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HighJacked Stronghold

frostflowrfrostflowr Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 17 Arc User
On Monday April 25, 2018 @6:30 am EST, my Guild The Crazy Misfits, was taken over by a person that pretended to be me. This person didn't use my active AND only account, they just told the Rank 7 that it was me, on a different account to rank them up to 7. This person was first inv. by another guild member, I believe this person checked the guild roster saw who was who, and proceeded to message the Rank 7. After being Ranked up to 7, this person proceeded to kick everyone out of the Guild, starting with (of course) the only other Rank 7 to be on line..tickets were sent, when I got online at first didn't see any problems but was getting swamped with 'tells'.
I also sent a ticket, and was told that they can't get involved with Guilds/Guild Leaders, that we would have to find away to fix this. Let me say this, it was NOT a infight between two Rank 7's, it was out n out sneak attack. Our stronghold was at Rank 17, and on Saturday, it finished 'upgrading' Now it is Rank 18. WE know the guild, it is sitting empty as far as we can see. From some of the information we have been personally gathering, this person is well known to NW gammers, they are a scammer, come in take what they can and move on to the next target. Yes it was our fault that this person was allowed to be Ranked up to 7. We never considered that someone would come in and try and succeed in stealing our Stronghold. Because that is what was stolen. Ok so the ppl that read our tickets can't help, they don't have the access to what is needed to look at what has happened, so why not sent the ticket up?! To who can help out? I sent a email back requesting that my ticket be sent to someone that can help, first response I got was that I sent a repeat ticket, that the matter was closed, then I got a second email stating that it was being re-directed as per my request but also once again to put something here, so that is what I am doing, as I have yet heard anything from support/devs in the past few days.
Once again let me say this was NOT a infight between guild members, this was an attack on my Guild for the sole purpose of taking a 'higher' ranking Stronghold. My guild worked very hard to get the needed items for all the upgrades, some even purchased stronghold packs. Yes we were gullible, we didn't have any security set up, hindsight is a wonderful thing. We were/are a friendly group. We have our name back, its the StrongHold we want back. I have lost so many of our members, and will probably continue as some just cannot re-build a new stronghold.

Thank you for your time.

Jen'A'Dar
The Crazy Misfits Temp
«134

Comments

  • archangelzorak01archangelzorak01 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 324 Arc User
    This is terrible news.

    I once had a guildmember rob the bank in my first guild back in Mod0, he offed with a fortune worth of perfect enchants and wards. We trusted everyone in our small guild as they had all proven themselves to be decent people. They say never trust a book by its cover. That goes both ways I suppose.

    My first instinct was to approach customer support. I was informed, much like yourself, that CS doesn't get involved in internal matters. My second instinct was social justice, to publicly shame the perpetrator here on the forums in an attempt at restitution, but as we all know public shaming of offenders is not allowed here, so that didn't work. My third approach was a desperate attempt to reason with the guild leader of the guild the thief had gone to after his heist, he laughed in my face. Finally I pleaded with the thief himself, he showed no remorse and nothing was ever returned.

    I'd like to think that there is some avenue somewhere that might give you some glimmer of hope to have the guild that you and yours have bled over to be returned. I wish I could reach through the tubes and somehow make right this wrong that you and yours are suffering. I'm afraid my experience in a similar (yet much less severe) situation leaves me with little hope that any official channels will be willing to aid you.

    Keep trying. Don't take no for an answer. Put in tickets, PM the mods, make threads, PM the devs and community manager. Do everything you can think of to make as many people listen to your story as possible. With any luck you can break through the policies and find a heart string to pluck.

    If all avenue's are traversed and all else fails, contact me in game as there may be a tiny chance I can help.

    Neverwinter Module 6: The only MMO expansion in the history of MMO's to remove more content than it added.


