The WoW Lawyer's Guide to Blizzard Policy

[Verye]

This thread is locked due to inter-thread drama, not because it's obsolete. Its information is still useful. If you have any questions or comments regarding this thread please feel free to PM me!

If you have any questions about anything relating to Blizzard policy, or how they ban, or how to avoid getting banned, or what they ban for, or how they investigate things, or pretty much anything that has to do with World of Warcraft, please feel free to post the question in this thread and I will answer it, as well as copy and paste the question and answer to the original post. If you want some detailed information or advice, feel free to contact me, too.

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****!!!DISCLAIMER!!!****

First off, I am NOT a real lawyer. It's just a quasi-goofy title, relating Blizzard policy as if it were real law. If you have a real legal problem, talk to a real lawyer.

Note: This guide is still completely up to date as of November 3, 2008. It is still constantly being edited and updated. Plus, the account unban section in this guide will pretty much never be obsolete. Do not let the old-ish creation date faze you: this guide contains info, advice, and methods that will still apply for years to come.

I know a lot about WoW and Blizzard, but a lot of this knowledge applies to WoW US. That means that if you play WoW EU, information in this guide may be incorrect regarding you and your account. If you play WoW US, then you're fine, but if you're EU and you find anything odd in this guide, keep in mind that it's directed towards US players. I have actually given incorrect information to many WoW EU players asking for advice from me. Although, many sections, including the account unbanning section, apply to both US and EU. So, if you're US or EU, you should still read the unban section, as it's completely correct and it works for US and for EU. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but it's very much like a defense lawyer from Ohio to suddenly start defending clients in California. The laws are very, very different, and a great experienced lawyer in Ohio will essentially be a newbie to law in California.

Sorry.

-The WoW Lawyer


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The WoW Lawyer's Guide To Blizzard Policy

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Sections

This guide contains the following sections:

Getting Your Account Unbanned - A very effective method to get an account unbanned, specifically for when you're banned for power leveling/account renting/something similar.

Warden - Some general information about Warden and what it detects.

How to Not Get Banned and How You Get Caught (Proactively and Reactively) - Some tips on how not to get banned, and an explanation of how one gets caught when they break the rules.

How to Make an Account as Recall-Proof as Possible and How to Recall a Recall-Proof Account - Lots of great information on recalling. This should be very helpful for scammers or people who are planning a scam. This section is very, very important for scammers. Scammers, read this!!!

The Penalty Volcano - The Penalty Volcano and how Blizzard interprets it. Basically, the ascending levels of account action.

Ownership of an Account - Who technically owns an account.

You Want to Know More? (How I Know a Lot of What I Know) - This explains what helped me learn all of this information.


Fun Facts - Semi-useless facts and tidbits about policy.


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Terminology

So, a lot of you may not know some of the terms I'm going to refer to in this guide. I'm going to make a short list of them, hopefully to help you guys understand more of the guide.

Recall - Recalling an account is the act of calling up Blizzard's Billing & Account Services Department (also known as just "Billing") and reporting that the e-mail to your account seems to be inactive, and you cannot access it. If you can provide the account's first and last name, answer to secret question, and its phone number when you still had it, then they'll be able to set the account's e-mail to your e-mail. Recalling is generally supposed to be used if you get hacked, but it can be used to scam people or to get an account back after a scam.

AA - AA stands for Account Administration; Blizzard's account department. They deal with banning and unbanning people, basically. For WoW US, the department is always known as Account Administration, but for WoW EU it is sometimes referred to as "Game Security" or something similar.

Ban vs. Suspend - Technically, when you cannot use your account temporarily because of Blizzard, it is called a "suspension". A permanent closure can be called a "ban". It can be used somewhat interchangeably though; saying "ban" when it was only 24 hours is fine.

Lock - An account lock is when the account cannot be used until ID (and sometimes other info/things, such as money, or a picture of a credit card, or a notary, etc.) is sent to Blizzard. So, you send in ID to get it reopened. This makes it very different from a ban. In Blizzard terminology, lock does not mean ban. So, when I say lock, I mean an account that is in a state where it received an email asking for ID. Accounts are typically locked after an account is reported as compromised (hacked).

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Getting Your Account Unbanned

One of the reasons why I wrote this guide, particularly this following section, is because so many people wanted information from me about things relating to policy. Most of the time, they just wanted me to get their accounts unbanned. I used to offer an account unbanning service, but I decided it'd be much better if I just wrote a guide and included that in it, so people could do it themselves. I will not write your unban email for you. There is someone who will write it for you, though!

This unban letter-writer's name is Glovek, and here is his thread: http://www.mmowned.com/forums/wow-ge...n-letters.html If you want someone else to write unban emails for you, of the caliber that I would write them, then read that thread. He's just as good as writing them as I am.

