I've used the same Debit Card from day one since I started playing STO, but from what I'm seeing here, I'm not risking a single cent more on this game until this situation is resolved and affected players are compensated fairly.
OK.. so FYI:
On the 30th October I paid my Lifetime Subscription via credit card (NOT Steam), was on probation and now, 7 days later, am happy to say that my probation has ended and am able to purchase via the C-Store freely.
Glad thats over now.
Of course, I learn about all this stuff after buying Zen through Steam Wallet for the purpose of funding some fleet projects and boosting some crafting projects.
I'm curious as to the point at which an account comes off of probation. I've only purchased zen on 5 or 6 occasions, but each time the purchase was for at least 5000 zen. I also bought the Delta Operations Pack prior to DR going live.
Seeing people loosing their steam accounts and libraries of 100+ games is pretty sobering. What is cryptic doing to get these people their steam accounts back???
Given the problems seen so far, I wouldn't buy Zen at this time. Fortunately the cryptic foresaw this and were considerate enough the leave in some game breaking bugs for the last few weeks so I haven't needed to buy Zen or anything else.
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.
Seeing people loosing their steam accounts and libraries of 100+ games is pretty sobering. What is cryptic doing to get these people their steam accounts back???
Given the problems seen so far, I wouldn't buy Zen at this time. Fortunately the cryptic foresaw this and were considerate enough the leave in some game breaking bugs for the last few weeks so I haven't needed to buy Zen or anything else.
Been dealing with this for 2 weeks now, no improvement, and no real response from cryptic, except for their automated response. The "writing" is kinda on the wall, they DON'T CARE about what they have done, and they DON'T care about their player base.
Good luck funding the next installment guys, cause you won't get the funding from me!!!
They do not have a right! Cryptic is a company that exists solely to provide goods and services for its customers and in return, profits for betterment.
I am seeing alot of lifetimers here who payed an upward of $300 and already, they're been flagged and their zen purchases restricted and unable to work. According to this screenshot below, cryptic cannot do that! If you purchased masterkeys and attempted to sell them on the exchange, you are unable to do so by this preventative system.
Paying $300 dollars for lifetime and some zen, and being told that they (the players) are being restricted from making in-game money or using dilithium trading is not only a slap in the face, but essentially cryptic developers defecating on players faces.
This is essentially fraudulent! If any company which you payed for goods is not being delivered they can face legal consequences. Any company must deliver goods as per the consumer rights!
What a great point...essentially false advertising with some text they forgot (or whatever), to update.
In these parts, if you walk into a store and the price tag for for something was wrongly marked too low,
you pay the price marked or there are great consequences for the store.
It's the "right" thing to do anyways. But we won't go there!
And just a suggestion to those who tend to buy things from "questionable?" sources...
Open a small bank account that has a free debit card, (usually visa / mastercard backed),
and use "credit", not debit, (don't give anyone your stinkin' pin or enter it anywhere there could be a camera...ie: everywhere),
and then when you feel you've gotten the shaft,
(like many of you seem to), call the credit card company and tell them.
You are not liable for purchases made from fraudulent companies.
The credit card company will have better luck straightening out any bozo's that try to rip you off than you ever will,
and you'll have the money back in your account before you can say,
"I'm a gonna rage on the forums".
Let your money do the talking here, folks.
It the only language you'll need in your universal translator.
Security note: Having to get a new code from my email,
(every stinkin' time I want to open the Gateway),
has made me stop using Gateway.
Are we planning on doing to do this with STO too?
I mean if pwe is this susceptible to fraud, then what's really going on here?
Dammit Jim, I'm a gamer, not an idiot!
So with that said, welcome to the forums op, thanks for the rundown
on what's been going on. Good luck!
Maybe you can help pwe take the moral high ground on this ridiculous atrocity.
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety".
-Benjamin Franklin
Steve@SCCreations - Fleet General - Persistent OfficerTitle & Accolade Deceiver's Lair Fleet
And just a suggestion to those who tend to buy things from "questionable?" sources...
Open a small bank account that has a free debit card, (usually visa / mastercard backed),
and use "credit", not debit, (don't give anyone your stinkin' pin or enter it anywhere there could be a camera...ie: everywhere),
and then when you feel you've gotten the shaft,
(like many of you seem to), call the credit card company and tell them.
You are not liable for purchases made from fraudulent companies.
The credit card company will have better luck straightening out any bozo's that try to rip you off than you ever will,
and you'll have the money back in your account before you can say,
"I'm a gonna rage on the forums".
