So you guys asked me to keep you informed to any updates.
Well good news, steam replied to my support ticket.
Bad news this was their reply
7 Message by Support Tech Bret on Fri, 7th Nov 2014 17:21
Hello John,
We have found activity in the Steam account related to fraudulent credit card use.
Per the Steam Subscriber Agreement, we have locked the account permanently. The account will not be reactivated.
They are just giving me the same old answer, they did nothing with the information that I provided them with. Seriously getting annoyed over this.
Do what I do I keep hammering them, I'm having to do that with an issue I'm having at the moment with Cryptic Customer Support. Persistence will pay off eventually, but you might have to find alternate contact methods.
Well then.. note to self.. never use prepaid cards for online purchases..
If you send this story to the mainstream tech journalism and/or gaming sites and they pick it up and roll with it you might get lucky that it'll turn into a massive ****storm that will make upper management at Valve panic and put a priority fix on your account to stop the bad press (like how certain Comcast subscribers could only get a fix from national media attention).
PWE appears to have done their due diligence in this instance (although this doesn't exonerate them from the other reported false positives the new fraud system is producing), now it's up to Valve.
Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
It seems to me that the support rep you have been talking to does not care to help anymore or is unable to help at this point given his copy and paste replies. I would kindly request to speak to someone who would be better able to or actually cares enough to help you and investigate further.
Given the fact that you can prove all of your purchases with receipts and support from your credit card company someone needs to take a serious look at the current situation. If your current support rep is unwilling to assist you by escalating your problem try to contact someone higher up or create a new ticket and hope the next rep will be more helpful. Don't stop fighting they are in the wrong you just need to find someone willing to see your proof and listen.
So you guys asked me to keep you informed to any updates.
Well good news, steam replied to my support ticket.
Bad news this was their reply
7 Message by Support Tech Bret on Fri, 7th Nov 2014 17:21
Hello John,
We have found activity in the Steam account related to fraudulent credit card use.
Per the Steam Subscriber Agreement, we have locked the account permanently. The account will not be reactivated.
They are just giving me the same old answer, they did nothing with the information that I provided them with. Seriously getting annoyed over this.
These messages all look like automated TRIBBLE, you're getting emails from bots. That or some subcontractor in a little office in India where they barely speak English and just have all of the cut and paste answers to work with following a script. You need to talk to a human, man, get them on the phone.
If something is not broken, don't fix it, if it is broken, don't leave it broken.
question...all you need is your user and login right? is it possible to sign into the game and at least regain access to that through arc? or am I way off base here?
Murphy's laws:
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
question...all you need is your user and login right? is it possible to sign into the game and at least regain access to that through arc? or am I way off base here?
I have managed to load Trek with no problem, which is should be kind of worrying for Steam, that I am able to remove the game from their folder and execute the run command.
I just wish I had all my games installed, as I would do that with all of them, if I could.
But even if I couldn't play STO off of my steam copy. I would just download it from ARC.
They already said it's a Steam issue, that Steam passed fraud info to PWE. This sounds like either Steam is treating prepaid cards as fraudulent or those cards have not been activated. There could also be an issue with the cards themselves and Steam cannot collect from them, but no matter what they shouldn't be flagging accounts as fraudulent for any of that.
So STO introduces a 'fraud prevention system' (trial, whatever that means), and 2 days later, you are flagged by Steam for CC fraud, after buying Zen through Steam. Anyone who believes that these two events are not directly connected, and that PWE has flagged you as fraudulent to Steam, resulting in loss of your account, is naive.
This is undoubtedly down to PWE, their representatives 'investigations' notwithstanding. How to resolve, it, I have no idea. Steams policy, though draconian, is clear, and you will get nowhere appealing to them, without discovering the cause first. You first step, I'd suggest, is to escalate your case with PWE, regarding your Zen purchase,and any 'error' in their 'trial' fraud detection.
To the OP: I hope you will get your Steam account back at some point. Don't let their support get away with such bs answers and demand details from them. Just keep writing support tickets. At some point they will get annoyed enough to actually deal with you in a proper way rather than copy/paste the same answer again and again. Also use the steam forums to make aware of your problem (if you can't even do that with your current account just create a new one). And finally, raise hell with the credit card company that is involved with this.
These messages all look like automated TRIBBLE, you're getting emails from bots. That or some subcontractor in a little office in India where they barely speak English and just have all of the cut and paste answers to work with following a script. You need to talk to a human, man, get them on the phone.
