On the recent surge in Account Bans

[Orlyia]

You have an appeal open, Applebaby, it will be reviewed, yet again, when it comes up in queue.

[Rihili-moon-guard]

To add on to Orliya’s post, just because your account is “long standing’”, doesn’t mean it is exempt from punishment. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, as it were. If they broke the rules, and expected to not be punished because their account is “long standing”, that is not Blizzard’s problem. Don’t break the rules, you won’t get banned. Pretty cut and dry.

[Perl-anetheron (Perl)]

@Applebaby-laughing-skull

I submitted a few appeals attempting to explain the situation and offering full transparency on my end, but they were closed without ever offering the opportunity for a dialogue

Appeals are not for you to plead your case or to have a dialog. They have never worked that way. You appeal to have another set of eyes take a look at the data they have that lead to the account action. Either that review finds a mistake was made and the account action is reversed, or that the account action was appropriate.

That’s it.

[Ayukama-frostmourne]

@Applebaby-laughing-skull

one of the most acknowledged suspicions revolves around mass reporting from organized groups

That is entirely incorrect. All it takes is one person to report once for Blizzard to review. Sometimes, it can also take no reports. But there is no mass reports.

@Applebaby-laughing-skull

organized groups of people who are invested in farming activities (e.g., at Deepholm) to eliminate the competition.

Each report is manually reviewed by Blizzard. If someone was reported, and they did not violate Blizzard’s In-Game Code of Conduct or EULA, with comfimation from the logs when reviewed, than that report would be dismissed. But if the logs from that report did show something that did violate the In-Game Code of Conduct or EULA, then action will be taken.

In otherwords, don’t break the rules.

[Delgan-dathremar]

Also don’t lawyer this as it won’t end well if you do.

[Vralok-turalyon (Vralok)]

1. “Mass reporting” is not a thing. It does not exist. I don’t even want to call it an urban legend, because it’s fabricated by bad actors who thought they could come up with an “excuse” as to why they were banned and try to rules lawyer the system.
2. There is no “surge in account bans”. We would know in the CS forums if there was because there would be a huge number of posts, and there isn’t. Just the same trickle there always is.

[Mirasol-mannoroth (Mirasol)]

@Vralok-turalyon

“Mass reporting” is not a thing. It does not exist.

It is not that people can’t mass report, it is that it is not the cause of some sort of automated account actions like some try to pretend.

Enough Social/chat reports can get an account Squelched pending GM review. Silence or Suspension is based on the content of the reports.

Cheating reports can result in something getting to the attention of the Hacks team faster, but it does not result in an auto ban.

Abusing the reporting features by having followers or a guild report someone can land the instigator a Suspension - as some Streamers have found out.

[Vralok-turalyon (Vralok)]

Right, I’m just saying that doesn’t happen except in the case of 1 streamer who “encouraged” people to do that deliberately. I’ve never heard of anyone else get squelched. It’s for gold sellers.

[Tain-earthen-ring]

I’m with you! Perm banned and no clue what I did. Last ticket said they wouldn’t look into it again, guess I’m one of the unlucky ones.

[Applebaby-laughing-skull]

@Orlyia

You have an appeal open, Applebaby, it will be reviewed, yet again, when it comes up in queue.

Thanks for your input. I am still hopeful the situation can be thoroughly looked into.

@Rihili-moon-guard

To add on to Orliya’s post, just because your account is “long standing’”, doesn’t mean it is exempt from punishment. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, as it were. If they broke the rules, and expected to not be punished because their account is “long standing”, that is not Blizzard’s problem. Don’t break the rules, you won’t get banned. Pretty cut and dry.

I do agree that being long-standing doesn’t exonerate one from the consequences of breaking the ToS. All I’m saying is that people who have such long-standing accounts are much less likely to risk everything they’ve collected across the years; yet, several are complaining (here or on Reddit) they were issued bans and actively claim their innocence.

@Perl-anetheron

Appeals are not for you to plead your case or to have a dialog. They have never worked that way. You appeal to have another set of eyes take a look at the data they have that lead to the account action. Either that review finds a mistake was made and the account action is reversed, or that the account action was appropriate.

That’s it.

Fair enough, although I believe that communicating within appeals would greatly help unveiling false positives more promptly. I understand this comes with its own drawbacks, but the experience of honest users would be greatly improved.

@Ayukama-frostmourne

That is entirely incorrect. All it takes is one person to report once for Blizzard to review. Sometimes, it can also take no reports. But there is no mass reports.

While I don’t question the minimal number of reports required to open an investigation, mass reports exist and have been rampant in WoW Classic/SoD. You can easily look up for posts of people complaining about this exact issue.

