Hm i dont use a credit card but paypal instead so i hope i'm save but to be sure i wont buy zen for while bust for savety. But my best wishes to you and your problem i couldnt even imagine my rage when i would loose all my steam games oO.
Let me first say that I am sad to see that this happened to you.
But, Steam bans have nothing to do with PWE bans. PWE has no influence on when Steam decides to ban a Steam account. We don't ask them to do so and our bans or policies in no way transfer information like that to Steam.
So, it seems that Steam saw something in the account history that caused them to respond like that. I think the only recourse is to continue contacting Steam to get them to lift the ban.
So last week I decided to buy some ZEN through Steam and so the nightmare began.
First what ever check be it at Cryptic's end or at Steam, lead my account to first not be able to use the Dilithium exchange and then my Star trek online account being Auto-banned by the system.
In addition to violation of contract, said activities on the account may violate state and federal law. Valve reserves the right to refer the matter to the appropriate authorities.
So I have lost everything on my Steam account it is all gone 197 games, countless gifts etc etc.
In case anyone is interested the Fraudulent cards they speak about, well they are prepaid gift cards I have used, I have the receipts. Call me paranoid but I keep every receipt I have ever been given, I have boxes of the damn things. Anyway the gift cards I used were from Americanexpress of which I have spent an hour on the phone with and they say the cards I used were valid.
So Cryptics system or steams has ****ed me, either way it all started with that ZEN purchase.
if you have receipts for all the cards then you need to call valve directly, maybe try to get ahold of Derrick Gennrich, who is in customer support.
I know a few people pointed out to just use ARC system, but if STO offers me the choice of using my steam wallet, surely it is a guaranteed system and just as safe and secure as using ARC.
Also the reason I use gift cards, is because my Creditcard was linked to my playstation network and after they dropped the ball. I tend to be more paranoid about where my creditcard is linked, besides most gift cards or pre-paid cards are valid on 95% of online retailers. Also I pay £50 for the card and I get to spend £50 no other charges apply.
I will also update this thread with more information as it happens, good or bad.
Wow that sucks. It really sounds like an interface problem between Steam and PWE. KEEP PUSHING, never give up, never surrender! Since you did nothing wrong you'll eventually get it resolved.
Space the final frontier. These are the voyages of [your name here] on a five year mission to gain one level after the delta rising xp nerf.
Let me first say that I am sad to see that this happened to you.
But, Steam bans have nothing to do with PWE bans. PWE has no influence on when Steam decides to ban a Steam account. We don't ask them to do so and our bans or policies in no way transfer information like that to Steam.
So, it seems that Steam saw something in the account history that caused them to respond like that. I think the only recourse is to continue contacting Steam to get them to lift the ban.
Let me first say that I am sad to see that this happened to you.
But, Steam bans have nothing to do with PWE bans. PWE has no influence on when Steam decides to ban a Steam account. We don't ask them to do so and our bans or policies in no way transfer information like that to Steam.
So, it seems that Steam saw something in the account history that caused them to respond like that. I think the only recourse is to continue contacting Steam to get them to lift the ban.
I realise Steam bans aren't controlled by PWE and vice versa, but seeing as this whole situation started with me buying ZEN through Steam linked to through your game. Which started the whole flag waving problem. I have both contacted your support and Steams support hoping that you guys might be able to communicate with each other and resolve this issue.
I realize by broadcasting this on the forums, it has put you in an uneasy situation, but I have lost a very valuable account ie Steam over this matter. As I haven't done anything wrong, I am using every tool at my disposal to try and remedy this situation. Perhaps you could use this as PR to show you guys do care and help above and beyond.
Let me first say that I am sad to see that this happened to you.
But, Steam bans have nothing to do with PWE bans. PWE has no influence on when Steam decides to ban a Steam account. We don't ask them to do so and our bans or policies in no way transfer information like that to Steam.
So, it seems that Steam saw something in the account history that caused them to respond like that. I think the only recourse is to continue contacting Steam to get them to lift the ban.
May I take this opportunity to say I'm glad to see you here. Regardless of how this ends, it pleases me, to no end, to see Cryptic take a more responsive role in the community. Kudos for that!
Oh man...now I'm spooked...I *finally caved*, bought some ZEN through the Steam Wallet - just to see how if/how it worked - and I got the message "anything you buy will be account bound, blah, blah...while we check for suspicious activity...."
Keep us posted OP; I really, really want to know if this gets reversed....
Hope it works out.
PROUD TO PLAY THIS GAME MINUS TO GIVING ANY INCOME TO CRYPTIC
Yes I also got a bizarre message when purchasing Zen through STEAM. Looking here I can see its more severe than I first thought. Now I am going to sit here worrying about bans and so on. Have to say this whole expansion has left me with more than a sour taste. If I end up with more problems I will be less than happy. I also expect the block on my items to be lifted from being bound to account....if not give me my money back is all I say.... then I will join others by shrugging my shoulders chanting oh well....
