Sexual harrasment--player is back

Scarletblaze

zos did nothing to resolve the sexual harassment issue. the person just made a new account and messaged me. just reported it AGAIN. can someone from zos please respond?

Scarletblaze

here is previous thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/6874118#Comment_6874118

Scarletblaze

@ZOS_Adrikoth please respond

Artorias24

Kinda hard to prevent someone from creating a new Account. Only Hardware ban is maybe preventing it but he could also use new Hardware and bypass this.

Only solution is to report him and put him on ignore. No need to spam the Forum and ZOS will never tell you details on the Actions done to a player.

Mythreindeer

Ignore and report. What else can you do. Unfortunately you've made yourself a target. Engaging an idiot in the first place is such a huge mistake in a place like MMO chat.

Scarletblaze

reporting is not fixing issue and blocking does not either...they bypass the block by hopping onto another account. sure, i can block that account but this has been going on for YEARS with this person. soooo many females have reported/blocked him. i get a message from him today and reported/blocked him. why go to forums? because zos needs to address this issue.

Scarletblaze

my forum name is not the same as my @ name so how does that make me a target?

Gundug

If this has been going on for years and is widespread among other women, I suggest getting actual law enforcement to look into this. Give them any evidence you have and ask the other women to do the same, and hopefully they can take action against this person.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO

I am always sorry to see things like this happen, but some people are just ugly, and any online game is somewhat of a breeding ground and playpen for creeps. At least the nice people seem to be the overwhelming majority in ESO.

The bright side is that making a new account will cost that person money and effort, while your cost of blocking them from any in-game interaction with you is just one right click. One click, and they are gone. Yes, at least one ugly message will get through for every new account they create, and I am not saying that this is an "acceptable level of discomfort", but you have a very, very strong advantage in terms of effort, speed and cost to keep them at bay, compared to the work they need to put in for their pathetic attempts at continuing to harass you.

Scarletblaze

how is it streamers and 'toxic' players can get perma banned but sexual predators don't?

Nairinhe

Scarletblaze wrote: »

reporting is not fixing issue and blocking does not either...they bypass the block by hopping onto another account. sure, i can block that account but this has been going on for YEARS with this person. soooo many females have reported/blocked him. i get a message from him today and reported/blocked him. why go to forums? because zos needs to address this issue.

What could ZOS do? The only thing that would guarantee that someone wouldn't just use new account/IP address/whatever is, pardon me, physically removing said person. So if getting IRL law involved is an option, I'd go that way.

Inaya

Gundug wrote: »

If this has been going on for years and is widespread among other women, I suggest getting actual law enforcement to look into this. Give them any evidence you have and ask the other women to do the same, and hopefully they can take action against this person.

Yep, time for law enforcement. ZOS can do nothing but ban an account at which point this person would just start another. sounds more like a stalker and it's time you started documenting each instance with screenshots, dates and times.

Do some research on stalking in your area, maybe even make a couple phone calls to see what options you have.

ghost_bg_ESO

Scarletblaze wrote: »

how is it streamers and 'toxic' players can get perma banned but sexual predators don't?

'toxic' players and cheater get ban if i'm not mistaken 72 hours or perma ban to accounts, and even they create new accounts they have 'learned their lesson'... most of the times. ZOS has no legal right to do perma ban to person neither tools. Only accounts they can perma ban.

Scarletblaze

this player is from eu and im from usa...so do i report to my local law? is there really no way for zos to enforce their own TOS?

starkerealm

ghost_bg_ESO wrote: »

ZOS has no legal right to do perma ban to person neither tools.

ESO EULA wrote:

7. Termination.

This Agreement starts at the time you accept this Agreement and it will remain effective until terminated. You may terminate the Agreement at any time by (i) permanently destroying all copies of the Game in your possession or control and (ii) removing the Game Client from your hard drive. ZeniMax may terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason or no reason (including at such time as ZeniMax elects to discontinue offering the Game). Upon termination by ZeniMax for any reason, all licenses granted herein and in the ZeniMax Terms of Service with respect to the Game that is the subject of this Agreement shall immediately terminate and you must immediately do (i) and (ii) above. Termination for no reason will be communicated to you by ZeniMax.

