A copy of a post I have just made to Usenet for information (and a few
notes of sympathy and support for a poor bard losing all her stuff
would be appreciated ;-)

The story begins ....

Sunday night, after a reasonably successful day my wizard returns to
Freeport, does her bits and pieces in the city and then returns to the
West gate to camp for the night. Roughly 8pm my time.

Sometime earlier, my bard has already had a look out, and has camped
at about the same spot in West Freeport.

Monday night .... after a day at work, I return home to log in and
take out my frustrations on the orcs, goblins and other meanies of
Norrath. I get to the character screen and decide to take the bard
out for a run.

Strange. The character model is naked except for the lute. Oh well,
maybe it got corrupted somehow, so I select enter world.

Strange. I'm standing at the counter in the Freeport bank. I didn't
park here the last time. Press inventory.

Even stranger. Where have all my armour and weapons gone? <insert
growing concern> Check the bank manager.

Oh dear. <insert sinking feeling> Where has all my money gone?

Immediately camp. Check my other characters on the screen. Wizard is
also naked. Other 2 throwaway characters seem to be untouched. So I
enter the world as my wizard.

Same routine ... I don't remember camping at the same counter in the
Freeport bank. Oh look, armour and equipment seems to have
disappeared. And yes, so has all my money in the bank.

<insert a thump as I can't sink any lower>

And then I get to thinking. Well, no one else has physical access to
my computer, let alone knowledge of my station ID or password. My CD
is safely locked away, the account key long since forgotten or known
outside of this room.

I certainly did not give away the equipment and money. And especially
not on both my main characters.

I think for a while and can't come up with any other reasonable
explanation ....my account has been accessed without my knowledge or
consent, and all my bits and pieces have been "donated" away to
persons unknown.

At this stage, I phone Verant (or whoever). Spend a good half hour in
a queue on the customer support only to be told I should have phoned
tech support. <sigh - at least it's the same the world over> Phone
tech support .... I should petition and speak to the GM on the server.
Yes I already did the petition thing, no one was on. So I was
provided with the Mith Marr administrator's email address, and
promptly sent an email off to him/her. I also logged in, went round
killing the lowest of the low beasts in an attempt to recover some
money, and then eventually sat in W Freeport and waited. But it is
time for me to log, and I shall have to seek a solution via email.

This is simply an information sharing posting, to warn people that it
is possible for such things to happen. As far as I'm concerned, my
account was compromised, I can see no other explanation for it. My
only hope is that the logs retained by the administrators will
demonstrate the time my account was accessed, the IP address used, and
hopefully the EQ account key used. This will at least provide a trace
to the person responsible and <fingers crossed> remove them from the
game. If I have lost my money and equipment, so be it, my life still
continues, perhaps somewhat disappointed, and certainly demotivated
for tonight at least.

I would welcome any other reasonable suggestions that could explain
what has happened. People lose equpiment and money to bugs quite a
bit, however having both characters standing at the counter in the
Freeport bank cannot be explained by a bug. I am simply at a loss to
explain it in any other way than an unauthorised account use.

Anyway, throwing it open to the rather more well-informed crowd ......

--

Saldara
High Elf Wizard (21), Mith Marr server

Melaniel
Wood Elf Bard (11), Mith Marr server