I wish only to be heard.
Even Balance have issued me a global ban for a violation, namely "gamehack #83016". They have also denied my appeal with the standard copy-paste message. I am innocent, but I am not going to waste...
Forum Discussion
On the 26th of June, 2013, I received an email from EA customer support telling me that my password had been successfully changed.
I had never requested a password change.
I immediately used the 'forgot password' function to send myself a password reset email and regain access to my account.
I attempted to engage a chat representative about the issue, who informed me that the representative responsible for the breach was "Vikas".
This same representative then started vandalising my account WHILE I WATCHED, and despite my asking him several times to stop (he started adding my personal details to an account that was potentially compromised, and for no reason at all, messed up my persona name without my consent).
I went a little mad (as I am apt to do when confronted with this level of carelessness and stupidity) and ranted on a support ticket about it. Ultimately, this was fruitless, and I received no satisfactory response of any kind.
I admit, I typed a couple of choice insults, and then gave up.
Now, a few years later, I've received a ban from PunkBuster, and Even Balance claim that a cheat was used by someone who had access to my account. Obviously, they didn't have access to my account, but it seems possible that they had access to information that they shouldn't have had.
I have not cheated, and I have not compromised my account, but by Even Balance's testimony, there appears to have been a serious breach of my account leading to this false, unjust, and unacceptable ban.
I can only assume that my GUIDs (EA and PB) have been spoofed. As nobody has my password but me and I don't have a habit of sharing my details and logins with the public at large, they can only have got this information through EA or Even Balance.
I'm pointing the finger at you, EA, and I want my games back. This ban is a travesty that I can only guess was facilitated by a mistake or breach on your part.
I'd forgotten about that password reset, and the ineptitude of the support I received in its aftermath.
What I need EA to do is determine where and when my supposed cheat was perpetrated. My home IP address is known (hell, it's publicly broadcast in relation to this false ban), so if a game other than Battlefield 4 was played with a cheat, and if it was not my home IP address, I'm going to need that information.
How do I go about chasing this?
EA can have a look at that ticket in my support history. It's colourful - I had every right to be angry after all, and I was dealing with apparent idiots (really, it was like a bad joke).
I'm going to get some answers.
I'm going to get some answers.
Well you certainly have made some good points - the responses you received are identical to what i got - however i went one step further and contacted EA who are almost as useless as
their response - all i wanted was a time and date of the alleged hacking so i could at least see if i was on my PC or not and to help me disprove this false accusation.
Thank you for your prompt reply - I understand that you are not getting support from punk buster side, however, as the ban has been imposed by them, I am afraid there is nothing we can do at our end.Your account is perfectly fine at our end.Its active & has no Ban on it.
To summarize the contact , we have informed you that Punk Buster can only lift the ban. Should you have any further questions regarding this or any other issues, please do not hesitate to let us know. You can also find answers to common questions on our Help Center at http://help.ea.com, or ask our community experts by visiting Answer HQ at http://answers.ea.com.
Thank you once again for contacting EA help.and there follow up email stated
Thank you for your prompt reply , Had it been possible from my end, I would have done it for you. I hope that you understand my limitation here. If there was any possible way to proceed with your request, I wouldn't have given a second thought here.
You can post this as a feedback on the BF4 forums that we should have some control over reverting punk buster bans.Here is the link for forums :
https://answers.ea.com/t5/EA-General-Questions/What-happened-to-BF4-forums/td-p/5452125
To summarize the contact we have suggested you to refer to forums for feedback.
Should you have any further questions regarding this or any other issues, please do not hesitate to let us know. You can also find answers to common questions on our Help Center at http://help.ea.com, or ask our community experts by visiting Answer HQ at http://answers.ea.com.
Thank you once again for contacting EA help.So no one can provide any help or any answers or any support and what really pees me of is EA just sit on the fence and say we cant do anything about it, they are happy for their customers to be wrongly done by from a company they are affiliated with and just sit back and let the gaming time and account be taken away wrongly
I need a little more time to put my claws away, but I'll be chasing EA support soon enough- they owe me new games, and I'm increasingly convinced that "Vikas" is the guy to blame for the breach I now believe was responsible for this ban.
This IS their problem.Okay, so I've lost all my progress (I can live with that more than the loss of reputation, at least), and my old soldier (by the name on this post) is dead and gone (may his unfairly-maligned soul rest in peace), which makes this the last post from this account.
It would seem that the old 'giving your customer's password away to strangers' thing was a point too valid to ignore, whether it was related or not.
It's a compromise - I'm no longer out of pocket or banned, but I've still been unfairly maligned for something I did not do, and I'm going to have to start again from scratch. The latter is not so bad. The former requires a bit more time.
Is it justice? No. It's the least EA can do.
Can I live with it? ... *deep breath*
I won't be forgetting about you, Even Balance. Just be patient.
I never forget.Whitehawk - huh - so have you been given your game back - ie the ban lifted - how did you manage that - can you shed any light on it to help me?
No, the ban was not lifted.
I have a new account on another email address (which is now dedicated to EA stuff and 2FA-enabled, so I'll have proof positive if it leaks that EA is full of holes), and they've populated its library with a shortlist I supplied them of what I wanted to keep (namely, none of the freebies, and I kissed goodbye to the ones I wished I'd never bought). The old account is trashed and its library burned. I have lost all progress and saves - all cloud data and soldiers/personas are gone. A hacker wouldn't care - I'm going to be smarting for bit.
Upside is that I'm no longer out of pocket, and I'm not using an account that feels contaminated, besmirched, and insecure.
I'm not re-installing Battlefield 4 just yet (some other things to check/change - paranoia), but in theory I can start playing again.
...
I'm actually playing Battlefield 1 instead for the time being. It's a lot more fun than I was expecting- no, I still can't shoot straight and I feel like a bullet magnet, but I still wouldn't ruin this experience by cheating. I never have.
EA_AticDICE Team
Closing the topic for further conversations about being banned by PunkBuster.
Unfortunately there is nothing we can help with at AHQ or EA support, only https://www.evenbalance.com that can help you with being banned by PunkBuster.
/Atic
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