Characters Disappearing

A few of my friends have been losing characters in different servers, out of nowhere. Anybody else experienced this or know anyone?

A close friend of mine lost a level 32 arcanist and some lowbies in other servers. Similar thing happened with others.

The person got a reply back from a GM and they replied with "That character never existed in the first place." My friend is pushing for a better course of action from the GMs and still waiting for a good reply. Anybody know anything else he/she or anyone can do in this situation?

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Originally Posted by chocomaid

The person got a reply back from a GM and they replied with "That character never existed in the first place."

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I swear to God for some reason i had goosebumps when i read that.... felt like a line from a horror movie ...


not me... maybe he got hacked? is he using 1 time password thingy ?

If you lose your character then I would recommend you contact SE support and put in a ticket since it's likely that your account was stolen.

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Originally Posted by DoctorPepper

If you lose your character then I would recommend you contact SE support and put in a ticket since it's likely that your account was stolen.

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The person already did and yea got a reply with "That character never existed in the first place". I also tried searching on the website to find the character, hoping that it was just a loading screen bug but to no avail, the character is gone from the armory too. :( The person made another ticket though, waiting on that one.

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Originally Posted by Lady_Venus

not me... maybe he got hacked? is he using 1 time password thingy

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Yes the person has the authenticator :<

That is very strange... They should be able to see if a character was created then deleted.. saying it never existed is very puzzling... and since he is using an authenticator its very unlikely that he was hacked.. so tell him no matter what they say keep demanding an investigation to see why his characters were deleted in the first place cuz more ppl might go through the same thing in the future.

Hope he gets his problem fixed.

How attached are your friends to their lowbie character(s)? Have they considered redoing them? It's not like leveling a new character is hard. If they have items that they are attached to (Swimsuits, Halloween, Lightning), those quests will be back.

Not very attached to the lowbies but to the level 32 arcanist, the person does yea (can't speak for the rest since I don't know them that well). While re-levelling a new character is an option, it's not really a good solution, since it might happen again in the future. It's not about difficulty too >.< Different people might like to level slowly and I know the person put a lot of time on the characters :/

Strange, there's an explanation to this mystery, as to what the explanation is.. Good luck finding out.

I've got things going through my mind that I'm just gonna spit out.

To the account holder:
- When did that character go missing?
- Was the character inactive for a long period of time?
- Is there any reason that you personally wanted to delete the character?
- Is there any reason SE may have warranted your character to be deleted?
- Is it possible the character got deleted when the RMT banhammer striked?
- Can you prove to SE the character existed?


To Square-Enix
- What would it take to wipe out a character and all it's information?
- Why would SE delete a character and not record historical evidence?
- Is it possible all the information on the character's history gets deleted along with the character? Probably not since reactivating characters was possible in FFXI.
- I'm not that savvy with computers, but if it's anything like file deletion, is it possible the information is archived deep within a computer, hidden from normal sight?
- Does a GM have access to all the information regarding an account, such as reports, all active and inactive/deleted character information, market sales, etc.), anything that would leave evidence of the character's existence?

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Originally Posted by chocomaid

A few of my friends have been losing characters in different servers, out of nowhere. Anybody else experienced this or know anyone?

A close friend of mine lost a level 32 arcanist and some lowbies in other servers. Similar thing happened with others.

The person got a reply back from a GM and they replied with "That character never existed in the first place." My friend is pushing for a better course of action from the GMs and still waiting for a good reply. Anybody know anything else he/she or anyone can do in this situation?

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hacked & deleted, they need to spend the few bucks for a one time password thing.

SE dont delete old characters since early FFXI. if they did you wouldnt beable to login cuz your banned.

I dont give a shit about 1 time password, if my character got hacked and deleted in this game i'd never buy another fucking thing from square enix ever again, even if Kingdom Hearts 3 came out.

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Originally Posted by Narcissus

I dont give a shit about 1 time password, if my character got hacked and deleted in this game i'd never buy another fucking thing from square enix ever again, even if Kingdom Hearts 3 came out.

