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Fraud Prevention System (Probation)
pweadamanteus
Member Posts: 117 Arc User
Hello STO Players and Community.
On Thursday October 30, Star Trek Online enabled a new fraud prevention system. This system has been in place on another Cryptic game, Neverwinter, since July, where it has worked effectively. It has been enabled on STO due to increases in credit card fraud over the past several months.
What this new system does to protect all players is to temporarily change the way ZEN is treated by accounts that may be flagged for consideration in the new probation system. While we are introducing this system into STO, there is a chance that the rules may result in a false positive trigger but we have reduced the chance for that to the bare minimum. When purchasing ZEN, if an account is flagged, it puts the account into a temporary probation state for review by the system. New ZEN buyers and those with a limited purchase history may get temporarily flagged into the probation system. Once you have an established purchase history with us, the system is unlikely to trigger.
When on probation, Zen cannot be traded on the Dilithium Exchange to acquire Dilithium. Also, some purchases made in the C-Store may become bound-to-account instead of being tradable. You will get a warning dialog at the time of purchase letting you know that the purchase will be bound-to-account.
The bound-to-account status is contagious, so that if you open a Lock Box using a Master Key that has this status, everything from the Lock Box will also be bound-to-account in the same way. This contagious nature applies to anything you get from the C-Store that can be opened, and the purpose is to prevent fraudulent purchases from being traded off of the account.
The system is intended to have minimal impact on users who purchase for themselves. All purchases are bound-to-account, so you can still move the purchases between your own characters. This is only an inconvenience if you planned to purchase for later trading to other players.
If you receive the warning about a C-Store purchase being bound-to-account and do not wish to have bound items, cancel your purchase and try again the next day. The probation status is removed from your account once the financial transaction is confirmed, which can take up to 10 days. Any purchase you make after the probation status is cleared will not have the bound-to-account status added, and can be traded freely. Purchased items that become bound-to-account will permanently remain account bound, so you need to make this choice before purchasing.
Current and past users that have an established purchase history with us are less likely to have this ever trigger on their accounts so the majority of you should not see any difference when you purchase Zen and items.
Thank you for your continued support!
Aaron "Adamanteus" Biedma
Product Manager
Star Trek Online
On Thursday October 30, Star Trek Online enabled a new fraud prevention system. This system has been in place on another Cryptic game, Neverwinter, since July, where it has worked effectively. It has been enabled on STO due to increases in credit card fraud over the past several months.
What this new system does to protect all players is to temporarily change the way ZEN is treated by accounts that may be flagged for consideration in the new probation system. While we are introducing this system into STO, there is a chance that the rules may result in a false positive trigger but we have reduced the chance for that to the bare minimum. When purchasing ZEN, if an account is flagged, it puts the account into a temporary probation state for review by the system. New ZEN buyers and those with a limited purchase history may get temporarily flagged into the probation system. Once you have an established purchase history with us, the system is unlikely to trigger.
When on probation, Zen cannot be traded on the Dilithium Exchange to acquire Dilithium. Also, some purchases made in the C-Store may become bound-to-account instead of being tradable. You will get a warning dialog at the time of purchase letting you know that the purchase will be bound-to-account.
The bound-to-account status is contagious, so that if you open a Lock Box using a Master Key that has this status, everything from the Lock Box will also be bound-to-account in the same way. This contagious nature applies to anything you get from the C-Store that can be opened, and the purpose is to prevent fraudulent purchases from being traded off of the account.
The system is intended to have minimal impact on users who purchase for themselves. All purchases are bound-to-account, so you can still move the purchases between your own characters. This is only an inconvenience if you planned to purchase for later trading to other players.
If you receive the warning about a C-Store purchase being bound-to-account and do not wish to have bound items, cancel your purchase and try again the next day. The probation status is removed from your account once the financial transaction is confirmed, which can take up to 10 days. Any purchase you make after the probation status is cleared will not have the bound-to-account status added, and can be traded freely. Purchased items that become bound-to-account will permanently remain account bound, so you need to make this choice before purchasing.
Current and past users that have an established purchase history with us are less likely to have this ever trigger on their accounts so the majority of you should not see any difference when you purchase Zen and items.
Thank you for your continued support!
Aaron "Adamanteus" Biedma
Product Manager
Star Trek Online
Post edited by pweadamanteus on
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Comments
Additional security is a good although i cannot accurately judge how this will effect players.
Thankfully (or maybe stupidly) I should be fine as I've bought a fair whack of Zen over the years.
thanks for the post.
You maybe should post this in the C-Store subforum too, there are already players having problems with this since days and are waiting for a response.
Welcome to the X-Men, I hope you survive the experience :P
Welcome to the forums, BTW. We're a little insane and sometimes rage-fueled, but otherwise not terrible.
I bought 2 stacks of keys and they became account bound. This was *days* ago. I didn't even get the visual notification on one of the purchases, 2nd one I clicked too fast. Yet, they're all bound.
