Question Regarding Bans on Compromised Accounts

[SenorPatty]

No one here is blaming SE for the compromised account. What I am blaming them for is charging us for playtime while the account is not accessible. That is very different. Also, to make assumptions on how an account was compromised doesnt necessarily help in any way, and its quite rude. We were literally in the middle of a frontline when he was disconnected from the game and then locked out. There was no 'inputting my info into a link" so that is irrelevant. (very victim blamey of you). The condescension is unhelpful and unnecessary, have the day you deserve

Sir, its may not be what you want to hear or even accept but yes, it's very common, especially in the video game industry, to not refund any sub time that you don't have access to the game, for whatever reason
Otherwise, people would lining up for sub time refunds during maintenance and major patch/expansion updates. Only in extreme circumstances that are out of the control of players and/or company alike (like the 7 day extra sub time during the Endwalker start-up troubles) will the latter consider and even then, as you can see, those seven days are not an actual monetary refund.

It was a bad and frustrating situation for you being unable to play and even worse, not getting the money you feel you should be owed but video game subscriptions are the one thing companies rarely do anything about if you are found even an iota responsible for falling for infamous internet and video game traps.

[Gramboozle]

Sir, its may not be what you want to hear or even accept but yes, it's very common, especially in the video game industry, to not refund any sub time that you don't have access to the game, for whatever reason
Otherwise, people would lining up for sub time refunds during maintenance and major patch/expansion updates. Only in extreme circumstances that are out of the control of players and/or company alike (like the 7 day extra sub time during the Endwalker start-up troubles) will the latter consider and even then, as you can see, those seven days are not an actual monetary refund.

It was a bad and frustrating situation for you being unable to play and even worse, not getting the money you feel you should be owed but video game subscriptions are the one thing companies rarely do anything about if you are found even an iota responsible for falling for infamous internet and video game traps.

You make a very good point, thank you for bringing that to the forefront. Its just so disheartening to invest so much time and money into this service and it just be stuck in this limbo, while we continue to pay. We were already in the game when the 'attack' happened, we definitely havent clicked any links and damn sure havent typed our log in info into anything other than the game itself. literally the only thing we use our playsations for is to play this game...its not even possible to click links so I dont even know what else we wouldve done to "provide the info voluntarily". We're not even looking for a refund..we just want the payments to stop, at least until the investigation is complete. Called the bank and they can't even stop the payment, because of the authorization for auto-renewal, they suggest we contact SE and request for them to stop the payments..but they wont do anything because the account is suspended...its like a horrendous frustrating circle. I guess at this point there is no resolution and I'm here to complain. Keeping fingers crossed for some kind of update, and hopefully we get the account back. Thanks everyone for your replies. Except Arazehl, they can kick rocks.

[Jojoya]

No one here is blaming SE for the compromised account. What I am blaming them for is charging us for playtime while the account is not accessible. That is very different. Also, to make assumptions on how an account was compromised doesnt necessarily help in any way, and its quite rude. We were literally in the middle of a frontline when he was disconnected from the game and then locked out. There was no 'inputting my info into a link" so that is irrelevant. (very victim blamey of you). The condescension is unhelpful and unnecessary, have the day you deserve

It may be an issue of timing.

What date did your husband get the email for the upcoming payment notification? I usually get mine 4-5 business days in advance. Once they send that email, the payment is in the billing queue for processing even though it's not actually submitted until the billing date. They may not able to stop the processing on a specific account.

As for paying for time while the account is suspended, the account is still under investigation. Adjustments (if any) would only be made after the investigation is completed.

Their customer service for Account and Billing Support is one area that they really need to improve. It's a common source of complaints.

Out of curiosity, did your husband report the account compromise to SE immediately, or only after the ban notice was received? Immediately reporting the compromise should have prevented the ban from happening. Failing to report the compromise immediately upon discovery leaves the impression that your husband might have been complicit in the compromise, allowing the account to be used.

Even if a compromise doesn't cause loss to items held on the account, it should always be reported for your protection. A character rollback offer can be refused but at least SE is aware that actions during the compromised time period were not those of the account holder.

Its principle, I wouldn't care if its .01 cent, if you are charging people for services they do not have access to, that is unethical. I don't care if they have the entire company working on the investigation, that is irrelevant. I shall make a stink with or without your approval.

They are not responsible for your account getting compromised, nor are they responsible if your husband failed to report it after recovering the account but before the ban notice was received.

Make a stink all you want but it's not going to change anything. They will conduct their investigation then make their determination.

[Gramboozle]

It may be an issue of timing.

What date did your husband get the email for the upcoming payment notification? I usually get mine 4-5 business days in advance. Once they send that email, the payment is in the billing queue for processing even though it's not actually submitted until the billing date. They may not able to stop the processing on a specific account.

As for paying for time while the account is suspended, the account is still under investigation. Adjustments (if any) would only be made after the investigation is completed.

Their customer service for Account and Billing Support is one area that they really need to improve. It's a common source of complaints.

Out of curiosity, did your husband report the account compromise to SE immediately, or only after the ban notice was received? Immediately reporting the compromise should have prevented the ban from happening. Failing to report the compromise immediately upon discovery leaves the impression that your husband might have been complicit in the compromise, allowing the account to be used.

