Guild Wars 2

Duda.9845:

Hello,

Dudas friend “cAu.1953” speaking.

I have a ticket opened by ID: “Incident: 121205-000035”.

This is the reason of my suspension stated by NCsoft:

“Your purchase for Guild Wars 2 was voided as a result of being found too high risk to accept. The purchase attempt displayed characteristics that are currently found in numerous fraudulent transactions.”

My question to Gaile is:

“Why didn’t you just reject the payment in the first place and said it was too risky. Instead, you took my money and now i don’t have access to the service i paid. I believe you are aware that is called ROBBERY.

Also, do you have ANY proof that my payment is in numerous fraudulent transactions and why is my payment in high risk area ?? I can send you any proof you need that I AM and ever WILL BE the owner of the credit card which I used on numerous sites like eBay, BattleNet, etc. if not through PayPal (site which also has no problem with my credit card) then by using the full card information like on your LEGAL site.

I believe that it is a given that i expect a FULL refund if you do not reopen my account because otherwise I have every right and believe me I will sue and haunt you until i get my money that you practically STOLE from me.

Seeing as I am not the only one with this problem and you have tendency to wait with answers on such questions, you can expect to see this matter published on every possible forum and other public sites until this gets resolved and so people know who are they getting into business with."

Regards,
Very angry/dissapointed customer

In cases like this, we do not take your money or, alternately, once the fraud risk is found to be too high, we immediately refund the money. Reading your ticket, you were not charged. (You may have seen an “authorization” but that was not completed and the funds were not taken from your account.)

In other words, we don’t charge you, let you play, then boot you out of the game and keep your money. Now, we cannot refund your money if you bought from someone else. If you were defrauded by an unauthorized seller, then you need to contact them, get a refund, and, if you wish, work with Support to add a new, valid code to your existing account (when it’s allowable).

Your ticket is just one day old. These are given a high priority, and I’m sure you will helped personally and very soon. If you need to do so, post in the “Tickets for Review” sticky thread after three days and I’ll investigate. But again, I believe you’ll be helped soon.

Lastly, you suggest “Why not block the purchase first?” I think that would be a great thing to do, and I’ve asked the same myself. The thing is, the credit card appears to go through and only gets rejected afterwards. So we, out of trust that the payment will be valid, allow the creation of an account, but must close that account when the risk is found to exceed acceptable levels OR when the code is found to have been invalidated by the third-party seller having use a stolen credit card (which sometimes take a couple of weeks to discover) or having done a charge-back on the card.

We are looking at betters means of handling fraud risks and other situations like this and hope for reduced numbers of these situations, even while they are pretty much outside our control.

Xia.3485:

Rubbers, if ANets intentions were to sweep this under the rug they would not have replied to any of the threads. Right now this thread is in the dev tracker thus giving it more exposure.

I also doubt very much they will share details on what they are doing on their end… it would give cues to the hackers.

True, and true. This thread, and several others you see, are evidence of us giving as much transparency to and by our players. We’re not trying to stifle things, or brush them off, or hide them. Case in point: I just “bumped” a thread that hadn’t had posts in more than 2 days to make it more visible, not less.

Please have confidence we are reviewing each compromise, helping as much as we are able, and carefully monitoring our processes and security every hour of every day.

ChaiQi.6274:

Just got my account back. Thank you Gaile for speeding up the support team’s process. For everyone else I recommend that you be very descriptive about the issues. It took them 3 weeks to complete mine but I am pretty sure I wasn’t really clear with the problem for the first 2 weeks. Screenshots and what ever evidence you can give them will probably speed the process along. Just keep updating your tickets.

I am glad you are back in the game, and I think your advice is very solid, so thanks for sharing that.

If someone wonders “Why should I provide Support in my ticket,” please read this post.

Fay.2735:

Gaile Gray.6028:

I talked to the Security Team, and they expect a final version with in the next several weeks. More testing, feature reviews, etc.

Is there any intend on releasing official physical authenticators rather than ‘certain brands may or may not work’? Also any updates on the rollback system for compromised accounts?

