I can't sell any lockbox keys

marcthe000001 · February 2015

Greetings, tis I; MarcThe000001

I am perplexed about this recent restriction on the stuff I buy from the lobi store, I have bought 50 Lock Box keys so that I can sell them in the exchange in my attempt to get the Astika Heavy Battlecruiser. However the keys I bought are bound to my account, I have read the warning I was given that said:

"WARNING: Due to resent purchase activity on your account, all items purchased from the Zen Store will be permanently bound to your account and may not be transferred.
This restriction also applies to items acquired from purchased pack and from lockboxes opened using purchased keys. This is only a temporary restriction while we verify your payment details."

When I read this I was under the impression that if I bought the lockbox key pack on the front page, they would be temporarily bound to my account until Cryptic check my payment details.

My questions are these; 1) why do I get this massage even though I don't spend much money nowadays on STO? 2) Does this effect Steam users? 3) Will the keys that I have bought eventually be no longer bound to my account or are they fully permanently bound to my account?

I have Aspergers Syndrome so there are times when I don't always understand something.

grouchyotaku · February 2015

You need to look at this thread... http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1286371

pweadamanteus wrote: »

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

nagyervin · February 2015

Hi, marcthe000001

This is a security measure to prevent credit card and prepaid fraud (apparently these were happening in the past). If it occurs for the first time, this restriction could take 1-2 weeks to be lifted.

Subsequent security checks usually take far shorter time (5 min to 1-2 hours.)

If you received the warning upon purchase, please don't buy anything with that zen, until the restriction is lifted.

While this restriction is active, you can't sell zen on the Dilithium Exchange. (You get a small red warning on the bottom of the Dilithium Exchange window). When that small red message disappears, it means, that the restriction has been lifted and your security check passed.
After the red message disappeared, you can buy anything without the fear of getting bound items.

Unfortunately, the Lockbox keys you bought now, will remain account bound.

As a consolation: if you have alts, use the keys for them. The Lobi crystals are still good for personal use (for example, getting Qmendations now for the free Samsar). You might still get universal consoles, doffs that you need, or ships for your alts (or what not, there is still a chance to win the ship you wanted).

So far, I have opened around 400 boxes, didn't get any ships, but got pretty much everything else i wanted (and a lot of lobi).

rattler2 · February 2015

1: Its the stupid security Fraud Protection thing ARC has.
2: Not a clue, I haven't spent any significant amounts of Zen since my Vesta Pack. Even then... it was all ground out via in game means.
3: Probably not. As the warning said, they are permanently bound to acco****. You now have 50 bound keys.

Hopefully this "Probationary" period will run out and you can sell keys on the Exchange again at some point.

marcthe000001 · February 2015

Damn it, I was hoping to trade the keys for the Astika. I can't help but feel that they're punishing people for wanting the new ships quickly.

marcthe000001 · February 2015

Oh for Fate's sake....

rattler2 · February 2015

Well... on the bright side... there's all that Lobi you can get from opening 50 boxes. *shrug* Gotta find a silver lining somewhere.

admrenlarreck · February 2015

From what I have seen Steam users are effected the most by this. Few people who buy straight from arc are effected, except on a large purchase.

One steam user had his steam account permanently banned although I heard it was undone after he proved there was no fraud involved just prepaid cards.

hyperionx09 · February 2015

Assuming 4 Lobi per box, that's 200 Lobi minimum. You just need another 175 Lockbox Keys at most, to get the remaining 700 Lobi for the 900 Lobi Astika.

Alternatively, if you already unlocked the Samsar and have the discount; that's 20 Lobi at most per Alt. If not, that's at worst, 400 Qmmendations towards the Samsar. (5 Lobi to 10-20 Qmmendations; assuming the worst at 10 Qmmendations per 5 Lobi)

antoniosalieri · February 2015

sopwithsnipe wrote: »

Steam was the one that decided the prepaid cards he bought to put funds in his Steam Wallet were fraudulent transactions.

Yep, by not buying your game currency direct it means you have to go through 2 fraud checks. Steams and PWEs. So it would only be logical then that there would be more issues with false positives for people buying from steam.

meimeitoo · February 2015

"(...) all items purchased from the Zen Store will be permanently bound to your account and may not be transferred."

'Permanently bound' has always felt way too harsh. After the temporary injunction has been lifted, so should the restriction on your items (especially since some have claimed never to even have gotten the warning; mostly STEAM users, iirc).

razar2380 · February 2015

To the OP, I am sorry to hear about you getting screwed by the fraud system. I know a lot of players that didn't even get the warning, and were screwed also.

Some of them got what they were looking for, while some didn't. I hope you are able to get the ship you are wanting out of the box. Good luck.

Permanently leaving things bound to an account after finding out that there was no fraud is not fraud prevention. It is punishment for spending money. After you find out that there is no fraud, then there is no reason not to unbind those items.

Good customer service goes a long way.

bernatk · February 2015

marcthe000001 wrote: »

all items purchased from the Zen Store will be permanently bound to your account and may not be transferred.

And did you understand those words? I'm also a non native english speaker, so I have to use online translators quite often. I suggest the same to you.

Anything involving monetary transaction, I research into heavily, making sure I understand every words of it perfectly.

I can't sell any lockbox keys

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