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Because it's totally SE's fault...right?

i think this need more attention, if there is really such a thing, SE need to investigate, is impossible to have a character missing after being created.

When was it created? When was it missing? this info may prove to help you find back your character.

must have a short password to get hacked, my account 3 years old never been hacked i have a really long password and one time password.

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Originally Posted by Narcissus

I dont give a shit about 1 time password, if my character got hacked and deleted in this game i'd never buy another fucking thing from square enix ever again, even if Kingdom Hearts 3 came out.

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ROFL!!! If your account got hacked it's because you had absolutely no regard for password security at all.

Sorry, but I worked as a SysAdmin a while back and it amazed me how many people got their account hacked for stupid shit.

• Do you REALLY think that using your mother's ACTUAL maiden name for a security question is secure?
• Did you REALLY think that using your name or the name of one of your pets as your password was secure at all?
• Are you THAT lazy that you can't type SHIFT to add an upper case, or a symbol into your password?
• You had your password for HOW LONG??? Without CHANGING IT???

I use these as examples because at least one of those were brought to me by people on a weekly basis and the above were to blame.

A typical hacking program will take less than a day to crack a password that is just letters - regardless of how many letters. Toss a number in there and you have added a week to the program's effort, maybe. Toss in an upper case, mixed with lower case, a number AND a symbol . . . good luck cracking that . . . ESPECIALLY if you are wise and change your password at least once per month!

If your account gets hacked, it's your own fault, with only one possible exception and that would be a major hacking of SE servers on a global scale - the kind of hacking that makes the 5:00 news.

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Originally Posted by JagerForrester

I've got things going through my mind that I'm just gonna spit out.

To the account holder:
- When did that character go missing?
- Was the character inactive for a long period of time?
- Is there any reason that you personally wanted to delete the character?
- Is there any reason SE may have warranted your character to be deleted?
- Is it possible the character got deleted when the RMT banhammer striked?
- Can you prove to SE the character existed?


To Square-Enix
- What would it take to wipe out a character and all it's information?
- Why would SE delete a character and not record historical evidence?
- Is it possible all the information on the character's history gets deleted along with the character? Probably not since reactivating characters was possible in FFXI.
- I'm not that savvy with computers, but if it's anything like file deletion, is it possible the information is archived deep within a computer, hidden from normal sight?
- Does a GM have access to all the information regarding an account, such as reports, all active and inactive/deleted character information, market sales, etc.), anything that would leave evidence of the character's existence?

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The character wasn't inactive at all, I was actually helping them in brayflox just a few days ago. I highly doubt the person would've wanted to delete it after all that hard work, and they never mentioned a slightest hint as well. I can't think of why SE would've deleted said character and it definitely wasn't involved in RMT stuff.

The odd thing was, if it did get hacked/deleted, they would have the data history for it. Unfortunately, we can't prove it existed since we didn't know that this situation can happen, woulda taken a few screenshots if I knew.

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Originally Posted by Seirra_Lanzce

When was it created? When was it missing? this info may prove to help you find back your character.

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It was created roughly about a month ago and missing now for a few days.

Friend got a "good" reply from a GM. They said they can restore the character with a few drawbacks.

-They have to write the exact date, exact time they last played it. And other specific things that one can't easily remember.
-The restoration of characters is only usable ONCE per square enix account. So if it happens again, well, you're screwed.
-The process takes 7-10 freaking days. In which the person can't log-in at that time.
-And guess what, after 10 days, they are not 100% sure they'll restore the character data.

Is it really that worth it? I've played several other MMOs and this is just crap :<

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Originally Posted by chocomaid

Friend got a "good" reply from a GM. They said they can restore the character with a few drawbacks.

-They have to write the exact date, exact time they last played it. And other specific things that one can't easily remember.
-The restoration of characters is only usable ONCE per square enix account. So if it happens again, well, you're screwed.
-The process takes 7-10 freaking days. In which the person can't log-in at that time.
-And guess what, after 10 days, they are not 100% sure they'll restore the character data.