I recommend you read this section anyway, though, to learn about the process. A little knowledge goes a long way, sometimes.

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.

First off, if you get banned, the only department that deals with appeals/bans in general is Account Administration. Do not call Billing, as they'll 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 beg for forgiveness and say the punishment was too harsh and 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."

To sum it up, the premise of this method is essentially to email Blizzard saying "please help I got hacked!"

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 a very high 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, if you were botting or hacking, then your chances have sadly decreased greatly that you will ever see the characters on that account again.

Although, do not give up hope just yet if you were botting/hacking. Sometimes, as a result of sloppy investigations on Blizzard's end, accounts will sort of "accidentally" be purged of their actions due to the email you send in claiming you were hacked. It's possible they'll assume that whatever action occurred was a result of the action, and they may not investigate the action that was given well enough. That is your goal here; you are trying to overwhelm them with evidence that you were hacked. Keep in mind, though, that if you were banned for 3rd party program usage and you actually manage to get it unbanned, there's a higher chance the account will be put into a locked state. This means that the account will be closed until ID is sent in. It's also quite possible that a lock will occur even if the ban reason was exploitation of the economy ("exploitation of the economy" covers powerleveling, account renting, and other similar activities).

(Note: The below paragraph only refers to you if your account is in a locked state. Meaning, if you send in an email, and they unban it, but then they request ID. If they do not unban it at all, then this will not help you. If they just reopened it and gave it back to you, then it's not locked, and you don't need to read what's below. But if you got an email saying "please send in ID", please read below). Blizzard appears to now be using a new "just give us the account name, first name, last name, and tell us if you have secured your computer" in place of locks (sending in of ID) more often. However, they will still lock the account and request ID, just not as often So, locks still happen, just not as much.

If your account is locked, and you need to send in fake ID, there are 2 things you need to check. First, do you know with 100% certainty, the exact first and last name on the account? Second, the email you get requesting for ID will contain a .pdf file. If the .pdf file is http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/WoW/othe...-Retrieval.pdf, then you're fine, and you have passed the 2 requirements. If the file is http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/WoW/othe...val-Notary.pdf, then you're royally screwed, as this one asks for a notary. A notary is essentially a person who ensures that the ID you give them is, in fact, the person standing in front of them. Meaning, fake ID won't work. And trying to trick a notary will most likely land you with a fine and very possibly in prison. So, if the form you get ends in -Notary and if it asks for a notary, then you must either get the original owner of the account (the one with the first and last name on the account) to get some ID and go to a notary himself, or just give up on the account entirely.

If you fit the above requirements, you will need to speak to someone who's good at making fake IDs. We have a fake ID maker here on MMOwned by the name of Marauding Master. You can find more info about his fake ID service here: http://www.mmowned.com/forums/graphi...backalley.html Keep in mind that he does require some form of payment, be it money, an account, or some other WoW item.

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.

Anyway, this "help I got hacked" method works quite well 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 were 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, or they may lock it. Locks are explained above.

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.

The reason why this works so well is because, every day, tons and tons of people have their accounts hacked, and it's often by keyloggers. There are many keylogger posts on the WoW forums every day, and many people click them. The people who post these linksare usually from China (so many keylogger sites end in .cn), and although they usually just strip all your gear or try and get your gold, sometimes they'll do it to do some quick gold farming to help whatever gold selling business they're working for. So, let's say you hire some powerleveling from a Chinese website, and you get banned. Well, the whole point of this is to hope that Blizzard sees it as you getting hacked by a keylogger, and then a Chinese IP gets on your account and does a lot of gold farming. This is the "core" of the success of making up a fake story.

Above all, though, please understand that I am in no way making any sort of guarantee that you will succeed. You have a chance to get unbanned, and depending on the scenario, it could be a high chance or it could be a low chance. Please do not get your hopes up after sending Blizzard a story; you might get it back, you might not. It can't hurt to try though, so I recommend you read this section to its fullest and do your best to make a good hack story.

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.

To sum it up: you're emailing Blizzard and telling them you got hacked, and you are also giving them good evidence, as in proof, that you got hacked. This means you are telling them how you know you got hacked. Just saying "I got hacked" isn't gonna cut it. You need to describe the trojan/keylogger you found on your computer.

Here's a short example e-mail I wrote up for someone (edited from the original version, though). 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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Subject: I was hacked, need help! (Something similar to this is good.)

This in regards to my account, *insert account name here*. <If the ban was a while ago, insert a fake story here, and end it with "when I got back...">

I just got hacked! Please help me out. Yesterday (or X days ago), I couldn't log into my WoW account or email account. Sensing that I might have a virus of some sort, I ran a scan with McAfee and it found this (insert keylogger name here.) It quarantined the virus, and I deleted it. McAfee's virus info database said it had the ability to record keystrokes, which must have been how I got hacked.

