Xaander Account Stolen (Hacked)! (was forum=10)Follow

We know that this is just a game but stealing in real life is a crime. I’m compelled to write this early this morning after a long weekend and a sad goodbye to a good friend after 4 years of great gaming. On Bismark server a very excellent Dragoon was robbed of his gear and told by the GM’s basically to **** off after 4 years of playing FFXI. This type action is very frequent from GM’s and is a slap in the face to any player needing help that pays to play FFXI every month. I’ve had my own lack of service from the GM staff as well. GM’s informed him to contact local law enforcement to handle the matter off his stolen items and gear. To me this is not the correct way to handle this virtual crime. I feel SE should police this matter and deal with the account(s) of the person(s) doing the stealing. Also to the head GM that was supposed to meet with Xaander on his final day of login did not show up for the 5:00pm meeting with him. Shame on you also. I feel actions like this from GM’s will not help their role in game as the judges and law bringers on the servers. If SE does not care for its player community then why should we pay every month to play a game with lawlessness. This is what happens when a company makes millions of dollars from its product. Companies get the “heh we don't need that one player when we have so many more to make money from”. But let me say this. Bad press can ruin and crash the biggest of ships so to speak. Look at any famous person who gets bad press. People tend to stay away from them. Same is true with companies. The pond ripple effect is a real thing in big business so don't think your players (Clients & Customers) to be stupid and in need of your product that bad when you have competition from other online role playing games. You can be #1 or you can become #0. So my words are if a SE employee reads this. Take it back to your employer and take note the community is fickle and will turn on you.

Remember a few years back the player appreciation program and the character revive program where SE was basically begging players to return to the game. Marketing techniques played a big role in damage control after the RMT took over the game and bloated the economy. Well during that time I knew many players that quit and once their friends started to quit other people left also (Pond Ripple Effect insert here). Sure the game is good but real life people make this game happen because of its play dynamics. 90% of FFXI is player co-operation. If all your friends leave that you play with then chances are you will think of leaving also and may just leave from boredom.

Our linkshell has found the possible culprit in this internet (virtual crime). I character named Zwickee. This character has sold many of the stolen items online over the past 3 days as we have been watching him. There is another name of a character I can use but will not disclose it until I have solid proof of his actions in this. The real life person is no more then a 15 year old boy. His parents need to spank his butt for sure if they have any idea what he is doing.

Xaander over the 4 years of playing also had some of the rarest gear on the server. So we know what’s being sold. Dragoon was they only job he played and he collected all the best stuff over four years to make his job one of the top ones on the server. We have over 100+ friends investigating this crime and we plan to take action after we have enough evidence to fry the culprit. And if we have to deal with this on a real life terms then I’m sure we can take the money we all pay SE every month and pursue this further.
Account sharing… I don't condone account sharing at all not even with friends. So keep your account information to yourself and secure. Also I don't condone 3rd party tools because they may have Key loggers and spy ware built into them. At least 90% of account (Hacks) are done by people that either have been given account info voluntarily or by 3rd party hack. I don't like to use the word hack but more less refer to this subject as account stealing.

With all this said be safe and enjoy FFXI for as long as you can.

Nagumo 4years Bismark.


Edited, Apr 2nd 2007 9:56am by Nagumo

Quoted for truth.

Sucks to be your friend, guess this will teach him not to give out his account information or to download 3rd party tools.

He has no one to blame but himself, therefore, he gets zero sympathy from me.

Well I will ask this of anyone on Bismark. We know the guy selling his stuff and ask the support of players on bismark not to buy or support this player.

Joemomma (aka Zwickee)

You can see the items he is selling on http://www.ffxiah.com if you look up his character.


I cant disclose all information yet until we have reviewed all evidence. I don't like to make speculations and accusations. But they guy logged in and did this. We dont know how he did it though just yet.

Thanks

I pretty much have to agree with that. Its pretty difficult to get your account hacked since playonline is a Program on your computer, you dont have to open a web browser to log on. So this in theory is much harder because a hacker would have to have access to your pc one way or another.