I just took some time and researched this as well as talked to our customer service and billing departments.
We did not pass information of this kind over to Steam in this case. In fact, it was the other way around. Steam appears to have seen some sort of trigger that indicated potential fraudulent activity and banned your account. They then passed that information to our system that caused a temporary ban of your PWE account. Our CS team reviewed that ban and your PWE ban was actually manually removed by us on 11/3...so good news on that front.
What this means though is that Steam support is, in fact, your only recourse. Unfortunately, we do not have any influence or contact with anyone that can remove Steam account bans. So, you're going to need to work with Steam support.
Hopefully they can take a deeper look and fix the issue for you. I wish you luck for a quick resolution!
Wow they locked your steam account and out of all your games you purchased?
On top of that being a **** move on their part it should be illegal i mean at nearly 200 games that about $10,000 worth of games they have taken from you.
Well that's it for me and Zen, its going anyhow, but I will not be ever getting any again....the risk is too great....lol....not assigning blame either, it just seems like the best solution.
So, it seems that Steam saw something in the account history that caused them to respond like that.
I almost missed this.
Nope, I have never had a problem at Steam never had a VAC ban, never had a warning, never has my account once been flagged, never even mouthed off at a Steam forum MOD, never had any kind of authenticity issue, never had anything that might have raised any eyebrows. God I sound boring :eek:
but thanks for taking the moral high ground and pointing the finger at me! Because what else could it be, it couldn't possibly a software related issue because you know software is 100% reliable and bug free. It couldn't possibly be an admin error, because only the finest educated people work in support and might I add emotionally stable or level headed. Who are asked to think outside the box and not in anyway told to follow a set rules and guidelines. Which might I add was written by someone who thought of every conceivable situation and wrote a perfect infallible Q&A for them.
Sorry my sarcasm some times gets the better of me, when I am a being accused of something that hasn't happened.
Read a few posts up Blitzsth, he looked into it further.
Seems to be a steam issue. And you are correct though, but the error will lie with steam. Perhaps steam has had reports of certain prepaid cards of the bank you used to be falty and made a mistake seeing the one you used as fraudulent.
I understand it's really frustrating but try not to lash out
Same here never a problem until last night when I received the strange message. They blame STEAM? Who is to blame? In case I need to contact anyone in the near future?
Thanks to the new EULA Cryptic have no obligation to respond to you or anyone in regards to a ticket anyone submits they can simply choose to ignore it, However if you have spent a lot of money on steam and this is in fact a result as you described down to Cryptic or Steam you should have some grounds in a small claims in court for your money back for everything you have purchased. Just be sure to send a few letters either way in regards to this though if successful you can ask the court to bill them the court costs also be sure to take your receipts with you.
I just took some time and researched this as well as talked to our customer service and billing departments.
We did not pass information of this kind over to Steam in this case. In fact, it was the other way around. Steam appears to have seen some sort of trigger that indicated potential fraudulent activity and banned your account. They then passed that information to our system that caused a temporary ban of your PWE account. Our CS team reviewed that ban and your PWE ban was actually manually removed by us on 11/3...so good news on that front.
What this means though is that Steam support is, in fact, your only recourse. Unfortunately, we do not have any influence or contact with anyone that can remove Steam account bans. So, you're going to need to work with Steam support.
Hopefully they can take a deeper look and fix the issue for you. I wish you luck for a quick resolution!
Just re-posting since it looks like some people didn't catch this...
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,675Community Moderator
edited November 2014
Its possible that the card used was compromised in one of the recent data breaches?
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
Nope, I have never had a problem at Steam never had a VAC ban, never had a warning, never has my account once been flagged, never even mouthed off at a Steam forum MOD, never had any kind of authenticity issue, never had anything that might have raised any eyebrows. God I sound boring :eek:
but thanks for taking the moral high ground and pointing the finger at me! Because what else could it be, it couldn't possibly a software related issue because you know software is 100% reliable and bug free. It couldn't possibly be an admin error, because only the finest educated people work in support and might I add emotionally stable or level headed. Who are asked to think outside the box and not in anyway told to follow a set rules and guidelines. Which might I add was written by someone who thought of every conceivable situation and wrote a perfect infallible Q&A for them.
Sorry my sarcasm some times gets the better of me, when I am a being accused of something that hasn't happened.
Yep, you're pissed, I get that. But you're barking at the wrong tree here. From my perspective, pweadamanteus went above and beyond the call of duty trying to help you. Very few there be that get this high-up and immediate support. His help was genuine, and his reply very polite and factual. He gave you the information you needed: this was NOT instigated by PWE, in any way. Rather the opposite: STEAM has your card flagged, for some reason: *they* are the ones you need to be addressing now. And a simple 'Thank you!' to pweadamanteus wouldn't hurt either. Without him, you'd still be guessing as to the cause, and would likely have spent the next few weeks, in vain, going back and forth with Customer Support.