I was able to recover my email password, and inside, I found an account closure email from you guys. I was still unable to recover my WoW account, so I was a bit confused. I thought about it, and I'm assuming the hacker did something to my account, and you guys saw it and closed it.

Hopefully you can restore the account to its original state before I got hacked.

Thank you.

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DO NOT USE THIS ABOVE EMAIL EXACTLY. I REPEAT: DO NOT USE THIS EMAIL. THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE. IF MULTIPLE PEOPLE SEND THIS IN, THEN THE ACCOUNT ADMINISTRATION EMPLOYEE MAY CATCH ON AND SEE THAT THEY'RE BEING TRICKED. YOU NEED TO MAKE AN EMAIL SIMILAR TO THIS ONE; DO NOT JUST COPY AND PASTE THIS ONE. TRUST ME, PLEASE!!!

If you need someone to write up emails like these for you, then please read Glovek's thread: http://www.mmowned.com/forums/wow-ge...n-letters.html Glovek knows a lot about unbanning accounts. He's just as good as writing unban emails as I am.

I highly recommend you do not reply to your ban email to send this. What you should do is send (compose) a new email, not as a reply, to [email protected] for US and to [email protected] for EU. Meaning, do not just click Reply on the ban email, you should physically click "Send New Email" and send it that way. Do not title it "Ban Dispute" or whatever, title it something similar to "Account Hacked - Need Help" or "Hacked, found a keylogger" or something similar. If you do it that way, the whole thing seems more like a "help me I just got hacked" request than a ban dispute, and this will definitely increase your chances of getting the account back.


Here's some things you need to include in your e-mail:

-When you found the keylogger.
-What program found the keylogger.
-What the keylogger was called and what file it infected, if any.
-How you found out that it was a keylogger. Best way to do this is to say you Googled its name.
-Say that the spyware/virus scanner quarantined and deleted it.

Also, another big thing, above all, is to sound concerned. You're scared that you found this keylogger, you're worried about your account, you're worried that the keylogger may have gotten other accounts of yours, etc. You have to pretty much sound like you were truly a keylogger victim. Pretend as if you woke up one day, tried to log in to your account, and it said invalid password, and let's say you actually did a scan and found a keylogger. For those of you who don't know, a keylogger keeps a log of your keystrokes, including usernames and passwords, and e-mails the log to someone or puts it on a private FTP server. So, whoever got it on your computer now knows every password you typed since you got the keylogger. Sound pissed, sound angry, sound worried about your account. Remember, this is your account, your computer, and it's been invaded and tampered with.

I recommend you begin the email entirely by saying you got hacked and that you found a keylogger, and then finish the email it by saying that you just saw you got a ban and that it must have something to do with it. Just mention the ban at the very end of the email. You need to sound concerned, and your main concern is that your account got hacked, not that it got banned. Remember that. Consider the banning part just an afterthought. This means that the subject of your email should have nothing to do with the ban, make your email subject somewhat similar to "I got hacked, please help". Do not say "please unban me I got hacked" in the subject, and to be honest, don't say that anywhere in the email. You should never, ever say the words "unban me". Just mention that you see the account got banned, and that it must have been a result of the hacker, and say that you hope Blizzard can investigate it fully. The email is intended to be read as a cry for help from a hack victim, NOT a ban dispute. This is why this method works so well.

You want to be as detailed as humanly possible, and you want it to sound as real as possible. Be polite towards Blizzard, and it's recommended that you take a sort of "begging" tone. I don't mean get on your knees and beg, but just something similar to "please help me out with this; I hope you can investigate and clear this up".

Let's say you got some powerleveling. 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 ABOVE! 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).

Tl;dr:

-Send an email to AA saying you got hacked. Don't say things like "I didn't do it", just say "help, I got hacked."
-If you were banned as a result of another IP on your account, your chances of getting unbanned are high. If you did something on your own IP on your own account, like botting/hacking, your chances are lower. It can never hurt to try, so read this guide anyway, no matter what you did.
-Be sure to include the full name of a real keylogger that you claim you found on your computer.

If you're too lazy to write up emails yourself, then have Glovek do it for you! Read his thread here: http://www.mmowned.com/forums/wow-ge...n-letters.html He knows a lot about unbanning accounts, and he's just as good as writing unban emails as I am.

