Doing something to free the unjustly banned

[Jimbatron]

Thought it was worth bumping this. From seeing comments in multiple threads here and elsewhere it sounds like there is another faulty ban-wave in progress.

 

When this happened the last time, ALifeofMisery posted these call numbers:

 

 

 

0800 953 6962 in the UK

Does that number also works from belgium ?

Anyone an idea how high the costs might be if id call it from here ?

I don't know how legit these are, but I've just called the UK one and it works.

United Kingdom: +44 (0)800 953 6962
Germany: Phone: +49(0)69222222089
Austria: +43(0)19287881
Spain: +34 914146608
Italy: +39 (0)236049218
France: +33 (0)890 808 809
Nederland: +31 (0)900 204 04 04
België: +32 (0)902 88 078
Czech Republic: +420 270 004 366

 

Based on R* support's previous form, it is likely anyone reporting a false ban will be told in the first instance that it is not appeal-able. However, my personal advice would be to keep at it for anyone who has been wrongfully affected. The more people who ring up and submit tickets, the more likely R* will realise they got it wrong. Last time this happened (when this thread was created) the false ban-wave was eventually reversed and it sounded like most legit players got their characters back.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Jimbatron

[fatdog]

Not really faulty https://i.redditmedia.com/e6QJosgRfdduAtQWy2i_oHSFW4SJ2KOEyPAqy3pQKkg.png?w=885&s=24fe31a40bc6286ff30d93ece457bdeb

Edited March 24, 2018 by fatdog

[Jimbatron]

Not really faulty https://i.imgur.com/fS1eGLi.png

 

Some bans may have been correct, but from the volume of people reporting it, and the fact that several upstanding members of the community have been impacted suggests that there are a significant number false positives being hit by the detection algorithm.

 

http://gtaforums.com/topic/907294-wtf-temporal-ban/

http://gtaforums.com/topic/885020-psa-pc-players-risk-of-fraud-rank-outfit-manipulation/page-113

Edited March 24, 2018 by Jimbatron

[Wafer_Waffles]

Not really faulty https://i.imgur.com/fS1eGLi.png

So can you access your online character? or can you play online?

Edited March 24, 2018 by Wafer_Waffles

[fatdog]

 

So can you access your online character? or can you play online?

 

This is not me, just some cheater i've been trackign for long time. Finally got reseted today.

[Happy Hunter]

I would vouch for Mrs Buzz being legitimate 100%. So to be frank it doesn't matter if they caught a few illegitimate players in the cross hairs - they've banned legitimate people too and it's unacceptable.

 

Plus I'm pretty sure fatdog called shokkerz a cheater for killing him in a Savage, so I don't have much faith in his calling anyone a cheater.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Happy Hunter

[Stig-Lennart]

I'm hearing the same stories from some friends I play with, hell one is even saying he got banned from singleplayer!? it's sad to see rockstar just won't learn from the sh*t they created before...

[EkaSwede]

This is indeed concerning. Time to bring up the counter to how mayn times third-rate self-proclaimed kreppish detectives will say "why do you hide your stats" or "you have spent a little more than you've earned. It waz legot!"

[Wafer_Waffles]

 

 

So can you access your online character? or can you play online?

 

This is not me, just some cheater i've been trackign for long time. Finally got reseted today.

 

Well if this player is banned in this wave they might wanna recheck their method as it kinda hit more legit player than the modder.

[Wafer_Waffles]

.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Wafer_Waffles

[flexcreator]

One thing you can do is upvote the posts on the Support forums

03-23-18-GTA-Online-Ban-Wave-What-we-know-so-far

[tjakal]

I'm a longtime GTA forums lurker who just registered to contribute to this thread seeing how I just got affected by this.

 

I'm a player who started playing GTA online PC in 2015 and been doing so nearly daily with my friends ever since. I always played legit, ran away and alt+F4ed to escape the modders moneyrains, and grinded them endless Boxville sales missions and heists. Reach a legit rank of 778, had 35million in pocket and all garage spaces filled with a fine collection of meticulously custom crew-painted cars. In which I loved to do 'proper racing' agreement races with my friends where we ran non-best in class cars every other night. Spent 6500 hours of my ill-invested time on this game I did. Now I'm banned for 30 days with an account reset looming and no ability to even appeal.

 

Rockstar may take all of my progression and all of my will to play the game going forward, but they can never take all the bright memories of Los Santos away from me.

[kenmy13999]

there's is another person here who got banned while he was on tutorial of gta online

If correct, this may have been the worst case I've ever seen

[Jimbatron]

One thing you can do is upvote the posts on the Support forums

03-23-18-GTA-Online-Ban-Wave-What-we-know-so-far

 

This is a great idea from flexcreator. The best thing I think the community can do is create as much noise as possible. Like with the last faulty ban-wave and the Open IV debacle, it was fan pressure that got R* to reverse their decisions.

[-inVADER-]

Couple of days earlier, i received this!

 

Yesterday got banned permanently during creating a race in creator!

 

This was their Answer!

