games, paypal, ebay, etc…

You NEED to change all this information ASAP. But don’t do it before doing a fresh OS install, or use another computer in the meantime to change all this information. You may even want to go as far as notifying your credit card company of this situation and having them issue you a new credit card number and card.

As I mentioned before and I cannot stress this enough. DO NOT change any login information or passwords using your current install of windows. Doing so will likely just feed the new information right into the hands of those who are committing the fraud. You likely still have a keylogger in place logging all your keystrokes. Use another computer to change all your passwords and logins where possible and get your PC cleaned out and a new install of windows on there asap.

If you have any further questions, Ill continue to monitor this thread and provide you with any help I can. My field is IT Securities, so I’ll do my best to provide as much informed advice as I can.

Best of luck.

Jee.7193:

kryzis.8647:

I confirmed my e-mail adress yesterday and since I did that, I can see some unfortunate login attemps on my acc like :

Address: 59.61.188.199
City: Fuzhou
Region: 07
Country: CN

I am located in CA so i’m asking my question again :

I have been hacked. How long will it take to get my account back ? (Reference #120905-002671)

Thank you!

Ok, now you see the login attempts. Did you ever authorize the logins by accident? The reason I ask is because we need to identify if the fraudster has accessed your email account as well or if you gave him access to your guild wars 2 account by mistake?

If you DID NOT click that link, and you are absolutely sure of that, then your email account IS COMPROMISED as well.

Do you use the SAME PASSWORD for your email as your guild wars 2 account?

If not then it is likely you have a KEYLOGGER installed on your computer. May keyloggers are very well programmed and can fool nearly all security software and anti-virus/malware programs out there. Even if your password IS the same, it is still likely you have fallen victim to a keylogger as it is the most common way people who commit fraud learn passwords, credit card numbers and such.

Your first order of business is to format your PC and reinstall windows fresh. Backup any essential data, but do not attempt to backup any installed software or system files. Doing so will just increase chances of compromising your freshly installed copy of windows.

Furthermore, make sure you include all of this information in your support ticket to ArenaNet.

Under the current circumstances, I see no reason why they would refuse to re-open your account, but patience is going to be necessary on your part. While I can understand the frustration of not being able to play Guild Wars 2, understand that ArenaNet is operating under a limited number of staff, and there are a great many other users who are experiencing the same problem as you are. They need to address everyone with equal priority and that may take some time.

What you CAN and SHOULD do in the meantime, is take steps to protect yourself and prevent this from occurring again in the future. You can do that by following the steps I provided earlier in this post.

In a case like this where a keylogger is likely evident, Do not take chances with a virus scanner. Start fresh with a new install of your Operating System (Windows). Also you may want to consider that any sensitive information that you have typed using your computer recently is likely also compromised. This includes Credit Card numbers, any account information for other games, paypal, ebay, etc…

You NEED to change all this information ASAP. But don’t do it before doing a fresh OS install, or use another computer in the meantime to change all this information. You may even want to go as far as notifying your credit card company of this situation and having them issue you a new credit card number and card.

As I mentioned before and I cannot stress this enough. DO NOT change any login information or passwords using your current install of windows. Doing so will likely just feed the new information right into the hands of those who are committing the fraud. You likely still have a keylogger in place logging all your keystrokes. Use another computer to change all your passwords and logins where possible and get your PC cleaned out and a new install of windows on there asap.

If you have any further questions, Ill continue to monitor this thread and provide you with any help I can. My field is IT Securities, so I’ll do my best to provide as much informed advice as I can.

Best of luck.

I had similar issue as his, soon as i seen the attempts I reset my password playing along fine for 2 hours i get dumped i try to log in and says i am banned for buying gold, people all over facebook site had same issue. odd part is I have not sold/bought gold and my account name/email and passwords are unchanged so why would the have the bans in place for our security if all it does is punish us they didnt even verify i was hacked befor blocking my account.

I had similar issue as his, soon as i seen the attempts I reset my password playing along fine for 2 hours i get dumped i try to log in and says i am banned for buying gold, people all over facebook site had same issue. odd part is I have not sold/bought gold and my account name/email and passwords are unchanged so why would the have the bans in place for our security if all it does is punish us they didnt even verify i was hacked befor blocking my account.

Actually, By banning the account ArenaNet is further protecting you. If your account is being accessed by a third party. By closing it they are protecting your assets on the account and any personal information tied to it. It allows you and them to take the necessary steps to ensure the account is secure prior to allowing access to it again.

The word ban is over used, whereas the word suspension is a far better way to describe most of these situations.

I have played Eve Online for 8 years, where I have 12 accounts, and thousands of dollars (USD value) of assets on those accounts. A couple years back all 12 of those accounts became compromised due to a keylogger that went unnoticed on one of my computers. Within 7 minutes of the unauthorized login CCP had all the accounts suspended. I lost several hundred dollars worth of assets in those 7 minutes, and because of the nature of the economy in Eve Online, reimbursement is not possible regardless of circumstances. My accounts remain locked for over a week while I was forced to wait for them to verify a number of details.

Yes it was a huge inconvenience, and I was very disappointed I couldn’t play eve for nearly 2 weeks. But I am still to this day eternally grateful they acted as quickly as they did and took security seriously enough to do their due diligence before removing the sanctions.

You say ArenaNet banned your account prior to verifying the account was in it’s proper hands. Unfortunately the damage that can be done (not only to your account but to the economy in game when your account is used to launder/move in game currency on large scale for the purpose of RMT) in the time it takes to verify your identity and ensure that the account is being accessed by its proper owner can be quite serious. The safer way to approach this from a ArenaNet’s position is to close the account and take care of the details afterwards. That way no further damage is being done in the mean time.

