"Important: Your ESOTU Account Needs Action"

yoco007

So I just got this email and I'm not sure if this is real or fake!

Greetings,

We are contacting you to advise you that the game key associated with your The Elder Scrolls® Online: Tamriel Unlimited™ account has been identified as a compromised key that was originally obtained fraudulently and then re-sold to you. Because of this, your account will be deactivated on Tuesday, May 26th. We encourage you to contact the retailer who sold it to you as well as your credit card company for a refund.

To continue playing The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited after May 26, you must either apply a valid game key or purchase the game directly from The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited PC/Mac Store to regain access to your account. All your characters, progress, and other game information will be retained, so after you reactivate your account with a valid key, you can continue your adventures.

We’ve recently seen an increase in the sale of fraudulently obtained digital game keys for The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. Unscrupulous people engaging in this black market activity purchase Steam keys in bulk using stolen credit cards, and then resell them to unsuspecting consumers.

Fraudulently obtained keys obtained via Steam and then re-sold via third-party websites is a violation of both our and Steam’s Terms of Service.

We understand that your characters and progress are important to you, and your account will remain available for use once a new legitimate key is applied. To avoid unknowingly purchasing a stolen digital Steam game key for ESOTU, we urge you to please only purchase digital game keys for ESOTU from official retailers. Please click here to see our list of authorized retailers or visit our online store here.

Email sent from is no_reply@mailmw.custhelp.com I purchased a key on G2A site. Any help appreciated!

ZOS_TristanK

We can assure you that this is a legitimate email, @yoco007eb17_ESO. For more information, you can check out this forum post.

yoco007

Thank you for your fast reply. I sent an email to G2A support team, hopping I get a refound!

Slurg

You'd probably have better luck contacting your credit card company directly for a refund if you are a victim of fraud.

Lots of people have been bragging about getting those cheap keys from G2A. Wonder how many people this impacts.

yoco007

I'll see what G2A will say first, if they won't give me refund, I'll contact my CC support!

petey_popsb16_ESO

I've just sent an email to CDKeys myself. I think Zenimax Online needs to make its authorised sellers list a little easier to access, like actually linking it to the "Buy" page itself.

LameoveR

Of course you never thought why the game price only 30$ instead of 60$...

Slurg

LameoveR wrote: »

Of course you never thought why the game price only 30$ instead of 60$...

Worse, they were actually around $12. I thought about picking up a 2nd account at that price but it just seemed too good to be true so I didn't. Turns out it was fraud. A lot of people did not pass it up though and I'm curious how many of them got caught in this.

ZOS_JasonLeavey

Greetings, @petey_popsb16_ESO. If you'd like to see the full list of authorized retailers, be sure to check out our recent forum post, linked here .

Attorneyatlawl

LameoveR wrote: »

Of course you never thought why the game price only 30$ instead of 60$...

Because, sales on stuff online with anywhere from moderate to out-of-this-world discounts are so rare... /sarcasm. Yep, no reason for sites like slickdeals or fatwallet to exist!

Rosveen

Attorneyatlawl wrote: »

LameoveR wrote: »

Of course you never thought why the game price only 30$ instead of 60$...

Because, sales on stuff online with anywhere from moderate to out-of-this-world discounts are so rare... /sarcasm. Yep, no reason for sites like slickdeals or fatwallet to exist!

Sales from official retailers are fine. Sales from resellers known to have previously engaged in shady practices, even with the same game (explorer's pack keys), with Steam keys obtained in bulk in some mysterious way... What could possibly go wrong?!

iimfallenb14a_ESO

If receiving this email what is the email account that should be sending it would it be the email account "no_reply@mailmw.custhelp.com" or would it be an email such as "email@mailer.elderscrollsonline.com".

Morvannor

About your list of "official retailers". You might want to clean that up. it's a royal mess.
Over half of them can't be found or don't seem to exist.

For anyone in GB looking for a proper price, gamesrocket has the normal version on sale for 20 quid at the moment.

yoco007

Morvannor wrote: »

About your list of "official retailers". You might want to clean that up. it's a royal mess.
Over half of them can't be found or don't seem to exist.

For anyone in GB looking for a proper price, gamesrocket has the normal version on sale for 20 quid at the moment.

If I get a refund soon, definitely buying this one! Tyvm for letting us know!

olsson.marcus2b16_ESO

I got this as well, even though I got my key through PlayGames which is on the green list...

