How To Really Get Your Account Unbanned

[Verye]

Hello everyone. For those who do not know me, I'm MMOwned's self-proclaimed WoW Lawyer. My original thread is here: http://www.mmowned.com/forums/wow-ge...-unbanned.html

You've all probably seen those threads on "UNBAN YOUR ACCOUNT, 100% WORKING!", saying that if you just e-mail "Hi Blizzard I was hacked please unban my account thanks bye", they'll unban your account. While, in theory, if the facts surrounding the ban were cloudy from the start, that could possibly get the account unbanned, it isn't likely.

I have tons of knowledge and experience on Blizzard's workings, and banning/unbanning accounts is one of them. So, I'm going to share my methods.

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If you get banned, the only department that deals with appeals/bans in general is Account Administration. Do not call Billing, as they will be unable to help you. On WoW EU, I believe it's called Game Security and/or Account Review. If you want to try and get your ban overturned, you first must e-mail this department. Unfortunately, they do not have a phone number.

WoW US's Account Administration e-mail is [email protected].

WoW EU's Game Security e-mail is [email protected].

So, you might be thinking "oh, I can just say I'll never do it again and they'll unban me."

Wrong.

Blizzard does not remove a suspension or re-open an account just because you say the punishment was too harsh. The only way they’ll investigate and consider removing the account action is if they think you did not do the action. This means you have to come up with a story saying you were hacked. Now, this also means that you almost 100% definitely will not get your account back if it was you who did whatever on your account. This is assuming that you always log on from your account from one computer, and do not share it with anyone else. The IP logs will show that you have logged into your account from the same IP from when you first set up the account. And then it will show that same IP botting/hacking/exploiting/scamming/whatever. Now, if you did the action from a computer not in your house, that may give you a better chance. If you have gotten powerleveling in the past, or if you do share your account, then it's possible it could help or and it's possible if it could hurt you. They could see the IP changes and possibly assume you getting keylogged constantly, but usually when it's in such a pattern, they know you shared/bought powerleveling. And if that's the case, they'll just stop the investigation right there and say "We have completed a second review of your recent account actions to ensure accuracy. Unfortunately, our decision remains, and has now been reconfirmed by this second investigation."

If you were banned for doing something, and you were the one who was doing that thing on the account, specifically from your computer which you use to log on to your account, then there's almost a 100% chance you will not get your account back. If you use different computers and/or share your account, it could possibly help you, possibly hurt you, and could possibly do nothing. I'd say though that if you were the one who botted on your account, but you have used different computers/shared your account in the past, it increases your chances by maybe 1% or so. It always looks best for you if you have constantly logged onto your account from the same IP forever, have never shared it, and then a foreign IP comes on there and does something. This looks the most like a real hacking case.

So, it's greatly in your favor when you get powerleveling, honor leveling, or when you rent your account out. The IP logs will hopefully show (in Blizzard’s eyes) that a Chinese IP got the password to your account and was leveling your characters up and/or farming gold on them in order to sell the gold. If they conclude this, they may remove the account action just like that, but most likely they’ll require that you fax in ID proving that you’re the owner of the account. They’ll require some sort of identification like a driver’s license, and possibly a notary with it. When you fax it in, be sure that it looks very legible. Although, it all depends on what comes out of Blizzard’s fax machine. It may look legible to you, but on their end it may look too dark or too blurred. I’d recommend faxing it to another machine and seeing how it looks, and to make sure that it still looks good after being faxed.

Alright, so, you want to write up a story to get an account that was banned for using powerleveling. Google a common keylogger, copy and paste the name, and start writing. Say your anti-spyware software (specifically name what picked it up, like Spybot Search and Destroy or Ad-Aware or Spy Doctor or whatever) caught the keylogger, and say it quarantined and deleted it. Talk about how you heard about what keyloggers do and say you’re sure that someone hacked your account. Use as many specific descriptions as possible: it’s all in the details. Say you went on a work trip/vacation for a few days, and when you came back the account was banned. Or say a friend contacted you when you were at work, saying he saw you in-game but you were acting weird, and when you got home you tried to log in but it said you were banned. Be creative; make up a story that sounds like it could really be true. A lot of people get hacked through keyloggers in World of Warcraft, which helps your case, and could very well be why Blizzard will give you the benefit of the doubt.

So, let’s say you send your story in to AA/Game Security, but they replied back in a week and said they reinvestigated it and said it will stay closed. If you’re on WoW US, what you should now do is send an e-mail to [email protected]. They supervise the entire AA department, and are pretty much the highest people you can ever talk to. Say you already talked to AA, and say that you were really hacked, and just reinforce your story.

Note: Do not e-mail the AA supervisors ([email protected]) if you haven’t already e-mailed the base AA department ([email protected]). You must e-mail AA first before you e-mail their supervisors.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is no WoW EU supervisor address. If they don’t unban the account, you can e-mail them again and provide more details and just try and build your story up, and hope for the best.

Here's a short example e-mail I wrote up for someone. The details of his case were simple (got powerleveled via bot, never logged in during or after the powerleveling, was banned during the powerleveling), so I wrote a simple and short story. Here it is:

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This in regards to my account, *insert account name here*. I left to go on vacation with my family on January 3rd; we were going to be gone for a couple weeks. When I got home mid afternoon today, on the 18th, I received this e-mail stating that my account has been closed for use of a third-party program. The thing is, I have not logged onto the account since I have been gone so this couldn't possibly be me. It made me think of something, though.