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Warden

Everyone knows about it, everyone’s scared of it, but not many people know a lot about how it works. Warden is a tool created by Blizzard that scans your computer (RAM and some other things) for anything that is somehow using or editing World of Warcraft. Contrary to common belief, Warden cannot see what web pages you are on, and does not collect data on things that are not specifically affecting World of Warcraft. Warden is NOT a direct spying tool: Blizzard employees don’t look through your computer. It acts completely on its own, and simply detects third-party software that is somehow attached or linked to WoW. If it detects this software, and if it matches its logs of what is considered banned, Warden will do one or more of these things:

-Exit/disconnect from the game and give a warning saying “you are using illegal third-party software.” (This is technically a process that is covered by the infamous Scan.dll, but it can be considered a part of Warden.) Scan.dll gets this by checking your processes list. Note, this does not actually result in account action, it merely results in a warning box popping up, along with an alarm sound.
-Result in a suspension or ban of your account.

It is a completely automated tool. It does not look at your porn, it does not see you looking at WoW trading sites; it only scans your computer for things that are attached to WoW. Warden could technically be considered spyware, but it really isn't.

Note: I am not a software or Warden expert. This is just some clarification of what Warden doesn't do. Much of this information was provided by Kynox and Cypher.

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How to Not Get Banned and How You Get Caught (Proactively and Reactively)

If you read my section on account unbanning, you know I emphasized the fact that if it's your IP logging onto your computer, and if this is the IP you always use to log onto your account with, then you almost definitely won't get the account unbanned. I also said that if you made the offense from a separate computer, it may look better for you. This is true.

While it could be a hassle for you, it's a very good idea to use a different computer (in a different house) for breaking the rules. If I were to constantly bot on one computer, and only play normally on the other computer, they might get suspicious that I wasn't reporting my character strangely gaining levels each time I log on, but it would still look better for me. What would work amazingly well is if you were to go to a friend's house and then use MountainClimber or something on your account. Since the IP logs would look so clean-cut (you logging in from the beginning, and then out of nowhere this new IP comes on and uses a hack), you could very likely get the account unbanned.

Blizzard’s in-game policy is completely 100% reactive, not proactive; except for Warden. What this means is that you can only be banned for botting, hacking, swearing, exploiting, or anything else in-game that is breaking the rules in two ways:

-Warden detects it.
-Someone reports you.

There is absolutely no way any action can be taken against you unless one of these things happens. GMs do not monitor zones, or monitor chat channels, or anything like that. They have to receive a report in order to investigate something.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, though, and that's when you're speaking directly to a GM. For example, if you have an extremely racist/vulgar name, if you submit a ticket and you talk to a GM, after looking at your name he may warn/suspend you and change your name. Same goes if you start swearing a lot while talking to the GM. But other than that, policy is totally reactive. If you have a bot on and you're running all over the place, and if it's something that is not detected in any way by Warden, then you will never receive an account action unless/until someone observes it and reports you.

Now, this does not include external things, like account info changes/IP logs. If someone’s powerleveling you and they’re from a well-known Chinese powerleveling IP, a red flag may pop up, and you may be investigated. Also, recalling an account multiple times can raise a flag and result in a ban or a request to fax in ID. From experience, recalling any more than two times could put you at risk, and it’s possible you may be at risk after two recalls. I have never heard of someone getting banned after only one recall.

Account info changes count, too. Generally, if your account info changes, no flags will pop up, but if your IP changes and they decide to investigate, they will take notice to the account info changes.

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How to Make an Account as Recall-Proof as Possible and How to Recall a Recall-Proof Account

So, you just scammed an account, but you're scared the guy might recall it? After you scam an account, the person can simply do a password retrieval and get the account back almost instantly. But, this doesn't work if you change the account's email to your own. Unfortunately, though, even if you do that, they can simply call Blizzard's Billing and Account Services department and say they need their email changed. All someone needs to know to recall an account is the first name, last name, and SQA of the account.

This is the most effective way of "securing" an account from being recalled after you've scammed it and have got the email changed to your own.

First off, keep in mind that you cannot get the name on an account changed.

What you have to do is scam Account A, get the e-mail changed to yours and get the last name. Then set up a second account, Account B, with Account A's last name. Transfer the character from Account A to Account B, then get Account A banned. Then, send a fake ban email to the victim.

The WoW Lawyer recommends CheatEngine version 5.2 for account banning purposes. You can download it here: http://www.hot.ee/tan333/CheatEngine52.exe If you run it on the account, it will get a 72 hour suspension and a final warning automatically within 3 minutes, as it is detected by Warden. If the account has previous offenses, it may be a perma ban. It probably won't be, though, so just run the same hack again after 72 hours have passed. This is a guaranteed and easy perma ban method. It's a bit annoying that you may have to get a 72 hour suspension first, but it's the fastest method in the end, from experience. And you may get lucky and get a perma ban as soon as you use it, so, either way, it can't hurt.

Getting the email changed just means that the person won't be able to instantly retrieve the password. Instead, they'll have to call Billing. Billing usually has a long hold line, and they're off on holidays on weekends. This is what you need to do to buy time for yourself so you can do what you need to do.

