I'm in a bit of a bind and I was hoping someone could give me some advice, or share similar experiences about a problem with my WoW account.
To make a long story short, a few days ago I log into my account to find out that my main has been transfered to another server and stripped clean.
I checked my emails and see that apparently I've been charged $25 for the transfer.
I ran a virus check on my computer which came out clean, and wrote an email to blizzard customer service asking for help.
About a day later, I get an email back saying that my account has been permanently banned for being associated with gold selling activities.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? How did Blizzard handle your claim? Are they likely still investigating my case or have they washed their hands of me?
Is there anything else I can do?

Thanks for your advice,

We've had it happen to several guild members. File a ticket immediately with Blizzard. It takes them a couple of weeks to investigate, but they should be able to get your character back and all your gear mailed to you with almost no problem in the end. Its a huge pain in the mean time, but this unfortunately is pretty common place.

And then go buy Blizzard's new security device.

:/

./nuzzle


-Annikk

If you were charged the $25 to a credit card for the character transfer, be sure to contact your credit card company and dispute the charge. That charge is just as much fraud as if someone stole your card and used it a gas station.

Also I would advice to reformat you hard drive. I had 2 accounts that had this happened ... at 1st I thought that when it happened to the 1st one it was ok after I scanned for viruses and changed my password then a week later I lost my 2nd account.

Question for tlbj6142: Are you using the new security device? If so how easy is it? Does it work with a Mac?

Question for tlbj6142: Are you using the new security device? If so how easy is it? Does it work with a Mac?I've been using it since it came out over a month ago. It is stupid easy to use and I see no reason why it wouldn't work on a Mac as there isn't any software installed on your machine or device attached to it.

Once it arrives, you have to go into your wow account and tell them you are using the device and provide them with the serial number on the back of the device.

On the WoW logon screen you enter your name/password just like you do today. Once you've done that, another dialog appears, you push a button on the device and a 6-8 digit number appears. Enter that number into the dialog.

That's it.

If your name, password or the number are "wrong" you are re-prompted for all three.

Thanks to everyone for the answers and advice. My account was reactivated this morning. My druid is still stuck on another server but its in the works, so at least I can play my alts and my $25 was refunded.

Now I just have to open a ticket in game for all the stuff I lost.

Thanks everyone!

I hope you get your stuff back. I can't think of anything worse than losing an account. You have my sympathy.


-Annikk

Well, along the same line of questioning....

I've had a couple of notifications upon logging in saying that "The character Magellan has been modified from another computer. If....bla bla bla" (can't remember the rest off the top of my head)

Upon seeing this the first time, I changed my account password. It stopped for about a week then started showing up again on not only Magellan but also my alt.

I've not lost anything and my chars are still the same, (knocks on wood), but I'm nervous nonetheless.

It's happened to only one other person in my guild. Anyone here on the Grove seen it?

Does this notification appear in a pop-up window? If so, I have never seen that message.

Do you use more than one machine to play your toon? Do you have more than one machine behind your DSL (or cable) router playing WoW at the same time?

It does seem like an odd message. And a bit creepy.


Is that the exact wording of the message? I don't get any hits when I google that string.

character "has been modified from another computer" wow

One more question:

Does the secure key works for all your account? Or do you have to purchase one for each account?

Does the secure key works for all your account? Or do you have to purchase one for each account?From what I read you can use the same key for multiple accounts.

He's the FAQ (http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=24660&rhtml=true).

Thanks. Definitely have to get this.

It's happened to only one other person in my guild. Anyone here on the Grove seen it?

Um this sounds like a hack to me. I've never seen anything like this and I've logged into other people's computers and played my own characters. I'd run a detailed scan of your computer. This just seems bizzarre.

Basically run a detailed scan for viruses, trojans, malware etc... then change your password again.

What it may be is that your IP address is changed dynamically by your ISP. Blizzard's server detects the change as a different computer, when in fact it hasn't changed at all.

Ok to explain this a little better..

All computers on the internet have something called an IP address, which is like the telephone number of the computer.

Some ISP's (Internet Service Providers) give you one IP address, which stays the same all the time.
Other ISP's will give you an IP address which changes periodically, for example one of my clients is assigned a new address every 3-4 hours.

One way to check if this is what is happening is to go to http://www.whatsmyip.org

Write down the number that appears there, it will be something like 82.72.122.17 or something along those lines.
The next time you get that message, check that link again to see if the number has changed. If it has, there's your problem right there :>


Of course, it is always a good idea to keep up-to-date internet security software running, and perform regular virus scans. Kaspersky Internet Security and Zone Alarm Internet Security are two packages I would recommend (one or the other, not both at the same time, obviously)


Hope this helps :>


-Annikk