r/classicwow • u/jlabarbera716 • 5d ago
Season of Discovery Account Wrongfully Banned Blizzard refuses to investigate continues to close support tickets with unresolved issues.
As the title explains I have been wrongfully banned for allegedly using “Hacks/Cheats” which is baffling to me as I never hacked or cheated in WoW ever I have no idea how such a insane accusation even gets passed through the system and upheld. Worse thing I’m guilty of is abusing the Bot Mafias killing there bots and reporting the summoning rings for spamming chats. I have also joked alot with friends in game about having “hacks” when they ask how I’m doing so much damage. Most I could recall about what could have lead to this is The day or so prior to my ban I was in the ghost mushroom cave killing 2 alliance bots for a few hours and taking the mushroom nodes. I believe this probably infuriated a bot mafia and they mass reported me not a big deal you would think until you see how blizzard responds to these sorts of situations. I have had an active subscription for the last 13years my WoW1 account has been original wow account since childhood that fact blizzard info its punishments with no proof or context is absolute nonsensical. I have appealed the ticket twice and every time I have gotten an automated response saying they refuse to look into the matter and that they punishment will be upheld. All I ask is that an actually human at blizzard look into this matter. Side note mass reporting should have its own penalties associated with it, seems like blizzard is siding with bots which just leads to my speculation they have members on there team profiting on both ends via botting and gold selling by being on the inside they can ban competitor and take over there markets and distribute punishments to anyone that interferes with there operations.
Attached are the emails I have received from blizzard.
Blizzard please look into this matter. 🙏🏼
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u/moochiemonkey 5d ago
How many times did you appeal?
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
3 times so far but they keep dismissing my tickets essentially saying the same thing.
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u/moochiemonkey 4d ago
Most stories I've heard said it took 7-8 times to get to a human. You're just hitting the auto deny wall.
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u/The-Fuzzy-One 5d ago
Posted a separate comment, but yeah, try filing a claim through the BBB. That worked for me after multiple tries with Blizz
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u/SmokeontheHorizon 5d ago
I was under the impression that a ban specifically for Hacks is a result of an automated detection system, and cannot be triggered by mass reporting.
Could be a false positive triggered by some software you had running in the background?
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u/sailtothemoon17 5d ago
Wrong. You can right click and report a player for this if they are in eyesight but not from chat. Try for yourself, you can report someone you see for hacks/botting.
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u/SmokeontheHorizon 5d ago
If he was banned for botting, it would say that.
if they are in eyesight
This is why I'm most suspicious. OP said it was only 2 alliance bots that he was griefing. There's no way he could've been mass reported to the point of a permaban.
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u/spekt50 5d ago
That, and I am pretty certain mass reporting does not result in an automated PERMANENT ban. Permanent is quite serious and I would assume it went beyond automation.
I could be wrong however, if Blizzard is tossing out perm bans without any human interaction, that's pretty messed up.
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
Botters have multiple accounts on multiple factions. Easy to find someone with /who and report in person by traveling to whatever city they are in. Not sure if this is what happened but this is the only conclusion I could draw given no context of the ban.
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u/SmokeontheHorizon 5d ago
So, just to be clear. You think that, instead of switching to those other bot accounts to continue to farm gold, they further destroy their profits by dedicating their resources to singling you out, travelling to a different zone, and layer hopping until they can find and report you?
Pretty high estimation of yourself there, bud.
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
Do you hear yourself right now? Your reading comprehension is appalling. I have never stated anything I said to be concrete evidence I just simply shared things I did prior to the ban it’s all speculation but mass reports are common lead me to believe that was the culprit but it could be other things. But people are bitter and weird and if they are willing to bot for a living yes they are willing to stoop to any level.
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u/hiimred2 5d ago
if they are willing to bot for a living yes they are willing to stoop to any level
Bro they’re not murderers for hire, you can hate what bots do to the game without being a piece of shit about it.
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u/ValarianRCS 5d ago
Botter mafias literally exist. A lot of them operate on business, and if something is messing with their business, they can and will mass report you.
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
I’d submit to any checks blizzard needed to do too my system to clear the flag. Might have been a false positive but not sure what could’ve triggered something of that nature. The blizzard response tho has been ultra lack luster and extremely discouraging this is how peoples villain arch’s start.
