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Man's PSN account banned for life after being hacked - Sony can't unban

Mugatu

Mugatu

Member
Lock if old (searched for video) please.

Lost 5 years of PS+ and all of his PS4 games (all digital) as well as his digital pre-orders.

He doesn't reveal the details but mentions that he no longer has his PS3 so I wonder if maybe he forgot to clear the info from that and that is how his account was compromised?

Either way, there should be a way for Sony to unlock an account and return it to the rightful owner but it doesn't really sound like there is. He was on season 3 of The Tester so I assume he has some contacts who he tried to work with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WztmKosuVE8
 
D

Detective

Member
Poor guy.

Hope they can refund him for the games at least. To much money down the drain.

Technology, One step forward, three steps back.
 
H

Hamster Plugin

Member
Sony really needs to make two-step authentication happen. I keep hearing about all those FIFA hacks and it makes me fear for my account(s) a little.
 
S

Sparrowhawk

Member
I would probably quit games forever if my PSN/Steam account got compromised.
That, or regress to the PS2/Gamecube and previous gens.
 
Mugatu

Mugatu

Member
Miles Quaritch said:
Can't watch the video. What reason did they did for not being able to urban him?

Seems strange.
Click to expand...

He doesn't really go into the specifics but says that his account was hacked and he thanks Sony's community manager and Sony for helping him figure out what happened but for some reason they can't unlock his account.

I'm hoping that as time goes on someone at the PSN can figure it out and help him because I really can't see how it would be impossible to get his stuff back to him. Either that or there's more to this story, who knows?
 
2

2thepoint

Junior Member
This is scary.

I buy almost all games digitally for PS4.

Man Sony would be in big trouble if my account was just lost like that.
 
S

Sparrowhawk

Member
Mugatu said:
He doesn't really go into the specifics but says that his account was hacked and he thanks Sony's community manager and Sony for helping him figure out what happened but for some reason they can't unlock his account.

I'm hoping that as time goes on someone at the PSN can figure it out and help him because I really can't see how it would be impossible to get his stuff back to him. Either that or there's more to this story, who knows?
Click to expand...

The guy is a huge fanboy. It would suck to lose all of those trophies, but the least they could do (if they really can't give him his old account back) is at least give him PSN credit for all of his games.
 
Mugatu

Mugatu

Member
Sparrowhawk said:
The guy is a huge fanboy. It would suck to lose all of those trophies, but the least they could do (if they really can't give him his old account back) is at least give him PSN credit for all of his games.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking - at least they could (and should) gift him the games he lost on his new account. But hopefully someone just unlocks his account, I don't see why that would be "impossible."
 
A

aussiedude08

Member
Man that sucks. What a fucking asshole who hacked him. He is taking it better than most would. I wonder if some people will donate mo ey or something to him to get skme games back.
 
Ray Wonder

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
The "There's nothing we can do" mentality is bullshit. They need to work it out. We spend money on your platform. If this ever happens to me, and they say "There's nothing we can do", I'm causing a scene. If he doesn't get his account back, something needs to be done legally to prevent this from happening again.

I have probably spent close to or over $5000 on digital games in the past 6-7 years on PC, PSN, and Xbox Live. If I lost all of that, I would be furious.
 
D

Dr_LucienSanchez

Banned
Christ, that's awful. I'd be shocked if there really isn't some way to reverse the ban though, or at least restore the purchases to a different account.

jtightbabytooth is like the best name ever though.
 
I

immortal-joe

Member
I always say the best thing to do in these situations is to spread the word and get some more voices supporting you online. Once it gets loud enough, the company in question should be forced to respond in some way.

If he got wronged here, I'm hopeful this will get resolved eventually.
 
E

Enco

Member
In situations like these, where a company wrongs you, the only chance you have is to cause a HUGE scene.

Paypal/Sony/Microsoft/any big company doesn't give a shit until you pull a publicity stunt that makes them look bad.

It's terrible.

If something like this ever happens to me, I'm going to GAF/Twitter/Reddit and any other site that can have me.

edit: Was painful when he was going through all his games that showed up as locked.......
 
Ray Wonder

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
immortal-joe said:
I always say the best thing to do in these situations is to spread the word and get some more voices supporting you online. Once it gets loud enough, the company in question should be forced to respond in some way.

If he got wronged here, I'm hopeful this will get resolved eventually.
Click to expand...

It shouldn't have to be like that, but you're right. It's a shame that there has to be public outcry for a business to take notice.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
There is no way this is "can't"... This is "won't". Even if they deleted everything about his account from the server, there would be backups available to them.

The question is why they won't... and I'd imagine this has more to do with him then Sony. All we have is things from his side, nothing official from Sony. All I'm hearing is him gush about how much of a sony fan he is and that 'somehow' his account was hacked and his account got banned...

Nope nope, sorry something really stinks about all of this and I'm not willing to jump on the victim's side blindly... If you've been on Neogaf longer than a few months, you should know not to do so as well. How many times have we seen threads like these back fire?
 
Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck

Member
Wouldn't be surprised if he sold his PS3 and the person that bought it jailbroke the console and then used it online getting his ID banned.
 
Mugatu

Mugatu

Member
ReBurn said:
How much trouble are we talking about?
Click to expand...

That's kind of what I'm wondering too - is there any precedent for a company being sued for something like this? I'm not saying Sony should be sued but I'm wondering just what exactly our "rights" are when it comes to digital purchases and accounts and things like that.

And by that I mean court tested rights not what "should" be right or possible. As far as I know this has never really been pushed that far so it's still a somewhat gray area. Like if they didn't care about the bad publicity and just defended themselves vehemently, where would we stand?

