The WoW Lawyer's Guide to Blizzard Policy

[alvone]

haha very nice topic. Much respect to you verye

Blizzard seem to be very sporadical with their punishments.... My main account has never recieved as much as a warning, with a character named 'putmyheadinu' and a guild owned by him called 'lick me off'

yet on my secondary account I recieved a 3 hour ban for an arena team named 'the power poof boys' (dont ask)


Do blizzard base punishments on how long you've played/how much money you've poured into their pot?

my main has been a member 2 years, the alt account, member for about 2 months!

sorry, this is turning into a bit of an essay! i just recieved a 72 hour ban for hiring powerlevellers, if i appeal this, is there any way the punishment can be escalated? (if i use the excuse of being hacked and finding keyloggers blahblah) rather than the punishment being removed?

[Icezor]

Can you be in any legal trouble from taking an account back that you've sold to one of the many sites out there such as top account, toonstorm, ige, accounts? If I ring up billing and claim it was hacked and get an account back, will the company that bought it from me be able to get me for it?

[Verye]

haha very nice topic. Much respect to you verye

Blizzard seem to be very sporadical with their punishments.... My main account has never recieved as much as a warning, with a character named 'putmyheadinu' and a guild owned by him called 'lick me off'

yet on my secondary account I recieved a 3 hour ban for an arena team named 'the power poof boys' (dont ask)

Blizzard's policies regarding vulgar names/guild names/team names are 100% reactive. Meaning, someone has to report them in order for action to be taken.

No one really cared that your name and guild were offensive, but, by luck, someone (probably a frustrated rival team) reported your team name.

Do blizzard base punishments on how long you've played/how much money you've poured into their pot?

my main has been a member 2 years, the alt account, member for about 2 months!

No, they don't. They treat a brand new account the same way they treat a 3 year old account.

sorry, this is turning into a bit of an essay! i just recieved a 72 hour ban for hiring powerlevellers, if i appeal this, is there any way the punishment can be escalated? (if i use the excuse of being hacked and finding keyloggers blahblah) rather than the punishment being removed?

Nope. If they conclude that you weren't hacked, they just won't remove the account action. If they do believe you, then they will remove that black mark from your account's record.

They don't go "oh that guy must've been lying about being hacked and he's trying to trick us" and then perma ban your account. Meaning, you have nothing to lose by sending in an email saying you got hacked and found a keylogger.

Can you be in any legal trouble from taking an account back that you've sold to one of the many sites out there such as top account, toonstorm, ige, accounts? If I ring up billing and claim it was hacked and get an account back, will the company that bought it from me be able to get me for it?

Define "legal trouble." The company can simply recall their payment through Paypal. If you've already spent the money, your Paypal account will have a negative balance, and Paypal will email you/call you up constantly until you pay it back.

[Icezor]

I was meaning more like, big fines or jail time; not sure how far they would be able to prosecute you. I mean, wouldn't it be fraud or stealing? Also, isn't there a certain amount of time that can go by before you are unable to file a charge back thru paypal or something? I sold an accout months ago and I am thinking about getting it back...

[Verye]

I was meaning more like, big fines or jail time; not sure how far they would be able to prosecute you. I mean, wouldn't it be fraud or stealing? Also, isn't there a certain amount of time that can go by before you are unable to file a charge back thru paypal or something? I sold an accout months ago and I am thinking about getting it back...

Fraud or stealing? How?

All accounts are owned by Blizzard, therefore, you cannot "steal", "sell", or "buy" an account.

[Icezor]

Makes sense, but the fact that the company paid me money and if I take the account back, isn't it fraud or stealing then? It would be ripping them off or doing them out of money. I was meaning more...getting in $*%# for basically stealing the money of that company in a way. Need to know if I am going to have a lot of crap to deal with for doing something like this, that's all.

[Verye]

Makes sense, but the fact that the company paid me money and if I take the account back, isn't it fraud or stealing then? It would be ripping them off or doing them out of money. I was meaning more...getting in $*%# for basically stealing the money of that company in a way. Need to know if I am going to have a lot of crap to deal with for doing something like this, that's all.

The company may have a few tricks up their sleeve to get their money back if you do that, one of them being a credit card chargeback.

You're not going to get into legal trouble. The only possible trouble you'll face is the money you got for the account disappearing.

It's likely that nothing will happen, though. Most companies will file disputes, but if it's past the required dispute date, they don't know what to do, so they don't do anything.

[Icezor]

Ah, I see. Well I appreciate the help and knowledge on the subject, you've helped me a lot. One last thing, you said about if it goes past the dispute date, any idea how long that period generally lasts for? like I said, I sold the account months ago so maybe I am in luck.

[Verye]

Ah, I see. Well I appreciate the help and knowledge on the subject, you've helped me a lot. One last thing, you said about if it goes past the dispute date, any idea how long that period generally lasts for? like I said, I sold the account months ago so maybe I am in luck.

I couldn't tell you. I think it depends on what country Paypal you're/they're using, and a bunch of other things.

I think it's 30 days, but I'm just not sure.

You can find that info by a quick search on the Paypal FAQ, though. If you really can't, there are Paypal live representatives on their site, I think.

[piree]

Blizzard's policies regarding vulgar names/guild names/team names are 100% reactive. Meaning, someone has to report them in order for action to be taken.

I don't think that's true, I had a character named Junqie, didn't logged for 4months and then blizzard suspended my account for 3hours. Or does it take 4months before they ban u and ask for a namechange?

[Verye]

I don't think that's true, I had a character named Junqie, didn't logged for 4months and then blizzard suspended my account for 3hours. Or does it take 4months before they ban u and ask for a namechange?

I'm confused. You were suspended as soon as you logged in again, you're saying?

They're totally reactive for US, anyway. I can cite dozens of GMs saying that you must report a name, guild name, or arena team name in order for action to be taken. Not just ordinary GMs, either; senior GMs.

[Icezor]

So I am thinking about taking back the account soon. When I call up Blizz should I just simply ask to change the email back or claim I got hacked? If I just change the email back, won't I run the risk of the same thing happening to me by the company I sold it to?

[piree]

No verye, It's EU and while I got suspended I was offline and didn't logged THAT CHAR ( not my account ) for 4months.

[Verye]

How long was it when the suspension happened?

Like, you didn't log on that char, and then 2 weeks later it got suspended? Or was it actually 4 months later?

It's possible someone found you on Armory/saw your name in a guild and then reported you.

So I am thinking about taking back the account soon. When I call up Blizz should I just simply ask to change the email back or claim I got hacked? If I just change the email back, won't I run the risk of the same thing happening to me by the company I sold it to?

You say that you want to update your email but you can't access your current email at the moment.

And yes, the company can and most probably will just recall the account back. I was assuming you knew what to do to actually get the char back.

You recall it, buy a WoW CD key, make an account with your account's last name, add a BC key, then transfer the char to that new account, then perma ban the original account.

[Icezor]

Yes I have access to the email, but when the company took the account, I agreed in an e-mail to change the e-mails to another account that only they could log into. So if I recall it and transfer the character onto a new account, get the old one banned, I should be ok? How should I recall it though? Won't they ask me why I changed the e-mail or how? How will it work, will they ask me for SQ+A? I can provide them with all they need, just want to make sure I go about it in the correct fashion to recall it successfully.