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so my account got banned for 3 days
eyekon218
Member Posts: 6
On 3/30/2014 @ approx 10:00P CST I sent ESO Support the following email -
A lot of people use the same userID in many places online. While I can see Zenimax feels strongly about security within ESO, I don't think you fully understand the impact of allowing everyone simple access to a users login name. As an example, I added a user within the game to my ignore list. By doing so the game gave me his userID. I then took that userID and looked it up on Google. In about 15 minutes I was able to find the following information out about this "anonymous person playing a video game with a fake name" -
Real Name
City living in
City born in
High School graduated from
Previous 4 employers
Birth Date
Address
Tax records
Google maps picture of house with make/model/color of car sitting out front
Mothers name
Fathers name
Step Mothers name
(perhaps some of these are associated with secret question/answers?)
I do realize this was all available because the idiot had it all up for display on facebook, twitter, and other various websites. Anyhow, you know how some gamers go off their rocker when you steal THEIR loot or don't play the game up to their level of expectation. I'd rather not have one of them easily able to obtain that kind of information. So, to protect myself against this sort of thing I feel a random generated username will be best.
On 4/1/2014 ESO Support responded back to me with -
Greetings!
Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team.
You have requested your UserId to be changed. We are asking that you provide a list of 5 UserId's that you would like to have it changed to.
We understand there may be some concerns surrounding the userID being visible to other players in-game. We have a multi-tiered system in place to improve your security, and there are many other facets to login security besides the basic credentials in The Elder Scrolls Online. Your security is of the utmost importance, and we go to every length to make sure your information is safe and secure.
---
I quickly sent them back an email with the 5 UserID's that I would like to use. That was 3 going on 4 days ago. I am still waiting for a UserID change. I have not logged into the game since this time. I have opened additional support requests referencing the initial support ticket # I was given. They reply back with a canned response and close out the issue.
As a paying customer who has purchased 2 pre-order copies of the game I am not very happy with the customer support.
------ *UPDATE* ->
on 4/4/2014 ESO Support contacted me saying they will escalate my userID change request.
on 4/5/2014 ESO banned my account for 3 days. It took me 45 minutes on the phone with them before they finally told me it was because of this. They were trying to tell me it was because I used 'foul language' in game. However, on 4/8/2014 I will be able to sign in again. Nice huh? Still waiting for a userID change, which they have assured me they will get done in the next couple days.
Comments
All I was trying to do is protect myself against people getting my userID and trying to let others know about how easily attainable a userID is. I just didnt want some asshat trying to look up my facebook, linkedin, twitter, and other various info - and scraping it for secret question/password hacking attempts.
Apparently taking steps against such actions and trying to inform others of it so they can as well avoid it is a violation of their terms of service which will result in a 3-day account ban.
This is a common stall tactic by companies. If they can't legitimately answer your question or change what's wrong. They will devote resources to shutting you up or something to discredit your claim. They likely don't have time at the moment to address your inquiry and combed through your accounts chat records hoping to find something and did. So they gave you a ban to hold you off while they spend more time deciding what to do. I will not be surprised if you receive another email before those three days are expired. Explaining that due to the information you provided they must permanently ban your account for violating terms of service in illegal information gathering through the game and it's tools.
I used to work for a company that Microsoft Store outsources to for customer service and sales. Since we weren't actually Microsoft Store, we couldn't really do anything for people that brought up issues or concerns other than showing them the door and blocking them from coming back and just passing the information up river. Which would get drowned by everything they were sending down river at us.
Best of luck with your ethical endeavor. When I tried this I lost my job, my gf, and my family shunned me. But this is in regards to a video game so I'm certain you won't face the same issues I did when blowing a whistle.
Actually no, thats not the case at all. I guess I am just naturally curious. When I was ignoring gold farmer advertisement spam I found it odd the username I was setting to ignore was not the username they were in game with. So I asked my girlfriend sitting next to me to set my username to ignore. I looked over at her screen and was like, "WTF, it just gave you my username when you banned me". I then got to thinking that I would like to have a userID change so I dont have people looking me up on linkedin and finding out who I work for, etc.
Fixed.
But wait you actually did do this to someone just to prove a point right? Big no no. You don't have to steal someone's info just to prove it can be done. And now it seems, you have given proof that you did it to ZM. Dunno, maybe they banned you as a precaution to keep you from "gathering" more evidence? I mean they don't know what you're thinking or might have done leading up to that point. I say quietly ride the ban and wait for a official response without causing a scene, while hoping for the best (ID change)
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
He didn't steal it, he googled the username and found out a ton of information on it.
User ID in online games should always be invisible IMHO, the game should auto generate a code that is public for tracking players but only CSR should be able to match the generated code to the user ID & account holder info. I dunno why companies haven't woken up to this yet.
He took someone's info without their knowledge or permission and tried to use it to benefit himself (prove a point to ZM). Yes, he stole someone's info.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
What you did is morally justifiable in the name of science. Good work. Really dumb that you're given ANY info when you ignore someone.
Victim blaming is not an excuse for bad company practices. He did something that anyone could do with a friend/ignore list and google. That seems like a huge flaw in the system. People didn't blame the 5 year old kid who found the flaw in xbox live cause he hacked into his dads account, they rewarded him.
Imirite???
Incorrect. He merely looked at what was freely available. It's not stealing if it's freely available.
And yet again he exposed this practice on a public forum with over 2 million users in hopes of doing exactly what? I understand that people like helping others (I try to all the time), but somethings have to be thought through or pointed out for others to see that more harm may be done than good.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Looking up information is fine, gathering said information together and using it without permission from the person it belongs to is not ok.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
I looked up my UserID ,found a obituary. Guess I'm dead...lol.
This could end up being very interesting.
lol
He used Google. People don't expect their login name to be broadcasted for everyone to see in game.
Yeah, it will do more harm since you posted how to do it.
You should edit it out OP.
There is no implication of privacy when choosing your forum ID... It's obvious that your forum ID will be made public when you post on a forum. A userID for a game is different.
Yes, it is ok. There is actually nothing illegal or morally wrong about it.
Guy is cheated out of something from bad company practices and is not sure where to turn and again you blame the victim.
He's not a victim. The victim's information was gathered and given to ZM as a example of what could happen to him (OP). He simply got tapped on the hand for doing exactly that, gathering someone's personal information. I told him to wait out his ban and hope for the best. I'm not the one trying to rile him up to potentially cause more damage than what has happened so far. Especially when this method to data farm ESO users is posted on a public forum.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."