We have no plans to sell physical authenticators, but again, you are welcome to use one if you desire. I recommend that you verify that the set-ups will work with the authentication systems in place, as recommended by players in this thread. I will ask our Security Team if they can comment, but I am sure they cannot recommend brands, only the basic configuration details. If you think that would be helpful to you, let me know and I’ll get what information I can.

wintermute.4096:

So, what you’re saying is… someone got access to your email account? If so, the issue most likely is not on anets end.

It is true that we cannot possible be involved in someone’s individual email account security.

Rubbers.5261:

I made this post and Gale Gray closed it after it was getting alot of attention… wow are you serious? Company image management?

Wait a second, please. You were told there was an existing thread about this subject, and yet you continue to make new ones. We should keep the topic focused, so that our security team and others interested in this subject can update themselves on any situations that may exist.

Please do not take a forum thread closure personally, and for goodness sake, do not make rude and insulting comments about the fact that it was closed when there was a very valid reason for doing so.

And, as you can see, I’ve merged this new thread into the existing thread I mentioned to you yesterday and ask you with all due respect to keep your comments of a reasonable nature and to post in the topic at hand.

Thank you for the update — glad this was resolved and quickly, too.

This is not an issue on our end. It sounds very much as if you have a keylogger or Trojan on your computer, something that is reading your keystrokes to gain access. (And many virus protection programs do not detect keyloggers, or lag behind their development.) Alternately, you may have used an insecure or publicly-known email address.

Our first order of business is getting you back on your account, so please contact Support by filing a ticket through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page. They will be able to assist you. For tips on what information to provide in a ticket, please read this post.

Once Support has gotten you back on your account, consider adding authentication:

For questions about E-mail Authentication, see this post.

For questions about Two-Factor (mobile) Authentication, please see our FAQ.

Check out several tips on security.

And for a detailed outline on the subject of security as it relates to Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, please see Mike O’Brien’s article on account security.

Yes, absolutely. Once you’ve registered, you may play from anywhere in the world.

Have a great time in the UK. I lived there as a child, and I love it!

Please go to support.guildwars2.com and search “Authentication” or “Authenticator.”

Rubbers.5261:

Does anyone else think there needs to be more done about this problem I am seeing constantly now?

I sympathize with your situation, and I don’t mean to minimize your loss, or the loss that any player experiences when he or she is hacked. However, this is not a game-wide issue, and we all need to keep in mind that these are individual situations and not some pointer towards a major security loophole.

There is a thread in the Account Issues forum, and you’re welcome to post there. I think that’s the appropriate place, because it keeps the discussion focused and when there’s any new information to share, everyone who is interested in the subject will see it.

I hope you’ll understand, therefore, why I’m going to close this thread. Not to stop the discussion, but simply to focus it. I wish you all the best as this situation is resolved.

Edge.4180:

Physical authenticator, please. Really can’t understand how a company can expect their MMO to ever be taken seriously in this day and age without providing players with an option to purchase one.

Doubly so when said company seems to be incapable of providing support for compromised accounts.

I have read in the forums that several brands of generic authenticators will work with the two-factor authentication system for Guild Wars 2. I don’t know the name brands, but you’re welcome to do a search and find them — they have been recommended (tested, used) by others.

We will keep your account safe and ready for you to rejoin us in Tyria once you return.

All the best during your deployment and sincere thanks for your service!

Squall Leonhart.2075:

these sites are probably part of the hacking organisations that are robbing high level chars of gold and gear.

Yes, without question. Their business is theft, and from those thefts they build the inventory to sell gold — which is absolutely disallowed — to players. It’s a vicious cycle. If everyone stops buying gold, the gold sellers will go out of business and, with their market dried up, they will stop stealing accounts.

You can contact Support by filing a ticket through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page. They will be able to assist you. For tips on what information to provide in a ticket, please read this post.

The HoM stones that Meijo mentions are available without cost in Lion’s Arch.

Sorry about your little brother. It’s not a happy situation when a family member gets your account banned. Be very careful with your GW2 account and do not let anyone else access it!

To answer your questions, we are not able to give HoM rewards from banned accounts to GW2 accounts. Once an account is banned, the rewards are lost.

This is the first step. Taking this step solves the problem solves nearly every case of non-receipt of mails. So please try this.

https://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9053

I suggest that you contact Support by filing a ticket through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page. They will be able to assist you. For tips on what information to provide in a ticket, please read this post.

Xia.3485:

Now.. where are the final versions of them authenticators?