Let your money do the talking here, folks.
Hi,
This really doesn't belong on the STO forums.
Don't buy anything for STO, from anyone other than Cryptic, you risk perma ban and all sorts of unsavory outcomes.
I had problems with this a few days ago. I've been using the same credit card to purchase Zen for... well forever really. And since I moved over to Steam about two years ago all of my purchases have been through Steam wallet with no issues. Bought 500 Zen to convert on the exchange, and had "that" message saying my account had been flagged due to my "recent account activity". Fortunately it wasn't flagged for very long, but it's still something that shoudln't have happened.
Been here since Season 2 update, spent hundreds of pounds on various virtual rubbish from the C-Store and logged almost 2k hours on Steam (that's not even counting half of my total play time). With other reports of people losing their Steam accounts over stuff like this I certainly won't be making any further Zen purchases for a long time.
Poor show, again...
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
I logged on last night to do my usual...thought...well I'll give it try(buying zen)It worked out like normal..so I must have passed the probation period.....no red text saying anything about being saidflagged, probation, or items bound to account....so far so good!! Hope I didn't just jinx myself though !!
With other reports of people losing their Steam accounts over stuff like this I certainly won't be making any further Zen purchases for a long time.
Poor show, again...
I must say, it is troubling seeing those reports. However, I don't put a lot of support on the idea that this is Cryptic/PWE's fault. If they flag a transaction as suspicious I would assume it's done on their own system since the payment has already gone through Steam and the Zen is showing on the players STO accounts, so that wouldn't affect people's Steam accounts. The report I saw from somebody earlier stated they'd used prepaid cards via Steam, my guess would be that those cards weren't legit and Steam blocked them of their own accord and that it had nothing to do with Cryptic/PWE.
That said, this is only an assumption on how they mark it as suspicious based on how other fraud prevention systems I've worked with have handled these matters. Perhaps Cryptic/PWE do indeed email Steam and say "we think this is bogus" and then Steam do no investigation of their own and just shut down a persons account... Seems unlikely though.
Some feedback from the Devs on this matter to quell people's fears would be greatly appreciated. Though I wont hold my breath.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
For those of us using Steam, maybe instead of using a credit or debit card..just buy the steam cards...when you buy those keep the receipt because they print a second authorization code on it at the bottom, that way there should not be any problems on steams end
I had problems selling some of the zen I purchased as it flagged the activity was odd and put it on a cooldown , I do not spend very often but when I do it is in little bits and never had a problem before this crud . do not get me wrong with it being a little more secure but I wonder why it flagged my purchases as suspect , I was not amused one bit tbh and am worried it may get my steam account banned (over 80 games in it and 10 years of being in good standing) . it was fast enough when taking funds from my steam account and then found I cound not buy dilithium to do some upgrades
Purchased more Zen today, intent to buy an Eclipse but decided to see if I got the warning again, and lo-and-behold the restriction has been reapplied to my account.
Current and past users that have an established purchase history with us are less likely to have this ever trigger on their accounts
So I guess having been a paying customer, since 2010 both with and without subscriptions a 1000 day vet, through monthly subscription, is not a qualifier as past-and-current user.
i use steam wallet , and i go to the shop called GAME here in the UK and pay then cash, yes CASH, they hand over a a code i then come home and put that code in steam that adds funds to my steam wallet ao far good, i then play STO and buy zen which i use to buy things of the c-store or dil,
before 30/10 i was spending over £300 in cash after only being in the game as a new player in the last what 4-5 weeks , yes that word again cash, ££££££, now after the 31/10 i get put on probation and flagged as a criminal, because i use steam .
now i find out they added a fraud software update thats giving false positives on my accountand i aint using a CC or pre-paid cards but cash thats been handed over to a company for a steam wallet amount and then used in STO,
come on guys ur software dont work and as a very serious problem with all this false positive flags ,i must admit i was going to buy the life time sub as well as the DR pack but now i wont be or any other items that i wanted to buy now that if i do i will be placed on a 10 day probation and all items will be locked to my account, sorry but thats the way it goes.as u can see from my spending habits i was spending loads of £££££ and that would have continued month by month, but now mmehhh
i love STO and wish it all the best and hope it goes from strength to strength but u have made me very very unhappy and afraid of buying anything in the game again
Yikes...guess when I get home tonight....um...see what happens when I try and buy a key....bought zen last night, and got no warning like before...hmmm...will be interesting...
Purchased more Zen today, intent to buy an Eclipse but decided to see if I got the warning again, and lo-and-behold the restriction has been reapplied to my account.