A long time ago a similar thing happened to my friend. He went away for a bit and came back to find an e-mail saying he used a third-party program. A bit after that, he thought he must've gotten hacked or something, so he did a virus scan and it found something called a keylogger that apparently records WoW account passwords. He cleared that up with you guys, luckily. So, thinking of that, I did a Norton scan, and when it was finished it told me it picked up a Trojan called PWSteal.Wowcraft. I did a Google search of this and it said it's a type of WoW keylogger. The Google search also showed a few WoW players saying they got hacked and they found this exact same trojan. Norton automatically quarantined it and the files it was associated with, and I deleted it.

Please investigate this further for me, as I really believe that I was hacked. Whoever got the keylogger on my computer probably used a third-party program, or something.

I'll gladly send you ID or whatever you need to prove that I'm the one who made the account and all.

Thanks.

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Now, let's say you logged in shortly after the powerleveling, only played for a short period of time, and then you got banned later that day. You could make a story saying you logged on for a bit in the morning before work, saw the damage done to your account, but you had to leave for work immediately, planning to report the increased level of your character as soon as you get home.

If you played for a while after the powerleveling, you could give the same story but say that you share your account with your only son (which is allowed), and you let him play it when you're at work. Say you told him that you think something weird happened to the account, and say you told him to call you if anything strange happened while you were at work. Then say you did get a call from him later at work, and he told you that he was unable to log onto the account as it was banned.

Mold and shape the story to fit the times you logged in/didn't log in. You can't just use my generic example, most likely. Also, I recommend you don't use my example, as someone else just used it and others may use it, and it's possible that the same Account Administration employee might see the same story from two different people. So, please DO NOT USE THIS EXACT EXAMPLE! Make your own story.

And, above all, use details. Lying's all in the details, as any of you know if you've lied a lot in real life, or even if you scam people and need to make up stories for them ("Sorry I'm at work, and WoW isn't on this computer. I get home at around 6:30, but I have to help cook dinner for the kids and I may not get on until 7:30. And sometimes other things come up. Kids are unpredictable.")

Use details, and just emphasize on the fact that you really think you were hacked. Try and act concerned not only for the ban, but also for the fact that someone invaded your account and did something to it.

Good luck with Account Administration (US) or Account Review (EU).

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This is also a portion of my long guide on Blizzard policy, currently in the WoW General forums. You can read my full guide here: http://www.mmowned.com/forums/wow-ge...-revealed.html.

[chrisernja]

+rep!!!!11 gotta test it i want my main acc back bad
!

[Verye]

+rep!!!!11 gotta test it i want my main acc back bad
!

See, the thing is, this isn't something you should "test." Do not just send in my example.

What I'm saying is that you make up a story saying you got hacked, found a keylogger, and you say you think it was the hacker who did whatever to your account.

And remember, this ONLY works if it was not you who was on the account. If you got banned for getting powerleveling, honor leveling, or for renting your account out or whatever, or if a friend/powerleveler/honor leveler/renter botted on your account, then you have a chance. But if it was you who was botting, the IP logs will show that it was your computer who did the bad thing to the account, removing all possibility that it was a hacker who did it.

[basch]

this works. i did this myself a few months ago.

[Verye]

this works. i did this myself a few months ago.

Mmm...I'd prefer if you guys don't say stuff like "I gotta try this" or "this works", because there's no specific "this".

There's no one method to getting an account unbanned. It's not that simple.

This guide simply explains that you need to make up a story that you got hacked. It's not like there's a template you can follow and boom it's unbanned.

[the_perfect_sound]

ive never been banned, and hopefully never will, but this is an excellent guide to social engineering. +rep

[pewpewlazerz]

is there a way to get around sending your ID?

[robotkid]

Yea nice one but keep that in mind guys..dont go telling lies about having
a son and a job if you are 15 years old rofl cause when they get your ID
(and read your birth date) they will say WTF??!? +Rep for this one :P

[Choob12345]

Awesome guide, you seem to know pretty much about these things.

My main account got banned about a year ago, would this kind of action work for me you think ?

[Verye]

Yea nice one but keep that in mind guys..dont go telling lies about having
a son and a job if you are 15 years old rofl cause when they get your ID
(and read your birth date) they will say WTF??!? +Rep for this one :P

It can work both ways. You could say you share with your Dad, and when you go to school you let him play.

Awesome guide, you seem to know pretty much about these things.

My main account got banned about a year ago, would this kind of action work for me you think ?

It could, but I don't know how you could make a story that would make sense, time-wise. Maybe if you said you found a keylogger after the ban, but didn't know how to appeal the ban or tell them about it, and...went a year before you found it?

[Xonic]

Think this would work if my account was banned 6 months ago or so but i supply the correct date of banning, like saying my friend just finally fessed up about using a 3rd party program on my acct on his computer?

[Real Goons Shoot]

very nice... hopefully I am never banned though... but who knows lol.

[pewpewlazerz]

It can work both ways. You could say you share with your Dad, and when you go to school you let him play.

be careful when mentioning you share accounts. i told them my little brother is the only one that could possibly know my account info and they banned it for sharing accounts

[Verye]

be careful when mentioning you share accounts. i told them my little brother is the only one that could possibly know my account info and they banned it for sharing accounts

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.

Everyone is allowed to share their account with one minor child, and ONLY one minor child. No exceptions. You are not allowed to share with siblings, spouses, cousins, neighbors, friends, etc. One owner, one child. That's it.

You made a huge mistake in saying you shared with your little brother. Saying you shared with your dad/one child is completely fine.

[xolith]

yea, of course. +Rep for all the research/work you did.