I talked to the Security Team, and they expect a final version with in the next several weeks. More testing, feature reviews, etc.

If you are not using one of our authentication systems, I recommend that you do so:

Mobile/Two-Factor Authentication: https://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9238/kw/authentication

E-mail Authentication:
https://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9192/kw/authentication

When I post a list, I ask that you allow 24 more hours before posting your ticket number again. This gives me time to follow up on current issues, and prevents the thread becoming spam-o-rific.

I really encourage you to contact Support by filing a ticket through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page. They will be able to assist you. For tips on what information to provide in a ticket, please read this post.

If you find you still need help after three days, feel free to post in the Tickets for Review thread, which is at the top of this Account Support sub-forum.

Usually when this happens it is because the recipient has a full mailbox. We’ve found that clearing the box — completely if possible (after removing any items, of course) — is the way to make sure that the sent in-game mails arrive.

Please have your friend try this, and if it does not work, have him update his ticket to explain that he tried that step but it was ineffective. Of course if it does work, having him post that the situation is resolved, and closing the ticket, would be much appreciated.

WeZeX.3157:

Hello, I have a question about login … i just got e-mail that someone from other side of planet tried to login to my account, I need to aprove it but of course I will not.

So I just want to ask if there is a way to stop guys like this … I know what he want to do at my account so … if there is some way to stop them i will be happy
(sending a pics …)

Ty for response,
WeZeX

The way to stop them is to do exactly what you did: To decline to accept the log-in attempt. There is no way to increase protection by saying “Do not allow any log-ins from [country]” because most account thieves have access to proxies, so while they may be located in Beijing, they may appear to be trying to log in from Boston.

Once you remember a location, the mobile authenticator does not ask you about that particular location again. It will ask you about different locations, of course.

The two-factor/mobile authentication system is still in beta form, and I believe that in the final form, you will have the option to tell it “Don’t remember locations; ask me every time” which I believe is what a few of you would like to see.

There is no point in submitting a ticket about this situation at this point. If a problem develops, you should discuss the matter with Support at this time.

The Account Restoration Tool will not impact guild banks, and we do not have the capacity to restore them.

The ART is not yet live, but is coming soon, and in this case, it would be useful in restoring the guild officer’s personal account.

Excellent, thanks for letting us know!

Please do not submit a ticket and use the forums to instantly press for an answer. Please allow the team time to answer the ticket, and use the forums only for issues that are not related to tickets. If you need help after three full business days, you can post in the “Tickets for Review” thread. But the forums are not intended to try to expedite a brand new ticket.

If someone in the ticket misunderstood, update that ticket to correct their misunderstanding, please. Do not create a new ticket, but update the old one.

It is possible that your email account has been hacked, in which case all your discussions with Support, including the one in which you provided your serial code, are visible to the hacker.

If you think this might be possible please create a brand new, unique email account and contact Support from that account so you can work with them on the problem. Be aware that they will require a lot of proof of ownership, but once you provide that, they’ll be happy to help.

As long as you have submitted a ticket, the team can help you sort this out. There are a few reasons why this may have happened, but if you purchased from a third-party seller, I would imagine the codes were disabled due to fraud on the part of the original buyer (the person who sold to you).

Please hold tight and the team will help you as soon as they are able to do so.

You have the opportunity to see every element of the makeover before you accept and you do actively accept the change, it does not happen passively.

Because of this technology, and the approval process, we do not grand “redos” or refunds.

Arsenic Touch.7960:

I’d like an answer on this too considering I’ve been compromised twice in a week, if it happens a third time with all the precautions I’ve taken + the mobile authenticator (though I could’ve sworn I added it prior to being compromised the second time) it’ll be clear that the problem isn’t on my end.

No it will be even more clear that the issue is on your end.

If someone is hacked twice in a week, it’s nearly certain that he/she has a trojan or keylogger on the computer system. Most virus detection systems miss the newer keyloggers, and I’ve been told that sometimes, the only way to clear the system is to “flatten it” and reinstall from the OS onwards. (Not a happy prospect, for sure.)

Feel free to discuss the matter with Support, because they may have tips for you, or a means to check for the keylogger situation. But please don’t assume that this is a problem on our end.