TheDarkShadow

I bought this game a month ago after the "welcome back weekend" for almost 40$ (basic edition) from a 3'rd party. They said it was an old physical box key. I hope Molog Bal curse their soul eternity!

And now the guy above me just said, even a key from a green list seller has problem. I lost my faith with all these 3'rd party sellers now. I want to buy straight from ZOS or Steam now, but the problem is I can't purchase from ZOS store because "You do not qualify for this product." I can't purchase from Steam either because if I do so I can't merge my current account to Steam account, and will lose all in game progress on my current account. Now what ZOS? I really want to PAY for this game, pls show me a way.

Morvannor

TheDarkShadow wrote: »

I bought this game a month ago after the "welcome back weekend" for almost 40$ (basic edition) from a 3'rd party. They said it was an old physical box key. I hope Molog Bal curse their soul eternity!

And now the guy above me just said, even a key from a green list seller has problem. I lost my faith with all these 3'rd party sellers now. I want to buy straight from ZOS or Steam now, but the problem is I can't purchase from ZOS store because "You do not qualify for this product." I can't purchase from Steam either because if I do so I can't merge my current account to Steam account, and will lose all in game progress on my current account. Now what ZOS? I really want to PAY for this game, pls show me a way.

I'm guessing, wait for the 26th, then buy on steam, go into your account page here and insert code. But you might want some ZOS confirmation on that.

And gamesrocket just sold out before I bought a pair darnit. Guess that ends my Tamriel adventures. I should have picked up a pair of boxes when they were in the 50%+ dumping bins everywhere for a tenner instead of waiting for it going b2p and ZOS charging the grand price again.

Lt_Irvine

I'm sorry but this is not great customer service. I understand that if these keys are fraudulent the money may not have gone where it should. However to have a list of retailers the covers the whole of the EU, not broken down by language and not using hyperlinks. It just makes it difficult to trawl through the sites that still exist and have stock to find what I'm looking for. The highest price is to buy it direct from the source. I'd happily purchase this game again once I get my refund but at £50 it just doesn't seem all that reasonable.

Bryndwr_Badmoon

irvine.stuartb16_ESO wrote: »

I'm sorry but this is not great customer service. I understand that if these keys are fraudulent the money may not have gone where it should. However to have a list of retailers the covers the whole of the EU, not broken down by language and not using hyperlinks. It just makes it difficult to trawl through the sites that still exist and have stock to find what I'm looking for. The highest price is to buy it direct from the source. I'd happily purchase this game again once I get my refund but at £50 it just doesn't seem all that reasonable.

This is wonderful customer service. Zenimax could have simply shut down the accounts and given folks no way to access them again, period. Instead, they are making sure that any customer currently affected by this issue that wants to continue playing can do so with the account they've been utilizing. That's above and beyond. Most companies would have closed the accounts, said tough cookies, better luck next time in your purchasing endeavors, and you're free to start a new account if you so please.

Copy/paste one of the names on the list into your browser and it'll do the work for you, and likely pull up the proper site. Be sure it's the right site before entering payment info, etc, or simply purchase through Zenimax for ease of mind, it's up to you, but it's really not all that hard to get through that list without the links being provided for you.

pope_on_dopeb16_ESO

First of all, I'm sorry that this happened and that I was involved since I really didn't expect my key to be stolen from someone, but I have one question: I had the Imperial Edition and is it possible for me now to just buy the normal version and lose the imperial bonuses? Or am I actually restricted to buying the Imperial Edition now, if I want to continue using my account?
Thanks in advance!

pope_on_dopeb16_ESO

And another thing:
After working myself through all of the retailers provided by Bethesda I have to agree with

irvine.stuartb16_ESO wrote: »

I'm sorry but this is not great customer service. I understand that if these keys are fraudulent the money may not have gone where it should. However to have a list of retailers the covers the whole of the EU, not broken down by language and not using hyperlinks. It just makes it difficult to trawl through the sites that still exist and have stock to find what I'm looking for. The highest price is to buy it direct from the source. I'd happily purchase this game again once I get my refund but at £50 it just doesn't seem all that reasonable.

because half of them I didn't find via Google and many of the sites I found actually don't have ESOTU anymore. So, off all the pages, I got around 10 that were actually working after sitting on the PC for one hour. It would be really nice, if somebody could just double-check them officially and just show sites that are available and actually still sell the game.
Thanks!

