Banned my older account for a reason that has nothing to do with me...

VoidFell·May 25, 2017·6 votes·1,831 views

So, the whole story is that I got curious if I can get my older account back, 'cause it was banned in late 2014. I asked Riot Support for a reason, they told me something outrageous! I was banned because of a link to an account that has sent me gifts. In order to pardon my account, I have to pay 30,00 EUR?!?!? I've probably spent that much money or even more on that acc. I can't even begin to understand what does that have to do with me. Haven't violated any terms and rules and stuff. It's not fair to ban my account for something THAT I HAVEN'T DONE. [zombie-brand-mindblown]

25 Comments

Imperial PandaaMay 25, 20178 votes

Actually it does have to do with you, in a convoluted manner though. Someone sent you a gift and then later decided to refund the money from buying the rp/gift. Now Riot has had someone steal from them and the only connection/hope they have of getting their money back to to follow the gift to charge the recipient.

Is that wrong? Depends on the case. In your case, yes. However, if they didn't people would create an account, get some sort of prepaid credit card, buy rp, gift themselves, chargeback, and then abandon the new account. Rinse and repeat.

Chembaron YamadaMay 25, 20172 votes

On the other hand, don't they open up the possibility of abuse with that rule, too? Like, let's say someone wants to punish a player he recently played with. Theoretically he would be able to do what you described (create account, get prepaid credit card, buy RP, gift something to the person they want punish, chargeback) and get the account of the other guy banned that way.

Sure, it is less likely that someone would go through all this trouble just to punish a random guy. But that it is possible at all is a scary thought.

scazzmanMay 25, 20171 votes

{quoted}

On the other hand, don't they open up the possibility of abuse with that rule, too? Like, let's say someone wants to punish a player he recently played with. Theoretically he would be able to do what you described (create account, get prepaid credit card, buy RP, gift something to the person they want punish, chargeback) and get the account of the other guy banned that way.

Sure, it is less likely that someone would go through all this trouble just to punish a random guy. But that it is possible at all is a scary thought.

we should start doing this to trolls since riot wont do anything

Imperial PandaaMay 25, 20172 votes

Yes and no again.

Gifting does have rules; including being level 10, and here is the pivotal part, Must be on your friends list for at least 1 day I don't typically add people after a game, even if they request me, unless we were both having fun.

The person who wants to troll using this method would have to actively play on the lamb account and do the after game gifting. To me, that feels like a lot of work just to achieve mutual destruction.

Gifting Guide

After Match Gifting

Which means, this was someone who was on your friends list that screwed you over. Sorry Satomi.

Chembaron YamadaMay 25, 20171 votes

Nothing happened to me, so nothing to be sorry about. ^^ I was just asking because I saw the possibility for that abuse in the description.

So as long as someone doesn't add any random weirdos in their friendlist, they are safe. Glad to read that and thanks for clarification. :D

Jo0oMay 25, 20174 votes

Isn't this good news? Your old banned account is sitting there waiting for you, just gotta clear some shit up first. Usually bans are totally permanent, but yours was over some billing error, not player behavior or cheating.

Sucks that you may wind up paying some money that you shouldn't owe, but the equivalent of a few skins seems a small price to pay to get an entire account unbanned.

And no, this isn't a common practice at all. Riot certainly doesn't make a habit of "selling back" banned accounts, if that's the impression you were under.

KartagiaMay 25, 20172 votes

As IT person I am really stupefied they cannot remove those gifts. Sounds like Riot wants money and this is an extortion scheme. Just like those MPAA affiliate law firm "pay us or we will sue you" letters.

YerroFeverMay 25, 20172 votes

{quoted}

As IT person I am really stupefied they cannot remove those gifts. Sounds like Riot wants money and this is an extortion scheme. Just like those MPAA affiliate law firm "pay us or we will sue you" letters.

He only was angry that his account has a shield ban until the matter is resolved.

Nowhere in his exchange with support did he ask for them to remove all of the items gifted involving the charge back. The OP never requested that the chargeback items be taken off his account in order to reactivate it. He just wanted his account back because the account didn't have the charge back.

VoidFellMay 25, 20172 votes

Ok, I'll just copy it here:

VOIDFELL Sunday at 17:44 Hello, So my previous account (TheTrue1235) was banned in late 2014. I know it's a bit late now to ask of this, but I got curious. Could you review the reason why was it banned and if you can you unban it? Thank you for your support either way.

