FC26 Steam Sale: Large Number of Players Banned – False Positive Issues, EA
I bought FC 26 during the Steam sale. I've been playing Ultimate Team for exactly one week. Yesterday afternoon I was playing co-op with a friend, and hours later — permanent ban. Reason: "Balance Transfer."
I have never transferred coins. I have never bought coins. My account has never had more than a few tens of thousands of coins. Every card I sold was listed at minimum price. Every card I bought was through normal auction bidding. I have not shared my account with anyone.
And I am not alone.
In my gaming group and across forums, I'm seeing the exact same story over and over: players who bought FC 26 during the Steam discount, played normally (often Squad Battles), and got hit with the same "balance transfer" ban within days. The theory circulating is that your automated system is flagging new accounts that buy the game cheap and play SQB as "coin farming bots" — punishing legitimate new players for playing the game.
If this theory is correct, think about what that means: you run a sale to attract new players, then your AI bans them for showing up. Some community members are even advising others NOT to appeal, because their temporary suspension got upgraded to a permanent ban after appealing. How is that an investigation?
And EA, let's talk about FOMO. Ultimate Team is designed so that if you miss a single day, you fall behind. Every missed day is lost rewards, lost progress, lost ground. Now you've locked me — and apparently hundreds of others — out entirely. For how long? 10 days for an "investigation"? 28 days? Permanent? Meanwhile the game marches on without us.
I've been playing EA football games since FIFA 23. Four consecutive years. Half a loyal fan. I paid full price for 23, 24, 25, and now bought 26 on sale — and this is how I'm treated. A permanent ban. No human review. No evidence. Just an automated hammer.
I am posting this publicly because the appeal system is not working. Players are receiving template rejections from bots. The forums tell us "we can't help with account issues." Phone support redirects us back to the web form. There is no human to talk to.
EA, your detection system has a false positive problem. We saw this on December 24, 2025 when thousands of PlayStation accounts were falsely banned and you fixed it in 8 hours. We're seeing it again now — on PC, targeting new Steam sale players.
What I'm asking for:
- A public acknowledgment that you are investigating this wave of false bans
- Manual human review of affected accounts
- An appeal process that isn't just a bot rejecting a bot
If I'm wrong — if your investigation genuinely finds me guilty — then show me the evidence. Show me the transaction that proves I transferred coins. You have all the data. If you can't, then unban me and everyone else caught in this.