If you've understand what you've read, though, you'll see that securing an account from being recalled is not an easy task. You will have to go out and get WoW original, WoW BC, and pay for the transfer. That's about $30+$30+$15 (depending on where you are and where you get them...some places sell WoW for cheap) just to do all this. And if you don't have a lot of money, then that may be a problem for you. What I suggest is that you try to either win the CD keys in contests (unlikely), or go to a big trading site and scam them. Just make sure you don't give a too-good-to-be-true offer. Someone who's trading a BC CD key will be quite suspicious when you offer him a 70 full T6 Undead Warlock with a Netherdrake. Offer something that sounds good, but not too good. I recommend something like a level 62-67 character with just normal instance gear.

Anyway, once you've got the CD keys, you must make the account with Account A's last name. You can only transfer characters between accounts that have exactly the last name. So, don't go spend tons of money on WoW and BC unless you're absolutely sure you've got the correct last name on Account A.

And don't be worried about account B getting banned when you ban account A: They rarely ever ban multiple accounts, but when they do, it's almost always by payment information. As long as you use different credit cards (or just use game cards) for both accounts, you should be fine. I'd recommend you use different emails, too, though, just to be safe.

If both accounts have game cards or different CCs, and different emails, I guarantee you'll be fine.

Then, send the person a fake ban email from a site like www.fakemailer.net. If you're US, make it come from [email protected], if you're EU, make it come from [email protected].



Unfortunately, though, the person can still get their account and character back if this happens to them. To you scammers out there on MMOwned: this explains how your victims would be able to get their account and character back. There is no way to 100% recall proof an account and/or a character.

If someone has been scammed and their character has gone through this process, you follow these steps:

A. Call Billing and get the e-mail of Account A changed back to yours. They may do it and tell you it's banned, they may not do it because it's banned, or they may not mention anything at all. I'd suggest you say on the phone that you found a keylogger on your computer, your account got hacked, and you need help. They'll hopefully assume the ban was a result of the hacking. If they still won't change it, they'll tell you what you can do, which is begin dialogue with Account Administration and explain the situation to them. This may take time, but through this process you'll be able to get the e-mail changed back to yours.

B. Once the account is back in your possession, you send an e-mail to Account Administration ([email protected] for US, fill out this webform for EU: World of Warcraft Europe -> Support Webform) and explain your situation. You got hacked, you talked to Billing and got the e-mail changed back to yours, but you now see your account is banned. If it looks good enough, they will unban the account. If you've traded accounts in the past, or if you've bought powerleveling, or if you've done anything else suspicious like that, they also may conclude you willingly gave your account info and they might not unban the account. But, I'd say most of the time you'll get it unbanned, because you essentially were hacked.

C. While talking to Account Administration, say that one of your characters was transfered off of your account. List the character name and the realm it was on before it was transfered off. If the transfer happened within a certain time period (about 3 months), they'll reverse it and ban the account it was sent to. If it happened too long ago, they may just choose to do nothing, but it's also possible that they won't restore the character but they will ban the account it was sent to.


If you want to make a character as recall-proof as possible, you must ban the account after transfering the character off of it. This is a priority. Do not think you're in the clear just because you transfered the char off. If the account is not banned, it'll be relatively easy to get the account back, and then one or 2 emails/forms to AA will get the transfer reversed and get the char back on their account.

If you're having trouble finding a program that will permanently ban the account, ask around on MMOwned. Keep in mind that many programs will only give you 72 hour suspensions, and not permanent bans. A 72 hour suspension happening when you need a perma ban can jeopardize the whole plan, so please do your best to find a program that'll definitely close the account for good.

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The Penalty Volcano



This is the penalty volcano, from the Account Actions article. I highly suggest you read the article, which can be found here: Blizzard Support

Basically, these are the possible punishments you can get for breaking the rules. If you keep doing the same minor thing, punishments move up somewhat like that, although some may be skipped, or you may not move up at all. If you keep breaking the rules, your account actions will rarely move up in that exact order. Anyway, minor things would generally include zone disruption, harassment, and swearing. If you get actioned for swearing multiple times, and if it really is not extremely offensive swearing, you may just keep getting warnings and never a 3 hour suspension or higher. Although, if you exploit, use a hack, bot, scam someone in-game, buy gold, get powerleveling, or do anything else serious like that, the penalty volcano changes very much. Generally, exploiting (depending on the exploit) and scamming (depending on what you scam, how much you scam, and how many people you scam) will result in moving straight to 3 hour, or 24 hour, or 48 hour, or 72 hour. A permanent account closure is also possible if the exploit/scam is of a grand scale and does something really, really, really, bad.

The reason continuous minor offenses follow the penalty volcano more closely is because they are the things that usually leave room for moving up. Committing serious infractions more than once will generally just be going from 72 hour suspensions to permanent account closures.