Even if a compromise doesn't cause loss to items held on the account, it should always be reported for your protection. A character rollback offer can be refused but at least SE is aware that actions during the compromised time period were not those of the account holder.


They are not responsible for your account getting compromised, nor are they responsible if your husband failed to report it after recovering the account but before the ban notice was received.

Make a stink all you want but it's not going to change anything. They will conduct their investigation then make their determination.

Semantics aside, He actually reported the account compromised within minutes of it occurring because he was online and was disconnected, went to log back in and his pw wouldnt work, then reset his password, but it didnt work because someone else who logged in from a console in bosnia put their own OTP on it, but didnt change the email linked to the account, we were able to unlink the other OTP with a code that was sent to his email, that then allowed him to reset his pw, and add his own OTP, he then submitted a ticket to customer service notifying of the compromise. was able to change his password back, added an OTP connected to his phone, and was able to log in and play for an entire day. As of today still no response from the ticket opened last thursday. Tried to log in on saturday, account was banned, tried to log in to mogstation to remove the payment information, but that was included in the account ban, so we had no access to make any changes to the account at all and the sub renewed today.

[Vahlnir]

Semantics aside, He actually reported the account compromised within minutes of it occurring because he was online and was disconnected, went to log back in and his pw wouldnt work, then reset his password, but it didnt work because someone else who logged in from a console in bosnia put their own OTP on it, but didnt change the email linked to the account, we were able to unlink the other OTP with a code that was sent to his email, that then allowed him to reset his pw, and add his own OTP, he then submitted a ticket to customer service notifying of the compromise. was able to change his password back, added an OTP connected to his phone, and was able to log in and play for an entire day. As of today still no response from the ticket opened last thursday. Tried to log in on saturday, account was banned, tried to log in to mogstation to remove the payment information, but that was included in the account ban, so we had no access to make any changes to the account at all and the sub renewed today.

These things take time. If the account was indeed reported as compromised in a timely fashion, the chances are probably decent that the account will be returned to your husband. The downside is that this process can take weeks or even months. So as much as the situation sucks, you and your husband will need to be patient. Again, it takes time. Vent all you want, as that is your right, but it won't get things done any faster, I assure you. Hopefully a lesson or two was learned here. Some lessons are best learned the hard way, sadly, but those are the ones that really stick with you. Live and learn and all that jazz. It will all probably work out, just not in an ideal time frame.

[Plebkac]

No one here is blaming SE for the compromised account. What I am blaming them for is charging us for playtime while the account is not accessible. That is very different. Also, to make assumptions on how an account was compromised doesnt necessarily help in any way, and its quite rude. We were literally in the middle of a frontline when he was disconnected from the game and then locked out. There was no 'inputting my info into a link" so that is irrelevant. (very victim blamey of you). The condescension is unhelpful and unnecessary, have the day you deserve

Hi Gramboozle, I've never posted on the forums as I tend to just lurk around and read threads that interest me. Your post I'm quoting however was worrying me enough that I felt the need to reply.

You said you didn't click any links nor entered your credentials on any suspect sites. Before being compromised, did your husband use the same password for his account anywhere else? If so, a data breach on a different site could explain how they were able to compromise his SE account. This could have wider reaching consequences than just your FFXIV account being suspended, hence my worries.

As for the ongoing payment issue, I'm afraid I can offer nothing but my sympathies for your plight. Not being able to suspend your payment for a service you are unable to use would also upset me.

As a general tip to anyone reading this, please make use of password managers and MFA when possible.

[Risvertasashi]

Hello,

I am wondering why Square Enix's account recovery process is so abysmal when an account was compromised. My husbands account was compromised last thursday, and they did nothing but spam malicious links in chat for an hour, and then logged off, soon after my husband was able to change his PW and recover his account (without ANY notification to the subscribed email)

After recovering his account he was able to play as normal for two days, and then suddenly a total account ban, probably due to report for the hackers spam.

Now because of that the account is banned, and we are not able to recover any of the subscription time or game payment. How exactly is this legal business practice? They are still charging us...even though the account is suspended, while they "take their time to investigate the issue."

Customer support around these issues are a widely complained about issue (if you can even get a hold of anyone), and I am looking for answers. We have given this company thousands of dollars over several years, and not an OUNCE of professional assistance has been received. This is unacceptable.

What else can we do?

This is precisely why Square bans the accounts, instead of deleting them as is sometimes called for.

The best you can do is contact Square support and begin the unfortunately slow process of recovering from there. Yeah, it sucks, sorry. In the future, I strongly recommending setting up and using the OTP system as it makes a stolen password virtually worthless.

[Gramboozle]

This is precisely why Square bans the accounts, instead of deleting them as is sometimes called for.

The best you can do is contact Square support and begin the unfortunately slow process of recovering from there. Yeah, it sucks, sorry. In the future, I strongly recommending setting up and using the OTP system as it makes a stolen password virtually worthless.

Thank you! That is absolutely the first thing we did, and are in the account recovery limbo stage while they investigate. The wild thing is, we were able to recover the account on our own, and change the password and apply the OTP, and he was able to play for a full day, But the "hacker" had already sent out a bunch of tells with a phishing link by the time we got it back, and the ban happened the next day.

[Greyhawk]

Good thing this isn't a support forum.

[Gramboozle]

Good thing this isn't a support forum.

What an impressive contribution to the conversation. Congrats.