Current and past users that have an established purchase history with us are less likely to have this ever trigger on their accounts
So I guess having been a paying customer, since 2010 both with and without subscriptions a 1000 day vet, through monthly subscription, is not a qualifier as past-and-current user.
Did the restriction warning come after the zen purchase or when you went to buy the ship????....just wondering
Here's some information I found that might shed some light on why people who are using Steam are being flagged by the system.
I went to the ARC website to compare their prices to the ones from the Steam Wallet purchases, and on a whim decided to check my purchase history.
Said history was blank. It seems that the ARC system doesn't track any purchases made with Steam.
This could be the explanation for why people who make Steam purchases are being flagged. As far as their system is concerned, a user who has made 100% of their purchases through steam has no purchase history on their account, so would be treated just like someone who is buying Zen for the first time.
Furthermore, because Steam purchases are not tracked in the purchase history, they don't 'build' a purchase history on the account, and every purchase will be flagged as if it was the first purchase on that account.
This is all running under the assumption, of course, that the ARC purchase history is the one that the new anti-fraud system is using.
If that is the case though, Cryptic needs to find some way to allow Steam purchases to be tracked, or people who purchase through steam will have their accounts flagged every time they make a purchase.
(Edit: To clarify, I've bought lots of ZEN through Steam, so said history should not have been blank.)
This is all running under the assumption, of course, that the ARC purchase history is the one that the new anti-fraud system is using.
If that is the case though, Cryptic needs to find some way to allow Steam purchases to be tracked, or people who purchase through steam will have their accounts flagged every time they make a purchase.
(Edit: To clarify, I've bought lots of ZEN through Steam, so said history should not have been blank.)
I think your assumption would be correct. I have only ever bought Zen through the website and my 'history' on the website shows my purchases all the way back to 2012 when PWE bought Cryptic.
Though yes, people buying through other means such as Steam shouldn't really have to be 'vetted' every single time they make a purchase. Surely they have some method of storing the purchase data on the Arc site but marking it as a Steam purchase, perhaps even tying it to a particular Steam user account so that future purchases from that Steam account are considered valid.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
Did the restriction warning come after the zen purchase or when you went to buy the ship????....just wondering
When I went to buy the ship, I received no warning when I went to purchase Zen.
And of course CS, when they finally acknowledge you're having a problem, refuse to fix it, claiming they can't. They can, whatever system they use to flag, can be used to unflag, they're excuses are simply that, excuses.
I was considering a Lifetime with the sale, I can assure you that will not be happening now. So congrats PWE, you just cost yourself a life time, and probably any large, and most likely any at all, zen purchases from me.
I think your assumption would be correct. I have only ever bought Zen through the website and my 'history' on the website shows my purchases all the way back to 2012 when PWE bought Cryptic.
Though yes, people buying through other means such as Steam shouldn't really have to be 'vetted' every single time they make a purchase. Surely they have some method of storing the purchase data on the Arc site but marking it as a Steam purchase, perhaps even tying it to a particular Steam user account so that future purchases from that Steam account are considered valid.
I concur, something like what you are suggesting should be implemented. There is no issue with a user having to go through a single probational period (as long as the player is made aware of it) but having to repeatedly go through said multi-day probational period because the implemented system is currently not capable of recognizing an accepted (and integrated) payment method is a pretty serious issue.
It seems there has also been talk about the new system causing Steam to register something as a fraudulent purchase and locking peoples' accounts.
I'm not one to tell PWE how to run their business, but looking into the new system's issues in regards to Steam and helping to restore the accounts of those that have been lost due to this situation would be a good step.
Thanks for the reply blitzsth...that tell's me that tells me that im probably screwed too...I'm going into my steam account now to see if any damage has been done to me now.
Hey remember when this was about 'Fraud Prevention?"
that this is a for the security purposes and this applies to all steam users.
About that...