@Ayukama-frostmourne

Each report is manually reviewed by Blizzard. If someone was reported, and they did not violate Blizzard’s In-Game Code of Conduct or EULA, with comfimation from the logs when reviewed, than that report would be dismissed. But if the logs from that report did show something that did violate the In-Game Code of Conduct or EULA, then action will be taken.

In otherwords, don’t break the rules.

Unfortunately false positives exist, and it can really feel hard to reach a point where a deeper manual review is triggered. There are recounts of people requiring upwards to 20 appeals before having their ban overturned.

@Vralok-turalyon

“Mass reporting” is not a thing. It does not exist. I don’t even want to call it an urban legend, because it’s fabricated by bad actors who thought they could come up with an “excuse” as to why they were banned and try to rules lawyer the system.

As already mentioned in this thread, you can find evidence of this phenomenon existing.

@Vralok-turalyon

There is no “surge in account bans”. We would know in the CS forums if there was because there would be a huge number of posts, and there isn’t. Just the same trickle there always is.

Given the amount of recent threads I have encountered on Reddit or here, I do still believe there has been a surge in wrongfully-issued bans (or at least, in the number of people publicly complaining about that and then getting unbanned). It may not be an issue affecting a large portion of the population, but as far as I could check there have been more recounts of similar occurrences compared to prior years.

@Mirasol-mannoroth

It is not that people can’t mass report, it is that it is not the cause of some sort of automated account actions like some try to pretend.

Enough Social/chat reports can get an account Squelched pending GM review. Silence or Suspension is based on the content of the reports.

Cheating reports can result in something getting to the attention of the Hacks team faster, but it does not result in an auto ban.

Abusing the reporting features by having followers or a guild report someone can land the instigator a Suspension - as some Streamers have found out.

Thanks for the insight: the portion on social/chat reports seems to be consistent with what I was able to find (specifically, a relatively famous YouTube video highlighting this issue). However, even assuming this to be accurate with respect to cheating reports, it still doesn’t fully explain why there have been so many public recounts of people getting wrongfully banned for some violation (hacking, botting, etc.) who were later unbanned after going through a variable number of appeals. If these cases are indeed getting manually reviewed before the penalty is issued, I can only conclude the manual review isn’t thorough enough, which is also problematic.

@Tain-earthen-ring

I’m with you! Perm banned and no clue what I did. Last ticket said they wouldn’t look into it again, guess I’m one of the unlucky ones.

Stay strong and keep appealing! I would encourage you to publicly share your story as well, if you feel like doing so.

[Ayukama-frostmourne]

@Applebaby-laughing-skull

several are complaining (here or on Reddit) they were issued bans and actively claim their innocence.

1, I would never trust anything posted on reddit, as most of it is just people trolling and spreading misinformation in regards to Blizzard’s policies. and 2, I am yet to see anyone here actually be proven they were innocent when they have been actioned in-game.

[Adelicia-gilneas]

@Applebaby-laughing-skull

you can find evidence of this phenomenon existing.

You’re right It does, however, the only result is the reported person getting a squelch until a GM can look at the report to see if a silence, suspension, or banishment is warranted.

[Melaesia-proudmoore (Melaesia)]

@Adelicia-gilneas

however, the only result is the reported person getting a squelch until a GM can look at the report to see if a silence, suspension, or banishment is warranted.

And to be clear, this is only for spam reporting. For everything else (name, language, hacking/botting), the most a group of reporters can effect is moving the report up the queue to be reviewed faster.

Anytime a GM looks into reports, the number of players who have reported is completely irrelevant**. The only thing that matters is if the reported player broke the rules. 10,000 players can report you, and if you did not break the rules, you will not be actioned. One player can report you, and if you did break the rules, you will be actioned.

(** - The one exception to this would be name violations on an RP realms. In exceedingly rare edge cases, they may wait to see if there are more reports, as a rough “vote” from the players on that realm as to whether they accept the name or not.)

[Darthwraith-blackhand (Darthwraith)]

Maybe its time to lock this up since were delving into conspricy theroies and not going anywhere.

[Applebaby-laughing-skull]

@Ayukama-frostmourne

1, I would never trust anything posted on reddit, as most of it is just people trolling and spreading misinformation in regards to Blizzard’s policies. and 2, I am yet to see anyone here actually be proven they were innocent when they have been actioned in-game.