They have the legal right to terminate your account at will. This can include because the person behind the account was previously banned from another account for violating the Terms of Service.

Now, you're partially correct that they don't have the tools, and this can turn into a game of whack-a-mole as they try to keep up with someone jumping accounts... but, as their accounts get waxed, they're incurring a financial loss with each account (unless they've been compromising other accounts, which is also bannable.)

On topic, I've always gotten personalized responses when reporting sexual harassment in chat. So, the moderation team certainly does pay more attention to them. I'm not sure what's going on in this case, or how this individual is getting through.

Scarletblaze

why has there been zero response from zos about this?

SpacemanSpiff1

Scarletblaze wrote: »

why has there been zero response from zos about this?

it's still quite early for zos.

starkerealm

Scarletblaze wrote: »

why has there been zero response from zos about this?

If you mean, this particular thread, because, outside of a couple moderators, the community team is, literally, asleep, or (by now) getting ready for work.

You posted this at 6am Eastern. That's before most of the team is going to be awake and working.

If you mean in the larger context, I'd like the answer to that as well. I suspect some of it is because this individual is difficult to identify beforehand, and the process for removal takes time. But, I don't have all the information, so I don't know what's going on.

Sephyr

@Scarletblaze, if you're able to do an account name change for your @ handle in the game - that'd be a step in the right direction to protect yourself where ZoS can't. I know someone who had to do similar because unfortunately ZoS doesn't really do anything about it. They rely on the current system in place which is not only faulty (you can get grouped with people you ignore in the group finder), it's also not effective when you have a serial harasser. IE; base game accounts are rather inexpensive, especially considering third party sellers, etc.

The other would be to also rename your characters as well, which is costly, my friend personally re-rolled all of their characters completely aside from the three they could change for free (when we got the tokens). Ultimately, that's an option I'd consider. If you have a character/several characters that you want specific achievements and what not, save them until you have the crowns to do that, but rarely log on those. If you do, hide offline until you can get those names changed when you swap to those characters. I know that that's a lot, but at this point there's not much ZoS can do since all they have to do is log into a different account.

If you're not able to change your @ name in game, I'd research some ways on how you can/if you can. If they're on console, get as much information of the person in question, their handle in game, and start going that route to report them to Microsoft or Sony.

I also agree with the others. Document each instance, turn matters into police if/as necessary. Serial harassers are essentially stalkers.

With others stating that just to 'ignore' and 'move on', this is unfortunately something that isn't possible as they've already ignored one account and came back with another. It took my friend a long time to get back where they felt 'safe' to play the game again because this person would try to pressure us to give out the new username.

Either way, OP, what ever you decide - good luck. Hopefully that person learns to leave you alone.

Sephyr

starkerealm wrote: »

ghost_bg_ESO wrote: »

ZOS has no legal right to do perma ban to person neither tools.

ESO EULA wrote:

7. Termination.

This Agreement starts at the time you accept this Agreement and it will remain effective until terminated. You may terminate the Agreement at any time by (i) permanently destroying all copies of the Game in your possession or control and (ii) removing the Game Client from your hard drive. ZeniMax may terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason or no reason (including at such time as ZeniMax elects to discontinue offering the Game). Upon termination by ZeniMax for any reason, all licenses granted herein and in the ZeniMax Terms of Service with respect to the Game that is the subject of this Agreement shall immediately terminate and you must immediately do (i) and (ii) above. Termination for no reason will be communicated to you by ZeniMax.

They have the legal right to terminate your account at will. This can include because the person behind the account was previously banned from another account for violating the Terms of Service.

Now, you're partially correct that they don't have the tools, and this can turn into a game of whack-a-mole as they try to keep up with someone jumping accounts... but, as their accounts get waxed, they're incurring a financial loss with each account (unless they've been compromising other accounts, which is also bannable.)