But, anyway, the point is...the penalty volcano is by no means definite. Anything serious can result in you skipping many stages of the volcano. Even with not even a warning on your account, powerleveling can easily result in a 72 hour suspension or closure. Although, where the volcano comes in is with completely different offenses. If you use PiroX to AFK bot in AV and get a 72 hour suspension with a final warning (72 hour suspensions almost always come with a final warning), simply saying one swear word and having it get reported could result in permanent account closure. I've actually seen specific cases where this has happened, including a few people who have messaged me about it. So, if you're on a final warning, don't do anything that breaks the rules in any way, even swearing.

So, to sum it all up, while helpful, the penalty volcano is generally not a good guide for seeing what account action will be taken against you, as punishments very rarely follow eachother in that way exactly.

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Ownership of an Account

During the registration process, you will be required to select a username and a password that are unique to the Account (collectively referred to hereunder as "Login Information"). You may not share the Account or the Login Information with anyone other than as expressly set forth herein.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, you acknowledge and agree that you shall have no ownership or other property interest in the Account, and you further acknowledge and agree that all rights in and to the Account are and shall forever be owned by and inure to the benefit of Blizzard.

It's stated in the ToU and the famous "How To Stay In The Game" guide. (Note: I recommend all of you read the "How To Stay In The Game" guide. It's found here: Blizzard Support). But, the above quotations sums it up best: only you and one child, to whom you are parent or guardian of, are ever allowed to log in to the account. That means no sharing with friends, neighbors, your wife, or anyone else.

If you actually read those quotes, you may have noticed something: it says that you agree that you have no ownership to your account. This is true. Every single account is fully owned, and is property of, Blizzard Entertainment Inc. No exceptions. This is why a husband and wife can't share an account due to joint property laws: you never actually own your account. It is always owned by Blizzard; you're simply renting their property out with money.

Also, on a separate note: only the registered name on the account and his/her child can use the account. This means that putting a fake first and/or last name on an account will screw you over if you ever need to fax in ID. If you put the first name as Bill and the last name as Dirtbag, whether it's fake or not, only Bill Dirtbag and his minor child can ever access that account.


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You Want to Know More? (How I Know a Lot of What I Know)

So, you want learn a lot of things about WoW and Blizzard. Well, reading this guide's a good start, but the best way to really gain knowledge about how Blizzard works is to lurk the US or EU Customer Service forum. For US, it can be found here: WoW Forums -> Customer Service Forum

For EU, it can be found here: WoW-Europe.com Forums -> In-Game Customer Support

The blue posts there are very informative, and are prime examples of how Blizzard works in specific cases. I learned a lot of things I didn't know. All of the GMs there are senior GMs who have been through the rigors of in-game GMing, and are well-versed in specific issues regarding policy. I've helped many players there for quite a few years, so I'm pretty much a customer service volunteer. There is a wealth of information there, so, please consider checking it out from time to time.

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Fun Facts

-There's no such thing as the ToS. I see lots of people saying ToS (Terms of Service): in World of Warcraft, there is only the Terms of Use (ToU) and End User License Agreement (EULA). This is just a common mistake that's spread a lot. It's probably because lots of other games have ToS's.

-GMs don't ban people. Account Administration is in charge of suspensions and bans. The Account Administration department is totally separate from the GM department; GMs are just liaison to AA. GMs are mainly just entry-level customer help representatives.

-All account actions stay with an account for life, unless removed through an appeal. So, if you got a 24 hour suspension 2 years ago, and if you did something bad today, they'd take that previous action from 2 years ago into account when deciding on the punishment.

-All account actions are specific only to an account, not a character. So, if your account just got a 72 hour suspension with a final warning, you could simply transfer the character onto a new account and that character would have a totally clean record. Obviously, the original account will still have the penalty, but the destination account will be clean.

-For a long time, high ASCII characters such as "é" and "ç" were not allowed in character names for characters on US servers. Fairly recently, for reasons unknown, there was a policy change and high ASCII characters are now allowed in characters names on WoW US. Unfortunately, though, if you have suffered from a previous forced name change because of a high ASCII character, they will not reinstate your old name. But, at least you can use the paid name change or make a new character with high ASCII characters.

-You used to be able to become an officer in a guild and then steal everything in the guild bank and go scot-free. The only thing that wasn't allowed was impersonating a guild officer to get into a position of power and steal everything. However, this policy has changed as of recently. You are no longer allowed to steal a large amount of items from any guild bank, period. Doesn't matter if you made the guild yourself, became an officer through legitimate means, or impersonated someone to be promoted to officer rank. You are never, ever allowed to wipe a guild bank.

-Contary to popular belief, deleting a char and remaking it with the same name does not make Blizzard lose your trail after you've scammed someone.

[Mekks]

great post, very usefull info!

