A copy of my post to Usenet, to bring you all up to date and to let
you know that my singing voice has returned and I can return to the
singing, smiling, dancing, playing bard that I used to be ;-)
....
Some of you may remember my post earlier this week about the loss of
all my valuable items and equipment due to what appeared to be some
unauthorised access to my EQ account. For those that missed the
message, I've attached it below.
I am pleased to be able to report back to you all the results of my
discussions with the senior GM administrator for the server and the
outcome for me personally.
It took a few days, a couple of emails and some patience before I got
to speak to the GM in person on Friday night (curse me for living in
England, it seems, and needing to go to bed at a reasonable time
during the week!) However, my conversation with the GM was polite,
courteous and friendly.
The outcome was that my characters were restored to the last backup,
my items and money have now broadly been restored to me and I feel
significantly happier in myself and about Verant as a whole than I did
at the start of the week.
One negative side effect was that I lost the level I gained during
Sunday, but that can be more easily recovered.
Unfortunately, it appears that Verant are unable to trace the person
who gained access to my account and so no action can be taken against
them. If anything useful has come out of this, I hope it will be that
the security logs in place at the station/Verant/wherever can be
altered so that an IP address, or the CD key is recorded and therefore
an individual account access can be properly traced to the owner.
I still have no firm idea of how the access could have happened.
There is a possibility that my character screen was simply presented
to another use in one of those rare hiccups that computers have
<cough> but whether this is repeatable I don't know. I haven't looked
around the station much to see if you can obtain a list of user
identities and then try to guess/brute force the password. But at
this stage, I have changed my password so it is no longer a dictionary
word, and I will shortly find a way to change my station ID.
So, to me this is a very happy ending to a long week in EQ. I would
like to publically thank Brother Xave on Mithaniel Marr for his
assistance and help in resolving this matter. I would also like to
express my deepest thanks to the people who emailed me, and especially
those in the game, who offered me (a total stranger) support and money
to help me out without any thoughts of a guaranteed recovery. Some of
my lost faith in humanity has been restored. To those that I was able
to accept your offer, I am now in a position to more than return the
value you gave me, and to offer a similar kindness should this happen
to you.
On Mon, 23 Aug 1999 22:02:28 GMT,
email@...
(Melaniel) wrote:
>
>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 (20), Mith Marr server
Melaniel
Wood Elf Bard (11), Mith Marr server