  • frostflowrfrostflowr Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 17 Arc User
    Thank you! I too was in a guild where the guild bank was robbed of very expensive items, we never got those back..Back then it was fairly easy to 'start' over, just change the name of the guild, start buying bank slots, and your done. But now, with the introduction of the StrongHold that has all changed, it is not a simple matter of just 'changing guild name, opening up a few bank slots and move on' no, The Stronghold was/is a place for Guild Members and Alliance Members to meet up, do the HE's there and just gather without the bother of 'the instance is too full'. I rather like the idea of the Stronghold, yes it was a lot of hard work, to get where we are, but through a lot of our members hard work, and money, (which I NEVER ask for a member to do) we got where we were, alot faster than I ever thought.. it was like going down hill on a sled and we just kept going faster and faster! So thank you again for your kind words!

    Jen'A'Dar
  • kreatyvekreatyve Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 10,545 Community Moderator

    Keep trying. Don't take no for an answer. Put in tickets, PM the mods, make threads, PM the devs and community manager. Do everything you can think of to make as many people listen to your story as possible. With any luck you can break through the policies and find a heart string to pluck.

    I do not recommend doing this. There's nothing that we moderators can do, we have no powers in-game. Spamming support with tickets could end badly as well.

    This same thing actually nearly happened to my PC guild a few years ago. Someone claimed to be one of my rank 7s on a new account, I wasn't paying much attention, promoted them, and they started demoting and kicking the rank 7s immediately. Luckily they didn't count on me having 10+ characters at rank 7 in the guild, and I was able to switch and get them kicked fast enough.

    We then developed a policy of - if you are a rank 7 in the guild and you wish to invite alts, you promote your own alts. We have had various people try the same scam over the years, even one pretending to be my husband on a new account, when he was in the room next to me. That was quite hilarious.

    I am forwarding this thread to Julia, but honestly the most that guild leaders can do at this point is to educate themselves on common scams. This one is not new. It's been going on in the game since the game was created. I'm sure it happens in other games as well. Here is a list of some of the more common scams that one of our community members has put together. I highly recommend it gets shared around far and wide to educate people and try to prevent this from happening.

    My opinions are my own. I do not work for PWE or Cryptic. - Forum Rules - Protector's Enclave Discord - I play on Xbox
    Any of my comments not posted in orange are based on my own personal opinion and not official.
    Any messages written in orange are official moderation messages. Signature images are now fixed!
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  • kreatyvekreatyve Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 10,545 Community Moderator
    pitshade said:

    It is my understanding that STO has a lot better protection against these scams. There is a time period in which other r7s can stop a demotion of another r7. I think it takes 24 hours for the change to happen. Perhaps our game needs to adopt the STO method.

    I agree, and hope that they can implement that soon.
    My opinions are my own. I do not work for PWE or Cryptic. - Forum Rules - Protector's Enclave Discord - I play on Xbox
    Any of my comments not posted in orange are based on my own personal opinion and not official.
    Any messages written in orange are official moderation messages. Signature images are now fixed!
    kuI2v8l.png
  • This content has been removed.
  • meiramimeirami Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 423 Arc User
    I'm sorry for what happened to your guild.

    It's sad that the scammer gets away scot-free with all your stuff and your guild has to start again from a scratch. Is this really the best that could have been done in this situation?
  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,155 Arc User
    I had that issue once. Guild member invited someone in. Shortly after that I got a message from that new member, "Hey, it's me, Khor. Promote me up to 7."

    The downside for this person is that the 3 r7 guild members are actually family and "Khor" was outside mowing my lawn at the time. Since then the other 2 r7's have been demoted down to r6's as they haven't been active in a long while.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
  • frostflowrfrostflowr Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 17 Arc User
    What is very fustrating is that we are missing out on the 2x events.. we may have lost our spot in the Alliance, some of us were/are working MasterCrafting. Our boons (which is nice but the way I play, I don't notice too much!) To start over is/will be a monumental job. As I said before we lost a lot of our members, some went to other guilds and others are going to other games.. I cannot and do not blame them. I have not really played since this past weekend, things are just not the same. Going to the Stronghold and seeing what we have to do, hurts, we don't even have the market place, so one has to go to PE to get things or sell stuff.. And to KNOW OUR RANK 18 Stronghold is just sitting there.. empty... FUSTRATING!
  • fightdawalrus#5058 fightdawalrus Member Posts: 114 Arc User
    This does suck and im sorry to hear it.