As I want this sort of good communication from Cryptic to continue, pweadamanteus, allow me to thank you for helping this man out. Cryptic passed this one with flying colors, blitzsth. Sorry.
I've seen these sorts of things occasionally in other games...but first big example I've seen here. Since these were gift cards, was there ever a disputed charge? I mean...yeah, they're gift cards...but I'm assuming you bought them with a credit card or debit card.
If there's a problem with a disputed credit card payment on your card (either by you or by someone else listed on your card...father, mother, girlfriend, etc), or you go negative on a debit card but still end up possessing the gift card...then yes, that does get reported as a fraudulent purchase to Steam, which in turn would ban your account since they paid out to PWE, but didn't get any real money from you.
I'm not accusing you of this...but the most glaring example of a fraud problem like this was in Star Citizen, where some kid got his hands on his parents credit card, ran up a huge bill, and the parents disputed the charge since the kid wasn't authorized to use the card.
I think people caught it. I think people are just sharing experiences and knowledge. In the event of future problems we may need this insight from the community, some of whom seem to have some knowledge of related problems and issues. I suppose there will be some repeated questions as they are genuine concerns here.
Just re-posting since it looks like some people didn't catch this...
Sorry I just caught this. I do thank you for looking into this matter and sorry about the sarcastic post, I'm a not really level headed at the moment. You know just lost an account :mad:
Anyway, like I said I am grateful to you for taking the time out to look into this. I did bang my fists hard in the forum, but only because I didn't want to wait another weekend for a response, I do apologise. I just hope Steam will take the time out like you have to investigate their end.
i am having issues with the arc client to and zen they keep kicking me out saying my cards are invalid so to me it seems that the problem stems from these companies instead of having their own credit card servers are using steam and arc to take in their traffic and they just can't handle the traffic. but to me if they banned your account in such away i believe that is a sign of fraud on their part
For spending RL money I'd rather use Arc since its directly connected to PWE. Less chance for issues like this happening using a 3rd party game launcher like Steam. But thats just my opinion on it and everyones opinion varies
Hope Steam gets your issue fixed. Might get a couple canned responses at first but keep trying, you will get someone who actually cares eventually. Someone like pweadamanteus who took the time to read the forums and go above and beyond to help you get a resolution! Awesome stuff!
Thanks for going above and beyond to try and help the OP, but as you can see some people here (not the OP) are so wrapped up in their Cryptic/PWE hate that they refuse to believe anyone else could be at fault.
Sadly you are going to quickly learn that this is going to be a common occurrence. I only hope it doesn't discourage you from trying to help others with their problems.
Wow...that is a severe result of a false positive. In a way, this is even more reason to not use Steam w/ STO which in turn means use Arc for STO...which is...uhh...very sad to say.
Or, don't use either one. I start the game by itself. If I buy zen, I just end up on the arc website, but I don't use arc itself except for the occasional code.
You DO NOT have to run Arc to use STO. I have never used Steam for STO, but if it's like LOTRO, it doesn't check to see if steam is started, either.
Comments
But, Steam bans have nothing to do with PWE bans. PWE has no influence on when Steam decides to ban a Steam account. We don't ask them to do so and our bans or policies in no way transfer information like that to Steam.
So, it seems that Steam saw something in the account history that caused them to respond like that. I think the only recourse is to continue contacting Steam to get them to lift the ban.
There is a new probation period: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1286371, but it has nothing to do with a ban.
if you have receipts for all the cards then you need to call valve directly, maybe try to get ahold of Derrick Gennrich, who is in customer support.
Also the reason I use gift cards, is because my Creditcard was linked to my playstation network and after they dropped the ball. I tend to be more paranoid about where my creditcard is linked, besides most gift cards or pre-paid cards are valid on 95% of online retailers. Also I pay £50 for the card and I get to spend £50 no other charges apply.
I will also update this thread with more information as it happens, good or bad.
That's highly specific.
sig
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5451/om71.jpg
It is a peculiar phenomenon that we can imagine events that defy the laws of the universe.
Unless there is some feedback between PWE and Steam on possible fraudulant use of cards. Which is not unusual between partners.
I realise Steam bans aren't controlled by PWE and vice versa, but seeing as this whole situation started with me buying ZEN through Steam linked to through your game. Which started the whole flag waving problem. I have both contacted your support and Steams support hoping that you guys might be able to communicate with each other and resolve this issue.
I realize by broadcasting this on the forums, it has put you in an uneasy situation, but I have lost a very valuable account ie Steam over this matter. As I haven't done anything wrong, I am using every tool at my disposal to try and remedy this situation. Perhaps you could use this as PR to show you guys do care and help above and beyond.
