Account Locked / Banned

[Arrn]

Hi, the account in matter is Arrne, character Arrn. I haven't gotten any reason / note on the website and what I know of I haven't done anything to violate the ToA. Hope you can get back soon.

I just found out that an unknown person has been logged on my account during last night while I was at work (confirmed by friends) is this something you can confirm with IP etc?

Best regards

[Nathrizyr]

Greetings,

The account associated with that character has been permanently banned for scamming. Account security is the responsibility of the player, thus any sanctions on the account will remain even if done by a third party.

Regards, GM Team

[Arrn]

So can't I undo the scam that was done with my character? Cause i've spent so much time and putting down effort in trying to be an honest player and helping others and something like this happens, which I couldn't even control? I beg you to my knees.

[Arrn]

Can I also ask what the scam was about? I would really like to know.

[Gemt]

I had written a huge reply, but being slightly stupid apparently I managed to loose the text when trying to submitt it or something. So this will be a shorter version.

Thursday night people in our guild (Phoenix, same guild as Arrn is in) saw Arrn online spamming world chat and guild chat with bullshit. It was clear to those online it was not actually Arrn on the account. The next morning Arrn found that his account was locked, and guildmates told him what had happened the night before.

He just today learned about the reason for the ban, and I myself got pretty pissed when I heard what had happened. It is just not fucking justified that someone can spend months of their time playing according to the rules of the server, and then someone gets access to the account without the player knowing how, use it for scamming and then get permanently banned. It is clear in the ToS that the account security is the players responsibility, and that scamming is a permanently bannable offense, but the combination of the two, or the general combination of any permanently bannable offense and someone gaining access to a players account without the player being aware of it, should not lead to a permanent ban when the player has never been involved in any illegal activities prior to it happening.

Arrn is, as thousands other on this server, someone who have played on Nostalrius for months. He is an active raider in a fairly "hardcore" guild and probably takes the same security measures as most of the players on this server. When something like this happens to someone like Arrn, it means it can happen to anyone, which it has. We understand that it probably takes more administrative resources in the long run when being more reasonable with bans, that is not permanently banning someone who has been hacked, but for me, as a hardcore player on your server since the release day of Nostalrius Begins, it is almost unacceptable that someone loose months of their hobby time over something as trivial as this. If it had happened to me, I probably would not bother starting over and just abandon the whole thing, we simply put in too much time for this to happen...

No account that has not received any warnings should be banned for being used for scamming by a hacker. It should, and I believe most would agree with this, get a last warning, encouraging the user to use a more secure and unique password. If it happens twice, it is clear that the account owner is doing something stupid and a permanent ban is justified, but a permanent ban should not be the solution for something like this...

[Bleachy]

The issue you have is scammers will use the same excuse to keep the accounts running.

Gm's will be dammed if they do and then dammed if they don't.

What about the people the account scammed? How did the account get compromised? Its not just as straightforward as we would like to think.

However it does indeed suck and I really feel for the guy

[Gemt]

The issue you have is scammers will use the same excuse to keep the accounts running.

This is irrelevant, they can easily see what IPs has been used logging into the account. Sure, you can use a VPN, but what possible reason would Arrn have to play for months, then one day he decide to use a VPN and scam someone, and on top of that do it with his main account.

[Bleachy]

Why do people go from being normal everyday people to mass murders?

I know this is nothing of the like - But we can never vouch for peoples mindsets - Most of all people we meet on the internet.

[Thompz]

Hi GM's

Please give Arrn the benefit of the doubt in this situation and let him has his account back, he has been in Phoenix since we started doing MC and is a really nice guy and a good player, apart from his dps being nearly as bad as Gemt's he's an all round top player.

He is also a firefighter IRL and saves kittens from trees, this kind of person deserves a bit of special treatment.

I beg you to help this guy out!

[Glenzig]

Sadly, it doesn't matter if it was not him. The point is, the staff have to take a stance on an issue like this, and it has to be consistant. If they allow Arm to have his account back after it has been comprimised and used to scam people, this sets a bad precident for any future situation involving a third party and rules violations.
It does suck that it hapened, but there is really no going back. Sorry.