[TheGuyBehindYou]

I wrote my ticket as "other" and still got no response so hopefully I wont get an automated reply.

[Hécate-II]

Last time they wiped legit money their bot hadn't refunded us so whatever praise to not win the ban roulette. I think I"m done with this game and this company if they suspend/ban my main account, R* has outdone itself one time again. Their programmers who worked on the cheat detection must be complete noobs.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Hécate-II

[fatdog]

invader, why did they reset you, and did you ever buy 700k worth of shark cards?

Edited March 24, 2018 by fatdog

[Bandersnatch]

One thing you can do is upvote the posts on the Support forums

03-23-18-GTA-Online-Ban-Wave-What-we-know-so-far

Great idea Just up voted.

[TheGuyBehindYou]

I still have 19mil shown in my bank account, is this related to shark card purchases? Putting bonuses aside (I always bought cards when there was a 100 or 150% bonus active) this should be around the amount I got from shark cards.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

They really need to start working with the data they have and use it with a system like FairFight that DICE use with Battlefield.

How can you claim you have a game as a service but then don't pay attention to the data you have access to from the folks using your service?

Total f*cking loony tunes!

Edited March 24, 2018 by CuteFaceJay

[HazmatHarry]

is it only PC players who are getting banned or is it on all consoles?

[Wafer_Waffles]

I still have 19mil shown in my bank account, is this related to shark card purchases? Putting bonuses aside (I always bought cards when there was a 100 or 150% bonus active) this should be around the amount I got from shark cards.

 

Yes that is your shark cards they won't delete it.

[Hécate-II]

I still have 19mil shown in my bank account, is this related to shark card purchases? Putting bonuses aside (I always bought cards when there was a 100 or 150% bonus active) this should be around the amount I got from shark cards.

 

 

 

Yes correct, my suspended account has 3 or 4 Mio and thats Shark Card offered with my GTA5 key.

[Jimbatron]

OK, I was just flicking through the EULA and the Legal notes for R*'s games:

 

https://www.rockstargames.com/eula

https://www.rockstargames.com/legal

 

Must admit I haven't read every sentence in full, nor am I a legal expert but here are some thoughts:

 

From the EULA:

 

BALANCE CALCULATION: You can access and view your available VC and VG in your User Account when logged into your User Account. Licensor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to make all calculations regarding the available VC and VG in your User Account. Licensor further reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to determine the amount of and manner in which VC is credited and debited from your User Account in connection with your purchase of VG or for other purposes. While Licensor strives to make all such calculations on a consistent and reasonable basis, you hereby acknowledge and agree that Licensor's determination of the available VC and VG in your User Account is final, unless you can provide documentation to Licensor that such calculation was or is intentionally incorrect.

 

 

Presumably balance calculation would also encompass adjustments/wipes. The last bit is interesting though - "unless you can provide documentation", ergo their decision is not always "final" if you can prove their decisions are not consistent or reasonable. This could certainly be used if you had virtual currency purchased by shark cards removed. However a broader interpretation could include in game statistics. I record mine from the social club periodically - every since the 2013 crash in the first month where I lost my PS3 character.

 

From "Legal":

 

TERMINATION

The Company may terminate or suspend any and all Online Services and any registered account immediately, without prior notice or liability on thirty days’ notice, or immediately for any reason beyond the Company's reasonable control or if you breach any terms and conditions of an agreement or policy governing the Software, including this Agreement, the Privacy Policy and/or the End User License Agreement. Upon termination of your account, your right to use the Online Services will immediately cease. If you wish to terminate your account, you may simply discontinue using the Online Services. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability.

The Company may terminate any of the Online Services for any reason at all by giving at least thirty days’ notice by email or on the website page entitled "Legal Notices" or "Legal Information" (or similar title), or immediately without notice for any reason beyond the Company’s reasonable control.

 

 

Note there is nothing in here which says they can terminate at their sole discretion. You have to have breached the EULA or other T&Cs. That suggests that termination or suspension is challenge-able from a legal perspective.

 

Now I know what you are thinking, which of us would ever take R*/T2 to court? But then again, I've racked up 9 months worth of working days, believe it or not, playing this game, and I have the stats recorded to prove it. So if they banned me unfairly, I'd try to argue the appropriate compensation would be 9 month's salary, as that's what my time should reasonably be valued at. Which obviously, however much you earn, is a lot of money to anyone within their own perspective. If I got banned, and the R* support angle didn't work, I'd be tempted to get my lawyer to right them a letter saying re-instate my account in so many days, or we'll be suing you in court. As daft as it sounds, I think they'd re-instate like a shot. They wouldn't want the negative PR, and the real worry if they lose, is not paying out to you personally. It sets a precedent, and then they potentially have to pay the same to everyone else they've ever banned. So if you're GTA account is worth the cost of a Lawyers' letter (and mine certainly is), that could be the ultimate fall back.