Either a Key Logger or he shared hes account info with someone. Dont get me wrong i am deeply sorry for your friends loss but. Ill leave it their.

Edited, Apr 2nd 2007 10:39am by Myjourneybegins

you guys are spamming all the forums with this. just post it in one place and leave it at that. you're not gonna get a whole lot of sympathy. he was a good guy and all but we(most people not gonna say all) aren't even going to try to feel sorry for him because like others have said, if you pass out your info, somebody will ***** you over at some point.

Holy Mackerel, Zwickee? Zwickee is a long time friend of mine. I knew him when I started playing years ago. Every now and then I run into him by the AH but I never took him for a hacker. It is sad both for Xaander and for Zwickee if he ever really did that.

Can't speak for the quality of either players since I have never had contact with either but I agree witht he content of Balfor's post.

You can't get hacked in FFXI. If you didn't give out your account info then someone got it because you were doing something illegal (in game terms). The GMs can't (won't?) do anything because you can't (don't?) provide proof. I too will play devils advocate for food for thought:

You say Zwickee was seen on FFXIAH selling the items Xaander had. How do we know Xaander owned those items? Take your word for it? I don't know either of you better than the other. Can you provide dated screenshots!? or some video showing that you actually owned those items?

On top of that how do you know that the items Zwickee was selling were the same items that were stolen. Isn't it possible that it is a complete coincidence that he is selling the same items that Xaander is missing? I know, I know..the bell curve. I however don't believe that all things at either end of the spectrum should be discounted just because of their unlikely probability. Nothing in this world is 100% so therefore I don't think anything should be discounted.

I'm not saying he didn't do it, but without proof I refuse to make a judgement. 3 months is alot of time...Hell in 3 months I could come across 10 items and sell them that belonged to someone else. It's also possible in this game that those items were stolen (or lost) by someone else in that timeframe. Even if the items (gear?) stolen (lost?) have no purpose for someone of a different job (for example if one player was WHM and another was WAR), yet the possibility still exists. Without factual proof I refuse to morally allow myself to make a judgement. Then again it is also entirely possible that those items were stolen and sold by Zwickee. That's why I urge people to have proof before posting. If you cannot obtain proof then I'm sorry but all you are doing is furthering to soil people's names when there is no factual evidence to suggest otherwise.

[edit]For Spelling[/edit]

Edited, Apr 2nd 2007 4:07pm by Gamion

Yeh I'm sorry they didn't get their account back BUT
it's their own fault for giving out their character information and password. You haven't said that was the reason, but that's what most of us are going to assume. It's been said time in and time out: People you trust, your friends in game, only go in my opinion as far as an in game relationship. If you give your login name and password out thinking they are your good bud, then you've got it comin to ya. Wasn't the smartest thing to do. On the other hand, if it really was hacked, I'm sorry and trust me, justice will be done one way or the other. I just got my computer stolen a month ago, and it worked out well for me. Don't give up

Zwickee, huh?

I hadn't seen or heard from him in ages. In fact, I just saw him again for the first time this weekend. I was given a Linkpearl on Saturday, and was kinda surprised to see his name in the Linklist. For some reason, I was under the impression that he had quit the game up until then. Can anyone verify that this is the original Zwickee, and not someone that had bought his account?

I always got along just fine with Zwickee. Since the NA PS2 release of the game, we have found ourselves in several Linkshells together, and I bear him no ill will, but I honestly can't say that I'm shocked to see his name attached to this mess.

Zwickee's involvement aside, I will echo the opinions expressed by previous posters; it's an unfortunate thing to befall a fellow player, but it is hard to feel too badly for someone who has carelessly compromised their character's security.

I though Joemomma was Xiph? Unless all three of them are the same person? o.O But anyways. Like everyone's been saying.. It sucks that he got 'hacked' into, but thats the consequences that come with giving out your information like that.

Wow, reminds me of the Hoodlum Drama.

Shhhhh we don't mention his name!