Your account has been permanently deactivated

Archer_V · June 18

On June 16th, I was able to log into the game without any problems. Yesterday, when I tried to log in, I saw a message saying my account was blocked. I also can't access my account settings on the website. I haven't received any notifications or warnings. My inbox is empty. Yesterday, I sent a support request, registered under number 260617-000134. I haven't received any response. I understand that questions are processed automatically, so I decided to write here because it's really important to me. I've been playing since December 2016, almost 10 years almost daily. During this time, I've had no problems with other players or the administrators. I just play the game, complete daily quests, go to trials, and rarely post in chat. I stopped PvP a long time ago. I reached a high enough level, accumulated enough resources, bought all the DLC, and now, without any explanation, I've been blocked. I ask you to explain what's going on because it really scared me. I spent so many years on my favorite game and I don't want to lose everything for no apparent reason.

Vraedlich · June 18

Don't panic, and wait around 3 days.

Archer_V · June 21

Vraedlich wrote: »

Don't panic, and wait around 3 days.

It's been five days since I've been able to log into the game. And there's still no information about the cause. I've sent another ticket with number 260621-000456. It's hard to ignore that ten years of gameplay, a lot of money, and time have been wasted just like that.

Archer_V · June 22

I'll just continue my post. After two requests and silence from ZOS, I finally received this response:

"After a careful examination of the account, we have confirmed that it violated the Code of Conduct. As a result, the appeal to remove the deactivation has been rejected based on the evidence from our system indicating Black Market activity.
Given the severity of the violation, the ban will remain in effect, and all related services will remain permanently deactivated. This decision was not made lightly, and it is final."

After 10 years in the game, all my time and money, I was simply canceled. Without explanation. In any court, they voice accusations and present evidence of guilt. I have no idea what I was accused of or what I was punished for. I played for 10 years, created and developed characters, invested real money. And now you've taken all of that away from me? Seriously? Did I break the rules? Can I get a lawyer so I can find out what I'm accused of, or is this a lynching? What did I do on the black market that you didn't like, considering the fact that I achieved nothing in this location and I couldn't stand it. Your replies are a mockery of any justice system and proof of guilt.

LPapirius · June 22

Archer_V wrote: »

I'll just continue my post. After two requests and silence from ZOS, I finally received this response:

"After a careful examination of the account, we have confirmed that it violated the Code of Conduct. As a result, the appeal to remove the deactivation has been rejected based on the evidence from our system indicating Black Market activity.
Given the severity of the violation, the ban will remain in effect, and all related services will remain permanently deactivated. This decision was not made lightly, and it is final."

After 10 years in the game, all my time and money, I was simply canceled. Without explanation. In any court, they voice accusations and present evidence of guilt. I have no idea what I was accused of or what I was punished for. I played for 10 years, created and developed characters, invested real money. And now you've taken all of that away from me? Seriously? Did I break the rules? Can I get a lawyer so I can find out what I'm accused of, or is this a lynching? What did I do on the black market that you didn't like, considering the fact that I achieved nothing in this location and I couldn't stand it. Your replies are a mockery of any justice system and proof of guilt.

What does "black market activity" mean exactly? And was it a real person or a bot that made this determination?

I live in fear for my account knowing how much ZOS is relying on AI recently.

LootAllTheStuff · June 22

LPapirius wrote: »

Archer_V wrote: »

I'll just continue my post. After two requests and silence from ZOS, I finally received this response:

"After a careful examination of the account, we have confirmed that it violated the Code of Conduct. As a result, the appeal to remove the deactivation has been rejected based on the evidence from our system indicating Black Market activity.
Given the severity of the violation, the ban will remain in effect, and all related services will remain permanently deactivated. This decision was not made lightly, and it is final."