Loufly — As I have posted many times in the last week or so, we’ll have information about the Account Restoration Tool, including the requirements under which it can be used, in the near future. It would be premature for me to answer individual questions at this time, but we will have more information to share with everyone very soon.

We will have news on account restorations in the near future.

I think this thread has been addressed as fully as possible, except to answer one question that was posed somewhere in the body:

The ART is an all-account restoration. It does not restore an individual item or a certain character. In cases of compromise — and qualifying compromised accounts are the only once eligible for restoration — I don’t really understand why it would make a difference. The fully account was compromised, and in most cases, the account was stripped (and sometimes characters deleted). So rolling it back to a snapshot/saved state is the way to go.

Update: Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 -5 December

121125-002472 Resolved
121120-001710 Should be resolved today
121122-002680 Should be resolved today
121126-001549 Should be resolved today
121127-001175 Should be resolved today
121127-001248 Should be resolved today
121202-001412 Answered today.
121116-000404 Answered yesterday. Take this up with your seller; we will not provide you with the account’s serial code.
121127-001175 I followed up on this today
121128-002636 I followed up on this today
121129-001122 I followed up on this today
121201-000285 I followed up on this today
121201-000356 I followed up on this today
121201-000566 I followed up on this today
121202-001933 I followed up on this today
121128-000546 Under review
121129-000443 Under review
121130-001083 Under review
121201-002553 Under review
121202-002100 Under review
121125-000802 Account released (after accidental refund). You may purchase a new code and rejoin the game
121124-000049 Account released; add a new, valid code to rejoin the game
121128-001722 Account released; add a new, valid code to rejoin the game
121126-000302 Account released; add a new, valid code to rejoin the game
121127-000150 Account ownership is in dispute; please continue to discuss with Support.
121126-001377  Fraudulent code. He should contact the seller to get a refund and ask Support if he can add a new, legitimate code.
121102-003339 Multiple charge-backs. This account is permamently closed.
121126-001549 The credit card authorization did not pass risk reviews. You were not charged.
121202-001933 The credit card authorization did not pass risk reviews. You were not charged.
121130-000171 This is not an account or support issue; forum questions will be handled by the appropriate team.
121130-000631 This was refunded to the credit card holder at his/her request. (I do not know if this is your friend or someone else.)
121204-000130  This thread is for tickets that are at least three days old. Your ticket is one day old. Please allow the team time to answer you.

dezaster.1704:

hi…gaile gray said that my account is suspended because of refunding…but me or my friend nver do any kind of refund…

Spartan.6587
tanz_1004@hotmail.com

please respond quickly…i already run out of tolerance,,,hundreds of hours of my gaming in this game vanished because of some customner support issue is not funny…thx

i alwyas update my ticket and they never respond to it

I need the 12-digit ticket numbers.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Hahaha, now I can safely say that even an ArenaNet employee has mistaken my name for Rising Duck (This is frequent!)! Gaile, you just made my day!

Shhhhhh… I fixed that in <1 minute. You were not supposed to notice! blush

Rising Dusk.2408:

They’re working on the ART (Account Restoration Tool). By the time it goes live, it will only be able to help those people hacked moving forward. Gaile has confirmed this in the Account Issues forum repeatedly. This is a major priority for them, and although it is a huge labor cost and development time cost, they are doing this to help people like you. So don’t think you have to rally the armies against ANet or some such; they’ve already heard, and are already well underway with the solution.

That said, it doesn’t matter what you do in real life. Passwords can and will be cracked. No matter what you say, your security measures were at fault here. If there were a security breach of ANet even insofar as a single account could be stolen from their databases, they are bound by law to come out and tell us. As such a statement has not been made, I am confident that your claim that “it must have come from the GW2 site” is illegitimate.

Furthermore, the hacker got into both your email address and your GW2 account. The only way he could achieve both is if you had poor security measures on both, reused passwords, used simple passwords, have a keylogger, accidentally logged into some phishing website designed to look like the GW2 website (I’ve seen some fancy ones), or so forth. The best thing you can do is change all of your passwords, change your email address if you can, and be more careful moving forward. Good luck.

I am very sorry for what happened to you, VincentBalmont, and I’m so happy that we will be rolling out the ART in very short order. I know that this may not seem a comfort to you, but development and testing continue and we will get that tool into the hands of our CS Agents as soon as possible.