Is it really that worth it? I've played several other MMOs and this is just crap :<

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Quick question . . . if this is happening to "multiple people", how come they are not helping your cause by posting in this thread? If it happened to them they should be posting here. It's great you are trying to help them, but it's more productive if they are here participating so that the community can question and answer their situation.

I ask this because after reading this thread again I asked around all the Link-shells I am a member of, and even brought up the subject in shouts in a busy zone, and no one has even heard of this happening aside from you. I'm not saying I don't believe you. I'm just saying the whole situation sounds, again, like a security issue on your friends behalf and not a server glitch with SE.

So the real questions are:

• Have the shared their password? I never share my passwords - not even with my own wife.
• Is their password secure? REMEMBER: A password is absolutely NOT secure if it is anything less than 8 to 10 characters and mixing upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols. If it does not meet those requirements, it's NOT secure and the person could care less about their account security.
• Has the person been engaged in high risk situations such as buying from Gil sellers? If you buy Gil or other third party services, you just gave away access to your account.
• Does the person secure their computer? Secure means having a MINIMUM of a reputable antivirus installed, an antilogger installed and an antimalware installed. It also means not going to pirating/P2P sites, high risk sites, and browsing without going to sites you absolutely trust. Keylogger checks and sweeps should be run on a regular basis to assure you do not have a key logger hiding in your system somewhere.

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Originally Posted by Faelandaea

Quick question . . . if this is happening to "multiple people", how come they are not helping your cause by posting in this thread? If it happened to them they should be posting here. It's great you are trying to help them, but it's more productive if they are here participating so that the community can question and answer their situation.
I ask this because after reading this thread again I asked around all the Link-shells I am a member of, and even brought up the subject in shouts in a busy zone, and no one has even heard of this happening aside from you. I'm not saying I don't believe you. I'm just saying the whole situation sounds, again, like a security issue on your friends behalf and not a server glitch with SE.

So the real questions are:

• Have the shared their password? I never share my passwords - not even with my own wife.
• Is their password secure? REMEMBER: A password is absolutely NOT secure if it is anything less than 8 to 10 characters and mixing upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols. If it does not meet those requirements, it's NOT secure and the person could care less about their account security.
• Has the person been engaged in high risk situations such as buying from Gil sellers? If you buy Gil or other third party services, you just gave away access to your account.
• Does the person secure their computer? Secure means having a MINIMUM of a reputable antivirus installed, an antilogger installed and an antimalware installed. It also means not going to pirating/P2P sites, high risk sites, and browsing without going to sites you absolutely trust. Keylogger checks and sweeps should be run on a regular basis to assure you do not have a key logger hiding in your system somewhere.

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Only a minority of the playerbase actually use these forums and in my circle of friends, I'm the only one, and I'm not an avid poster myself. I don't expect them to post here to solve their problem, there are plenty of ways to do that. I was only sharing the info in order to help or find people that might have the same problem.

To answer your question. Yes, strong passwords(no they didn't tell me, they merely said it was a combination, like you said). System securities installed. I don't know about their personal lives or other people for that matter who might be affected so I can't comment on that. They don't share their accounts. Lastly, I stated this in the previous post if you've read, no they've not been associated with any RMT.

And those "multiple people" might not have connections like us, we're not in an FC, it might be a minority but it still is a problem. Some people might have been affected and turned to SE onky to fix the problem, resulting in the problem not getting known to the community.

That's not the problem though, it's the process of restoring, it simply is abysmal. I've played other MMO's and restoring (if it was a legitimate external problem) only takes a day max. And you can still play while you wait.

Aliens.

10char.

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Originally Posted by Matsume

Aliens.

10char.

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So far, I agree. :(

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Originally Posted by Matsume

Aliens.

10char.

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ROFL! There we go. :)

He's been deleted to make room for the housing they need the space :)