After 10 years in the game, all my time and money, I was simply canceled. Without explanation. In any court, they voice accusations and present evidence of guilt. I have no idea what I was accused of or what I was punished for. I played for 10 years, created and developed characters, invested real money. And now you've taken all of that away from me? Seriously? Did I break the rules? Can I get a lawyer so I can find out what I'm accused of, or is this a lynching? What did I do on the black market that you didn't like, considering the fact that I achieved nothing in this location and I couldn't stand it. Your replies are a mockery of any justice system and proof of guilt.

What does "black market activity" mean exactly? And was it a real person or a bot that made this determination?

I live in fear for my account knowing how much ZOS is relying on AI recently.

"Black market activity" likely refers to suspected real money trading in violation of the game's Terms of Service/Use. It's the reason crown store gifting is subject to heavy gate-keeping.

At this point, other than hoping for clarification via direct message from one of the community managers, there's not much OP can do via the forums.

Note that community managers have said repeatedly that ZOS does not use AI to issue sanctions.

LPapirius · June 22

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

LPapirius wrote: »

Archer_V wrote: »

I'll just continue my post. After two requests and silence from ZOS, I finally received this response:

"After a careful examination of the account, we have confirmed that it violated the Code of Conduct. As a result, the appeal to remove the deactivation has been rejected based on the evidence from our system indicating Black Market activity.
Given the severity of the violation, the ban will remain in effect, and all related services will remain permanently deactivated. This decision was not made lightly, and it is final."

After 10 years in the game, all my time and money, I was simply canceled. Without explanation. In any court, they voice accusations and present evidence of guilt. I have no idea what I was accused of or what I was punished for. I played for 10 years, created and developed characters, invested real money. And now you've taken all of that away from me? Seriously? Did I break the rules? Can I get a lawyer so I can find out what I'm accused of, or is this a lynching? What did I do on the black market that you didn't like, considering the fact that I achieved nothing in this location and I couldn't stand it. Your replies are a mockery of any justice system and proof of guilt.

What does "black market activity" mean exactly? And was it a real person or a bot that made this determination?

I live in fear for my account knowing how much ZOS is relying on AI recently.

"Black market activity" likely refers to suspected real money trading in violation of the game's Terms of Service/Use. It's the reason crown store gifting is subject to heavy gate-keeping.

At this point, other than hoping for clarification via direct message from one of the community managers, there's not much OP can do via the forums.

Note that community managers have said repeatedly that ZOS does not use AI to issue sanctions.

The ToS says zos is allowed to use AI for any activity they see fit. That means they are using AI for this kind of enforcement. And most of customer support is AI now days too.

LootAllTheStuff · June 22

LPapirius wrote: »

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

LPapirius wrote: »

Archer_V wrote: »

I'll just continue my post. After two requests and silence from ZOS, I finally received this response:

"After a careful examination of the account, we have confirmed that it violated the Code of Conduct. As a result, the appeal to remove the deactivation has been rejected based on the evidence from our system indicating Black Market activity.
Given the severity of the violation, the ban will remain in effect, and all related services will remain permanently deactivated. This decision was not made lightly, and it is final."

After 10 years in the game, all my time and money, I was simply canceled. Without explanation. In any court, they voice accusations and present evidence of guilt. I have no idea what I was accused of or what I was punished for. I played for 10 years, created and developed characters, invested real money. And now you've taken all of that away from me? Seriously? Did I break the rules? Can I get a lawyer so I can find out what I'm accused of, or is this a lynching? What did I do on the black market that you didn't like, considering the fact that I achieved nothing in this location and I couldn't stand it. Your replies are a mockery of any justice system and proof of guilt.

What does "black market activity" mean exactly? And was it a real person or a bot that made this determination?

I live in fear for my account knowing how much ZOS is relying on AI recently.

"Black market activity" likely refers to suspected real money trading in violation of the game's Terms of Service/Use. It's the reason crown store gifting is subject to heavy gate-keeping.

At this point, other than hoping for clarification via direct message from one of the community managers, there's not much OP can do via the forums.

Note that community managers have said repeatedly that ZOS does not use AI to issue sanctions.