Steam and a phone hotline? That is a good joke. No such things exists. Maybe he can call Valve, but i doubt he will get past an answering machine there either.
If it is indeed something caused by PWE, they are liable for the full value of your Steam account.
You maybe should read the entire thread before making assumptions. This is entirely a Valve/Steam issue and they are known for pulling this and similar TRIBBLE with their customers.
So STO introduces a 'fraud prevention system' (trial, whatever that means), and 2 days later, you are flagged by Steam for CC fraud, after buying Zen through Steam. Anyone who believes that these two events are not directly connected, and that PWE has flagged you as fraudulent to Steam, resulting in loss of your account, is naive.
This is undoubtedly down to PWE, their representatives 'investigations' notwithstanding. How to resolve, it, I have no idea. Steams policy, though draconian, is clear, and you will get nowhere appealing to them, without discovering the cause first. You first step, I'd suggest, is to escalate your case with PWE, regarding your Zen purchase,and any 'error' in their 'trial' fraud detection.
Correlation =/= causation.... This kind of thing has been reported with Steam accounts for 5+ years.
Cryptic would be well advised to contact Steam directly on the banned individual's behalf, and resolve this ASAP. What a disaster. And here I thought CCP's "boot.ini" bug was terrible... at least that one didn't get your Steam account banned.
I have managed to load Trek with no problem, which is should be kind of worrying for Steam, that I am able to remove the game from their folder and execute the run command.
I just wish I had all my games installed, as I would do that with all of them, if I could.
But even if I couldn't play STO off of my steam copy. I would just download it from ARC.
STO is not a STEAM game, in true sense of the word. Basically, STEAM just starts the STO launcher. When you install Arc, after that, Arc will simply do the same: start the game (essentially, the STEAM copy, from the STEAM folder, without nstalling an Arc copy).
So STO introduces a 'fraud prevention system' (trial, whatever that means), and 2 days later, you are flagged by Steam for CC fraud, after buying Zen through Steam. Anyone who believes that these two events are not directly connected, and that PWE has flagged you as fraudulent to Steam, resulting in loss of your account, is naive.
If you had bothered to read, instead of being, you know, totally zombiedeadheaded, you would have realized the reason PWE put his card on hold was because of an alert instigated by *STEAM*. And had you read even further, you'd had seen the Dev already lifted the probation on PWE's end.
This is undoubtedly down to PWE, their representatives 'investigations' notwithstanding. How to resolve, it, I have no idea. Steams policy, though draconian, is clear, and you will get nowhere appealing to them, without discovering the cause first. You first step, I'd suggest, is to escalate your case with PWE, regarding your Zen purchase,and any 'error' in their 'trial' fraud detection.
Wrong again. The right cause of action is to bug Valve about it, not PWE.
So STO introduces a 'fraud prevention system' (trial, whatever that means), and 2 days later, you are flagged by Steam for CC fraud, after buying Zen through Steam. Anyone who believes that these two events are not directly connected, and that PWE has flagged you as fraudulent to Steam, resulting in loss of your account, is naive.
This is undoubtedly down to PWE, their representatives 'investigations' notwithstanding. How to resolve, it, I have no idea. Steams policy, though draconian, is clear, and you will get nowhere appealing to them, without discovering the cause first. You first step, I'd suggest, is to escalate your case with PWE, regarding your Zen purchase,and any 'error' in their 'trial' fraud detection.
You are so quick to judge PWE, did you ever stop to think that this wasn't an overnight transaction and that Steam had already sent this info to PWE which prompted PWE to change thei policiez so it doesn't happen to anyone else (especially someone not usong steam).
You are so quick to judge PWE, did you ever stop to think that this wasn't an overnight transaction and that Steam had already sent this info to PWE which prompted PWE to change thei policiez so it doesn't happen to anyone else (especially someone not usong steam).
Point is: there was no fraude! (Read OP)
So nothing should have been prevented !!!
Regardless who messed up Steam/PWE, this (see OP) customer should not have been harmed.
PWE has an agreement with Steam and vice versa (both benefit from the sales). Both Parties should not fingerpoint at each other or at the customer but communicate with each other and solve this mess they have created on the double.
Regardless who messed up Steam/PWE, this (see OP) customer should not have been harmed.
PWE has an agreement with Steam and vice versa (both benefit from the sales). Both Parties should not fingerpoint at each other or at the customer but communicate with each other and solve this mess they have created on the double.
1) There is no proof there was no fraud nor is there proof there was fraud. We do not have the information to decide this.