On topic, I've always gotten personalized responses when reporting sexual harassment in chat. So, the moderation team certainly does pay more attention to them. I'm not sure what's going on in this case, or how this individual is getting through.

I'm thinking they have a new account by the sound of it. Potentially new hardware or location? It's hard to say. Persistent people like this will always find a way to circumvent things and it's not exactly hard to find out how, unfortunately.

starkerealm

Sephyr wrote: »

@Scarletblaze, if you're able to do an account name change for your @ handle in the game - that'd be a step in the right direction to protect yourself where ZoS can't.

If you're on PC this is actually trivial. It just involves a trip to the account page. I revised my alt account's @name a couple years ago, when I realized I'd accidentally named it after my personal email account, and didn't want that in the wild.

Additionally, on the subject of renaming your characters, you might want to get a dialog going with customer support, and request that they flag each of your characters for a forced name change. This will spare you having to spend up to 180 bucks to escape this individual.

starkerealm

Sephyr wrote: »

I'm thinking they have a new account by the sound of it. Potentially new hardware or location? It's hard to say. Persistent people like this will always find a way to circumvent things and it's not exactly hard to find out how, unfortunately.

Yep. Like I said, "whack-a-mole." I'd say, "I'm not sure why Customer Support doesn't have a prepared response," but I know the answer. It's two-fold, first because of the danger of someone learning about the situation and then exploiting it for retribution, and also because CS is still a bureaucratic system, and specific cases like this can escape detection, especially if the CS team is working from home and have limited communication with each other.

Which is incredibly unfortunate.

Sephyr

starkerealm wrote: »

Sephyr wrote: »

@Scarletblaze, if you're able to do an account name change for your @ handle in the game - that'd be a step in the right direction to protect yourself where ZoS can't.

If you're on PC this is actually trivial. It just involves a trip to the account page. I revised my alt account's @name a couple years ago, when I realized I'd accidentally named it after my personal email account, and didn't want that in the wild.

Additionally, on the subject of renaming your characters, you might want to get a dialog going with customer support, and request that they flag each of your characters for a forced name change. This will spare you having to spend up to 180 bucks to escape this individual.

Yeah. That's why I suggested it. I did it as well in the case of my friend, thankfully their stalker didn't know any of my character names and none of my usernames are the same as they are in game, even from before.

I will say though, if it's PC - you'll have to redo all your addon settings, but that's the price to pay with that. Just let guild officers/guild leaders, and relevant people you can trust that you're changing your name/characters and that's that.

I didn't think about that with the renames though. That's handy information to know. Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't a thread about stuff like this already.

Pauls

Why bring drama and witch hunt on forum? Block, report and move on

Sephyr

starkerealm wrote: »

Sephyr wrote: »

I'm thinking they have a new account by the sound of it. Potentially new hardware or location? It's hard to say. Persistent people like this will always find a way to circumvent things and it's not exactly hard to find out how, unfortunately.

Yep. Like I said, "whack-a-mole." I'd say, "I'm not sure why Customer Support doesn't have a prepared response," but I know the answer. It's two-fold, first because of the danger of someone learning about the situation and then exploiting it for retribution, and also because CS is still a bureaucratic system, and specific cases like this can escape detection, especially if the CS team is working from home and have limited communication with each other.

Which is incredibly unfortunate.

Indeed. And with the added layer of anonymity, it makes investigating it a bit harder. I mean I can't exactly fault them. While the system is outdated where ignored folks can appear in your group finder groups, it's better than how some MMOs has theirs set up where you had to ignore them per character. That I'd imagine would be an even worse nightmare.

starkerealm

Sephyr wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Sephyr wrote: »

@Scarletblaze, if you're able to do an account name change for your @ handle in the game - that'd be a step in the right direction to protect yourself where ZoS can't.

If you're on PC this is actually trivial. It just involves a trip to the account page. I revised my alt account's @name a couple years ago, when I realized I'd accidentally named it after my personal email account, and didn't want that in the wild.