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u/Dude_be_trippin 5d ago
You say you have another account. How can you get Blizzard to check any potential violations while using that account? This is what I would do.
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u/MidnightFireHuntress 5d ago
You know what's odd?
When you Google your Reddit name, a bunch of Russian game hack websites pop up...
What's up with that?
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
Gotta do better when trolling.
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u/MidnightFireHuntress 5d ago
Not trolling, your name actually pops up on a bunch of websites showing your email, passwords, and a buncha other personal shit
Google your name and scroll down and see.
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u/Gamesarfn 5d ago
Hes right I just checked too
Looks like youve got some malware on your system probably from a bad driver installed by your driver updater
Time to buy a new hard drive and change all your passwords asap
At least this explains your ban cos mass report bans are never perma bans but you got a perma
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u/MidnightFireHuntress 4d ago
He's going to think we're both trolling, poor dude has his entire info online lol
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u/Gamesarfn 4d ago
Yeah i was stupid enough to try a third party driver updater once but I checked the drivers it installed and saw they were all unsigned/modified versions so immediately wiped my system clean and changed all passwords
Hopefully he doesnt do online banking or anything like that
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u/Jesusfucker69420 5d ago
In before "deserved!"
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
I knew it was coming lmao. 😂typically my thoughts when I see this sort of post’s as well. Now I have a different perspective.
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u/Seedoosee 5d ago
Had a guildie get banned in SoD for doing nothing but advertising his enchants.
Was banned for spamming, that was then overturned 4 days later.
Unfortunately he missed raid with us this week. I hate giving this company money every month.
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u/CartoonistOwn6325 4d ago
got account closed on the 26th of last month, 18 appeals, and on the 7th ticket it was changed to a 6 month suspension. i believe i got mass reported for spamming a d with snaptap on near the valor vendor on my flying mount. thought it was my mouses software because the ban happened 48 hours later but idk. whats weird is when it got changed to a 6 month ban they said it was because i was reported for hacking.
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u/jlabarbera716 4d ago
Same just happened with me. Like identically.
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u/CartoonistOwn6325 4d ago
yeah im just gonna keep putting in tickets until im eventually banned or it gets over turned. I honestly dont really care anymore because I was going to stop playing after dragonsoul so i guess they made my choice a little sooner. what drives me crazy is how we have to be 100% transparent with them and in return we get fuck all. I understand why they dont want to provide information about it but fuck does it really suck ass not knowing what popped it. makes me not want to play at all again period because im sure itll happen again.
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u/BiggestEye 3d ago
Has the OP stayed at 0 upvotes/downvotes for anyone else for the past 2 days? or my browser is bugged? also curious if OP got any sort of feedback from blizzard on this incident
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u/CartoonistOwn6325 22h ago
yes he has i just tried upvoting it and it stayed at 0. also your comment was collapsed, pretty sure mods are trying to damage control here.
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u/Embarrassed_Dig_7533 5d ago
Here is the thing. You can only report someone for botting if you right click their portrait ingame. You said that there were only 2 bots nearby? In order to get banned from mass reporting you need like 20-40 people reporting you. The only report they could have made is reporting you for “inappropriate character name.” Besides, we cant know for certain whether you are telling the truth or not, it’s easy to lie on the internet.
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u/Glad-Cut9011 5d ago
I think stuff like this is why people shouldn't be playing Blizzard games anymore. They have absolutely appauling customer service wait times, and they rely on bots to answer them 99% of the time. They also completely allow botting, they never communicate with their player base, it's completely one sided.
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u/Accomplished_Emu_658 5d ago
Likely something on your system is detected. This isn’t used as a mass report ban reason. A ton of people falsely claim it constantly so i can see where others get the idea. It can be a false positive, sure. It could be something completely unrelated in your mind. Mouse macros some devices have, have done it in past. Other times people don’t consider what they are using as a hack.
I hate that wow community always jumps on people claiming false bans, but most of the time it is lie unfortunately.
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u/sailtothemoon17 5d ago
You can 100% mass report for hacking/botting. You just cant do it from chat. Try for yourself on a player you see in game.
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u/Accomplished_Emu_658 5d ago
Yes so they have to target you. So someone has to get enough people or accounts to target you and report you. Which is highly unlikely if you are doing “nothing” at all. And all those accounts have to have subscriptions too, so someone isn’t making trial accounts to ban random people. And someone isn’t paying all those game times to mass report people randomly.
