Account hacked/"unable to restore"

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: vAlex.8750

vAlex.8750

I dont know how to go about this but, i Logged into gw2 on Christmas day to find that my account has been accessed and all my gold, laurels, items were gone. they salvaged all my gear, sold all my 18 slot bags.

so i submitted a ticket that my account had been Compromised Account/hacked and they did the usual ( verify that i was me and suspended my account till i was verified) After the investigation i go ingame and see my characters were still stripped, and all i get in the mail was 1 18 slot bag ( i lost 24 in total) and a chest containing a booster and the set of gemstore armor skin

After recieving this mail i submit another ticket requesting my account to get restored, No Answer. Today on january 4th 2014 i get an email that corresponds to my first ticket submitted saying :

Hello Alex,

After reviewing the game logs, I was unable to determine that the account was accessed by an unauthorized individual. As a result, we will be unable to offer any restorations for this incident.

Please let us know if you need assistance with anything else.

Regards,

GM Master Mind

And i Responded with:

My Account was hacked, all of my items were salvaged and sold, my gold was taken, my laurels were spent
The ip that hacked me was 175.21.119.18
And it belongs to someone in china, while i live in Canada,Ontario

how is this not enough proof that my account was not accessed by an unauthorized individual, my email and my gw2 account had the same user name and password. he authorized himself

My two ticket numbers are :
Compromised Account/hacked (request #201137)
Account restoration (request #219174)?

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

If you have responded to today’s email, you must wait for them to email you back. Sometimes, it takes several emails, and an escalation of your issue. Just keep the dialogue going. (It took responses for me to get my account straightened out.)

Make sure your computer is completely clean, and you have either changed passwords to your email, or changed the email associated with your account completely, as well.

Good luck.

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: vAlex.8750

vAlex.8750

Hello Alex,
Thank you for updating us regarding this issue.
While we understand that you would have preferred to receive a different response to your petition, we must reiterate that we are unable to fulfill your request. The IP you have provided to us does not appears in our logs, meaning it did not login to your account.
Thanks for your understanding.
Regards,
GM Master Mind
Guild Wars 2 Support Team

Apparently i made up the ip that hacked me

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: Rajani Isa.6294

Rajani Isa.6294

Where did you get the IP from?

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: TWMagimay.9057

TWMagimay.9057

Where did you get the IP from?

Probably from the account page, where it shows the IPs currently logged into your account and the IPs authorized to log in your account.

I have a different question: Did you remove the IP from your account before contacting them?

PS: Consider yourself lucky, you are at least getting answers. I’d love to even get a “we can’t restore” so I can move forward in some way…

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: Rajani Isa.6294

Rajani Isa.6294

I’m wondering because if it’s set up right, CS should have a record of any previously-OK’d IP – removed or not.

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: vAlex.8750

vAlex.8750

they removed all the authorized ip after i contacted them
I also told them i wouldnt stop until i found out what happen to my stuff

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: kippey.9860

kippey.9860

Funny that I should come across this, I had the VERY same thing happen to me. In fact, I waited on support for an agonizing 18 days with a back-and-forth of emails in which they told me:

1) That they saw that my account had indeed been hacked and that they would restore it.
2) That the previous response was in error, and that they could not confirm that I had been hacked and refused to restore the account.
3) They saw that my account had been hacked in Feb-March 2013 and offered to restore it to a date in that time frame.
4) That THAT response was also a booboo on support’s part; they can’t roll an account back 6 whole months (I didn’t think that they could!)
5) That there was nothing they could would do for me.

Amazingly, when I reported my experience on the forums the thread was locked, as the moderator claimed that my account didn’t make sense. The heck it didn’t, they corrected/modified their responses to me TWICE!

Just saving you 20 days and a whole lot of frustration here, but I sincerely don’t think that they’ll help you at all once they determine that “they cannot confirm a breach of your account”. Pretty rotten, I know, I lost 6 level 80s.

ETA: I too checked the most recent logins via the anet website and found a funny IP. I guess that their logs don’t match those we access on the site here. And FTR this all happened on December 17.

(edited by kippey.9860)

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: TWMagimay.9057

TWMagimay.9057

4) That THAT response was also a booboo on support’s part; they can’t roll an account back 6 whole months (I didn’t think that they could!)

Mine was allegedly rolled back 11 months…

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: kippey.9860

kippey.9860

4) That THAT response was also a booboo on support’s part; they can’t roll an account back 6 whole months (I didn’t think that they could!)

Mine was allegedly rolled back 11 months…

They told me that they lacked a ‘data point’ needed to restore my account to such a date.

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: Gaile Gray

Gaile Gray

ArenaNet Communications Manager

Next

Let’s be clear: If you share an account, if you leave your account active while you’re away, if your Evil Little Brother™ guesses your (insecure) password and jumps onto your account to wreak havoc, we’re not going to be able to tell “Is this a hack, or is this a ‘hack’.” And unfortunately, we get claims of “hacking” every day from people who try to get a restoration essentially to duplicate the allegedly-stolen items.