Additionally, on the subject of renaming your characters, you might want to get a dialog going with customer support, and request that they flag each of your characters for a forced name change. This will spare you having to spend up to 180 bucks to escape this individual.

Yeah. That's why I suggested it. I did it as well in the case of my friend, thankfully their stalker didn't know any of my character names and none of my usernames are the same as they are in game, even from before.

I will say though, if it's PC - you'll have to redo all your addon settings, but that's the price to pay with that. Just let guild officers/guild leaders, and relevant people you can trust that you're changing your name/characters and that's that.

I didn't think about that with the renames though. That's handy information to know. Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't a thread about stuff like this already.

To be clear, I've never heard of Customer Support doing that, however it is something their tools allow. So, it's not exactly solution that you'd normally see advertised.

Normally, changing your @name would be enough to throw people off.

starkerealm

Pauls wrote: »

Why bring drama and witch hunt on forum? Block, report and move on

This isn't a witchhunt. No names have been given. However, sometimes issues leak over onto the forums when CS drops the ball. So, if this can get attention on the problem, it's a valuable action.

JobooAGS

Whoever who is doing this to her, this is really sad. You really have enough time and dedication to peform illegal activies on a platform that is designed to be for entertainment? I would be surprised if law enforcement hasn't intervined for something as repeative (and offensive) as this, but after hearing what happened to a few of my friends, it is really sad (and infuriating) that it is the case. I hope you enjoy your eventual ban.

Sephyr

starkerealm wrote: »

Sephyr wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Sephyr wrote: »

@Scarletblaze, if you're able to do an account name change for your @ handle in the game - that'd be a step in the right direction to protect yourself where ZoS can't.

If you're on PC this is actually trivial. It just involves a trip to the account page. I revised my alt account's @name a couple years ago, when I realized I'd accidentally named it after my personal email account, and didn't want that in the wild.

Additionally, on the subject of renaming your characters, you might want to get a dialog going with customer support, and request that they flag each of your characters for a forced name change. This will spare you having to spend up to 180 bucks to escape this individual.

Yeah. That's why I suggested it. I did it as well in the case of my friend, thankfully their stalker didn't know any of my character names and none of my usernames are the same as they are in game, even from before.

I will say though, if it's PC - you'll have to redo all your addon settings, but that's the price to pay with that. Just let guild officers/guild leaders, and relevant people you can trust that you're changing your name/characters and that's that.

I didn't think about that with the renames though. That's handy information to know. Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't a thread about stuff like this already.

To be clear, I've never heard of Customer Support doing that, however it is something their tools allow. So, it's not exactly solution that you'd normally see advertised.

Normally, changing your @name would be enough to throw people off.

It usually does. In the case of my friend, the stalker knew all of my friend's character names. Which my friend just changed what they could and rerolled the rest. Aside from levels, nothing of total value was lost since their achievements are all on their mains. They even rolled different classes and changed outfits, left guilds that their stalker knew they were in. It was a rather long and tedious process, but it stopped the person from learning my friend's identity and they're much more comfortable in the game now.

And yeah, I get that with not hearing about CS doing it. It'd be nice if they did, that'd definitely help out the OP some if their stalker knows their character names.

starkerealm wrote: »

Pauls wrote: »

Why bring drama and witch hunt on forum? Block, report and move on

This isn't a witchhunt. No names have been given. However, sometimes issues leak over onto the forums when CS drops the ball. So, if this can get attention on the problem, it's a valuable action.

I'd also hope that some information would be helpful for others who might be encountering the same things. I know when I was helping my friend search, it was hard to find anything so I just helped them kind of come up with their own game plan and help out where I could. It took a while, but they got there.

Scarletblaze

the thing is, i should NOT have to change my in game @ name just because zos won't hold up their end of tos. again, i blocked and reported this player. im sure he will get around that too.

ZOS_Adrikoth

Greetings @Scarletblaze

Could you please provide us with the ticket number of your report? You should be able to find it in the "My Support" tab when logged into our help site. This way we can make sure that it is in the right spot and that the proper team investigates.