Edit: And for the record I provided my paypal receipt, my steam receipt (of steam wallet funds), and my steam receipt for an in game purchase of 30.00 and no, they still won't remove the probation.
well my steam account seems fine...for now...and yes, all my purchase history for sto is on steam....except my purchase of the LTS and the delta pack...which I did buy through arc/pwe...using a pre-paid card......I'm going to try and buy some keys to see what happens...
just logged on to the game...bought a 10 pack of keys and everything was fine....no warnings..no probation and the keys stacked with the other keys i had in my inventory!! So....maybe the little history I have with a few purchases through the arc/pwe site was enough to prove me as being LIGIT or i just got lucky...
there are alot of people out there that use other mediums to play this game...and the powers that be need to realise that, if they want to corner the market on the player base of their game...that matrix is not going to work!! I choose to use Steam...someone else likes to use dod..and others use arc/pwe...etc...etc...etc...,in the end they all get their money from us....geez is it really that hard to figure out??? I still feel like I did something wrong and blitzsth lost alot because of this!! its just not right!! I AM NOT A MONSTER...errr..CRIMINAL, just a person that wants to play a game and get away form things for awhile..not be probed and poked and viewed under a microscope just to play a damn game!!! thats my 2 cents and i'll get off the soap box now...
Seems to be triggering on those with a long history of purchases (me) or those using steam (me) incorrectly. Yah. I just got a benthan cruiser (80,000,000) I cant sell. Thanks, I appreciate losing out on all that money, cryptic.
Could some adjustments to this system could be made? Flagging people who have had issues with charges in the past makes perfect sense but flagging people who have had no suspect or transactions that were rejected seems ridiculous. If I ever get flagged by this system with no reason to be, ever. That will be the last ZEN I ever purchase in this game, period!
<
> <
> <
>
Looking for a new fleet? Drop by the in-game chat channel, "tenforwardforum", and say hi to the members of A Fleet Called Ten Forward (Fed) and The Orion Pirates (KDF). If you already have a fleet you are happy with, please feel free to drop by our chat channel if you are looking for a friendly bunch of helpful people to socialize with.
And yet no response from the admins, so obviously it's not important or they just don't care.
In any case i havent been playing STO since that warning and it appears i will continue to do so.
Perfectworld:
My wallet has just put you on indefinite probation!!!!
Comments
On the 30th October I paid my Lifetime Subscription via credit card (NOT Steam), was on probation and now, 7 days later, am happy to say that my probation has ended and am able to purchase via the C-Store freely.
Glad thats over now.
I'm curious as to the point at which an account comes off of probation. I've only purchased zen on 5 or 6 occasions, but each time the purchase was for at least 5000 zen. I also bought the Delta Operations Pack prior to DR going live.
Given the problems seen so far, I wouldn't buy Zen at this time. Fortunately the cryptic foresaw this and were considerate enough the leave in some game breaking bugs for the last few weeks so I haven't needed to buy Zen or anything else.
Been dealing with this for 2 weeks now, no improvement, and no real response from cryptic, except for their automated response. The "writing" is kinda on the wall, they DON'T CARE about what they have done, and they DON'T care about their player base.
Good luck funding the next installment guys, cause you won't get the funding from me!!!
What a great point...essentially false advertising with some text they forgot (or whatever), to update.
In these parts, if you walk into a store and the price tag for for something was wrongly marked too low,
you pay the price marked or there are great consequences for the store.
It's the "right" thing to do anyways. But we won't go there!
And just a suggestion to those who tend to buy things from "questionable?" sources...
Open a small bank account that has a free debit card, (usually visa / mastercard backed),
and use "credit", not debit, (don't give anyone your stinkin' pin or enter it anywhere there could be a camera...ie: everywhere),
and then when you feel you've gotten the shaft,
(like many of you seem to), call the credit card company and tell them.
You are not liable for purchases made from fraudulent companies.
The credit card company will have better luck straightening out any bozo's that try to rip you off than you ever will,
and you'll have the money back in your account before you can say,
"I'm a gonna rage on the forums".
Let your money do the talking here, folks.
It the only language you'll need in your universal translator.
Security note: Having to get a new code from my email,
(every stinkin' time I want to open the Gateway),
has made me stop using Gateway.
Are we planning on doing to do this with STO too?
I mean if pwe is this susceptible to fraud, then what's really going on here?
Dammit Jim, I'm a gamer, not an idiot!
So with that said, welcome to the forums op, thanks for the rundown
on what's been going on. Good luck!
Maybe you can help pwe take the moral high ground on this ridiculous atrocity.
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety".
-Benjamin Franklin
Deceiver's Lair Fleet
Hi,
This really doesn't belong on the STO forums.
Don't buy anything for STO, from anyone other than Cryptic, you risk perma ban and all sorts of unsavory outcomes.
Been here since Season 2 update, spent hundreds of pounds on various virtual rubbish from the C-Store and logged almost 2k hours on Steam (that's not even counting half of my total play time). With other reports of people losing their Steam accounts over stuff like this I certainly won't be making any further Zen purchases for a long time.
Poor show, again...