The ToS says zos is allowed to use AI for any activity they see fit. That means they are using AI for this kind of enforcement. And most of customer support is AI now days too.

But they have said repeatedly that enforcement actions require human review and action.

LPapirius · June 22

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

LPapirius wrote: »

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

LPapirius wrote: »

Archer_V wrote: »

I'll just continue my post. After two requests and silence from ZOS, I finally received this response:

"After a careful examination of the account, we have confirmed that it violated the Code of Conduct. As a result, the appeal to remove the deactivation has been rejected based on the evidence from our system indicating Black Market activity.
Given the severity of the violation, the ban will remain in effect, and all related services will remain permanently deactivated. This decision was not made lightly, and it is final."

After 10 years in the game, all my time and money, I was simply canceled. Without explanation. In any court, they voice accusations and present evidence of guilt. I have no idea what I was accused of or what I was punished for. I played for 10 years, created and developed characters, invested real money. And now you've taken all of that away from me? Seriously? Did I break the rules? Can I get a lawyer so I can find out what I'm accused of, or is this a lynching? What did I do on the black market that you didn't like, considering the fact that I achieved nothing in this location and I couldn't stand it. Your replies are a mockery of any justice system and proof of guilt.

What does "black market activity" mean exactly? And was it a real person or a bot that made this determination?

I live in fear for my account knowing how much ZOS is relying on AI recently.

"Black market activity" likely refers to suspected real money trading in violation of the game's Terms of Service/Use. It's the reason crown store gifting is subject to heavy gate-keeping.

At this point, other than hoping for clarification via direct message from one of the community managers, there's not much OP can do via the forums.

Note that community managers have said repeatedly that ZOS does not use AI to issue sanctions.

The ToS says zos is allowed to use AI for any activity they see fit. That means they are using AI for this kind of enforcement. And most of customer support is AI now days too.

But they have said repeatedly that enforcement actions require human review and action.

They repeatedly said vengeance was only a test to improve performance in Grey Host too.

16BitForestCat · June 22

What did I do on the black market that you didn't like, considering the fact that I achieved nothing in this location and I couldn't stand it.

What does this mean? I'm having trouble translating. But the way it's written, it comes across (to me) like you're saying you were poking around on the ESO black market and just didn't make any deals at that time. If you weren't, might be good to clarify so people don't come in swinging incorrect assumptions.

EDIT: Reply below beat me to coming back and asking if this was a Night Market misunderstanding, lol

LootAllTheStuff · June 22

I'm wondering if it's a language issue and the OP is confusing the phrase "black market" in the support response with the content "Night Market". Those things are very much not the same...

16BitForestCat · June 22

I wondered the same thing upon reading a Night Market thread (unrelated) after posting here!

Vraedlich · June 22

You could risk tagging a community leader in the forum, though it usually unwise to draw the attention of the eye of sauron.

FurryCandyHearts · June 22

if you exchanged money in the real world for any in game benefit that didnt come from the crown store then zos says you engaged in a black market transaction. either you or someone who has access to your account did this and zos aint stepping lightly it seems. sorry for your troubles. i dont expect they will help unless you can prove you were hacked.

FurryCandyHearts · June 22

somebody did them ugly i suspect.

Archer_V · June 25

I have no idea how to prove my account was hacked, other than the fact that I can't log into it. Neither in-game nor on the website. In 10 years of playing, I've never bought or sold in-game gold. How can I prove this if there's no legal recourse and the only tool available in a dispute is the guillotine?

dwolfgheist · June 29

It does feel odd, the burden of proof is usually on the accuser for most civilized society.
The accusation of engaging in "Black Market" also restricts it to a transaction of sorts, there is no real way for him to prove innocense/clarify what happened. I find this to be a bit flawed, regardless of his guilt.

Ardriel · July 4

Is there an update yet? Is your account still banned?

imPDA · July 4

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

But they have said repeatedly that enforcement actions require human review and action.

