Open letter to STS regarding stolen accounts and scamming

[Shellkaz]

Open Letter to STS Corporate Officers and Developers,*

Dear STS, *

I have 2 requests to make.*

First, I would like to propose that you have someone scheduled to check the support tickets on the weekends. *My reasons for this are as follows:

1) for the 2nd time in less that about 2 months, one of my guild mates has had their account hacked/scammed. *

2) while someone is running around in my guildmates "skin" he/she is free to use his account to hack/scam friends who would possibly believe that this is the real person who owns that toon. *

3) that same person is free to sell/liquidate all of my guildmates gear and transfer his gold to another account, and spend any plat that he may have had. *

4) *STS support would have far fewer requests to restore accounts that have been hacked/scammed because at the first notice of this improper behavior, someone would be able to initiate steps to lock it down.*

5) the emotional distress that I personally have witnessed from players who have had their accounts stolen, would be drastically reduced. Yes, emotional distress is a very real factor these incidents. *I tend to equate it to the effect I felt when my house was burglarized and many personal items were stolen.*

I don't remember how support tickets are set up, but, if there, isn't there could be an option to "report Hack/Scam." That ticket could then be routed to an employee to review for immediate action. *I would suggest freezing the account until normal support can review it in full during normal working hours. *Freezing the account in question would not harm anyone and would prevent the STS community at large from additional hacks and scams. *

The worst that would happen is that the player would be inconvenienced for a couple of days. *I know that *I would be extremely relieved to know that if I put in a "hack/scam" ticket that my account would be locked down. *Yes, i would be inconvenienced for a day or two, but in the long run, *a huge amount of grief would be avoided. and my reputation would remain intact.*

If STS is unable to financially support a part-time employee for weekends, I am willing to volunteer my services. *I also know of at least one other guildmate that would be willing to volunteer as well. *

To give some personal references, in general, I handle the accounts receivable for my company. *I am responsible for the daily deposits of checks and credit card payments to my employers bank account. *I am a notary public for the state of South Carolina and I have passed and still can pass a SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) background check. *

I am a huge supporter of STS and their games. *I strongly believe that you do everything that you can to make fun and enjoyable games that are free to play! *I think that the STS communities are now large enough to warrant someone keeping an eye on the "store' on the weekends. *I believe that the safety and the well being of the STS communities is not just a Monday - Friday, 9-5 job any more. *There is a very unsavory element moving in and they are taking advantage of people to the detriment of the entire community. *I honestly believe that they are taking advantage of the times when no one is minding the "store" *

I'm pleading with you to have someone monitor the support tickets on weekends and after normal business hours. *I don't think it needs to be done 24-7 but until 9 or 10 pm Pacific. *

Now on to my 2nd request: *

Please institute some way for players to earn plat in game. *The free plat offers are great for people who have the ability to download the games and apps that are offered. *However many players can't do that. They may be using android devices. *They may be younglings that are using a parents device and are unable to download apps. *And in a huge number of cases they are players that are from foreign countries that don't have access to credit cards, or iTunes cards. *These are your people who are getting scammed. *They are so desperate for Plat that they will try anything to get some. *Earning a plat a day would be a huge benefit for these players. * It would give them confidence that STS cares about them. *

Maybe something like the daily that we have in DL. *PLEASE don't suggest pre-paid Master or Visa Cards. *People in places in Malaysia *or Indonesia don't have access to them. Younglings may not know how to use one. *Even I have a had difficult time on occasion using one. *STS games are GLOBAL now and supporting the community means, not just supporting the American contingent but the Global community.*

[bronislav84]

I feel for you about the hacking. It's bad and something needs to be done.

Earning plat ingame other than free offers would imbalance the game and people wouldn't buy as much plat. STS can't do that. Also, Android can and is able to earn free plat so take out the reference to Android affecting the ability to do offers it that's what you meant. Android actually gets MORE free offers than iCrap. If that's not what you meant when you said "they may be using Android devices" then I have no idea what that's about.

[zappaxe]

hmm so you mean like a ticket that will "freeze" your account so sts can investigate? it could work.the only problem would be how to activate the "freeze".

free plat not gonna happen :/

[Growwle]

Open Letter to STS Corporate Officers and Developers,*

Dear STS, *

I have 2 requests to make.*

First, I would like to propose that you have someone scheduled to check the support tickets on the weekends. *My reasons for this are as follows:

1) for the 2nd time in less that about 2 months, one of my guild mates has had their account hacked/scammed. *

2) while someone is running around in my guildmates "skin" he/she is free to use his account to hack/scam friends who would possibly believe that this is the real person who owns that toon. *

3) that same person is free to sell/liquidate all of my guildmates gear and transfer his gold to another account, and spend any plat that he may have had. *

4) *STS support would have far fewer requests to restore accounts that have been hacked/scammed because at the first notice of this improper behavior, someone would be able to initiate steps to lock it down.*

5) the emotional distress that I personally have witnessed from players who have had their accounts stolen, would be drastically reduced. Yes, emotional distress is a very real factor these incidents. *I tend to equate it to the effect I felt when my house was burglarized and many personal items were stolen.*

I don't remember how support tickets are set up, but, if there, isn't there could be an option to "report Hack/Scam." That ticket could then be routed to an employee to review for immediate action. *I would suggest freezing the account until normal support can review it in full during normal working hours. *Freezing the account in question would not harm anyone and would prevent the STS community at large from additional hacks and scams. *

