Characters Disappearing

[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.

[gamesmart]

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.

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

[Seirra_Lanzce]

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.

[indira]

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.

[Faelandaea]

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.

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.

[chocomaid]

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?

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.

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

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

[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 :<

[Faelandaea]

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 :<

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.

[chocomaid]

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.

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.

[Matsume]

Aliens.

10char.