Subis_Exlibris

I'm sorry but I saw ZERO information about official retailers on the website before I purchased the game, AND I got the notification after a MONTH of playing the game, so at this point I'd rather play the game I was playing before I started my ESO adventure...

timesplitter34b14_ESO

This news bothers me only because most of these 3rd party retailers only hold money back policies for a month, and this is well over a month since purchase. I probably wont get my money back.

Elsonso

timesplitter34b14_ESO wrote: »

This news bothers me only because most of these 3rd party retailers only hold money back policies for a month, and this is well over a month since purchase. I probably wont get my money back.

They may also know they are selling fraudulently obtained keys.

Glierhuin

lordrichter wrote: »

timesplitter34b14_ESO wrote: »

This news bothers me only because most of these 3rd party retailers only hold money back policies for a month, and this is well over a month since purchase. I probably wont get my money back.

They may also know they are selling fraudulently obtained keys.

Many of them most likely know that.

Also, affected people might consider changing their purchase strategy. Running a search engine search for "cheap ESO keys" and picking the lowest price is most likely not the safest way to get a legitimate copy. The first site you visit should always be the website of the game itself imo.

Getting a refund might not work, but in this case a chargeback directly trough your bank / paypal would be a reasonable step. It was fraud after all. Just be aware that you might get your account locked for that website, as they won't be happy with this kind of transaction.

Glurin

yoco007eb17_ESO wrote: »

I'll see what G2A will say first, if they won't give me refund, I'll contact my CC support!

Probably a good idea to contact your credit card company anyway and inform them that it was a fraudulent purchase. Or, more specifically, that you found out it was stolen goods. They like to keep an eye on that sort of thing, so if they get a bunch of reports about a specific retailer they'll red flag it.

SilvaNights

This hasn't directly affected me, but find it has sullied my want to continue playing this game.
I know several players who are in this position and it has left a bad taste in my mouth.

People will say that they got it cheaper so they should've paid the full £50 in the first place, but I do not think that is an excuse for them to be put in this position by Zenimax.

It is nice of Zenimax to allow them to keep their accounts and experience points etc if they get another key but I don't think it is right to take their game access away from them because the seller was acting fraudulently and not the buyer.

I myself as a buyer would not be aware if the keys were obtained illegally, I also would not be aware of the T&C's that make this fraudulent either, I am simply a buyer who would want to purchase this game for the best price (and who doesn't want to purchase something at the best price).

Elsonso

SilvaNights wrote: »

It is nice of Zenimax to allow them to keep their accounts and experience points etc if they get another key but I don't think it is right to take their game access away from them because the seller was acting fraudulently and not the buyer.

I myself as a buyer would not be aware if the keys were obtained illegally, I also would not be aware of the T&C's that make this fraudulent either, I am simply a buyer who would want to purchase this game for the best price (and who doesn't want to purchase something at the best price).

Purchasing illegally obtained merchandise is not a trivial matter. If the buyer knew it was illegally obtained, that purchase is also illegal. If the buyer did not know, the merchandise is still fraudulent and most places will not let the buyer keep it.

Bethesda Softworks (publisher) is probably footing the bill for all of these fraudulent copies of the game. The player is in the game but Bethesda has received no money from the account holder. They have not paid Bethesda for the game. The player payed a criminal for the license, directly or indirectly.

Bethesda is also a victim in this crime, right along with the account holder. Bethesda has every right to just ban the player and lock the account. They are not choosing to take this approach by allowing the player to purchase the license in a manner where Bethesda gets the money instead of some criminal. This has the best chance to recover some of Bethesda's lost revenue.

Yeah, it is unfortunate that the player purchased an illegal copy of the game. The fact that they did not know it was illegal does not make it right. Bethesda is still out the money for the license, and that is the only thing that they are asking in return for unlimited (in time) play.

TheDarkShadow

Anyone tried to add a new key yet? Mine said "You are not qualify for this product" when I try to redeem a new one. Do I have to wait till Thursday?

yoco007

TheDarkShadow wrote: »

Anyone tried to add a new key yet? Mine said "You are not qualify for this product" when I try to redeem a new one. Do I have to wait till Thursday?

Did you get a refund for your old key

TheDarkShadow

yoco007eb17_ESO wrote: »

TheDarkShadow wrote: »

Anyone tried to add a new key yet? Mine said "You are not qualify for this product" when I try to redeem a new one. Do I have to wait till Thursday?

Did you get a refund for your old key

No, my seller gave me another key, said this time they bought it from a green list supplier. Idk what to believe anymore but... giving them another chance.