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
I must say, it is troubling seeing those reports. However, I don't put a lot of support on the idea that this is Cryptic/PWE's fault. If they flag a transaction as suspicious I would assume it's done on their own system since the payment has already gone through Steam and the Zen is showing on the players STO accounts, so that wouldn't affect people's Steam accounts. The report I saw from somebody earlier stated they'd used prepaid cards via Steam, my guess would be that those cards weren't legit and Steam blocked them of their own accord and that it had nothing to do with Cryptic/PWE.
That said, this is only an assumption on how they mark it as suspicious based on how other fraud prevention systems I've worked with have handled these matters. Perhaps Cryptic/PWE do indeed email Steam and say "we think this is bogus" and then Steam do no investigation of their own and just shut down a persons account... Seems unlikely though.
Some feedback from the Devs on this matter to quell people's fears would be greatly appreciated. Though I wont hold my breath.
DELTA PRICE RISING
before 30/10 i was spending over £300 in cash after only being in the game as a new player in the last what 4-5 weeks , yes that word again cash, ££££££, now after the 31/10 i get put on probation and flagged as a criminal, because i use steam .
now i find out they added a fraud software update thats giving false positives on my accountand i aint using a CC or pre-paid cards but cash thats been handed over to a company for a steam wallet amount and then used in STO,
come on guys ur software dont work and as a very serious problem with all this false positive flags ,i must admit i was going to buy the life time sub as well as the DR pack but now i wont be or any other items that i wanted to buy now that if i do i will be placed on a 10 day probation and all items will be locked to my account, sorry but thats the way it goes.as u can see from my spending habits i was spending loads of £££££ and that would have continued month by month, but now mmehhh
i love STO and wish it all the best and hope it goes from strength to strength but u have made me very very unhappy and afraid of buying anything in the game again
ign missyyen
Did the restriction warning come after the zen purchase or when you went to buy the ship????....just wondering
I went to the ARC website to compare their prices to the ones from the Steam Wallet purchases, and on a whim decided to check my purchase history.
Said history was blank. It seems that the ARC system doesn't track any purchases made with Steam.
This could be the explanation for why people who make Steam purchases are being flagged. As far as their system is concerned, a user who has made 100% of their purchases through steam has no purchase history on their account, so would be treated just like someone who is buying Zen for the first time.
Furthermore, because Steam purchases are not tracked in the purchase history, they don't 'build' a purchase history on the account, and every purchase will be flagged as if it was the first purchase on that account.
This is all running under the assumption, of course, that the ARC purchase history is the one that the new anti-fraud system is using.
If that is the case though, Cryptic needs to find some way to allow Steam purchases to be tracked, or people who purchase through steam will have their accounts flagged every time they make a purchase.
(Edit: To clarify, I've bought lots of ZEN through Steam, so said history should not have been blank.)
I think your assumption would be correct. I have only ever bought Zen through the website and my 'history' on the website shows my purchases all the way back to 2012 when PWE bought Cryptic.
Though yes, people buying through other means such as Steam shouldn't really have to be 'vetted' every single time they make a purchase. Surely they have some method of storing the purchase data on the Arc site but marking it as a Steam purchase, perhaps even tying it to a particular Steam user account so that future purchases from that Steam account are considered valid.
When I went to buy the ship, I received no warning when I went to purchase Zen.
And of course CS, when they finally acknowledge you're having a problem, refuse to fix it, claiming they can't. They can, whatever system they use to flag, can be used to unflag, they're excuses are simply that, excuses.
I was considering a Lifetime with the sale, I can assure you that will not be happening now. So congrats PWE, you just cost yourself a life time, and probably any large, and most likely any at all, zen purchases from me.
Nice job breaking it hero.
I concur, something like what you are suggesting should be implemented. There is no issue with a user having to go through a single probational period (as long as the player is made aware of it) but having to repeatedly go through said multi-day probational period because the implemented system is currently not capable of recognizing an accepted (and integrated) payment method is a pretty serious issue.
It seems there has also been talk about the new system causing Steam to register something as a fraudulent purchase and locking peoples' accounts.
I'm not one to tell PWE how to run their business, but looking into the new system's issues in regards to Steam and helping to restore the accounts of those that have been lost due to this situation would be a good step.
Edit: And for the record I provided my paypal receipt, my steam receipt (of steam wallet funds), and my steam receipt for an in game purchase of 30.00 and no, they still won't remove the probation.
I am all for good security but this is not it.
> <
> <
>
Got it.
In any case i havent been playing STO since that warning and it appears i will continue to do so.