Account Suspended? - Blue Tracker

#0 - April 12, 2009, 5:56 p.m.

Hey guys,

My cousin, who started playing sometime mid-last year, quit, and then recently decided to come back is having an issue. He logged on to get a good day's worth of playing in, and get a few steps closer to Outlands finally. However, upon logging in, he was greeted with the following message.

"This World of Warcraft account has been closed and is no longer available for use. Please go to [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/misc/banned.html] for further information"

Obviously freaked out, he checked his email for more information, only to find that his account had been suspended for inappropriate advertising activity. He called his brother who also plays, who was baffled by it, and decided to call me as I've been experienced with the game since release. The only thing I could suggest was to call Blizzard Billing and oppose the lockdown.

Obviously, they're closed today so my cousin is minus his account until the billing team gets back online, which really sucks because this was his chance to really get some playtime in. The email essentially said "Sit tight and wait while we investigate" (Hey, that rhymed >.>) but there's no telling how long it could take.

We understand that an investigation will have to take place, and we understand that it may take some time. However, we don't understand how someone who doesn't spam at all in any case, and rarely even talks to anyone except his family in game, would get a banned account over the people in Trade I've REPEATEDLY reported for things like the Anal [Ability] spam and the "In bed" spam series. Furthermore, it's surprising to me that they completely take the account down until further notice, and refuse to provide any information.

I've always been a rather strict upholder of the ToU, especially since I'm from an RP-PVP server, filled with people who think it's RP or PvP and not both. I do a lot of reporting when necessary and I'm rather well versed with several of the ToU articles (so much that I have them bookmarked >.>)

Backstory aside, we really just want to get his account up and running as soon as possible and don't understand how this possibly could have happened. At least one of us has been online in the past little bit, maybe with an hour window or something last night as most of us stayed up rather late, and we didn't see any suspicious activity like a compromized account.

If we could have any information into why this has occurred, or any information on how we can unlock the account again, that would be great.

Thanks
-- Zolon

#10 - April 12, 2009, 6:57 p.m.

It appears the account in question may be compromised, as multiple character on it were found participating in in-game advertising. While there may other reasons to consider, this behavior is most typically a sign of disputed owernship or unauthorized access. I would thus encourage you and the Lrenicus to review the following thread and begin bolstering his account's security as soon as possible:

** Account Compromise Info Center **

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14318909866&sid=1

Lrenius is also likely to soon receive a notification email describing the situation further; however, I'll go ahead and provide clarity now.

Should we discover that a character or characters on an account have advertised in-game, we will immediately disable access to that account as a whole. In-game advertising is a not a behavior we wish present within World of Warcraft and so our response is purposefully swift and strict.

If evidence suggests, however, that access to the account may have been compromised or achieved without permission, we will also proactively initiate an investigation to either confirm or deny willfull participation in the advertising circuit. If our investigation finds that the behavior noted was likely the result of compromise or unauthorized access, we will provide the account's holder—Lrenicus, in this case—the opportunity to regain access to the account.

Our actions, though perhaps confusing in this one instance, are for the betterment of your account and the WoW community. You've my sincere apologies, though, that such an intent was not immediately apparent. Our Account Administrators should be in touch once investigation concludes. :)