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Banned for being hacked by gold seller :'(
essaidi
Member UncommonPosts: 29
So I really enjoy playing FFXIV ARR sadly I, like MANY others, are unable to do so. Saturday night I logged off and the next morning when I logged back on, my account was banned, I thought it was strange and called customer support from Skype, I told the nice UK SE supporter that I was unable to log in, she told me that I had been banned for advertising for Gil buying websites in chat... so in those 5 hours I was asleep, there apparently has been someone on my account advertising in chat... I asked her what to do (Me thinking they could check the IP used when selling was done and let me continue playing) but it was not that easy So now I'm finding myself in a loooooong freaking line of people being hacked by Gil sellers waiting for it to be my turn to have my account looked at by some guy/girl I'm really pissed, that I'm currently paying for a game that I am not allowed to play because another person hacked my account.
ALSO I didn't have the one time password so I asked if I got that if I could be sure I wouldn't get hacked and she said "no, other people has had that issue"....
anyway I just want to recomend everyone to have 1 time password... And... well good luck cause really it can happen to all of us and there is nothing you can do about it other then waiting in a line for an eternity
Comments
You're not alone. Was hacked, then banned and it's been over a week now. Never been able to get in contact with anyone at SE either..just wait for hours on the phone, or go through the chat que and have it cancel. (NA support that is)
I dont know how you can fix all the problems with a games mechanics..and so incredibly fuck up the support for it.
Mate, I called the European one, and even tho its the European one I believe they could still be able to help you? I called them 30 min after they opened the phone support, and I got straight to a supporter
try the European one 
Same thing happened to me, I've run full checks on my machine (actually formatted a few weeks prior to purchase) nothing found. The one mistake I did make was to use the same password I have used for a previous Sony game.. completely forgetting about the U/P database they had compromised last year.
So I e-mailed, didnt hear anything back, so I tried chat support provided pictures of ID's order numbers everything they could possibley ask for and then I was told I would have to wait 6 weeks because it needs to go to japans head office.
I'm normally pretty calm with this kind of issue but I lost it, cancelled my case, requested a refund (which I'm sure I'll never get)and requested the sony complaints address.
If any of you need it here it is (UK though):
SQUARE ENUX, Europe
1 Hartfiled Road (I assume he meant Hartfield)
London
SW19 3RU
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
You are probably right about that.. I keep a small notebook with all my unique usernames and passwords in it. It hasn't failed me yet
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
I feel for you I really do, but if you haven't bought any gil/gold or visited their websites and you think it's information obtained or linked from other websites. Then, in part you are at fault here. Your password should always be different between services, it should be a strong password, lower case, upper case, numbers and symbols and really shouldn't be used to spell out a word.
Consider it a life lesson mate, as for paying for a game you can't play don't do that. If you are unable to log in presently, then when the payment comes out of your account dispute it with the bank and inform that payment was unauthorized so they can charge it back to you. It's a big pain, I know, but hopefully you'll get your case resolved soon.
What he said ^^^ Good post..
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
Totally understand that using the same password was my mistake.
6 Weeks for them to reactivate my account, after I have provided them scanned evidence of my driving licence, order numbers login credentials I don't.
Therefore I'm out of here. Hope you all enjoy it.
Please do yourself a favor and use the one time password feature. It may not be iron clad 100%, but its worth the download or purchase of the physical one. I always use them and have never been hacked.Believe me mate I will last time I ever make that mistake
and thanks for the heads up 
So I'm supposed to pay extra for security on my account? I pay to subscribe to this game - is this a joke?
Another turd I knew to avoid long before it's release. I wish the community would wise up and start letting developers know that they are tired of the lowered bar and broken issues. But, if that were true, McDonald's would have died years ago.
This is far from a joke. EVERY MMO out there has the same security options, generally. Your username + password. If some gold sellers decide to brute force that somehow and get into your account, then you are SOL. The one-time keyfobs at least give another layer of security, which is why I started using them as well.