    However, this is one of the oldest and most known scams in NW. It is beyond my understanding how people of higher ranks (im guessing adults) can still fall for this.
  • krzrsmskrzrsms Member Posts: 164 Arc User
    edited May 2018
    "I do not recommend doing this. There's nothing that we moderators can do, we have no powers in-game. Spamming support with tickets could end badly as well."

    It is exactly this kind of 'customer service' that ensures that I do not, and will not put a dime into the game, especially when it comes to input on my guild. I put in massive amounts of time, but no real money. These are highly valuable properties that in many cases have been grown over years that are being treated as though they are just trash drops we should get over.

    "There's nothing that we moderators can do.." Well thats just plainly not true as you note later on.. "I am forwarding this thread to Julia.." That is SOMETHING. To have a knee jerk reaction when someone has such a loss that is 'suck it up and take it, so sorry your that dumb' is pathetic customer service.

    Then you just enable people like this "What price would you pay to get it back? ", since there is no consequence, and no recourse for the legitimate holders. You treat scammers with more respect and give them more power then you do long term loyal players.

    This game absolutely should implement some safeguards for strongholds as these problems are ongoing. That makes 3 guilds in the last month that I've heard of. Email registration for the original holders.. unanimous vote of rank 7s before demotion or kicking of older rank 7 members. SOMETHING. Right now its harder to leave an alliance than it is for a scammer to dump the entire user base.
  • dupeksdupeks Member Posts: 1,789 Arc User
    pterias said:

    This is horrific. The fact that the system is designed in such a way that this is even possible is horrific.

    I think the worst bit is that their other game sought to have a safeguard put in. Clearly the studio knows this is a problem, and even has a template for a solution.

    The only conclusion is that this is not a priority, and that makes me sad.
  • lunari#8880 lunari Member Posts: 35 Arc User
    Oh my... what a nightmare.... yet the fact they refuse to help is absolutely absurd! I pray you get your guild back and for that scammer? I hope he returns your guild and gets what he deserve for such acts he done. People like him ruin it so much for legit people in the gaming world.
  • frostflowrfrostflowr Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 17 Arc User
    Vordayn, In my second 'ticket' I did quote from the terms of service... saddly it didn't seem to affect anyone...

    Thank you all for your kind words, and yes it does seem rather silly that a bunch of adults were able to get scammed, to be honest, I was more focused on the Guild Bank being robbed.. which it had been, that seemed to be always the target, yes I knew about ppl taking over Guilds, and it was rather naive of us not to think someone just might try and take over the guild/stronghold... it just never crossed my mind.

    And now to hear that it might be for sell?? I wouldn't know where to begin to try and come up with whatever they may want..
  • dafrca#4810 dafrca Member Posts: 469 Arc User
    Wow, I am sad this happened to you and your guild members. I am also sad that people are still able to do this. I first heard of this happening to a guild my first week in game. Makes me sad each time I read about the same skam being done to folks.
  • hustin1hustin1 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,467 Arc User
    edited May 2018
    Guild leaders -- indeed, not just leaders but anyone with invite privileges -- need to be VERY careful. It's the Wild West out there. One thief once tried impersonating my 2nd-in-command. He didn't fool me, but he DID fool one of our new officers. Luckily we gave the thief the boot quickly.

    We get those "hello, invite me to guild" /tell requests regularly. They rarely fool me as I've seen just about everything, but it's heartbreaking how many guilds they do manage to fool. One or two weekends ago someone (who shall remain nameless) tried it with our guild, failed, then managed to sneak into at least three other guilds soon thereafter. I was doing my best to warn them, but it's hard when so many are set to be invisible on the guild list and therefore I can't find a proper point of contact.

    And here's the most heartbreaking part: said nameless person was maintaining two alts -- one for legitimately playing in his "normal" guild, and one he kept on the sly specifically for thieving from guild vaults (at least, that was the conclusion of those of us in our alliance who tasked ourselves with tracking him and warning guilds he targeted).

