Email update harrassment

#1 - April 13, 2013, 10:09 a.m.

So I send a ticket to change my email for my alt account.
I want the account to have it’s own separate email for safety reasons.
I provide all the information the initial ticket asks for including the game key.
I then get a reply asking for all this:

Thank you for contacting us.

To help verify that you are the owner of this account, we would like to ask you a few questions. Please answer the following to the best of your ability:

1. When was the last time you had access to Guild Wars 2?
2. What is your account’s current home world (server)?
3. What is your main character’s name, profession, and race?
4. If you are in a guild, what is your main guild’s name and tag?
5. What rank do you hold in your main guild?
6. How many characters do you have on your account?
7. On what date did you first notice that you no longer had access to your Guild Wars 2 account?
8. What Internet Service Provider do you use?
9. Did you purchase the game online from us or did you purchase the game through a retailer?
10. Please provide/confirm your Guild Wars 2 Serial Code.

Ok, sure that’s cool I can understand that, specially since I recently moved and my IP address changed so I respond to all the questions. On question 9 I even give them the order date and order # (bought onlive directly from ANET)

Then I get this:

Thank you for updating us.

It appears we only need a bit more information in order to assist you with changing your email address. Please provide the following:

*PayPal Email address
*Billing address on file with PayPal
*Your location when the purchase was made
*Your location currently

We look forward to your reply.
—-
Give me a freking break, that’s way more information than I want to give out to anyone, this is just an email change for god’s sake.
What’s next my blood type, weight, eye color, driver’s license #, favorate food?
To me this is excessive and bordering on harrasement, never have I had this much trouble updating an email, or any piece of information on any game.
Has anyone encountered this?

Gaile Gray

#6 - April 13, 2013, 10:32 p.m.

Ellieanna.5027:
All of the information you first provided and be obtained from anyone who gains access to the account. If I hacked your account, I have most of that, then I can use that information to change your email and you’re done.

The 2nd bit of information only the person who purchased it could have access to. I can’t figure out that information just from logging in.

Draygo.9473:
Paypal has your street address, arenanet has your street address, telling them what it is isn’t going to hurt you. See: Paypal’s Website

Not answering the question may delay the response. I don’t have any idea why you think this is an intrusion of privacy or what not.

They already have your information

And it is not excessive, this is a standard way for a company to verify an identity to make absolutely sure the person they are dealing with owns the account. Fraud happens every day and if companies are not careful a hacker could fool support into changing the email address. They could easily figure out 8, they could guess 9 with probably around a 50/50 success rate, and put ‘I forgot’ in on #10, or lift it from your email account.

You are being needlessly paranoid and combative. Anet is following a security minded business practice here so they arn’t fooled by frauds just trying to gain access to your account. Compromise through convincing a support agent to change an account password has happened before, email accounts are what control access to your game account, do you want it to be easy for me to open a bogus support ticket and gain access to your game account?

Thank you for these informative and accurate comments. A hacker gets access to a subset of information and, unfortunately, can acquire more through other means. That is precisely why we start asking for additional info. It’s for your protection.