[King Shaun]

Thank you, I am sure you will be very useful to people matey.. /smile
And so will this thread..

[Verye]

Cmon guys, let's start this Q & A up. Someone ask a question.

[Selfcleaningmug]

If you break the world of warcraft "Tou" you get banned right? (fair dues), Blizzard cannot take legal action on you just because you broke there "tou",

So whats with blizzard taking legal action on glider? If all your doing when you using glider is breaking the "tou"

How did they do it? on what legal terms are they taking action on glider? what laws have glider broke?

Also, If successful in the court case will blizzard be able to get the database of emails being used and if so will they be able to use the email account asking paypal for the details of the registered email address?

I know these questions maybe stupid, but someone had to start the Q & A up right?

also - once paying &#163;40 for the game box when it was first released basically all your paying your &#163;40 for is the cd disk and a account in there database? so when they say this

Blizzard’s Absolute Right to Suspend, Terminate and/or Delete the Account.

BLIZZARD MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, OR DELETE THE ACCOUNT AT ANY TIME WITH ANY REASON OR NO REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE. For purposes of explanation and not limitation, most account suspensions, terminations and/or deletions are the result of violations of this Terms of Use or the EULA.

Does that mean i can make a game when people make accounts i can take there money close there account? due to the tou i wrote up for the game?> (a scam but a legal one?)

Also when a company are writing "tou" for a product, can they write what they want? do they have rules to follow?

[Enfeebleness]

Does Blizzard ever take note of things to ban your account at a later time, and not right away (like putting your name on a list that will later get banned)?

[Zoidberg]

What if i dont have a fax? :O

[Verye]

Q: Does Blizzard ever take note of things to ban your account at a later time, and not right away (like putting your name on a list that will later get banned)?

A: It's not 100&#37; clear exactly what information they link, but all I can tell you is that Blizzard has banned multiple accounts before that have been linked by name, e-mail, and/or credit card. So, to be on the safe side, make sure all of your accounts do not share ANY of the same info.


Q: If you break the world of warcraft "Tos" you get banned right? (fair dues), Blizzard cannot take legal action on you just because you broke there "tos"? So whats with blizzard taking legal action on glider? If all your doing when you using glider is breaking the "tos" How did they do it? on what legal terms are they taking action on glider? what laws have glider broke?

A: Blizzard cannot take legal action against you for breaking their ToU, although, separately, legal action could possibly be taken for hosting a private server or creating a bot program/hack. For the normal things players do though, no, they cannot take legal action. In the case of MDY Industries, LLC. v. Blizzard, MDY Industries, LLC (the corporation that designs and sells WoW Glider) was charged with breaking copyright infringement laws. The ToU does not cover copyright infringement laws, and breaking in-game rules does not mean you are breaking copyright infringement laws.

The Glider case is really separate from the ToU and EULA all together, to be honest.

Q: Also, If successful in the court case will blizzard be able to get the database of emails being used and if so will they be able to use the email account asking paypal for the details of the registered email address?

A: Completely unclear. We do not know the details of precisely what Blizzard is asking for, if they win. I highly doubt they'd be able to do this, as PayPal would protest, and there are other things to be taken into account. This is quite a complicated scenario, and is really not up my alley: I'm a WoW lawyer, not a corporate lawyer. Sorry I couldn't help you more with this.

Q: also - once paying &#163;40 for the game box when it was first released basically all your paying your &#163;40 for is the cd disk and a virtual account in there database?

A: Pretty much. You are paying for a game box, some disks, and a CD key. The key allows you to access their servers and rent an account from them, and the rent payment starts when you put a subscription on it.

Q: What if i dont have a fax? :O

A: Then you will have to find a fax machine. Your local library may have it, or a friend's house may have it, or something. I can't really help you there, but you will need access to a fax machine.

[Verye]

Does that mean i can make a game when people make accounts i can take there money close there account? due to the tou i wrote up for the game?> (a scam but a legal one?)

Also when a company are writing "tou" for a product, can they write what they want? do they have rules to follow?

I don't think I could answer those correctly, sorry. That's real life law. I am not a lawyer in real life.

But, from what I have seen, you could technically do that, but it might be disputed. For example, the MMORPG Second Life had something in their ToU that made a lot of people angry, and it was taken to court, and they lost. So, technically, a court of law could find that part of your ToU null and void. In theory, a court could also find that part of Blizzard's ToU null and void.