As I mentioned before, I do sympathize with the inconvenience of loosing access to the game. But unfortunately in these circumstances, steps like these need to be taken to protect the interests of you, the community, and the long term success of the game.

Please feel free to ask me for any advice or suggestions on account security and steps you can take to ensure you do not become a victim of fraud.

Best of luck.

Wow, its good to see that i’m not alone in this. I also got perma banned for nothing. I submietted a ticket 4 days ago I I did not get a single message from ANet.
I’m not even angry, I’m just sad that i spend money on a game I can’t play, and no one is trying to help me get it back.

The same problem here , i got banned when i changed my poassword
THis is a missunderstanding

Jee.7193:

I had similar issue as his, soon as i seen the attempts I reset my password playing along fine for 2 hours i get dumped i try to log in and says i am banned for buying gold, people all over facebook site had same issue. odd part is I have not sold/bought gold and my account name/email and passwords are unchanged so why would the have the bans in place for our security if all it does is punish us they didnt even verify i was hacked befor blocking my account.

Actually, By banning the account ArenaNet is further protecting you. If your account is being accessed by a third party. By closing it they are protecting your assets on the account and any personal information tied to it. It allows you and them to take the necessary steps to ensure the account is secure prior to allowing access to it again.

The word ban is over used, whereas the word suspension is a far better way to describe most of these situations.

I have played Eve Online for 8 years, where I have 12 accounts, and thousands of dollars (USD value) of assets on those accounts. A couple years back all 12 of those accounts became compromised due to a keylogger that went unnoticed on one of my computers. Within 7 minutes of the unauthorized login CCP had all the accounts suspended. I lost several hundred dollars worth of assets in those 7 minutes, and because of the nature of the economy in Eve Online, reimbursement is not possible regardless of circumstances. My accounts remain locked for over a week while I was forced to wait for them to verify a number of details.

Yes it was a huge inconvenience, and I was very disappointed I couldn’t play eve for nearly 2 weeks. But I am still to this day eternally grateful they acted as quickly as they did and took security seriously enough to do their due diligence before removing the sanctions.

You say ArenaNet banned your account prior to verifying the account was in it’s proper hands. Unfortunately the damage that can be done (not only to your account but to the economy in game when your account is used to launder/move in game currency on large scale for the purpose of RMT) in the time it takes to verify your identity and ensure that the account is being accessed by its proper owner can be quite serious. The safer way to approach this from a ArenaNet’s position is to close the account and take care of the details afterwards. That way no further damage is being done in the mean time.

As I mentioned before, I do sympathize with the inconvenience of loosing access to the game. But unfortunately in these circumstances, steps like these need to be taken to protect the interests of you, the community, and the long term success of the game.

Please feel free to ask me for any advice or suggestions on account security and steps you can take to ensure you do not become a victim of fraud.

Best of luck.

cool story but if you read what I wrote nothing was changed or accessed and the message says BANNED not closed(lock) for your protection which I would have felt ALOT better about seeing.

still waiting to get back my account I paid for.

kryzis.8647:

still waiting to get back my account I paid for.

You, me and hundredths & thousands of people do.

Took me one week to get a response and said I didn’t provide enough information… ( my fault) so I provided all the info and it was another week before they unlocked my account… However.. after I logged into the website, changed my password, and changed my e-mail address, I logged into the game and it said that I was Permanently banned for gold farming LOL… so two weeks worth of waiting just to find out that I now I have to go all the way thru the process again… YAY!!!…

You see, I’m looking on the bright side of this… instead of playing Guildwars2 im playing “Hackwars2”… its really quite awesome, if you like Turn based games.

Love, “Only slightly bitter”
Ezahnin

I see ArenaNet representatives on the forums now trying to address everyone’s concerns regarding the bannings that have been occurring.

Just as I was saying, (regardless of the wording, banning, suspension, temporary account closures, etc.) the account suspensions have been carried out by ArenaNet as a first measure of defense in an effort to protect you and the personal information and assets associated with your compromised game account.

While I agree communication on the part of ArenaNet with account holders who have been affected has been inadequate. It would appear they are attempted to rectify that as I am typing this.

Please be patient and respectful, your accounts will be restored, and by the sound of things much sooner than originally expected.

Furthermore, I would like to reiterate the urgency in taking measures as an end user to prevent becoming a victim of fraud again.

You can do the following:

Change all passwords associated with all accounts, emails, and contact your bank or credit card company and request the issuing of new cards/numbers. If you are the victim of a keylogger, which is usually the case surrounding these events. The damage done is not limited to your guild wars account alone. Keep in mind, you will want to use another computer to change all your account information (across the board, paypal accounts, other game accounts, etc) until you have taken steps to ensure your computer is clean of any keyloggers. More often than not, a wipe and fresh install of windows is the only sure fire way to be secure.

If you have recently used your credit card or debit card for any online purchases with your computer (an example would be purchasing guild wars 2 and typing in your credit card number, expiry, CVV and billing information) check your statements or contact your bank/credit card company to insure there have been no unauthorized transactions.

Most often than not, the people or clandestine organizations that carry out these types of frauds are not limiting themselves to gaming accounts. They target individuals and commit a full range of identity theft.

Hope everything clears up for those effected and is done so in a timely manner.

I have the same thing….I haven’t even played the released game yet. I’ve been on vacation for the past two weeks….what a great way to start of the journey – getting a banned message the first time you try to log in.

still & still waiting to get back my account I paid for.

New developpement guys! I’m happy to tell everyone that I finally got an answer from ANET!

Oh wait.. I received an automatic message after 4 days of waiting time. I got a comprehensive guide on ‘’How to change my e-mail and password’‘. In resume, my account is still banned (With a new message upon connecting) and I’m still in the now famous ‘’turn based loop’‘. I’m seriously thinking about a refund.