    So as I said before, BE CAREFUL and be vigilant. There are some really maladjusted people out there who are NOT living up to the reputation as "heroes of Neverwinter".
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  • demonmongerdemonmonger Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,350 Arc User
    > @frostflowr said:
    > On Monday April 25, 2018 @6:30 am EST, my Guild The Crazy Misfits, was taken over by a person that pretended to be me. This person didn't use my active AND only account, they just told the Rank 7 that it was me, on a different account to rank them up to 7. This person was first inv. by another guild member, I believe this person checked the guild roster saw who was who, and proceeded to message the Rank 7. After being Ranked up to 7, this person proceeded to kick everyone out of the Guild, starting with (of course) the only other Rank 7 to be on line..tickets were sent, when I got online at first didn't see any problems but was getting swamped with 'tells'.
    > I also sent a ticket, and was told that they can't get involved with Guilds/Guild Leaders, that we would have to find away to fix this. Let me say this, it was NOT a infight between two Rank 7's, it was out n out sneak attack. Our stronghold was at Rank 17, and on Saturday, it finished 'upgrading' Now it is Rank 18. WE know the guild, it is sitting empty as far as we can see. From some of the information we have been personally gathering, this person is well known to NW gammers, they are a scammer, come in take what they can and move on to the next target. Yes it was our fault that this person was allowed to be Ranked up to 7. We never considered that someone would come in and try and succeed in stealing our Stronghold. Because that is what was stolen. Ok so the ppl that read our tickets can't help, they don't have the access to what is needed to look at what has happened, so why not sent the ticket up?! To who can help out? I sent a email back requesting that my ticket be sent to someone that can help, first response I got was that I sent a repeat ticket, that the matter was closed, then I got a second email stating that it was being re-directed as per my request but also once again to put something here, so that is what I am doing, as I have yet heard anything from support/devs in the past few days.
    > Once again let me say this was NOT a infight between guild members, this was an attack on my Guild for the sole purpose of taking a 'higher' ranking Stronghold. My guild worked very hard to get the needed items for all the upgrades, some even purchased stronghold packs. Yes we were gullible, we didn't have any security set up, hindsight is a wonderful thing. We were/are a friendly group. We have our name back, its the StrongHold we want back. I have lost so many of our members, and will probably continue as some just cannot re-build a new stronghold.
    >
    > Thank you for your time.
    >
    > Jen'A'Dar
    > The Crazy Misfits Temp

    Almost happened to me... I told them to log on their other account to upgrade their character.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    I hate paying taxes! Why must I pay thousands of dollars in taxes when everything I buy is taxed anyways!
  • odyeodye Member Posts: 12 Arc User
    Hopefully, some devs will see this thread and do what's required to give the stronghold back to you.

    Because doing so will benefit them too :

    1. More players will keep playing, as they come back to their home sweet stronghold. -> more players ingame -> more ppl buying zen

    2. This thread has become viewed quite a lot, it will show the community that they care about their customers/players -> better reputation -> more players -> more ppl buying zen

    3. It will give a strong signal that they are against the black market phenomenon of the game, like buying items for real dollars on 3rd party sites. -> better reputation -> more players -> more ppl buying...well you get the idea ;-)

    4. They have nothing to lose by doing so, except 1 hour work done by someone on their staff....doesnt sound too costly for such a nice Public Relation boost.


    At the end of the day, cryptic is the supplier, and we, the players are the buyers.....so...are we doing business ?
  • frostflowrfrostflowr Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 17 Arc User
    Very well said. Thank you.
  • clericalistclericalist Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 595 Arc User
    edited May 2018
    The deafening silence from the developers on this is shocking, do they not care that mass thefts like this occur? How is rewarding the thieves and ignoring the victims in any way good for Cryptics reputation???
  • minotaur2857minotaur2857 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,141 Arc User

    The deafening silence from the developers on this is shocking, do they not care that mass thefts like this occur? How is rewarding the thieves and ignoring the victims in any way good for Cryptics reputation???