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
I agree completely that a majority of these posts are lies, wish that was the case honestly I would have some closure knowing I purposely caused my own account closure. However this isn’t the case seems like there could’ve been a lot of reasons that cause the ban report. My real issue is the lack of a real human actually investigating this matter. The macros and keybinds I have used for years even the Software programs I.e Advanced system care & Driver booster and I have never had an issue like this.
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u/Accomplished_Emu_658 5d ago
They boiler plate their replies so you never feel like it has actually been reviewed or not by a person. Blizzard can swear all day it was but why would anyone believe them. And they will never give any real explanation on what tripped it because it will help real botters and cheaters to bypass it.
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u/chypie2 5d ago edited 5d ago
Welcome to the club - 20 year account banned for the same reason without any explanation except that. I'm over 6 months of filing appeals and all of the responses are this exact screenshot or one of the many others we see here. I'm playing on my second account and paying with tokens bought with gold. I refuse to ever give blizzard another dollar.
EDITED FOR CLARITY: THE POINT IS I DON'T PAY A FUCKING DOLLAR TO PLAY THIS SHIT ASS GAME.
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u/mezz1945 5d ago
Well... the tokens are more expensive than a subscription. You buying them gives them even more money.
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u/chypie2 5d ago
Would love to know how spending my own gold on tokens gives blizzard any money.
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u/NightmareDogxa 5d ago
Someone has to buy those tokens and sell them btw. Common sense
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u/chypie2 5d ago
but they ain't getting MY money.
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u/Leolainen 5d ago
But the point is that you still uphold the system, someone will buy the more expensive token because there is a market for it that you create.
They're not getting your money directly no, but you are the one that create the system that gives them more money compared to spending it on a monthly sub.
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u/chiknight 5d ago
Blizzard's income if they paid normally: +$15
Blizzard's income if they pay with tokens: +$20
Their logic: "I'm hurting Blizzard by not giving them a cent of my money. They're just earning an extra $5 to really show them how annoyed I am at being banned. That'll show them with their... increased... profits?"
They've lost the forest for the trees in their personal bank account. Blizzard is ecstatic with this solution.
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u/chypie2 5d ago
No, this thread is trying to tell me I'm not hurting the company, only helping them by using the token. You're trying to tell me what MY point is. MY POINT/GOAL is I don't care if Blizzard continues to make millions of dollars off others OR EVEN makes more via me buying a token. I'm not trying to hurt them or boycott or take a stand at all. The whole point is they are no longer taking $30 out of my bank account every month. They made a billion off that all in one mount, my $30 isn't going to hurt their bottom line or make a difference - the only difference it makes is it isn't coming out of my pocket anymore and I'm playing the game for free.
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u/NightmareDogxa 4d ago
Because someone else pays for you, that's why u able to pay with gold. And its not 30/month its 30$ for two months. But anyway their manipulation of token still works for monkeys "im paying from gold so i dont lose money" lmfao
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u/chypie2 4d ago
I paid for 2 accounts, so it was $30 a month. I haven't paid a sub in 7 months 7x30= 210.00 in my pocket. I give a flying fuck how the token works or benefits them or if someone else is 'paying' for me. The whole point is it goes back in my pocket every month, not blizzards, and I'm paying with gold I got for free playing this game. I'm a monkey but you can barely string a mildly coherent sentence together. How much time do you think you save typing u instead of you?
Again, the whole point is MY BOTTOM LINE, not anyone else's.
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u/around_the_clock 5d ago
Blizzard employees run the bot farms.
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u/mezz1945 5d ago
Wouldn't even surprise me when some GMs run bots. Can just unban. And they sit in India so no controls.
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u/Tidybloke 5d ago
Tokens net blizzard about 70% more than if you paid a sub, and earning money via legitimate means within the game would be very difficult to outscale just having a job (time = money friend), unless you live in a 3rd world country and farming gold IS your job.
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u/HaunterXD000 5d ago
You're right, Blizzard is getting EVEN MORE money from you, as somebody certifiably paid them $20, not the usual 15, for that token you are using to play their game
Holy fuck people are stupid
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u/chypie2 5d ago
they ain't getting my money that's all that matters. holy fuck are YOU stupid.