Mon key saw "Black Market activity with confidence level of 85% (your *** AI)", mon key pressed "Ban".

This is human review and action, but do you want this kind of a review? They never told how exactly they "review" it. Do they actually examine an action history, gold transactions, etc or just see AI trigger, see high confidence level and ban?

bofh666 · July 4

That’s my biggest fear, too—suddenly getting an unjustified ban without anyone telling me exactly why. In fact, that’s exactly what has driven me away from the game a bit and caused me to drastically cut back on Crown Store purchases. Every time I buy something, I find myself thinking: "Could all this go to waste tomorrow just because some false trigger goes off?"

JustLovely · July 4

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

LPapirius wrote: »

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

LPapirius wrote: »

Archer_V wrote: »

I'll just continue my post. After two requests and silence from ZOS, I finally received this response:

"After a careful examination of the account, we have confirmed that it violated the Code of Conduct. As a result, the appeal to remove the deactivation has been rejected based on the evidence from our system indicating Black Market activity.
Given the severity of the violation, the ban will remain in effect, and all related services will remain permanently deactivated. This decision was not made lightly, and it is final."

After 10 years in the game, all my time and money, I was simply canceled. Without explanation. In any court, they voice accusations and present evidence of guilt. I have no idea what I was accused of or what I was punished for. I played for 10 years, created and developed characters, invested real money. And now you've taken all of that away from me? Seriously? Did I break the rules? Can I get a lawyer so I can find out what I'm accused of, or is this a lynching? What did I do on the black market that you didn't like, considering the fact that I achieved nothing in this location and I couldn't stand it. Your replies are a mockery of any justice system and proof of guilt.

What does "black market activity" mean exactly? And was it a real person or a bot that made this determination?

I live in fear for my account knowing how much ZOS is relying on AI recently.

"Black market activity" likely refers to suspected real money trading in violation of the game's Terms of Service/Use. It's the reason crown store gifting is subject to heavy gate-keeping.

At this point, other than hoping for clarification via direct message from one of the community managers, there's not much OP can do via the forums.

Note that community managers have said repeatedly that ZOS does not use AI to issue sanctions.

The ToS says zos is allowed to use AI for any activity they see fit. That means they are using AI for this kind of enforcement. And most of customer support is AI now days too.

But they have said repeatedly that enforcement actions require human review and action.

As someone who's received a near instantaneous 3 day vacation for the game for using language in a PRIVATE chat with a friend, I can assure everyone, bans are coming down from AI reviews that are NOT reviewed by a real live person. This happened to me a while ago when I think they first started implementing this and I don't think it still happens because I did not change my ways and it hasn't happened since. But the fact remains, that if they did it this way for something as minor as using a four letter word in private chat, they're for sure using AI for other enforcement and taking actions against players without human review on other issues still today.

I'm allowed to say whatever I want in private chat with friends. And I know for certain I wasn't reported in this case. I was private chatting with a friend and less than a minute later the action was taken against my account.

This situation caused me to radically scale back what I was willing to spend on the game. As another poster pointed out in this thread, we could lose all our time and money investment into ESO without human review, so I always keep that in mind now when dealing with ZOS now days.

MorallyBipolar · July 5

bofh666 wrote: »

That’s my biggest fear, too—suddenly getting an unjustified ban without anyone telling me exactly why. In fact, that’s exactly what has driven me away from the game a bit and caused me to drastically cut back on Crown Store purchases. Every time I buy something, I find myself thinking: "Could all this go to waste tomorrow just because some false trigger goes off?"

AI absolutely should not be banning accounts without human review.

Ardriel · July 6

I find it deeply disturbing that accounts can apparently just get a permanent ban out of the blue.
That’s also one of the reasons why I never buy long-term ESO+ subscriptions—I only buy them for a month at most. Even though I could save money that way. But that would be way too risky for me. What if my account got banned because of some kind of error or mistake, and I lost all that money?
I think that’s outrageous. Someone from ZOS really needs to address this. You can’t treat customers like that.