    Exactly, if I know I'm not going to be backed up if this sort of thing happens to a guild I'm involved with, I'm very unlikely to ever spend any more real money on stronghold packs.
  • sandukutupusandukutupu Member Posts: 2,285 Arc User
    @kreatyve
    I was approached twice last week by a scammer. (I know better to post the @handle here) But they said they were a member of my guild and needed an invite. Funny thing is, my guild is just used for my personal banks nothing more. I told them to scat! I knew they were attempting to hack the guild. If you need any more information than you already have been given, feel free to contact me in a PM.
    To all others;
    Meanwhile, please be alert, and try to remember this is not a Cryptic or Neverwinter only issue. These scammers have been doing this for years on many different games. Sorry you won't get your stuff back either. I don't wish to say any more and start educating the cyber criminals.
    wb-cenders.gif
  • litaaerslitaaers Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 871 Arc User
    krzrsms said:

    "I do not recommend doing this. There's nothing that we moderators can do, we have no powers in-game. Spamming support with tickets could end badly as well."

    It is exactly this kind of 'customer service' that ensures that I do not, and will not put a dime into the game, especially when it comes to input on my guild. I put in massive amounts of time, but no real money. These are highly valuable properties that in many cases have been grown over years that are being treated as though they are just trash drops we should get over.

    "There's nothing that we moderators can do.." Well thats just plainly not true as you note later on.. "I am forwarding this thread to Julia.." That is SOMETHING. To have a knee jerk reaction when someone has such a loss that is 'suck it up and take it, so sorry your that dumb' is pathetic customer service.

    Then you just enable people like this "What price would you pay to get it back? ", since there is no consequence, and no recourse for the legitimate holders. You treat scammers with more respect and give them more power then you do long term loyal players.

    This game absolutely should implement some safeguards for strongholds as these problems are ongoing. That makes 3 guilds in the last month that I've heard of. Email registration for the original holders.. unanimous vote of rank 7s before demotion or kicking of older rank 7 members. SOMETHING. Right now its harder to leave an alliance than it is for a scammer to dump the entire user base.

    That isn't waht she said, at all. You are making this situation worse.

  • minotaur2857minotaur2857 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,141 Arc User
    kreatyve said:

    Keep trying. Don't take no for an answer. Put in tickets, PM the mods, make threads, PM the devs and community manager. Do everything you can think of to make as many people listen to your story as possible. With any luck you can break through the policies and find a heart string to pluck.

    I do not recommend doing this. There's nothing that we moderators can do, we have no powers in-game. Spamming support with tickets could end badly as well.

    This same thing actually nearly happened to my PC guild a few years ago. Someone claimed to be one of my rank 7s on a new account, I wasn't paying much attention, promoted them, and they started demoting and kicking the rank 7s immediately. Luckily they didn't count on me having 10+ characters at rank 7 in the guild, and I was able to switch and get them kicked fast enough.

    We then developed a policy of - if you are a rank 7 in the guild and you wish to invite alts, you promote your own alts. We have had various people try the same scam over the years, even one pretending to be my husband on a new account, when he was in the room next to me. That was quite hilarious.

    I am forwarding this thread to Julia, but honestly the most that guild leaders can do at this point is to educate themselves on common scams. This one is not new. It's been going on in the game since the game was created. I'm sure it happens in other games as well. Here is a list of some of the more common scams that one of our community members has put together. I highly recommend it gets shared around far and wide to educate people and try to prevent this from happening.

    Don't hold your breath for a reply from Julia, I PMd her twice with no response whatsoever, sounds like Cryptic just want to hush this up and wait for it to go away.
  • wintersmokewintersmoke Member Posts: 1,641 Arc User
    litaaers said:

    krzrsms said:

    "I do not recommend doing this. There's nothing that we moderators can do, we have no powers in-game. Spamming support with tickets could end badly as well."