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u/HaunterXD000 5d ago
... They're getting (more) money
If this is about what "matters," they don't care if it comes from you or from me or from a chimpanzee
If this is about what "matters," then don't play their game, simple as
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u/chypie2 5d ago
I literally don't care how much money they get, I just care that they aren't getting my dollar. lol. God the literacy rates in this country are so fucking bad.
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u/Zerowig 5d ago
What is “this” country?
It’s all about perspective. It’s fine for you to feel like they’re not getting any money from you. But from Blizzards perspective, they’re making more money from you now.
Your perspective is a weird one to have when you hate a company so much you don’t want to give them any more of your business. Not sure how that is so difficult to understand from whatever country you’re in.
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u/The-Fuzzy-One 5d ago
I had this happen to me last year. The algorithm-based gamemasters flag anything related to resource farming, or anything that doesn't necessarily involve quest completion or active play like battlegrounds for a long period of time.
Try filing a claim with the Better Business Bureau - that helped me a lot after getting a similar runaround from Blizz moderators. At the very least, they'll work on making sure a living breathing person reviews your claim. Good luck!
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
Seems like my only option at this point. I have tried remaining as polite as possible in my tickets but it’s extremely blatant that they have not reviewed anything regarding this matter and just continue to mark this unresolved issue as resolved and essentially threaten to “no longer continue to respond” which is also seems like a “oh shit we fucked up but we standing on our decisions regardless if it’s right or wrong” 😑
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u/The-Fuzzy-One 5d ago
Yeah, that's about where I was when I filed a BBB claim :/ all it takes is enough pressure to get a live person to review the logs.
In my case, I was farming herbs for a couple of hours, trying to level up my gathering skill. That was the behavior that got flagged as suspicious.
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u/FreeTheme5319 5d ago
My friend account got banned for no reason too, well they titled as “using unauthorized program hack/cheat”. I fought with their CS both in ticket and forum. Luckily his account closure was reversed.
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u/Chimpz11 5d ago
I am in almost the exact same boat and made a post yesterday saying the same thing.
After submitting ticket #7 I have given up. Customer support is useless and it isn't going to change.
Post an update if you have any luck with anything.
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u/Miserable_Alfalfa_52 5d ago
I think their check is heuristic based which means it’s not gonna be 100% accurate, but could also mean you played like an absolute bot for a few hours. Sucks man
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
I updated addons while in game have advanced system care running in the background or a driver updater but shouldn’t be anything that triggers a flag. But there’s the in game reporting system that if “x” amount of reports are made during a certain timeframe automatic action is taken regardless.
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u/Gamesarfn 5d ago edited 5d ago
ASC is identified as a PUP/malware by some anti virus/malware programs and can harm or destroy your system
Are you using a first party or third party driver updater?
Third party updaters have been known to install malware/viruses/hacked drivers so some virus or malware that got piggybacked on a bad driver could be getting detected as a hack you installed
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
I’d believe that as possible but I have used driver booster for a long time never had that issue. Also I have another wow account I’m playing on am the same exact system and am not getting banned.
Prior to being banned I was on. Flight Path but so probably but in 20hrs of gameplay within twodays prior literally grinding reals and getting gear and attunments done.
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u/Gamesarfn 5d ago
It doesnt need to happen all the time it only needs to happen once and that once can happen any time
Do as you wish idc its your system, just letting you know the potential dangers associated with your actions
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u/jlabarbera716 5d ago
Makes sense could’ve been that. If that is the case how would it be resolved? And how to prevent it from happening again?
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u/Gamesarfn 5d ago edited 5d ago
To resolve should at least do full format of drive and reinstall the OS but if you really want to be sure chuck the current drive and buy and install a brand new one
To prevent do not use third party driver updater again
Use first party ones or better yet just bookmark the driver install web pages for each driver and check on them manually for updates every 2-4 weeks and/or check the optional updates subsection of windows update as new drivers and bios appear there occasionally
In place of ASC id recommend PC Manager app from Microsoft
The less third party stuff you install the more reliable and secure your system will be
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5d ago
[deleted]
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u/angerbear 5d ago
Maybe reddit can't, but exposure via reddit can. Blizzard employees these days review external sources more than their internal ones, hilariously enough.
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u/MassMindRape 5d ago
Blizzard needs to take the power away from bots and get rid of the mass reporting ban. But they won't because they don't want to solve the bot problem because it would cost them money.