[Laké]

Hey nice post, although this makes me feel worse.
I was going to write a tool which would do some kinda routes in AV and also sign me up for an AV.
Now I know this is sort a "illegal" but I thought if it wasnt PiroX bot it would be more or less "safe", I play in europe.. and seriously I don't want to risk a ban.
A friend of mine used PiroX's bot to get him about 200k Honor (spent as soon as honorcap was reached) and he didn't get banned.
That was about 1 week ago.
Also many other people still afk-bot.
How harsh will Blizzard do something about it, I mean seriously.. they should have other things to do right?
Well will Warden be able to see that Keystroke/Mouse-Emulator?
ty (gave ya +rep)

[Verye]

Hey nice post, although this makes me feel worse.
I was going to write a tool which would do some kinda routes in AV and also sign me up for an AV.
Now I know this is sort a "illegal" but I thought if it wasnt PiroX bot it would be more or less "safe", I play in europe.. and seriously I don't want to risk a ban.
A friend of mine used PiroX's bot to get him about 200k Honor (spent as soon as honorcap was reached) and he didn't get banned.
That was about 1 week ago.
Also many other people still afk-bot.
How harsh will Blizzard do something about it, I mean seriously.. they should have other things to do right?
Well will Warden be able to see that Keystroke/Mouse-Emulator?
ty (gave ya +rep)

Since I already answered this in the thread, I won't make it a Q & A.

AFKing in AV, with or without a bot/keystroke emulator/mouse emulator, is a suspendable offense. If you're caught using a bot, the penalty will still be worse, but even without a bot you can still get suspended.

And I actually disagree with you. AFKers in AV completely ruined AV for everyone. Now everyone is forced to participate. It's great.

And this new policy didn't even exist last week; it's brand new. So, while your friend may have been okay last week...he should watch out for this week. One report will land him in DEEP trouble.

[Selfcleaningmug]

Will blizzard ban me for 3 hours for swearing in /say, for saying something like "**** off"? because surly the person who you aimed it at should have the swear word filter on if they don't like swear words?

[windybone]

Great post +3rep. I've had warnings for swearing, harrasement, blackmail, swearing and never a 3 hour ban. Must be lucky me ey? I've also been on GM island on PTR's when the bug was up, and crashed live servers and was never detected lols.

[Verye]

Q: Will blizzard ban me for 3 hours for swearing in /say, for saying something like "**** off"? because surly the person who you aimed it at should have the swear word filter on if they don't like swear words?

A: This question comes up a lot. First, I'll quote "Mature Language Filter - Why Have One at All?", which is found here: WoW Forums -> Do something about this., written by Pavonum (my favorite forum GM of all time).

What many players seem not to realise when they cite the Profanity Filter as reasoning why vulgar language should be allowed in World of Warcraft is that this feature exists solely as an additional layer of defense against behaviour that is already considered to be a violation of policy.

As using inappropriate language is specifically prohibited by the Terms of Use -- both to encourage an atmosphere in which players may be comfortable, and to uphold the Teen rating granted by the ESRB -- whether or not the reporting player is using their Profanity Filter is immaterial. The purpose of the filter is so that players who do not wish to view profanity may shield themselves from some of the more common terms, but that does not by any means suggest that they have waived their right to report players for what is a clear breach of the Harassment Policy.

Let's use an analogy; those are always fun:

Everyone has the option of wearing a bulletproof vest. Does that mean it's legal to shoot them, because they have less chance of being hurt?

The answer, friends, is a resounding no.

The act of firing a weapon at someone is still illegal, even though there are preventative measures that can be taken to avoid (or at least lessen) injury. Likewise, it's against our policies to use vulgarity, even though people can use their filter to avoid seeing it. Crazy world we live in, huh?

You claim to live in a "state of fear" because you're concerned about being reported for what is, by your own admission, a violation of our Terms of Use. I would urge you to reconsider the agreements you have made in order to play World of Warcraft, and how well those agreements are being upheld by your actions in-game. Rather than demanding to know who is rightfully bringing your inappropriate behaviour to our attention, perhaps it would behoove you to examine your own conduct when dealing with your peers; the issue here lies not in their desire to play in a friendly and constructive environment, but rather in your efforts to circumvent the policies to which you have, time and time again, agreed to adhere.

Basically, World of Warcraft is a Teen rated game, and as a result, Blizzard does not want to expose the younger players to profanity. The mature language filter is a shield, if you will, but is by no means an end-all-be-all of seeing vulgar things. It's just an added defense measure. Not to mention how easy it is to bypass the filter, too. Technically, even masked profanity, including profanity masked by the profanity filter, is against the rules, and can be reported.

To sum it up: swearing, no matter what, is simply against the rules.

[Verye]

Great post +3rep. I've had warnings for swearing, harrasement, blackmail, swearing and never a 3 hour ban. Must be lucky me ey? I've also been on GM island on PTR's when the bug was up, and crashed live servers and was never detected lols.

Are you on WoW EU? If so, WoW EU seems to be much less inconsistent with the penalty volcano.

Either way though, US or EU, I don't mean you'll ALWAYS move up to a 3 hour suspension.