    It is exactly this kind of 'customer service' that ensures that I do not, and will not put a dime into the game, especially when it comes to input on my guild. I put in massive amounts of time, but no real money. These are highly valuable properties that in many cases have been grown over years that are being treated as though they are just trash drops we should get over.

    "There's nothing that we moderators can do.." Well thats just plainly not true as you note later on.. "I am forwarding this thread to Julia.." That is SOMETHING. To have a knee jerk reaction when someone has such a loss that is 'suck it up and take it, so sorry your that dumb' is pathetic customer service.

    Then you just enable people like this "What price would you pay to get it back? ", since there is no consequence, and no recourse for the legitimate holders. You treat scammers with more respect and give them more power then you do long term loyal players.

    This game absolutely should implement some safeguards for strongholds as these problems are ongoing. That makes 3 guilds in the last month that I've heard of. Email registration for the original holders.. unanimous vote of rank 7s before demotion or kicking of older rank 7 members. SOMETHING. Right now its harder to leave an alliance than it is for a scammer to dump the entire user base.

    That isn't waht she said, at all. You are making this situation worse.

    I honestly don't see how it gets worse than this.
  • kreatyvekreatyve Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 10,545 Community Moderator

    kreatyve said:

    Keep trying. Don't take no for an answer. Put in tickets, PM the mods, make threads, PM the devs and community manager. Do everything you can think of to make as many people listen to your story as possible. With any luck you can break through the policies and find a heart string to pluck.

    I do not recommend doing this. There's nothing that we moderators can do, we have no powers in-game. Spamming support with tickets could end badly as well.

    This same thing actually nearly happened to my PC guild a few years ago. Someone claimed to be one of my rank 7s on a new account, I wasn't paying much attention, promoted them, and they started demoting and kicking the rank 7s immediately. Luckily they didn't count on me having 10+ characters at rank 7 in the guild, and I was able to switch and get them kicked fast enough.

    We then developed a policy of - if you are a rank 7 in the guild and you wish to invite alts, you promote your own alts. We have had various people try the same scam over the years, even one pretending to be my husband on a new account, when he was in the room next to me. That was quite hilarious.

    I am forwarding this thread to Julia, but honestly the most that guild leaders can do at this point is to educate themselves on common scams. This one is not new. It's been going on in the game since the game was created. I'm sure it happens in other games as well. Here is a list of some of the more common scams that one of our community members has put together. I highly recommend it gets shared around far and wide to educate people and try to prevent this from happening.

    Don't hold your breath for a reply from Julia, I PMd her twice with no response whatsoever, sounds like Cryptic just want to hush this up and wait for it to go away.
    I talk to her on a daily basis. She's generally too busy to check her PMs often (that would take up so much time when she does the work of like 6 people!), as she gets hundreds (and sometimes thousands) a day. If you are in serious need of an urgent response, PM a moderator instead and we can bring it to her attention and make sure she checks the PMs immediately, rather than waiting until she has time.
    My opinions are my own. I do not work for PWE or Cryptic. - Forum Rules - Protector's Enclave Discord - I play on Xbox
    Any of my comments not posted in orange are based on my own personal opinion and not official.
    Any messages written in orange are official moderation messages. Signature images are now fixed!
    kuI2v8l.png
  • fightdawalrus#5058 fightdawalrus Member Posts: 114 Arc User
    I see so many people taking shots at the devs here (like usual) but you cannot put this entirely on the devs. All I see is attacks on the devs but zero criticism towards the individual who he trusted with rank 7. This isn't one sided. There was an attack like this on EvE a while back similar to those where a guy took down an alliance of thousands and the guy who owned the guild/alliance threatened him and ending up getting banned but not the guy who took over the guild and booted everyone and took their stuff. Now, im not sure what EvE's terms of service are but id imagine it is at least similar. It is YOUR guild and YOU have the power of who you let in and who you think has common sense, trust, loyalty, etc. This is on your friend mostly not taking the time to at least check it was you on other sources. I hope you get it back and this will all be a bad memory but there's needs to be fingers pointed at more people then just the devs.
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