2) read post #46. His STO Account wasn't even banned @the time he posted this thread. PWE had already investigated their side of this issue. Steam seems to be not interested in investigating it further.
You are so quick to judge PWE, did you ever stop to think that this wasn't an overnight transaction and that Steam had already sent this info to PWE which prompted PWE to change thei policiez so it doesn't happen to anyone else (especially someone not usong steam).
Ok, I'll quote someone, here goes..' While we are introducing this system into STO, there is a chance that the rules may result in a false positive trigger'
Ok, I'll quote someone, here goes..' While we are introducing this system into STO, there is a chance that the rules may result in a false positive trigger'
You are conflating two different things.... the PWE thing is merely a probationary flag placed on ones PWE account which effects how Zen may be used pending review. The false positive there deals with an account being flagged probationary pending review when it has an established purchase history (ie, normally it would not be under this system).... it has nothing to do with ones Steam account.
1) There is no proof there was no fraud nor is there proof there was fraud. We do not have the information to decide this.
2) read post #46. His STO Account wasn't even banned @the time he posted this thread. PWE had already investigated their side of this issue. Steam seems to be not interested in investigating it further.
Your kidding me, seriously?
Maybe you only can understand if the same happens to you.
I used to buy zen using the steam wallet system however when the currency switched here in Canada and the prices were all updated I could not. So now I am forced to use Paypal with my visa to purchase for my zen which is good as I won't have to worry about this ever happening to me and my 300 or so steam games
You are conflating two different things.... the PWE thing is merely a probationary flag placed on ones PWE account which effects how Zen may be used pending review. The false positive there deals with an account being flagged probationary pending review when it has an established purchase history (ie, normally it would not be under this system).... it has nothing to do with ones Steam account.
ur kidding right. before the 30/10 everything was ok now after the update of the new fraud software, that was done without telling anybody things have gone **** up,false positives are now common, so player buys zen using steam,CC,paypal, account gets a false positive and flags the account as fraudulent, account placed on probation all purchases locked to account, mmmmm how did that happen well its cause there software is talking to steams.CC,paypals software this as told them it was done as a fraudulent transaction even though it isnt ,
what do u thinks going to happen to the account where the money came from , yea there going to drop the ban hammer , this only happens because cryptics software has said the transaction was fraud by the false positive flag,
there new software is giving the impression that all transactions from that account are fraudulent.
cryptic need to roll back or suspend there new fraud software as this can cause real harm to ppls accounts with other company's, this needs to be done as a matter of urgency
I would like to say first of all you guys(the community) have been incredibly supportive over this stressful time and the words of advice and positive attitude has been great, it has helped me a lot. It has really calmed me down. Even the guys & gals that hangout on TS I use, have been really supportive, no matter how much sarcasm and moaning that I have probably subjected them to over the last week
I would like to say, that some people have taken this situation to voice their opinions and I guess everyone is entitled to one, but I would like to take this opportunity to say, I believe PWE and pweadamanteus when they say they have nothing to do with my Steam problem. Call it optimism or call it naivety, it doesn't matter. It is my opinion and until anything changes on that matter, it is what I choose to believe.
So can we all hold back on the "conspiracy theories" or "I believe they are evil money grabbers" or any other negative opinions. I know they have made mistakes and I know their customer support has handled things badly at one point or the other. I mean, yeah okay. I was moaning about how they handle my ticket last week, but what has happened in the past is past. Think about this, if you hold someone to their mistakes and always think they aren't capable of good things, then you will never see them good things. You will only see the bad and that is a pretty lonely or cold thought.
Anyway I know I can't stop you from posting what ever you want, but I hope you heard what I had to say.
Also for anyone still waiting for an update, as of posting this. Let me just check...
Nope still no reply.
8 Message by you on Fri, 7th Nov 2014 23:26
I have tried to give you the information, I have tried to show you the cards are legit. I want this moved up to someone at support that can help me, please ask Derrick Gennrich I believe who is head on customer support to look into this.
This was the last message I sent to them.
BTW my Steam discussion thread was on page 25 of their help and tips sub-dissuasion list unanswered, I guess that community isn't as helpful as this one
Maybe you only can understand if the same happens to you.
I'm not kidding@all. I try dealing w/facts, not what he/she said as we know many forum posters leave pertinent info out(I'm not saying the OP did). I used Steam to buy 1 STO Starter Pack on sale, then promptly removed that client. I see no reason to use Steam to buy Zen, I would rather buy it directly, especially since most Zen promos exclude Steam purchases from receiving full benefit. Maybe I'm old school but I like owning games myself, not letting a service like Steam have the right to take them away on a whim.
