Customer service when an account is hijacked

#0 - Jan. 19, 2008, 6:42 a.m.

I'd like to share my recent experience with Blizzard's customer service.

Two days ago my account was hijacked, most likely by a keylogger. About half an hour after I logged off, the hijacker logged back on as me. Because I am fairly active in my guild, my guild mates immediately noticed that I wasn't myself. When my character responded to their questions in confusing broken English, they knew what had happened, and immediately reported this to a GM. They were promptly told that there was nothing that the GM could do until I reported it. Problem is, I was asleep at the time.

My guild mates watched as the hijacker logged into all my characters and vendored or disenchanted everything they had. Unfortunately, no one was on who had a high enough rank to kick me before the hijacker looted the guild bank.

I understand that GMs don't want to immediately boot someone just because some people in their guild claim the account has been hijacked, as that could be exploited. What I don't understand is why a little common sense couldn't have been used here. I've had the account for two years, and been fairly active and social during that time. Is it logical to think that I just decided for no apparent reason to change my password, and convert everything I have to gold which I immediately sent to strangers (most likely from an IP address half way across the world from the one I had logged off from about 30 minutes prior)?

Upon returning from work the following day, I was told what happened by a guild mate out of game. I immediately called Blizzard, and sat on hold for approximately 2 hours. When I finally got through, the guy on the other end was helpful in resetting my password so that I could log in. I logged in, and immediately filed a help ticket explaining that my account was hijacked. I then waited another hour for a GM to get back to me.

Before this could happen though, I was disconnected. A few minutes later, I get an e-mail from Blizzard, explaining that my account has been suspended for 72 hours and this is my final warning. The reason? Exploiting the game's economy. I can't help feeling like something is wrong when the same GM who was powerless to help my guild and I had no difficulty punishing me for the actions of someone else.

I'd like to discuss this with someone from Blizzard. Unfortunately, I can't. As the system is designed, I am unable to talk to anyone about why I'm banned while I'm banned. This feels wrong. I can't even post this to the forum, instead, I have to e-mail it to a guild mate and ask her to post it for me.

In the end, I actually find myself more irritated at Blizzard then the guy who stole my account. Yes, what he did was wrong, but really, what the hell? Had the GM decided to actually take action when my guild mates reported my account as hijacked, it would have cost Blizzard less time (takes longer to argue about why you can't do something than to just say "thanks for telling me, I'll take care of it), done less damage to the economy (while hijacked I apparently marathon farmed DM, I've no doubt that gold was sold), prevented the looting of my guild bank, and hampered the gold farmer, thus making it less profitable and less desirable. The hijacker got what he wanted without anything negative happening to him, the victim loses his account for 3 days and gets a final warning, and the victim's guild loses everything of value in their bank.

I'm not going to get all dramatic and threaten to cancel my account. Truth is, I like the game. I absolutely hate the customer service, though. I doubt I'm the only one who feels this way.

-Posted by Zooey, for Frothy

#3 - Jan. 19, 2008, 6:58 a.m.

We can't claim to know anyone's modus operandi, Zooey. People are unpredictable and often act against the impression that they've given their acquaintances. Just last week, there was a thread here about how a trusted guild officer emptied the guild bank and transferred realms with the items in tow with no notice.

Just because someone's behavior isn't in keeping with their normal behavior doesn't mean that we can divert immediate resources to an investigation, and that's the truth of it. There are other people waiting for investigation who weren't fortunate enough to have friends notice they were acting funny when they were logged in. We simply can't place priority on tickets where someone is "acting weird". Emergency investigations into things like that when we've already hundreds to thousands of people waiting in line aren't going to be offered, especially when there's no indication from the account owner that these actions are being taken against their will.

Until an account is physically reported as compromised with word from the owner, we must assume that the actions being taken on the account are being taken with the owner's full wherewithal--as, after all, account security is the responsibility of the account owner. That's why we impose suspensions for economy exploitation when we see it happening. Our Hacks and Account Administration teams actively track strange behavior and thus have a leg up on offering suspensions as opposed to our investigators who must work in a different manner.

You may feel you've been treated unfairly, and I do apologize if that's the case. There's no denying that a compromise is a rough time, and I'm not begrudging you your feelings. The fact is, though, that you could just as easily have sold your account, had it power-leveled, or any other kind of illicit activity without telling your friends as much, and they could have drawn the conclusion that you were being hacked. We must first take steps to lock down the account in question, and then once the locks are in place, we can safely dissect the situation without further damage being done.

Your suspension and subsequent penalties will undoubtedly be removed if you're innocent, and I've no doubt that you are. I'm not here to accuse you of wrongdoing; simply to tell you that there are plenty of people out there participating in just that, and that's why sometimes unfortunate steps must be taken.

I anticipate that the investigation and restoration process will go smoothly for you, and I wish you the best in this time that's likely testing your patience.