Your customer service reps gave a TRIBBLE poor auto-generated response about steam purchases (LOL...not even through Steam) and are completely unwilling to assist customers with this system you implemented before even telling anyone about it.
I am extremely dissatisfied by being treated like a criminal for supporting an IP I enjoy, and the prevention doing commerce like any other member of the STO community.
Until a "purchase history" is built up, I can buy and receive Zen "instantly", however, anything I buy will be "account bound" until the transaction clears. At that point, anything I buy after said clearance will be the usual tradable items...
However, if I elect to account-bind something, it stays account bound even after the transaction clears...
Is this per financial account, or per player account? Basically, is the history build up on a "per card" basis, or "per person"?
Just want to make sure that if I want to do "instant" zen transactions, I know whether I need to have the moneys in the bank (as I'm establishing a history with "my" debit card) and not my wife's (special business-ish account), or could I use her card at-will...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
This IS NOT one of those times.
Another fine example of PWE/Cryptic "Dropping the Ball"...
Adamanteus, now that you're here, I hope the Hell You 'Manage the Product' a lot better than we've seen recently.
:rolleyes:
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Over in Neverwinter, all Lockbox Keys were made account bound with ZERO warning (happened one patch day, and unlike STO, the patch notes don't show up until AFTER downtime has started).
Because there's such an economy based around them, hopefully this won't happen to STO (or CO)...but NW had one too, so...
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Can I suggest that if someone seriously needs non-bound stuff (many people buy keys as a way to get the in-game currency Energy Credits or EC for short), can they have an amnesty period to get stuff unbound, such as 'those who bought X product before today"?
I'm not affected personally but it would be a nice gesture for those who didn't know or expect this to happen.
I'm not so sure They want the players using KEYS as a "currency"..., be careful what you wish for.
:cool:
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
See somebobs' post above.
<shrug>
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
What fresh Hell is this ?!
I applaud the dedication and implication to any security measure/s, but making lockbox key purchases account bound, or putting players other previously trade-able purchases on "probation" is just asking for trouble, especially with your track record at late. - Reputation rollback - !
I really hope you guys kick up your customer service, and that you handle these "false positives" decisively. But it doesn't look like you're off to a good start. :mad:
I make purchases with the intention of trading them often. I sincerely hope that I don't get caught up in this brouhaha.
If you make lockbox keys account bound, you're going to loose about half of my zen purchases.
It would be a very bad idea, but then again, maybe I spend too much money on this little obsession of mine as it is....
I thought i would buy a lifetime subscription as it was on special offer as ive been playing on and off since beta, only to be given the run around like oniralas. While i do have a steam account i have never used steam to buy anything in sto but still got the stupid on probabtion for using steam automated response.
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
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To the LTS users/considerers to buy above: You should have not a big problem. Since you buy it for your account it should not be a problem & I seriously doubt the 500z stipend will fall in the probation category.
But OP said its about credit cards. What about other options like paypal? Automatically excluded or false positive there too?
Also I don't have seen the OP ever post before or answer questions in this thread. Is he even real? Could he be a fraud? :eek:
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1282281&page=3
If you aren't confident that someone is making a valid purchase... why load the Zen before completing the transaction? Waiting to give us what we pay for (the Zen) when the payment clears is reasonable, imposing restrictions because you can't be bothered to verify a transaction is not. This is very likely to cost you money, and possibly players. Please stop doing things that make it harder for players to enjoy the game... I'm free to play* and I need you to motivate players to spend money if I want to keep playing. :P
*I spend much of my time on the KDF end of things. Based on prior experience, I don't anticipate being provided with anything I want/need to spend actual money on. Ops Pack with a 5/2/2 breakdown... really? The total is even divisible by the number of factions the game has. I'm not opposed to spending money on the game, I'd actually like to, I just won't do so for a diminished development cycle and limited offerings.
2) you already had a system that just waits before it lets you access the zen. Why not keep that one instead of meddling with purchases.
So it may happen that ppl buy stuff thats unneccesarily acc bound and stays that way? Cant you make an accbound 2.0 and use that and thus remove it afterwards ?
im very infrequent with my purchase of zen, sometimes years between the next need to buy some, was the system setup to detect that pattern? over long term or just short term?
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Feel free to delete this when y'all pin it down, but I'm actually 100% sure at this point that this might be kinda important. I just wanted to make sure y'all caught what I tried to share, because it seems pretty major. I shared the conditions that seemed to cause it, @handles of people who can verify they've seen it happen, and I'm willing to try to recreate the bug. I even have another player (previously named in that mail) who's started to be effected by it. Might be able to replicate it with someone it's already started to happen to, because it doesn't look like it's happening to all of us.
Anything I can do to help, please let me know.
RIP Caine
i dont no why im annoyed by this ive refused to buy zen for the past year.
Ohh i know its lack of communication again
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New PR team needed!
Wow, seriously?
Could you imagine what would happen if they did this here!