8 Message by you on Fri, 7th Nov 2014 23:26
I have tried to give you the information, I have tried to show you the cards are legit. I want this moved up to someone at support that can help me, please ask Derrick Gennrich I believe who is head on customer support to look into this.
This was the last message I sent to them.
Is there a physical landline you can use to phone Steam's customer service? Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to talk to someone in real-time, rather than wait for some office worker to scroll through a list of support tickets and pick one to deal with for the rest of the week.
stardestroyer001, Admiral, Explorers Fury PvE/PvP Fleet | Retired PvP Player
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9 My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
This is total BS, When you put money in your steam wallet, PW is not involved with your credit card, Steam is. They are just flagging steam transactions to be dicks.
This is total BS, When you put money in your steam wallet, PW is not involved with your credit card, Steam is. They are just flagging steam transactions to be dicks.
Who is they? If you mean PW then I understand why you're hiding behind a new account.
You maybe should read the entire thread before making assumptions. This is entirely a Valve/Steam issue and they are known for pulling this and similar TRIBBLE with their customers.
I didn't make any assumptions. I merely stated something.
Comments
Well good news, steam replied to my support ticket.
Bad news this was their reply
7 Message by Support Tech Bret on Fri, 7th Nov 2014 17:21
Hello John,
We have found activity in the Steam account related to fraudulent credit card use.
Per the Steam Subscriber Agreement, we have locked the account permanently. The account will not be reactivated.
They are just giving me the same old answer, they did nothing with the information that I provided them with. Seriously getting annoyed over this.
Do what I do I keep hammering them, I'm having to do that with an issue I'm having at the moment with Cryptic Customer Support. Persistence will pay off eventually, but you might have to find alternate contact methods.
Adamanteus, good man indeed
If you send this story to the mainstream tech journalism and/or gaming sites and they pick it up and roll with it you might get lucky that it'll turn into a massive ****storm that will make upper management at Valve panic and put a priority fix on your account to stop the bad press (like how certain Comcast subscribers could only get a fix from national media attention).
PWE appears to have done their due diligence in this instance (although this doesn't exonerate them from the other reported false positives the new fraud system is producing), now it's up to Valve.
Joined January 2009
Given the fact that you can prove all of your purchases with receipts and support from your credit card company someone needs to take a serious look at the current situation. If your current support rep is unwilling to assist you by escalating your problem try to contact someone higher up or create a new ticket and hope the next rep will be more helpful. Don't stop fighting they are in the wrong you just need to find someone willing to see your proof and listen.
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
I have managed to load Trek with no problem, which is should be kind of worrying for Steam, that I am able to remove the game from their folder and execute the run command.
I just wish I had all my games installed, as I would do that with all of them, if I could.
But even if I couldn't play STO off of my steam copy. I would just download it from ARC.
This is undoubtedly down to PWE, their representatives 'investigations' notwithstanding. How to resolve, it, I have no idea. Steams policy, though draconian, is clear, and you will get nowhere appealing to them, without discovering the cause first. You first step, I'd suggest, is to escalate your case with PWE, regarding your Zen purchase,and any 'error' in their 'trial' fraud detection.
Steam and a phone hotline? That is a good joke. No such things exists. Maybe he can call Valve, but i doubt he will get past an answering machine there either.
You maybe should read the entire thread before making assumptions. This is entirely a Valve/Steam issue and they are known for pulling this and similar TRIBBLE with their customers.
Correlation =/= causation.... This kind of thing has been reported with Steam accounts for 5+ years.
Cryptic would be well advised to contact Steam directly on the banned individual's behalf, and resolve this ASAP. What a disaster. And here I thought CCP's "boot.ini" bug was terrible... at least that one didn't get your Steam account banned.
STO is not a STEAM game, in true sense of the word. Basically, STEAM just starts the STO launcher. When you install Arc, after that, Arc will simply do the same: start the game (essentially, the STEAM copy, from the STEAM folder, without nstalling an Arc copy).
If you had bothered to read, instead of being, you know, totally zombiedeadheaded, you would have realized the reason PWE put his card on hold was because of an alert instigated by *STEAM*. And had you read even further, you'd had seen the Dev already lifted the probation on PWE's end.
Wrong again. The right cause of action is to bug Valve about it, not PWE.
You are so quick to judge PWE, did you ever stop to think that this wasn't an overnight transaction and that Steam had already sent this info to PWE which prompted PWE to change thei policiez so it doesn't happen to anyone else (especially someone not usong steam).
