Re: How do we get an account back

My name is <removed>. My friend <removed> aka SUBDU3 LIFE on the Xbox platform was recently hacked on apex. The hacker got into his account, unlinked his Xbox account, and changed the email so <removed> can no longer get into his account. The sad thing is the guy said he would give the account back if <removed> paid the guy $50. So he did and then the guy blocked me and him. We have the discord messages to prove this all. Is there anyway we can his account back. It was lvl 400+ with revenant heirloom recolor and prestige skin, Watson heirloom, ash’s heirloom, seers heirloom, and so many skins and levels. Me and <removed> play Apex religiously at this point and since this has happened he lost faith in gaming as a whole. Could you guys help us get his account back.

[CM - Edited to remove personal information]

@EA_Mako We ended up figuring it was hacked and got in contact with who hacked it. The recent reply is all the information we know and I hope you can help. My buddy and I can’t find the proper way to submit a form for this kind of issue since we can no longer get into the hacked account

@DEWEYCJ1234 

Please do not post your personal information on the forums. These are public boards and everyone can see anything you're posting here, including your and your friend's personal details.

Your friend will need to contact the support team using the steps I mentioned in my first post. You cannot do this for him, he needs to contact support using those steps and will have to verify some other information about the account so they can assist further.

@DEWEYCJ1234 

OMG, you paid the hacker and they took your money and ran.

Never ever do that, it just opens you up for more problems and getting scammed even more. 

Read the below about account security, there are also links to EA for submitting cases on hacked account recovery ban appeals and EA help.

Account Safety

How to keep your account and hardware safe 101:

1. Use strong passwords for you game account.
2. Use strong passwords for the associated E-mail account. Keep track of your e-mail accounts and what they are connected to.
3. Do not share either of these passwords with others. Keep note of your passwords in a safe place.
4. Enable two factor identification for both the game and associated E-mail accounts.
5. Do not let others use your game account (Friends and family alike) because if they do something wrong on your account it is still your fault, nobody wants to have a sanction on their account because somebody else did or said something wrong.
6. Do not use internet café’s to access your account and play, you do not know what software is on the hardware there, you do not know if the hardware at the cafe has a hardware ban and this can affect your account in a negative way.
7. I would suggest only accessing your account with your own trusted hardware, gaming on another person’s hardware brings some of the same risks as above.
8. I would also suggest not letting others use your hardware in order to play with their account, because if they get a hardware ban on your hardware while using it, it can have a negative affect on your account.
9. Buying used hardware comes with risks as well. The hardware could have been banned and this is not an EA problem but a problem between the buyer and the seller. 
10. Play nice with others, in other words do not de-mean, harass or bully others in Chat or over voice coms, both can be reported and that can also have a negative effect on your account.
11. Use non-offensive user/gamer tag/club tags, if you get a warning about such change it, doing otherwise can lead to a negative effect on your account.
12. Play fair, boosting and teaming are cheating.
13. Play fair using cheating software or hardware is not fair and is really only cheating yourself.
14. Re-read the Terms of Service agreement and the Terms of Sale agreement you agreed to play this game and adhere to it. https://www.ea.com/legal/user-agreement and https://www.ea.com/legal/terms-of-sale

About points 7, 8, and 9, I do know that not everyone can afford multiple hardware setups for the entire family and there is trust that has to be there, talking about the does and don’ts on the use of shared hardware should be done so everybody can enjoy what they do on the hardware and everyone can be safe.

If you believe you have been hacked take appropriate measures to secure your account and associated E-mail account https://help.ea.com/en-gb/help/account/secure-hacked-ea-account/

If you believe that a sanction (Suspension/Ban) placed on your account was by mistake you should reach out to the Terms of Service team https://help.ea.com/za/help/account/information-about-locked-or-banned-or-suspended-accounts/

Contacting EA help https://help.ea.com/help/faq/using-ea-help