May I take this opportunity to say I'm glad to see you here.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=20509311&postcount=84
Hope it works out.
^this.... plus you can put prepaid debit cards and rechargable cards on a paypal account and pay via paypal.
Wont help ya resolve the epic ****storm with steam tho... man that blows. my sympathies
We did not pass information of this kind over to Steam in this case. In fact, it was the other way around. Steam appears to have seen some sort of trigger that indicated potential fraudulent activity and banned your account. They then passed that information to our system that caused a temporary ban of your PWE account. Our CS team reviewed that ban and your PWE ban was actually manually removed by us on 11/3...so good news on that front.
What this means though is that Steam support is, in fact, your only recourse. Unfortunately, we do not have any influence or contact with anyone that can remove Steam account bans. So, you're going to need to work with Steam support.
Hopefully they can take a deeper look and fix the issue for you. I wish you luck for a quick resolution!
FYI Zen Wallet going away in future... you will NEED to use ARC for Zen purchases once that gets finalized and they shut down Zen Wallet.
On top of that being a **** move on their part it should be illegal i mean at nearly 200 games that about $10,000 worth of games they have taken from you.
I almost missed this.
Nope, I have never had a problem at Steam never had a VAC ban, never had a warning, never has my account once been flagged, never even mouthed off at a Steam forum MOD, never had any kind of authenticity issue, never had anything that might have raised any eyebrows. God I sound boring :eek:
but thanks for taking the moral high ground and pointing the finger at me! Because what else could it be, it couldn't possibly a software related issue because you know software is 100% reliable and bug free. It couldn't possibly be an admin error, because only the finest educated people work in support and might I add emotionally stable or level headed. Who are asked to think outside the box and not in anyway told to follow a set rules and guidelines. Which might I add was written by someone who thought of every conceivable situation and wrote a perfect infallible Q&A for them.
Sorry my sarcasm some times gets the better of me, when I am a being accused of something that hasn't happened.
Seems to be a steam issue. And you are correct though, but the error will lie with steam. Perhaps steam has had reports of certain prepaid cards of the bank you used to be falty and made a mistake seeing the one you used as fraudulent.
I understand it's really frustrating but try not to lash out
sig
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5451/om71.jpg
It is a peculiar phenomenon that we can imagine events that defy the laws of the universe.
Just re-posting since it looks like some people didn't catch this...
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
Yep, you're pissed, I get that. But you're barking at the wrong tree here. From my perspective, pweadamanteus went above and beyond the call of duty trying to help you. Very few there be that get this high-up and immediate support. His help was genuine, and his reply very polite and factual. He gave you the information you needed: this was NOT instigated by PWE, in any way. Rather the opposite: STEAM has your card flagged, for some reason: *they* are the ones you need to be addressing now. And a simple 'Thank you!' to pweadamanteus wouldn't hurt either. Without him, you'd still be guessing as to the cause, and would likely have spent the next few weeks, in vain, going back and forth with Customer Support.
As I want this sort of good communication from Cryptic to continue, pweadamanteus, allow me to thank you for helping this man out. Cryptic passed this one with flying colors, blitzsth. Sorry.
I've seen these sorts of things occasionally in other games...but first big example I've seen here. Since these were gift cards, was there ever a disputed charge? I mean...yeah, they're gift cards...but I'm assuming you bought them with a credit card or debit card.
If there's a problem with a disputed credit card payment on your card (either by you or by someone else listed on your card...father, mother, girlfriend, etc), or you go negative on a debit card but still end up possessing the gift card...then yes, that does get reported as a fraudulent purchase to Steam, which in turn would ban your account since they paid out to PWE, but didn't get any real money from you.
I'm not accusing you of this...but the most glaring example of a fraud problem like this was in Star Citizen, where some kid got his hands on his parents credit card, ran up a huge bill, and the parents disputed the charge since the kid wasn't authorized to use the card.
Anyhow, best of luck getting it sorted out.
Sorry I just caught this. I do thank you for looking into this matter and sorry about the sarcastic post, I'm a not really level headed at the moment. You know just lost an account :mad:
Anyway, like I said I am grateful to you for taking the time out to look into this. I did bang my fists hard in the forum, but only because I didn't want to wait another weekend for a response, I do apologise. I just hope Steam will take the time out like you have to investigate their end.
Hope Steam gets your issue fixed. Might get a couple canned responses at first but keep trying, you will get someone who actually cares eventually. Someone like pweadamanteus
Thanks pweadamanteus!
Amen
Or, don't use either one. I start the game by itself. If I buy zen, I just end up on the arc website, but I don't use arc itself except for the occasional code.
You DO NOT have to run Arc to use STO. I have never used Steam for STO, but if it's like LOTRO, it doesn't check to see if steam is started, either.
So, don't use either one.