If we cannot trace the account(s) involved in the compromise, we cannot terminate it or them, thereby removing the items from the economy. If we cannot remove the items from the economy, we’re “duping” items, and that’s not a good thing — it impacts the entire community.

We must follow protocol for the good of all players. If an error is made, the team will correct it. But when they tell you they cannot see a compromise, they are looking at game logs that show access points have not changed from previous access points (prior to the alleged hacking incident), or they are seeing a back-and-forth over months, so clearly they are looking at a shared account. And neither of those can or will be restored.

Agents want to help you, and they want to restore your account if you’ve been a victim of a compromise, so they will look at the data in your favor. If you need a review you can continue the discussion with Support or you can post in the Tickets for Review thread. The better bet is to continue the discussion with Support, because in situations like this I would need to turn back to them for an explanation and it’s simply more efficient to discuss with someone already familiar with the case. I will say that like botting termination reversals, it’s not common for us to be able to reverse a decision about declining an account restoration.

Gaile Gray
Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet

(edited by Gaile Gray.6029)

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: kippey.9860

kippey.9860

I am curious as to why competitor companies such as Blizzard cheerfully provide restorations, even in confirmed cases of Evil Little Brother / Evil Girlfriend, etc. Is this because gold can be traded for items with real-life cash value (i.e. gems) in GW2? Just wondering as to whether we can ever expect character restoration from Guild Wars 2.

Let’s be honest: When a player is left high and dry with all of their mains deleted, their inclination to log into GW2 over another game in which they are not a penniless level 1 is pretty low, which impacts Anet’s bottom line every bit as badly.

(edited by kippey.9860)

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: dimek.4592

dimek.4592

I had similar situation yesterday. All my characters were deleted after I left my laptop with game on and and fall asleep by mi girlfriend. I sound like simple situation and with small amount of good will can be fixed.
However, GM Draghna gave me lots of good advices abuot my account security and… account sharing but do nothing to simply restore 1 char save from yesterday…
I believe that ARENA policy in such situation is aweful, and didin’t hope that my adventur in Tyria ends this way.

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: LittleLepton.8915

LittleLepton.8915

I had similar situation yesterday. All my characters were deleted after I left my laptop with game on and and fall asleep by mi girlfriend. I sound like simple situation and with small amount of good will can be fixed.
However, GM Draghna gave me lots of good advices abuot my account security and… account sharing but do nothing to simply restore 1 char save from yesterday…
I believe that ARENA policy in such situation is aweful, and didin’t hope that my adventur in Tyria ends this way.

You need a new girlfriend, lol. My husband hates that I play the game, but he’d never do that. Geez.

Unless I’ve completely misinterpreted the situation… ^^;;;

You don’t know me.

#LilithFan#1

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Posted by: Antonio Cappello.1806

Antonio Cappello.1806

I know that Blizzard hasn’t always offered character restorations so liberally, and for about half of the time I played WoW (from launch until the end of the second expansion), this feature was very limited. The customer service forums used to be rife with complaints about restorations not occurring.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the problem here was related to the gem-to-gold conversion (and vice versa). That, plus a few other things that I won’t mention (for fear that scammers could try to use them) make it fairly easy in my mind to use a restoration system to duplicate items. To counter some of these methods, ArenaNet would have to track the history of a deleted character in great detail to root out any potential wrongdoing. Perhaps WoW suffered from the same issue, but Blizzard just didn’t care as much because of the inability to legitimately buy gold with real money.

TL;DR version: I doubt it’s anywhere near as simple as ArenaNet just rolling back the character if they’re also looking to prevent abuse and protect the economy. Sure, all it takes is some employee scanning through logs and such, but time isn’t free.

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: waibird.6719

waibird.6719

i’m in the same boat for main account but since at the loadup its set for name and password saved i can still access GW2.Tried logging into GW1 and into forumns on main but cant since the hacker has changed the password.
As i can still gain access to GW2 as long as the name and password is set on saved i can still play and luckily too my knowledge the hacker hasnt done anything to GW2 but i cant say too much about GW1 account

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: kippey.9860

kippey.9860

I know that Blizzard hasn’t always offered character restorations so liberally, and for about half of the time I played WoW (from launch until the end of the second expansion), this feature was very limited. The customer service forums used to be rife with complaints about restorations not occurring.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the problem here was related to the gem-to-gold conversion (and vice versa). That, plus a few other things that I won’t mention (for fear that scammers could try to use them) make it fairly easy in my mind to use a restoration system to duplicate items. To counter some of these methods, ArenaNet would have to track the history of a deleted character in great detail to root out any potential wrongdoing. Perhaps WoW suffered from the same issue, but Blizzard just didn’t care as much because of the inability to legitimately buy gold with real money.

TL;DR version: I doubt it’s anywhere near as simple as ArenaNet just rolling back the character if they’re also looking to prevent abuse and protect the economy. Sure, all it takes is some employee scanning through logs and such, but time isn’t free.

