Thats brutal.
A friend of mine had his account Stollen. Deaner was his in game name for those of you who might remember him. And since has tried numourous times to get his character back. The person who stole his account managed to hack his password somehow, then proceeded to change his account information (address, credit card information). I watched the AH after his character was stollen, all of his expensive items including his Haubergeon. He had roughly 6-8 Mill in gear (this was about 8 months ago when 8 mill was actually worth something). The person sold all of his gear, then he probably took the money and just sent it to himself.
The worst part about this whole fiasco is not the fact that his Character was stollen, his gear sold, his money lost. The worst part of this entire thing is, Deaner is now unable to access his account, nor will SE give him access to his account even though all of his information is correct except the password, address and credit card info (which really is almost everything).
I believe he spoke with CSR Eileen, who I have read numourous posts by people saying she was quite useless to their cause, and the case here was nothing short of being the same thing. Eileen basically told him there was nothing she could do, and that his account would be suspended; thus, crushing Deaners hopes and dreams of continueing his character of which he had worked on for more than 2 years.
My Thoughts on this event. Make sure you keep your POL ID and Passwords on written paper and kept somewhere, do not keep it on a file somewhere in your computer where someone can hack it, find it, and use it. SE deffinately cannot do anything about someone giving out their password, but when their account is stollen in the manor of which Deaners' was, I think it should be more than in their power to track down 2 things:
#1. The IP address of the person who claims to be the rightful owner of the Account* (in this case Deaner) And check logs to see that this IP address is infact the one of which has used the account for the 2 some-odd years.
*This may or may not be legal, however it is essentially how the authorities have been catching people who download music illegally in the US.
#2. The IP address of the person of which has stollen the account so that proper persecutions can be made, if any.
Now I don't know if something like this is exactly possible, especially in the case of Deaner, I know that Eileen really has no power in this matter, other than varifying legitimacy, in this case she cannot prove the account is infact Deaners since he can't match the information. I do however think that a case like this should have something more than a mere "suspension" issued on the account.
That is my two cents on issues such as these. If anybody can think of any steps Deaner could take in order to get his account back, they would be much appreciated. Cheers.
~Bersty
P.S. Deaner recently tried the "return home to vana'diel" campagn, and this resulted in him being unable to qualify due to the fact that his account was suspended, and that the character was never deleted.