Back after 2 years

Hi there.

I was wondering if someone could help with the following problem. I tried a support ticket first, but the function is disabled for this account, and unavailable for another account.

I haven't played in Warmane for about a couple of years, but felt a bit nostalgic about WotLK and wanted to check out my old account in Icecrown.

To my surprise, it seems that my IP address for the account purabasura666 has been banned due to advertising

I live now in a different place, so perhaps the new IP I have caused trouble in the past when owned by someone else.

I am certainly unaware of having advertised anything, as I haven't logged in two years, so I can only assume this is some sort of mistake or, perhaps, a hack. Something similar happened in the past, a really long time ago, after another long break. Frankly, I have no idea.

I wanted to create a support ticket, but due to the ban, that function is disabled. I was wondering if someone would be so kind as to let me know if there's anything I can do to be able to play again from my current IP. I'd love to be able to play again in Warmane.

Thanks so much.

... Incidentally, just out of curiosity, I was wondering if this had happened to someone else. That is, having taken a long break, coming back, and see your account banned. I managed to change my account password without trouble. So maybe it's not a hack, but something else.

send an email to [email protected]

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Originally Posted by Skuddy

send an email to [email protected]

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Thanks for the advice, Skuddy. I thought so, too.
I wrote a couple of emails last week, but I suppose they must be pretty busy. I hope they'll be able to answer and provide me with a solution.

Anybody else experienced this problem? Being banned for advertising after not having played for a long time, due to some sort of confusion?

Just be patient as far i know, email replies can take up to a month.

Many people have recently been innocently banned. For me and many others it was scripting/hacking ban tho. Attempts to appeal or send emails has been met with copy pasted answer so i wouldn't get my hopes up about them considering lifting your ban.

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Originally Posted by DAgraamisforum

Many people have recently been innocently banned. For me and many others it was scripting/hacking ban tho. Attempts to appeal or send emails has been met with copy pasted answer so i wouldn't get my hopes up about them considering lifting your ban.

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an ip ban for advertising is far different from a manually issued scripting/hacking ban. most times the advertising bans come from using a vpn, and a simple email will get that sorted.

Thanks guys for all of your comments. Hope my story can help someone else in a similar situation.

It took a few days, but I finally got a response. If your ban doesn't allow you to submit a ticket via website support, the email address [email protected] works fine, like Skuddy said.

It's really weird, because I stopped playing for a year or so, to find my account banned, and I took a second break, about two years long, and then again, found my account banned.

The first time the ban occurred I was helped by a really nice member of the staff. I think they do their best to handle these issues. I'm obviously not happy to see my account banned, least of all twice, but the staff is pretty helpful and reasonably swift. Warmane is pretty great, not just the game, but the customer service, at least in my experience.

They informed me, if I understood correctly, that the reason for the ban wasn't advertising, after all, despite what the error message claimed, but that I somehow received money from a re-seller. Not sure if this occurred during the time I didn't log in. And that I received money twice. They haven't told me how much. All I see is that my account has now 0 gold. No idea why the original ban message was related to advertising, either.

Not sure if it's a hack, but I was pretty scared, so I set up the two-factor authentication via email last night on my two accounts and my girlfriend's, which is a pretty handy extra layer of security I'd recommend to you all. It basically sends a code via email when you log in from a different device, from what I gather. But I don't think it was a hack. Maybe someone sent me money by mistake? That sounds implausible as well, though. It's all a bit confusing to me, to be perfectly honest.

Anyhow, regarding the ban, even if it's been lifted, I am pretty worried, because after all the effort I've put in my account. It's not only that I've lost all my gold, which as you can imagine, it's pretty discouraging, but I'm not sure if I should invest more effort in my account to see it banned again. And I'm not sure if this may happen again to my other account or my girlfriend's, which I created a few days ago just in case.

Anyhow, still discussing the issue with a member of the staff, who helped me in the past, and was really kind at the time. I understand that from their perspective, they think that I purchased gold, so I'm not sure if this story will have a happy ending.

On the other hand, one must bear in mind that the banning system can't be perfect, and awkward situations, mistakes, and unfair bans, will happen with a probability > 0%. And it's pretty sad to see all your hard work put on an account go to waste.

But they seem pretty reasonable thus far, and it's not easy to be in their shoes in these cases. I'll keep you posted. Still crossing my fingers, not just about recovering the gold lost, for which I lost hope, but at least some confirmation that I can still work on this account, which has a few heirlooms and one 80, full herbalism, nearly full inscription, and I'm not forced to discard it out of fear of a future ban, yet again.

Hey bro I just came back after 870+ days and I don't have any character left. I don't know is there any solution to this for us veterans or we have to start all over...

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Originally Posted by cambrla

Hey bro I just came back after 870+ days and I don't have any character left. I don't know is there any solution to this for us veterans or we have to start all over...

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do you remember on which Realm?
Did you check in-game or only on website?

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Originally Posted by purabasura666

They informed me, if I understood correctly, that the reason for the ban wasn't advertising, after all, despite what the error message claimed, but that I somehow received money from a re-seller. Not sure if this occurred during the time I didn't log in. And that I received money twice. They haven't told me how much. All I see is that my account has now 0 gold. No idea why the original ban message was related to advertising, either.

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That's wierd, They said they don't keep logs.

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Originally Posted by cambrla

Hey bro I just came back after 870+ days and I don't have any character left. I don't know is there any solution to this for us veterans or we have to start all over...

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Sorry to hear, mate. My characters are still there after two years, but with 0 gold, and 2 ban accusations I supposedly committed while I was logged out, or shortly before, not sure.

Warmane is a pretty good server, but respectfully and IMHO, the banning is out of control. They kindly removed the ban, but did not return my gold. The staff is reasonably respectful and responds to your inquiries, but they tend to believe we're not honest players.

I wouldn't necessarily blame them, but the security logs they receive and act upon cannot possibly be accurate. I don't know what's going on, as I am no expert on these matters, but from my perspective, I am almost scared of dedicating too much effort to my accounts in the future.

Read through the forums about similar cases of unfair bans and the best advice I could find was to set up the two-factor authentication, which I did, although I doubt my account was hacked. Must have been something else, no clue. Oh, also, it's kind of silly, but when you submit a ticket, do not use parentheses "(" ")", or you'll get an error "your message contains illegal characters" and you'll spend a few minutes removing punctuation and such and resubmitting till the thing finally works.

Lastly, and regardless of the unsatisfactory outcome, just a quick line to thank you all for your comments and help.