Offense: Use of Bots or Third-Party Automation Software

Disappointing news I’m afraid.

I have not been provided with any assurance that additional logs or information was looked at in review of a potential false positive.

Further to this it ends with “We now consider this matter closed and would not look to enter into further discussion on the subject.”.

From suggestions made on this post I am to continue to appeal it but how if the matter is now closed?

It’s only suggested that you appeal until you’re told the matter is closed and no further appeals will be reviewed. At that point, further appeals can be considered an offence (GM Harassment).

I’m sorry that you didn’t receive the outcome you were hoping for.

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I thought that might be the case.

The amount of time, effort, and money I have invested into this game to at least be provided a satisfactory response of investigation into the issue is overwhelmingly disappointing. Particularly when I had high hopes given Vrakthris’ response in relation to the amount of effort that could potentially go into verify if penalty was valid (it’s possible I guess that they feel this still occurred but in no way was this assured to me in any manner from the response).

Quick edit - I do have one more question. I was contemplating buying Diablo 2R, and since I don’t know what caused the ban I’m at risk for getting banned for it as well. What can I do?

They use standardized responses typically when replying to appeals. They would not go into the sort of details that Vrak was able to provide which happen behind the scenes.

As to your question about Diablo 2R, the only advice I could provide is to make sure that you’re following the rules. I know you’re unsure of what triggered your account action (and as a fellow player, all I’d be able to do is speculate), but generally speaking, if you play within the rules, you shouldn’t ever have to worry about account actions of any kind.

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I agree that should be the case, but given my perspective how could I possibly not worry?

At this stage of the discussion it starts to delve into me exclaiming my innocence which obviously isn’t useful for this forum.

The only thing I would like to end with is this process has not left with me with any confidence in the system. If I have been misleading in anyway, very happy for the CS team to point this out as they have rightfully done in other matters in this forum.

I do appreciate everyone’s input on the matter, even just discussing things will be useful for others in the future in handling expectations.

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I understand your frustration. It’s one of those things where they can’t tell us what happened since they want to help protect their detection methods, yet at the same time it provides us no way to defend ourselves. With that said, the appeal system isn’t a means to defend ourselves as you’re already aware, so a sour taste can definitely be felt, especially when it means a temporary or permanent loss of an account that lots of time, money and energy was placed in.

I will say that seemingly harmless programs, such as keyboard/mouse macro software, could potentially be caught up in this. Ultimately the automation rule comes down to “1 keypress or click, 1 action” and if there’s any software that allows the circumvention of that, regardless if you’re using it at the time, there’s a potential risk to be caught up in this sort of thing.

:frowning:

Thank you, it’s nice sometimes just feeling that you’ve been heard and someone is acknowledge that a situation is difficult.

I would think intent should have to come into play at some stage if it is something on my computer, considering the length of ban. If I was going to get banned would’ve been good to get better rating in arena! (kidding of course) I’ll spend some time reviewing everything and hopefully I can figure out something.

You’re quite welcome and hope things get figured out.

I’ll leave one more comment regarding this:

The “official” time to stop appealing is when you receive the “no more appeals will be considered” message. However, I have seen posts from people who stated they appealed beyond this and have had a successful outcome, but there may be risks with this.

I think the “you really should stop appealing, no questions asked” moment is when you receive a message back stating that further appeals will lead to account actions. Don’t quote me on that - it’s something I’ve only read on the forums before and I myself have not ever had to get to that stage, but I’ve seen that posted on occasion. It may be safer to see if anyone else who has gotten to this point wants to chime in before going any further, but you may still have one or two left in the tank.

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Just as a by the by. It’s rare, but I have seen it happen that even cases such as yours where you’ve been given that “no further appeals will be accepted” note? Sometimes even after that point if the folks behind the curtains discover they made a mistake, or that the system somehow flagged falsely, they will reach out and overturn the sanction.

It is rare, but it has happened. They do admit when they are wrong, even if it takes some time for it to come to light.

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OP, make sure you don’t have ANY programs running in the background that would be considered botting/cheating software for other games even. Those could trigger such actions.

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All of my T5 gear accounts were identified as hacked bots and permanently frozen, and I filed an appeal. If I cannot overturn this penalty, I will have to say goodbye to all Blizzard products. (Disappointed)

Welcome to Customer Support, not to be confused with Customer Service. This forum is not an intermediary forum with GMs or anyone involved with the ticketing or hacks teams.

It’s also not a place to offer your feedback, suggestions or even your threats to leave Blizzard properties. Nor is it kosher to hijack someone else’s thread - one that was going very civil and offered plenty of good discussion before your post.

You will need to wait on your appeals, that is all you can do, and they are answered in the order that they are received. Posting here or threatening to unsub really doesn’t get you anywhere. You can, however, offer your thoughts with the survey(s) you will get after your appeals tickets are closed/resolved.

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How about we keep the lies about it being automated off this topic. its lies like this that keep people from reporting from 100% false lies the only thing automated is the squelch every thing else is looked at by a real person if your gona spew nonesense this is the wrong forum to do so.

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There’s some cleanly done demonstration videos of this if you spend some time looking around.

Wrong…

There is only one part of the report system that is automated, and that’s the one that will put an account on Squelch after X number of reports. ALL reports are followed up by a GM who will either uphold and add account action (silence, suspension, ban etc) or remove the squelch.

Seen many, and most consider the automated action as the end of it. That’s the mistake they all make, confusing the squelch as the actual account action.

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Then that speaks volumes about GMs “okaying” actioning just by looking at report volume rather than having the proper tools or time to investigate, ie might as well be automated.

I’m extremely jaded. Things only seem to happen when Reddit or an entire guild complains. Actual personal cases seem glossed over. Mileage may vary.

It very much is not, but you have been told that before. There is an automated squelch for spam if someone gets enough reports, but any actual account actions are determined by a GM.

You had this all explained to you before in your other threads and posts about multiboxers. You make a lot of incorrect assumptions about Blizzard and the systems/people that handles account actions.

They have the tools. The report attaches the logs to the file. They are right there for a GM to review and apply an account penalty. No penalty is currently applied without a GM doing it. A Silence or Suspension is handled by a human.

Might as well remind you of your last visit. Blue Post related to your issues with reporting and multiboxers. :arrow_down:

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Good thing you brought that old thread up. Issue still happening half a year later.

If we’re gonna link old threads, also link the latest one Error: You can't ignore any more players

I’ve done what was recommended in the half a year old thread you necro-linked, and support half a year later still can’t “deal” with the issue.

Except the only thing accomplished with mass reporting is that the person reported may be temporarily squelched. Those reports have no impact on the penalties that are discussed here. The investigations that happen regarding “use of bots of third-party software” may be started as the result of player reports, but the majority of them are not (nor would they result in a penalty regardless of how many reports they may have received). The investigations done are part of the normal tasks that our Hacks teams have to help address exploitation.

Except Game Masters don’t “okay” actioning for that kind of report, and you may be misunderstanding the difference between being squelched, which is simply a temporary silence, and any other action that is being discussed.

A Game Master will review right-click reports for chat violations and they may for naming violations. They do not generally do so for botting investigations, as we have special procedures involved there.

As we do not allow discussion of account actions on the forums and the advice for how to appeal has already been provided I think it is a good time to lock this one up.

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