Sony Bans by CREDIT CARD. Be aware! (1 Viewer)

[nijhal]

Ok, I hope I explain this properly.

I wrote a Monter Mission macro that is solid, been using it for months. But I required 5-6 toons. Once my cleric has maxed out his aas, atleast 3 months ago, I took him out and wrote a different macro for a different Monster Mission that would only require two to me in the mission (3 in group of coarse). I wrote this one cause a friends account got banned and he had to start over. And all my guys were maxed out on aas, so I didnt want the risk for all my toons.

Long story short, my cleric had not been logged in or used in months really except to search the bazaar. But my friend needed his new account activated and while running this new MM Macro I wrote he got caught and banned on november 2nd. My cleric had not logged in since october 31st. But was also banned for the same reason my friends account was banned. Automating with 3rd party programs. Only those two accounts are one the same credit card, all others are game cards. And cleric wasent even online when the ban took place. They just banned him because hes on the same credit card as the offender.

Just want to give a heads up, to protect your accounts, use game cards, it may be a bit of a pain but atleast if you run 6 accounts like me, they wont all be banned when one gets caught.

N

And no it had been months since I used my cleric in any monster missions or even used MQ with him at all. Besides vanilla stuff. So I know for a fact this was because his account was on the same credit card as my clerics. And no other toons on my clerics accoutn either.

Hope this was explained propoerly Im sick and got alot of medicine in me right now.

 

[Siddin]

Yes, its possible that he could have been banned via the cc, but i doubt it. Most likely they went through the character's logs as to what it was doing, when, and how. Needless to say, i got one of my toons unbanned, and got my equipment back that I looted 1.5-2 years ago, so their logs do go back that far at least.

 

[thegreat]

there is noway they ban by creditcard, becuase of family members all under same creditcard....it would start problems. all they had to do was check logs and see you running w/e mission it was constantly and seeing that u used warp probly? i dunno but im 99% shur they dont and would never ban by creditcard

 

[everdead]

They also ban by accounts using the same IP so CC isn't far fetched just because you can see an obvious issue. It is probably an autmoatedtype thing too so I would just send an eamil back. If you do not know for positive something is not true then why would you even argue it?

 

[nijhal]

Hmmm maybe I didnt explain it properly.

His Ranger got caught and banned. My cleric had not been online in days and had not done any kind of macroing of any kind in a long time. The only thing linking them is they are both on the same credit card. When I tried to log in my cleric banned. Cleric had not done anything wrong. None of the other accounts I have were touched and were logged in. Just the cleric got banned and all other accounts are on game cards.

N

 

[EQManiac]

Hmmm maybe I didnt explain it properly.

His Ranger got caught and banned. My cleric had not been online in days and had not done any kind of macroing of any kind in a long time. The only thing linking them is they are both on the same credit card. When I tried to log in my cleric banned. Cleric had not done anything wrong. None of the other accounts I have were touched and were logged in. Just the cleric got banned and all other accounts are on game cards.

N

Chances are they associated by CC and did a log search to check. Cleric being the only one associated, was the only one reviewed.

Seems the most logical.

Did your friend log in other toons of yours? ones on game cards? They may have linked them by IP to be reviewed if not by CC.

 

[Roguish]

probably IP during CC payment, ive heard of more IP linkage (like when ebay reports your IP) than CC

 

[BadPuss]

Someone some time back had a method of blocking IP addresses? Too late now though if it's IP during CC payment as Roguish suggests.

 

[playj]

Interesting, so one would be advised to use a trusted proxy (if there is such a thing) when paying for one's accounts?

 

[BobOfEQ]

Not everyone has a static IP, dialup for example gives you a different IP everytime you connect. On my Router I can actually set whatever IP I want. Banning by IP would be just stupid.

 

[RedDog]

Banning/suspending by linked credit cards, email addresses and IP addresses has all been not only possible but also practiced for quite some time. If they can use the information to verify your acct ownership, they can also use it to ban you or suspend you.

 

[everdead]

There is a low likellyhood of two EQ players accidentally getting the same IP for logging in. I have a friend who kept getting free eq accounts to test some very bad plugins( was trying to get around Divine Aura and the can not see your target messages). After about 20 accounts suspension sony sent him an email to his main characters account and told him if he continued to test his hacks all accounts connected to his IP would be banned.

He never put that email address when he was getting the trial accounts so the only way for them to have tracked it was through IP. Sony also has proven they have a means to in game check IP's since I have had an account banned because I was playing it logged off and friend in 4 states away logged in. The reason for ban stated multiple account uses from other people.

 

[Norrathian]

There are some things they do track. They absolutely track who's connecting from what IP. This info is kept for some time for tracking. They also are totally clueless (for the most part) about how to prevent people from masking their IPs. There are lots of proxy servers out there, but keep in mind it's possible for the proxy server's administrator(s) can see your packets if they know what they're doing and they're interested.

It'd be an easy way to have an account or personal info compromised. Best bet is find someone very trustworthy to set up a temporary proxy if you're that worried about it.

Forgot to mention - every account you've logged into (maybe ever) from your IP, are logged at SoE. If you do something bad enough, it's a flag for them to review the logs of all those accounts, I suppose. I'm not certain what would warrant such a workload though unless you're SKing or something that offensive.

 

[Siddin]

Not everyone has a static IP, dialup for example gives you a different IP everytime you connect. On my Router I can actually set whatever IP I want. Banning by IP would be just stupid.

No, they are banning by your internet provider's ip that is leased to you. Your router may ask for a certain ip, but it will still be something within the normal range of that provider along with the state/city/country that you live in.

 

[BobOfEQ]

Incorrect.

 

[TeachersPet]

No, Siddin's pretty much nailed it. I should know, considering they banned 7 accounts of mine (well, actually to be completely honest, one was Siddin's /grin) that had nothing in common OTHER than my IP.

 

[newperson]

Out of curiousity - how many (active) accounts do you two have, combined?

 

[TeachersPet]

I have zero at the moment, but that's mostly because for the last 3 weeks I've been busy doing other things, you know, like trying to not fail college.