Besides, they are free as mobile apps, and a lot of people have smartphones in this day and age. And if not, the keys are cheap to get and add way more security to your account. Strong passwords are always a bonus, but one-time keys make it that much less likely to get hacked.
And also, welcome to the real world. It's not the company's problem to keep your account safe outside of making sure their account servers aren't being compromised. So if you select a useless password which is being bruteforced within 5 minutes, that is entirely your problem. "I pay to subscribe" is not some kind of magical armor against criminal gold sellers, nor can the gaming companies magically make them go away either, since we are literally talking about organized crime here. Nevermind those guys are operating from within countries where the authorities probably could care less about their activities.
So for the sake of your account, get a one-time key app or token for EVERY damn MMO you play, use a unique, strong password, and that way you will be safe. Or well, as safe as you can be when you are dealing with criminal elements online.
Remember folks, the gold selling industry makes a lot of money.
They are VERY motivated to get into your account and clean it out, so much so that they will use a variety of methods to get into it, brute force hacking passwords, hacking databases, phishing, all sorts of malware.
It is impossible for a game company to prevent the gold seller from doing everything it can to obtain your password, sadly.
Hope SE restores your account quickly sir.
Do you want to protect your account?
Yes?
Then do whatever it takes, it costs SE extra money to get security tokens, so they put the cost to you, AT cost. SE can't magically protect your password from ever being discovered, there is no way to do that.
Lets be realistic.
Well, yes, this can happen to anyone. But it is your responsibility to make sure your computer and credentials are safe. Whilst I agree that paying for the subscription when you're not paying is terrible it is still your responsibility.
I'm sure you've heard these tips a million times but they're very important.
1. Don't sign up to any forums you aren't 100% sure you can trust. At least not with the same password you use for any other service such as games or email.
2. Don't use the same password for your email and your MMO of choice.
3. Install a legit anti-virus software. Preferably not one of the free ones.
4. Don't ever buy gold or the equivalent of the MMO of your choosing's currency.
Trust me, you getting hacked is even more troublesome for the company than it is for you. They are trying to juggle the sanctity of their game as well as keeping you as a customer at the same time.
Few further points
1. Never sign up to a forum with using an email address thats linked to an online game, and even then, don't use a generic password that you use anywhere else.
2. multiple passwords, don't use something thats easy to guess, any password should consist of not less than 2 capital letters, 2 lowercase letters, 2 numbers and 2 special characters ie $ % & etc padding it out with random lowercase letters and numbers, ideally to one thats 12 - 15 characters in length.
3. There are a number of legit free antivirus programs out there, but you are far better off using the paid versions, my own preference is Avast Antivirus, but others like macafee and kaspersky etc are probably okay too. you also need a firewall, microsoft doesnt make one that works yet, so you really need one, a decent free one is zonealarm, but again, i like the comprehensive suite from avast.
4. RMT is bad, so buying gold, or any other service like powerlevelling, is just going to end badly, and if your really daft they also got your credit card details, in which case, you probably have bigger problems than just your game account getting hacked!
5. if a game has a security token for increased protection, and you intend to stay with that game, then buy it, as far as i am aware nobody has ever had their account hacked if they used a security token, even WoW.
6. Use your antivirus programs for a regular check up, at least once a week run the things and do a thorough scan of your PC, this is especially true if you are not the only person using the PC at home etc.
The internet is rife with malware, and it doesnt respect ignorance, unfortunately we all now have to be our own internet security experts, and like many games, it can be a pretty steep and unforgiving learning curve. But its one we all have to deal with. Common sense though should always be used, if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is
And if you find yourself being too cheap to purchase a security token, most MMOs allow for it to be installed on smartphones. Assuming that you have one.
Best password are also long. not @!fsdd%$@s they are hard to remember and easy to bruteforce. While a password "ThisIsThePasswordForWOW" and "ThisIsThePasswordForAion" are way more secure. First of all you get a easy to remember password and they all different for every game you play/forum your on. The poeple who steal your password in general are not actually reading them and thinking "Hey, what if I replace WoW with Aion". It's all automated.