I'll admit that I usually don't go digital because I'm too worried about a game not being good to commit to lifetime ownership without the possibility of selling it or trading it in but this is a concern as well, albeit a small one for me personally.
 
Dredd97

Dredd97

Member
Ray Wonder said:
The "There's nothing we can do" mentality is bullshit. They need to work it out. We spend money on your platform. If this ever happens to me, and they say "There's nothing we can do", I'm causing a scene. If he doesn't get his account back, something needs to be done legally to prevent this from happening again.

I have probably spent close to or over $5000 on digital games in the past 6-7 years on PC, PSN, and Xbox Live. If I lost all of that, I would be furious.
Click to expand...

You are aware you 'technically' don't own those games and their only as viable as the servers their stored on... (Steam is the lesser here, as pc games will shift between PCs but consoles not so much)...
 
S

Shadow2222

Member
This is terrible if all of the details are accurate. I love buying digitally, but things like this make me second guess myself.
 
S

Sparrowhawk

Member
Mugatu said:
That's kind of what I'm wondering too - is there any precedent for a company being sued for something like this? I'm not saying Sony should be sued but I'm wondering just what exactly our "rights" are when it comes to digital purchases and accounts and things like that.

And by that I mean court tested rights not what "should" be right or possible. As far as I know this has never really been pushed that far so it's still a somewhat gray area. Like if they didn't care about the bad publicity and just defended themselves vehemently, where would we stand?

I'll admit that I usually don't go digital because I'm too worried about a game not being good to commit to lifetime ownership without the possibility of selling it or trading it in but this is a concern as well, albeit a small one for me personally.
Click to expand...

In this guys case, if he actually did "gameshare" (did not know that was a thing lol), then he wasn't "hacked" - he gave someone his account information willingly. If this is the case, then it's really all his fault. Sure, it's sad, but I'm sure he knew the risks.
 
Mugatu

Mugatu

Member
S

spwolf

Member
Mugatu said:
Lock if old (searched for video) please.

Lost 5 years of PS+ and all of his PS4 games (all digital) as well as his digital pre-orders.

He doesn't reveal the details but mentions that he no longer has his PS3 so I wonder if maybe he forgot to clear the info from that and that is how his account was compromised?

Either way, there should be a way for Sony to unlock an account and return it to the rightful owner but it doesn't really sound like there is. He was on season 3 of The Tester so I assume he has some contacts who he tried to work with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WztmKosuVE8
Click to expand...

how exactly do you prove it wasnt you that caused the ban?
 
L

Lirrik

Member
I am not that surprised they can't undo their own ban. They can't even come up with PSN ID change because of "database architecture" reasons. Anyone who graduated in CS knows it's an awful way to design a database.
 
A

Adam M

Member
Sony should work harder on security, very often we can hear security issues with PSN. Also it sounds like Sony don't care about that, don't want to help him. They could help but they don't want to.

Poor dude, but he seems he don't know if he buys something digitally then he don't own the stuff.
This new cloud stored world is bad if we look at that from the security side.
And since we started using our finger print as password now I'm afraid I won't finish my life with 20 fingers.

If someone knows this guy then please report if there is something new in that account stuff.
 
I

immortal-joe

Member
Ray Wonder said:
It shouldn't have to be like that, but you're right. It's a shame that there has to be public outcry for a business to take notice.
Click to expand...

It's the sad reality of the situation. It's not like there's a team at Sony drinking tea while looking at his banned account and going "fuck'em". They work according to the priorities they see present before them. If and when this case gains traction online, it turns into a higher priority problem for them to address, and hopefully resolve.
 
Liamario

Liamario

Banned
My issue is with having single player games locked out. That's disgusting and I'd take it to court.

Also, why should he get special treatment?
 
D

darkwing

Member
kirbasin said:
I am not that surprised they can't undo their own ban. They can't even come up with PSN ID change because of "database architecture" reasons. Anyone who graduated in CS knows it's an awful way to design a database.
Click to expand...

I think the PSN ID is the unique key, which is a terrible way to design a database
 
D

Death Metalist

Member
giphy.gif


Damn, scary shit. It's pretty ironic as well that he was the guy in the Tester. Hopefully his problems get solved in some miracle or something.
 
D

Deadpool_X

Banned
Sidewinder said:
Dat digital future looks so bright doesn't it?

Poor dude.
Click to expand...

This isn't a problem with the "digital future" as you call it as much as it is a problem with Sony's currently outdated policies. Before the industry goes digital, Sony, MS, and Nintendo need to fix their policies and stances on stuff like this.
 
P

Phoenix Fang

Banned
Yeah that awesome digital future.

Deadpool_X said:
This isn't a problem with the "digital future" as you call it as much as it is a problem with Sony's currently outdated policies. Before the industry goes digital, Sony, MS, and Nintendo need to fix their policies and stances on stuff like this.
Click to expand...

But it is a problem with digital thou.
 
Ray Wonder

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Dredd97 said:
You are aware you 'technically' don't own those games and their only as viable as the servers their stored on... (Steam is the lesser here, as pc games will shift between PCs but consoles not so much)...
Click to expand...

Yes I am, that doesn't change anything in my eyes. If I spend money on your platform, it is your responsibility to make sure that content is available to me. If I have been wrongfully banned. Legally, you should be obligated to unban me. If that's not the case, then something needs to be changed.
 
A

Aroll

Member
Sucks... points for Nintendo though? I had my original NNID account hacked and lost all my digital stuff on it, but one phone call and a week later of it being sent up the ladder and I got my account back and totally unbanned.
 
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