I think RisingDusk expressed things very well. The hacking of your email account and your game account points fully away from Guild Wars 2 as the source of the compromise. The fact that we don’t have tens of thousands of incidents points away from Guild Wars 2 as the source of the issue. The fact that our Security Team (we actually have more than one team focused on security) confirms that there is not an issue with game or server security also points away from Guild Wars 2 as the source of the issue.

Again, I truly do sympathize with the fact that you were hacked, but out of fairness to the company, I feel it’s responsible for me to point out that the theories that point to ArenaNet or Guild Wars 2 as the source of the problem are simply not accurate.

xiyana.3782:

[—-001:000305:32512—-] had this ticket for around a week now. Previously had sent emails to no avail.. This is as much info as I have about my account as it was brought for me as a gift by my partner. Who does radio show for Gwen. (Mike Si from Perth Australia)

I would need the actual 12-digit incident number, which begins with 12. Thank you.

Volit.8652:

What does this mean 121118-000987 Under review? I unlock?

It means that the team needs more time to review this. They will respond as soon as possible.

Rhysie.8692:

Gaile Gray.6028:

121128-000072 The charge authorization did not pass risk reviews. You were not charged.

He just checked his bank records and found out that he was charged twice for his original purchase and then later refunded twice without any notifications made to him. Does he lose his entire account over this mistake or is there some way he can get his account back after buying the game again? Thanks.

Apparently this person had failed to pass anti-fraud measures. This could be for a lot of reasons, but fraud prevention is a very critical part of doing business, and we will decline purchases that appear questionable. Your friend should discuss the issue with Support to learn if the account can be released to him to add a code. Sometimes, the only code that will be acceptable is a retail (box) code, so if that is an option, he should ask about that possibility when discussing with Support.

Nolas.7869:

Was looking for some kind of an update from Anet in regards to what they are planning on doing about the people who did not get credit for the lost shores event. I was on an overflow server, was never given the option to switch to my sever, was DC’d at the end of the event and when i logged back in immediately i was placed in a different overflow sever where the event had already been completed and i was not able to receive any rewards for it. As a paying customer of your game i would really appreciate some kind of a response and not just delete my post and hope i go away OR move it into the “archive” section that has not had any updates in several weeks

Times been deleted my Anet without a response: 1

This is not an account issue. This post was not deleted, it was moved to the Lost Shores forums, so those attending to that forum can read your comments. Do not assume the worst — search for your post!

We have made numerous updates about rewards and you will hear more in the very near future.

We figured out the issue and are working on a fix for this. I don’t think it’ll roll out for a bit, so hold off on that purchase attempt for a day or two, then you might find it works just fine.

I suggest that you contact Support by filing a ticket through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page. They will be able to assist you. For tips on what information to provide in a ticket, please read this post.

Bluestone.7106:

Tallis.5607:

Gaile Gray.6028

he was allegedly logging in from four hundred miles away, and in a span that covered three countries! (England, Scotland, Wales)

Last time I checked, England, Scotland & Wales were not seperate countries, but all three part of the same country, the UK.

England, Scotland and Wales are all countries. The UK is a sovereign state of which these countries are part (along with Northern Ireland).

Oh gosh, sorry, Bluestone, I didn’t see your post. Thanks for the info — you are 100% correct.

Tallis.5607:

Last time I checked, England, Scotland & Wales were not seperate countries, but all three part of the same country, the UK.

But I guess Anet’s idea of countries outside the USA & South Korea is a little bit odd: they even seem to think Belgium is a French speaking country, because they keep sending me to French pages.

Oh, well.[/quote]

The United Kingdom is not a country. England, Scotland, and Wales are part of the United Kingdom, which also includes Northern Ireland. Great Britain — also not a separate country — consists of the countries of England, Scotland, and Wales but does not include Northern Ireland.

And the dominant/preponderant aggregate language in Belgium is French, even if Dutch/Flemish is the most common of the first languages for those who speak more than one. Since we do not localize to Dutch, I guess the assumption is that French is the more likely choice, even while we respect that other languages are spoken there.

What means of payment are you using? Credit card? PayPal?

Do you get an error message when you cannot purchase? If so, what is the message?

Good advice, Seraki. I would also add that both people moving to a less-populated world is another option.