Since I started playing in Cataclysm it has gotten significantly better then; a service rep even gave me a little paragraph summarizing my toon’s misadventures in the Twisting Nether when he restored my level 45 character after an accidental deletion on my part. I believe that now they even have a specified ‘restoration service’ for exactly these sort of mishaps.

As Guild Wars 2 (and subsequently people’s toons) hits two, three, even five years old and beyond, I doubt that their current response to character deletion is going to leave players with a very pleasant taste in their mouths. As it is, I’ve seen 1300 hours of playtime go down the drain something that has made me sincerely regret all the time and money that I’ve wasted in this game.

In any case, thank-you Gaile for that explanation of your policy on restorations. In my communications with customer service, every policy they informed me of was for ‘reasons we can’t explain to you’. I got the impression that they thought I was either too dumb to understand or didn’t want me to know how much information they were logging from my account activity. Either way, it’s good to get a candid response from someone on Anet’s end.

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: Gaile Gray

Previous

Gaile Gray

ArenaNet Communications Manager

Next

I just want to make sure that folks know the difference between an account restoration and a character restoration, when both involve a roll-back. Guild Wars 2 is programmed in such a way that it is not possible to roll back a single character. It’s all or nothing — full account restore or nothing at all. That’s just a technological limitation that I do not think ever will change.

What other games do is… what other games do. We are naturally conservative about our game economy and cautious about the potential for fraudulent or other kinds of abusive behavior. On the other hand, we try always to temper that with kindness and with the best possible outcome.

I know — really know! — that it’s devastating to think that a friend, family member, SO, or roommate might do something that, in a moment, wipes a few years of gaming. On the other hand, as a gamer I value that the company doesn’t hand out restorations like candy, because I work hard for my items, and I don’t want to get into that awful inflationary situation where the item that once was worth 10G on the TP now would cost me 90G. And I’ve seen that happen in other games.

I’ll try to take a look at your tickets tomorrow, but I’ve found that in most cases, the notes on the account confirm that we simply cannot restore the account, as much as it would be something we (and the player) would like to see happen.

Gaile Gray
Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: kippey.9860

kippey.9860

Now, I don’t know the full implications of this but compensating players for their levels lost with some scrolls of experience (or whatever the ones are that award 20 levels) might cool people down a bit. That way, at least all the hours they put into leveling are not down the drain and they can pull themselves out of the financial hole a bit faster by playing the game at level 80.

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: tolunart.2095

tolunart.2095

The scrolls only set the toon’s level to 20, it doesn’t add 20 levels. If you use one on a brand new toon, you go from level 2 (just out of the tutorial instance) to 20, but if you use it on a level 15 toon you still only end up at level 20.

This kind of thing is hardly the epidemic you present it as, in fact it’s a pretty rare situation that is completely the player’s fault. Anet doesn’t owe you anything for being unable to protect your account, and in fact giving out free stuff encourages the practice:

“Hey, when I get tired of this character I can sell his stuff, delete him, and get a brand new level 20 with gear just by telling Anet my little brother did it!”

The best thing you can do is to protect your computer. If you are in a location where others have access to it, log out of the game completely whenever you stop playing or step away from the computer, even if it’s “just for a minute.” Don’t use easy to guess passwords that friends and family can figure out like your birthday or the family dog’s name, and don’t save the login info so that anyone can log in as you without entering the password every time.

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: vAlex.8750

vAlex.8750

i got my account restored after talking to a different person, asking for the last time i played, my internet provider and my location. Thank you CeoG

About the Evil Little Brother / Evil Girlfriend, my brother has his own guild wars account, my gf doesnt even know i play guildwars2, ive checked for keyloggers on my comp/ found none (i have Kapersky pure 3.0) and my email had no emails deleted or read stating to confirm the ip that hacked me, the ip that hacked me was verified to have logged onto my account so i really don’t understand how my account got hacked

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: Gaile Gray

Previous

Gaile Gray

ArenaNet Communications Manager

I am so glad that this happened. When you explained all those details, I was very, very curious about what I would find in the ticket to tell me that the account could not be restored. And lo! I see that it was restored yesterday — hooray! I think this happened because you updated your original ticket and asked some very valid questions, and provided a bit more info, too.

Thank you for bearing with us, Alex, and for allowing us to correct the error that initially resulted in a less-than-satisfactory answer. We will work on making sure that we continue with our policy and our practice to restore an account whenever the situation allows it. As yours, happily, did!

Welcome back to Tyria!

Gaile Gray
Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet

Account hacked/"unable to restore"

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Posted by: dimek.4592

dimek.4592

I hope that you will also take a closer look to my ticket Gaile. I also send you yesterday a PM with further explanations as I was not sure what should I do.

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Posted by: ShiningSquirrel.3751

ShiningSquirrel.3751

I hope that you will also take a closer look to my ticket Gaile. I also send you yesterday a PM with further explanations as I was not sure what should I do.

First, you should not send Gaile any PMs unless she specifically asks you to for more information.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Private-Messages-A-Personal-Request

If your ticket is more then 3 days old and you have not gotten a response from support, you should post your ticket # in the thread below.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Tickets-for-Review-3-days-and-older-merged