Point is: there was no fraude! (Read OP)
So nothing should have been prevented !!!
Regardless who messed up Steam/PWE, this (see OP) customer should not have been harmed.
PWE has an agreement with Steam and vice versa (both benefit from the sales). Both Parties should not fingerpoint at each other or at the customer but communicate with each other and solve this mess they have created on the double.
1) There is no proof there was no fraud nor is there proof there was fraud. We do not have the information to decide this.
2) read post #46. His STO Account wasn't even banned @the time he posted this thread. PWE had already investigated their side of this issue. Steam seems to be not interested in investigating it further.
Ok, I'll quote someone, here goes..' While we are introducing this system into STO, there is a chance that the rules may result in a false positive trigger'
Maybe you should read this http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1286371thread..see tyhe issues that people are having with just this, then go and think about where your complacency is getting anyone.
You are conflating two different things.... the PWE thing is merely a probationary flag placed on ones PWE account which effects how Zen may be used pending review. The false positive there deals with an account being flagged probationary pending review when it has an established purchase history (ie, normally it would not be under this system).... it has nothing to do with ones Steam account.
Your kidding me, seriously?
Maybe you only can understand if the same happens to you.
ur kidding right. before the 30/10 everything was ok now after the update of the new fraud software, that was done without telling anybody things have gone **** up,false positives are now common, so player buys zen using steam,CC,paypal, account gets a false positive and flags the account as fraudulent, account placed on probation all purchases locked to account, mmmmm how did that happen well its cause there software is talking to steams.CC,paypals software this as told them it was done as a fraudulent transaction even though it isnt ,
what do u thinks going to happen to the account where the money came from , yea there going to drop the ban hammer , this only happens because cryptics software has said the transaction was fraud by the false positive flag,
there new software is giving the impression that all transactions from that account are fraudulent.
cryptic need to roll back or suspend there new fraud software as this can cause real harm to ppls accounts with other company's, this needs to be done as a matter of urgency
I would like to say first of all you guys(the community) have been incredibly supportive over this stressful time and the words of advice and positive attitude has been great, it has helped me a lot. It has really calmed me down. Even the guys & gals that hangout on TS I use, have been really supportive, no matter how much sarcasm and moaning that I have probably subjected them to over the last week
I would like to say, that some people have taken this situation to voice their opinions and I guess everyone is entitled to one, but I would like to take this opportunity to say, I believe PWE and pweadamanteus when they say they have nothing to do with my Steam problem. Call it optimism or call it naivety, it doesn't matter. It is my opinion and until anything changes on that matter, it is what I choose to believe.
So can we all hold back on the "conspiracy theories" or "I believe they are evil money grabbers" or any other negative opinions. I know they have made mistakes and I know their customer support has handled things badly at one point or the other. I mean, yeah okay. I was moaning about how they handle my ticket last week, but what has happened in the past is past. Think about this, if you hold someone to their mistakes and always think they aren't capable of good things, then you will never see them good things. You will only see the bad and that is a pretty lonely or cold thought.
Anyway I know I can't stop you from posting what ever you want, but I hope you heard what I had to say.
Also for anyone still waiting for an update, as of posting this. Let me just check...
Nope still no reply.
8 Message by you on Fri, 7th Nov 2014 23:26
I have tried to give you the information, I have tried to show you the cards are legit. I want this moved up to someone at support that can help me, please ask Derrick Gennrich I believe who is head on customer support to look into this.
This was the last message I sent to them.
BTW my Steam discussion thread was on page 25 of their help and tips sub-dissuasion list unanswered, I guess that community isn't as helpful as this one
I'm not kidding@all. I try dealing w/facts, not what he/she said as we know many forum posters leave pertinent info out(I'm not saying the OP did). I used Steam to buy 1 STO Starter Pack on sale, then promptly removed that client. I see no reason to use Steam to buy Zen, I would rather buy it directly, especially since most Zen promos exclude Steam purchases from receiving full benefit. Maybe I'm old school but I like owning games myself, not letting a service like Steam have the right to take them away on a whim.
Is there a physical landline you can use to phone Steam's customer service? Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to talk to someone in real-time, rather than wait for some office worker to scroll through a list of support tickets and pick one to deal with for the rest of the week.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
Who is they? If you mean PW then I understand why you're hiding behind a new account.
I didn't make any assumptions. I merely stated something.
If Steam is at fault, Steam is at fault.