The worst that would happen is that the player would be inconvenienced for a couple of days. *I know that *I would be extremely relieved to know that if I put in a "hack/scam" ticket that my account would be locked down. *Yes, i would be inconvenienced for a day or two, but in the long run, *a huge amount of grief would be avoided. and my reputation would remain intact.*

If STS is unable to financially support a part-time employee for weekends, I am willing to volunteer my services. *I also know of at least one other guildmate that would be willing to volunteer as well. *

To give some personal references, in general, I handle the accounts receivable for my company. *I am responsible for the daily deposits of checks and credit card payments to my employers bank account. *I am a notary public for the state of South Carolina and I have passed and still can pass a SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) background check. *

I am a huge supporter of STS and their games. *I strongly believe that you do everything that you can to make fun and enjoyable games that are free to play! *I think that the STS communities are now large enough to warrant someone keeping an eye on the "store' on the weekends. *I believe that the safety and the well being of the STS communities is not just a Monday - Friday, 9-5 job any more. *There is a very unsavory element moving in and they are taking advantage of people to the detriment of the entire community. *I honestly believe that they are taking advantage of the times when no one is minding the "store" *

I'm pleading with you to have someone monitor the support tickets on weekends and after normal business hours. *I don't think it needs to be done 24-7 but until 9 or 10 pm Pacific. *

Now on to my 2nd request: *

Please institute some way for players to earn plat in game. *The free plat offers are great for people who have the ability to download the games and apps that are offered. *However many players can't do that. They may be using android devices. *They may be younglings that are using a parents device and are unable to download apps. *And in a huge number of cases they are players that are from foreign countries that don't have access to credit cards, or iTunes cards. *These are your people who are getting scammed. *They are so desperate for Plat that they will try anything to get some. *Earning a plat a day would be a huge benefit for these players. * It would give them confidence that STS cares about them. *

Maybe something like the daily that we have in DL. *PLEASE don't suggest pre-paid Master or Visa Cards. *People in places in Malaysia *or Indonesia don't have access to them. Younglings may not know how to use one. *Even I have a had difficult time on occasion using one. *STS games are GLOBAL now and supporting the community means, not just supporting the American contingent but the Global community.*

I highly doubt anyone is expending a great deal of resources to hack your STS account. Most likely you password was too simple, or you share your account and someone outside of your circle got your password. As far as payment, I know Google Wallet works, that is similar to PayPal, no idea if you can use it in your country, or if you use Apple, at all. Sucks that this happened to you though.

[captaintuttle]

Advise everyone in your guild to set strong passwords on their accounts, and never share their account email or password with other players! Too simple? Sure, maybe someone knows the email address of another player because they use it to communicate with them too - but if the account has a strong password, it still will be safe. A scammer can not succeed if everyone follows the simple advice we see every time we log in (to not share that information with anyone).

I didn't mean to say the suggestion about account freezing was bad, but that would provide a new way for jerks to interrupt other players' enjoyment of the game and doesn't address the *cause* of the scamming. In the end, everyone has the ability to avoid getting scammed. Best solution is to stop it at the source - don't get scammed!

[StompArtist]

If you don't give me 2k gold, I'll freeze your account over the weekend.

[JaytB]

1) don't share your account/E-mail
2) problem solved

[Rare]

I'm not sure how the account freezing would work. What would happen if... say... two people got into an argument and one person reported the other as possible "account stealing" (I won't say hack because it is not a hack or scam, most likely TOS violations). Then would the "stolen account" get locked down? Who decides? If yes, then this person's account is locked down for x days because another idiot falsely reported?

I do think though, with a game like this there should be some type of weekend support to handle emergency cases.

I also think that people who have their accounts "stolen" should get a 1 week ban (unless it was truly a case of someone guessing a password which may be verifiable with login attempts). To prevent the guessing STS should institute some password filtering.

[Energizeric]

1) don't share your account/E-mail
2) problem solved

Every time you log into PL or go to a new town or dungeon, it tells you not to share your email or password with anyone. If you just follow the simple instructions, you cannot be hacked. Very simple. STS should add a disclaimer that says "if you do not follow these instructions we cannot help with any problems that occur"

[prouzi]

1) don't share your account/E-mail
2) problem solved

Yup, espcially in real life

[Suentous PO]

JaytB has deftly solved problems 1-5. But I had to add, any kind of report that a player can make, that could frieze an acc? NO way. If something could be abused by a random jerk, then it will happen. Maybe I misunderstand what you mean, if so disregard.

[Mothwing]

I don't get how people get "hacked". If someone gets a hold of your account, it's usually because you gave away your email and password.

[Airity]

How are All these people getting Their accounts hacked in the firstplace? People should really rea that white font when the first enter a zone.

[Kraze]

Pretty simple in order to log in you need an email and password. Your password can be "password" if you don't give out your email you can't have you account "stolen" this isn't hacking it's people not using simple common sense. As a result I get that darn disclaimer every time I change zones. IMO the people that have this happen bring it on themselves.

Just my 2 plat

[Samhayne]

In pretty much all cases, account security issues are just that - someone befriends you or tricks you into giving them your account information which results in these sorts of problems.

Never, ever, give out your account information.

We do have weekend ticket support. Contact our Support Team regarding such matters on the web at http://support.spacetimestudios.com