I mean no disrespect, but this is factually incorrect. Below, a couple of cross-posts in this very forum where the OP’s ban got overturned:

False ban for Unauthorized Cheat Programs (Hacks) x2

48 hours before phase 3 my main account was banned for clearing SM GY late at night trying to farm the warlock rune. I made sure to wait for the lockout and I ignored everyone telling me about how to reset my lockout timer and even admonished them in chat not to exploit it. support is totally unhelpful and ignores any attempt to fix it. I gave up and rerolled a totally new account. This is a brand new account with trade restriction still on it. Last night after clearing sunken temple I decide…

Banned after 20 years with no prior warnings

Hello. I’m currently attempting to appeal my ban. I’ve received the first of my form responses: Greetings, This action has been taken in accordance with our Terms of Use and our In-game Policies ( https://blizzard.com/support/article/42673 ), which all players acknowledge and agree to prior to playing. These policies and conditions allow us to maintain a fun and safe game environment for all of our players. In my appeal, I detailed that I don’t really have any idea as to what I’ve done. I l…

I have been banned for buying too many wow tokens

Hi All, I have been permanently banned from a game that I am so passionate about since the last ten years. I have never been issued a single warning or silence in this last ten years. I have always been good at making gold by using professions. But in TWW, i have become a expert in gold making using my army of alts to specialize in one talent at once and earning tons of gold using enchanting and tailoring (6 to 7 min in just one month). Then I did a blunder of buying around 25 -30 tokens withi…

Account banned for abuse of economy

I don’t understand what is going on here. I got banned, I don’t engage in any mass auction house spending, I just list whatever junk I pick up from WQs and treasures. It’s claiming I used irl currency transactions and manipulated the economy. I have been playing since 2006 and never have I ever paid for anything in WoW with IRL money other than to Blizzard themselves.

For what concerns Reddit, a few posts are also corroborated by further evidence (e.g., complete ticket histories along with the overturn notice). As a concrete example, you can look at the post “Here is my Perma Ban Story - Ban Over Turned and I can play again!(Screen shots included)” (I’m not sure I can provide external links here, so feel free to look it up).

@Adelicia-gilneas

You’re right It does, however, the only result is the reported person getting a squelch until a GM can look at the report to see if a silence, suspension, or banishment is warranted.

@Melaesia-proudmoore

And to be clear, this is only for spam reporting. For everything else (name, language, hacking/botting), the most a group of reporters can effect is moving the report up the queue to be reviewed faster.

Anytime a GM looks into reports, the number of players who have reported is completely irrelevant**. The only thing that matters is if the reported player broke the rules. 10,000 players can report you, and if you did not break the rules, you will not be actioned. One player can report you, and if you did break the rules, you will be actioned.

(** - The one exception to this would be name violations on an RP realms. In exceedingly rare edge cases, they may wait to see if there are more reports, as a rough “vote” from the players on that realm as to whether they accept the name or not.)

To be clear: I am not stating that these people got auto-banned after being mass-reported. In line with my answer to Mirasol (above), the only way I can rationalize what happened to them is that (1) the mass-report occurred, (2) a flag was raised prompting a manual review, (3) the manual review wasn’t thorough enough, and (4) a wrongful ban was issued that was later overturned. Given that I have found similarities between my in-game activities and those of these occurrences, and that I have played the game the same way ever since I created my bnet account, that’s also the only logical conclusion I can reach for my case. That’s why I’m asking for a more thorough investigation.

[Zenjy-nesingwary]

This is starting to become run of the mill of any appeal thread now - someone comes in, trying to say what they think how the system works, will swear from here to heck and back that what they think is true inspite of what Blizzard said because they hear what other people say.

All of this is heavily unneeded.

[Nephe-caelestrasz (Nephe)]

It’s so easy to claim the exact same scenario of your case to every other case you’re reading about.

Every account action case is unique and most people who post about their case never include the full details - as that is between them and Blizzard.

@Applebaby-laughing-skull

mass-report occurred

It only takes ONE report.

Additional reports will have NO additional affect besides being squelched in chat PENDING investigation by a GM.

Don’t know how many times that has to be repeated on this forum, but I guess it’s easier to believe what you read on 3rd party sites and what streamers publish…

[Leilleath-moon-guard]

@Applebaby-laughing-skull

the mass-report occurred

To be frank - all of the people who have come here to CS who have come wailing about being mass reported? There has not been a single instance of that being the case that our SFAs have confirmed. Every case that they’ve dropped into a thread they’ve been adamant that mass reporting had not occurred.

That’s not saying that there isn’t such instances, but people can report you until the cows come home. If you’re not breaking the rules, nothing would come of it, beyond a temporary squelch if it is a report for chat/social issues. There has not been a single case of confirmed mass reporting here on CS, confirmed by a SFA that I can recall seeing, and I creep a lot, regardless of if I’m chiming in.

That being said, I’m sorry to anyone who has been dinged and are honestly not at fault. False positives do happen and Blizzard admits they’re not perfect by any stretch. It’s why the appeals process exists. It might be slow and frustrating to work through, but it does work to get folks accounts unsanctioned.

[Ayukama-frostmourne]

I think this thread needs to be locked. It isn’t going anywhere except in circles, and it is up to the Game Masters or Hacks team (depending on what actioned for) to determined if action will be up-held, or reverted, not the forums or SFA’s.