 

Regardless, I'd advise to anyone affected, when raising a ticket to quote the Termination bit. It appears it's not at their sole discretion, and ergo, they should have to state how you supposedly broke the EULA and provide proof. Letting them know you know your rights at least gives you a better chance of escalation to a higher tier away from the "computer says no" support desk staff to someone more senior.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Jimbatron

[Vill3m]

The recent Steam reviews are already overwhelmingly negative due to false ban wave and at least 5 members in my 100 member crew have been banned in a month, one of them just today.

[-inVADER-]

invader, why did they reset you, and did you ever buy 700k worth of shark cards?

 

I don't know, They didn't answer me eider +

I never bought a single Shark card.

[flexcreator]

From Reddit, a post by KapitanKripple

Just got off the customer support chat with Rockstar, he wasn't able to give me much information but here is the transcript of the conversation.

User:[3/24/18 12:32:25 PM] https://www.reddit.com/r/gtaonline/comments/86q5lj/032318_gta_online_ban_wave_what_we_know_so_far/Myself and numerous other players were banned last night for what seems like a problem on Rockstar's end. The support team on twitter have been deliberately ignoring the issue and my ticket concerning this was closed. When will we get a response from the company about what has happened?

Agent:[3/24/18 12:32:25 PM] One moment while we connect you.

Agent:[3/24/18 12:33:41 PM] Hello, thank you for contacting Rockstar Support. My name is XXXXX, I see that you got banned in GTA Online and you are concerned regarding this. Is that correct?

User:[3/24/18 12:34:33 PM]Hi! I'm concerned since I believe there must be a problem within the game causing these bans and I wanted to make sure the company were aware.

User:[3/24/18 12:35:25 PM]Twitter, Reddit and the Rockstar forums are flooding with what seem to be honest individuals (mostly PC players) who have recieved bans after the latest updates.

Agent:[3/24/18 12:35:28 PM]Thank you for confirming, I'll be glad to clarify your concern regarding this. I would like to inform you that, the GTA Online banned decisions are final and cannot be appealed.

User:[3/24/18 12:36:52 PM]Can you confirm to me that like other other false ban situations Rockstar will be able to restore characters and unban accounts once the problem is resolved?

User:[3/24/18 12:37:13 PM]https://support.rockstargames.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/200063373-Grand-Theft-Auto-Online

User:[3/24/18 12:38:45 PM]And do you have any information as to why there are this many complainants on the forum this morning, compared to usual. I understand the policy behind unappealable bans, but at the end of the day I'm just a concerned fan with a lot of time and effort on the line, who's been trying to work out why so many players have been banned.

Agent:[3/24/18 12:38:48 PM]To keep the gameplay environment as fair as possible for legitimate players, the system routinely do sweeps to separate out cheaters and modders, and to reverse any illegitimate transactions.

User:[3/24/18 12:40:03 PM]There are players who have been banned whilst still on the tutorial missiont, who have owned the game for less than a few hours. I do not believe the majority of these people have cheated, and I know for certain that I have not.

Agent:[3/24/18 12:42:09 PM]Well, that will be taken care by the system itself. These bans are triggered by the system, designed in such a way that we don't get any option to make any changes from our end.

User:[3/24/18 12:43:19 PM]Is there a threshold for which Rockstar will investigate this latest ban wave to check whether a mistake has been made?

Agent:[3/24/18 12:46:18 PM]Well, I cannot assure you that. If there's any mistake in sweeps, it should fix it by itself otherwise these bans decisions are final. For more information, please see here: https://support.rockstargames.com/hc/articles/229514247

User:[3/24/18 12:48:09 PM]Thanks for your help, one last question. Is it policy to make a statement in the case of a false ban situation, and if the bans are overturned by the system itself, will the deleted character data be restored?

Agent:[3/24/18 12:54:46 PM]Sure! I would like to inform you that, the system does not gives a false ban to any account. Agent:[3/24/18 12:56:02 PM]If it does, it restores the account the very next time when it bans the account. It only happened for once which was fixed by our developers.

User:[3/24/18 12:56:51 PM]Judging by whats happening online, I imagine that it will be happening again soon. Thanks a lot

Agent:[3/24/18 12:59:09 PM]You're welcome! I really appreciate you for understanding my situation, Thanks!

End of conversation

TLDR - This is the fault of the system, the system doesn't make mistakes...except when it does, then the devs have to get involved. Account data should be restored though.

Edited March 24, 2018 by flexcreator

[Fireboy769]

Ok, I'm gonna say this again since it's been a while (and I was wondering if I should've made a thread about this yesterday due to all the Reddit posts) and hopefully I don't come off as a rude bastard

 

 

Is this a PC-only problem?

 

 

Also condolences to the falsely banned. Now that just ain't right.

[SHOKKERZ91]

Ok, I'm gonna say this again since it's been a while (and I was wondering if I should've made a thread about this yesterday due to all the Reddit posts) and hopefully I don't come off as a rude bastard

 

 

Is this a PC-only problem?

 

 

Also condolences to the falsely banned. Now that just ain't right.

 

All reports as of now are from Pc-players. Atleast those i am aware of.