Forum Discussion

5 years ago

Easy Anti-Cheat Error - False Positive Bans

Hello EA,

I am posting this as a way to open a discussion that I have not seen much of elsewhere, and that is the discussion around bans that are caused by false-positive results from Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC).

Some background: I work in the IT industry and am familiar with the culture of problem tickets that come in simply stating: "my [this] is not working, fix it!". Now in the context of EA and bans from EAC this statement can be rephrased as: "i was banned for no reason!". This is the kind of case I have put forward previously and it was because I as a player do not easily have access to a log reader program for looking at EAC data and informing the ToS team exactly what program it was that caused this error in their system. All I know is that I was banned, and to my knowledge the reason is unknown. This is further compounded by the responses from the ToS team of simply, "We investigated and determined that we took the correct action and will not be lifting the sanction on your account." Only more confusion and frustration is created.

Somethings else to note: I have been playing Apex since Meltdown, have purchased 4 Legends on my account, have streamed the game on Mixer and Twitch, and do not have the kind of stats that would indicate that I am cheating. In my mind, the evidence is stacked against EA in any accusation of me being a cheater. Needless to say, I do not own or use any cheating programs on my computer.

Now, I have 3 discussion points that I would like to have EA staff address directly:

1. What are some programs that have recently been sending false-positives through EAC, causing bans? This would really help anyone like myself in the future

- A few lists of programs that cause issues can be found from this page on the Easy Anti-Cheat Support site: link

- BTW it is noted directly on that page that outdated Antivirus programs may cause false-positives, have you at EA seen this too?

2. If someone can provide proof that they are not using cheats during play, such as by submitting a Microsoft Process Monitor log file when a ban occurs, will that be helpful to the investigation of the ToS team? I don't see why more data wouldn't help.

- Proc Mon can be found on the Microsoft website at this link: Proc Mon

3. What is a/the reason for why the ToS team does not give any data to accused/condemned users/players/customers about WHY and WHAT PROGRAM they were banned because of. I understand that you may not want to reveal parts of the investigation process, but I am just asking for a simple answer so I can fix the issue.

As I opened with, this is meant to be a discussion as professional adults working in technology who are trying to fix an issue that is causing customer frustrations.

Thank you for your time!

13 Replies

ChisBoard
5 years ago
I'm also victim of this. I believe it was because whenever I click too quickly to get into a Apex, its usually right after ive been playing Dead by Daylight, which uses the same Anti-cheat. So I assumed that oh *, that might cause some problems because the easy anti-cheat comes up saying it errored out, or encountered something wrong. And I think thats what happened to me with these past 2 weeks. I've been stressing trying to get in contact with EA and they don't care. Even if I sit and explain" this is the reason I believe why it might have flagged me" but they honestly just dont have people really reading it. I think if they ever actually had people read and comprehend what is going on, they might be able to help with false bans. But this is so damn frustrating. I've done nothing wrong, and still have this false ban that EA has said they wont be responding to me anymore either.
YuFi2
5 years ago
Yet I'm another victim of this, like you said sometimes the EAC commits an error and well what a bad time to make a mistake, I was a week away from a big national tournament of Apex Legends, Just mid-game playing ranked I was suddenly banned for no reason of my knowledge, I don't own any kind of cheat soft or hardware im not good with this of computers and all but i do play Apex a lot and I'm inverting time on it, once again like you said i cannot tell if a human is reading my Emails or at least trying to help, theyre just Bots they use to calm you down, im not happy with that they should at least tell you what program caused the issue or error with the EAC, this computer is new and empty i cant understand what program caused the false positive, Medal, Riot Vanguard or my Antivirus. The request for unban was rejected twice, I need help im frustrated and ive lost a big account on the game.
OutbickSteakhau
5 years ago
I ran into the same problem. They don't let you contend your ban or even prove your innocence with a false flag, just repeatedly tell you 'You cheated!'. This situation feels like they just rely entirely on EAC to do bans for them and leave it so there's no humans responding to your claim. A lot of the mails feel automated, and given the time of days the emails come out, it's either someone hitting a button or just a completely automated script.
When I got banned the only reason I could think of that could trigger it is possibly Acronis (backup software) or something akin to Malwarebytes flagging it. None of it made any sense, and I'm out an account over it.