My account has been suspended for “cheating or use of third party software”. I have never once cheated in Blizzard games in the 12+ years I’ve been playing their games. I can provide screenshots of my current addon list, which includes things like Bartender UI, castbars for classic, Coordinates and DBM. Basic cosmetic or UI addons that are, to my knowledge, completely allowed. I have no idea why I’ve been suspended seeing as how I have no proof shown to me in the email they’ve sent me and so I can only assume it’s because I’ve been mass reported.
Obviously you have no idea of my credibility but I work 9-5 and I’m a regular dude who likes to relax and play WoW. I’ve never once cheated and I’ve had the same account for at least 7 years. Never once been banned for something.
I’ve never botted, never cheated, never used an addon that I did not think was kosher to use within the game.
Is it possible for a group of players to mass-report someone and an automated decision is made to suspend an account? Or perhaps the person reviewing the reports did not actually look into the situation?
Any and all help would be appreciated, as I promise you (whatever thats worth) that I did not cheat.
It’s honestly mind boggling because I’ve never had this happen.
Background Info: I use an authenticator and have had no emails containing people breaking into my account. I reviewed the security tab on my account and the logins seem to all be within the range of my ISPs nodes that it would connect through to access a blizzard server, so that doesn’t seem to be indicating i’ve had a compromised account either.
Any advice here? Ive submitted an appeal ticket, but the email clearly states that they can just ignore my appeal if they feel their decision is final… I’m utterly helpless lol.
These will not help, because bots are not addons. They are third-party software that act in the background, designed in large part to remain undetected as long as possible to create as much chaos as possible during their rampancy. Are you the only person that has access to any computers that you log into the game on?
This will also never happen, because that is information that bot creators would absolutely love to get their hands on in order to create the perfect, wholly-invisible program.
You’ve already taken the next step in filing the appeal. The only thing you can do is wait on that outcome. What an appeal does is hands the issue over to a second GM to review the information used by the first GM. If their findings are the same, they will state so. If not, it will likely get overturned.
You can keep filing appeals until they tell you to stop.
Blizzard does not share the details of detection, or what was detected, because it helps the bad guys learn to evade. Not saying you are one, just explaining why they keep the details to their own logs.
False positives do happen from time to time, so please just follow up with your Appeal. You can appeal again until they say it is Final and not to contact them on that issue again.
Generally speaking, the majority of those investigations are done by our hacks team. Usually involving lengthy investigations that look at a myriad of factors.
Of course, it is possible for mistakes to be made, that is what the appeal process is for.
I see, that would make sense that they would not divulge the details of their methods. However, no, nobody has access to my account or PC other than myself. My girlfriend who lives with me does not even have the password to my computer which is locked when I’m not on it. I am very confused as to how this could have happened as I have NEVER downloaded third party software for WoW. The only software I use in conjunction with WoW is Twitch for addons, or discord for raiding communication/guild communication.
I appreciate you guys reaching out and responding, I guess my only option now is to wait and hope to god they can see that I’m being truthful. I can’t see how they’d arrive at the conclusion that they did because I’ve only ever played in my free time and only ever played like a regular player would.
Thanks again guys, I guess I’ll appeal until it’s either overturned or I can’t anymore, in which case I doubt I’ll be able to stomach using blizzard products again.
While you are waiting, it would not hurt to run a malware scan on your PC and double check your account security. Sometimes account actions come from activities perpetrated by others who gain access via nefarious means.
-Malwarebytes (free is fine)
-Check your email to ensure it is one that uses two factor authentication and is secure
-Consider an Authenticator app if you don’t have one already. The Blizz Auth is free for most Apple and Android phones/devices.
Always keep in mind, it is the ACCOUNT that is being actioned. They are not pointing to you personally. Your account is currently suspected of being in violation, so do what you can to see what might have made Blizz associate the account with anything against the rules. Keep in mind it could have been months ago.
Thank you I’m going to scan my PC right now. I do use an authenticater and I’ve never had any suspicion that my account has been compromised. My account is as secure as I can make it as I take security very seriously…
Weirdly enough, I woke up today with the same suspension on my account today.
I submitted an appeal, I guess that’s all I can do.
Not sure what even flagged such a thing. I even sent in a screenshot of my addson, just in case it was something to do with that? Very odd. Hope it gets fixed soon.
The same thing just happened to my GF hours ago. When all of her game time has been with me or her guild to suddenly get this? it just makes no sense. Now she has to wait for an appeal for something she never did.
I’m wondering if you guys use Auctioneer? That’s the only change in my gameplay, has been that I’ve been actively using the Auction House every single day as I try to get 5 million gold, which won’t happen but it was worth a try !
… Well maybe not worth the try if it means my account gets banned? lol
I can virtually guarantee that the use of a legit addon is not the cause of any account actions. Addons that run from the addon folder are only able to do things that Blizz allows.
Unless an addon also uses an out-of-game executable, then they have nothing to do with any account actions
Playing the AH is not against the rules, nor is earning gold legitimately.
I dont know if this will apply to any of you, but i seem to recall many months maybe even years ago, some people were being hit with suspensions because of programmable keyboards and mice as their software allowed you to key-bind things in such a way that it mimicked automation or something along that lines (i will see if i can find the old thread when im home)
Could this be something that may have caused this for any of you?
My friend was just banned for the exact same thing. They banned him with showing no evidence, screenshots or anything. He appealed it after waiting a few hours to even talk to someone and they said they made the correct action.
We have five IRL friends that play together and we’re all thinking about quitting. Its utterly ridiculous they can ban you without showing any evidence or anything. Meanwhile we’re all sitting here trying to talk to an actual person to figure out what he could have possibly done wrong. Imagine being on trial and the judge just says “Oh yeah I reviewed the case and yeah we got it right.”