ARWENILUVATAR Tuesday at 08:51 Hello VoidFell,

Your account received multiple gifts from an account that has been suspended for chargebacks. These accounts have been directly linked, and as a result, your account is suspended pending repayment of the negative balance. At this time, the total amount owed by the account that sent these gifts is 30.00 EUR. Due to the nature of the refunded transactions, we're unable to lift this suspension prior to repayment.

The account which sent these gifts is currently under investigation for payment issues. Any information you can share about these gifts will help us resolve the issue. If a third party was involved (a website or Riot Point service), please indicate which one. If you've used a third party to purchase Riot Points, please explain why.

VOIDFELL Tuesday at 12:00 Do you know the name of the account? And if you do, can you tell me what it is so that I can get an idea about who it is (to check if I know that account)? Also one thing. I cannot understand why you banned my account, if I (probably) don't know who it is? That could happen to other people and they won't know where the gifts came from. Thanks for the reply either way.

VOIDFELL Tuesday at 20:58 And almost forgot to say, I haven't used any third party software nor site for gifts or RP.

TUREXINUSREX Yesterday at 17:34 Hello.

Due to privacy reasons, I am unable to provide you with any details regarding the other account. As previously mentioned by my colleague, your account has been suspended due to a link to an account that is currently banned for chargebacks.

In order to have the suspension removed, the negative balance of 30,00 EUR needs to be paid back in full to Riot Games.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

VOIDFELL Yesterday at 18:38 Ok, but the fault is not mine! Like I don't know the guy, why the heck do you have to ban my account for something that I haven't done??!? It's my account, haven't violated any of the Terms of Use and stuff of that sort..... It's not fair on my side for you to ban my account for a reason that has nothing to do with me... To pay 30 EUR to get back my account, I've probably spent that much money on RP..... It's not fair.

TUREXINUSREX Yesterday at 22:36 Hello again,

Please bear in mind that we do not apply favored treatment to any players, regardless of whether they have invested money in the account or not. Rules apply to absolutely every single player, no exceptions.

As previously explained by my colleague and I:

That being said, this account will remain suspended until the negative balanced has been repaid in full. Let me know if you have other questions.

KartagiaMay 25, 20171 votes

If someone on your friend list has sent you gifts, that is no link at all. Riot support seems to be totally incompetent monkeys like many Riot fan boys on forums. You should tell them to check your gifting history and remove all those gifts, like any semi-competent Database monkeys could've done.

As long RIot has no system to REJECT gifts, this kind of treatment is totally unacceptable.

DrCyanideMay 25, 20171 votes

Most of the time Riot does delete the ill gotten content. I think the key line in the support response is this:

Your account received multiple gifts from an account that has been suspended for chargebacks. These accounts have been directly linked, and as a result, your account is suspended pending repayment of the negative balance.

That sounds like Riot has a connection between the gifter and the OP's account in question that makes them think it's the same person.

KartagiaMay 25, 20171 votes

In that case "due privacy reasons" does not stand. Thus they are contradicting themselves.

DrCyanideMay 25, 20171 votes

And that would be what I'd push back on if it was me, because you're absolutely right.

YerroFeverMay 25, 20172 votes

It isn't a billing error, it is fraud. Charge backs are where people dispute having spent the money. This situation is where you or your friend has sent your previous account gifts of skins/champs/whatever, and then went to their credit card company and said "I didn't spend that money! It's unauthorized! I should not have to pay for it" and hope to keep whatever was purchased.

As an outsider, it looks like you are involved with your friend in trying to defraud Riot and get free things. I don't know what the real situation is but to me, it looks very suspicious. They said you can get it unbanned if you pay for the account. You actually never requested that all of the things that were involved in the charge back be taken back which means you want to keep those things for free.

With the way things look, you look like the bad guy.

RallerenPMay 25, 20171 votes

We can't see that link - it's private.

Really hard to make out what happened from your description.

VoidFellMay 25, 20171 votes

I'm kind of sad right now, I would pay for my account if someone stole it for example, but because of a billing error or stuff? Like I said, no fair on my side :D. I was hoping that a decent Rioter would see this post and do something, but I guess I'll have to pay :(. Still, I haven't done anything to deserve this ban. summoner 3

Packun FlowerMay 26, 20171 votes

I think you guys are missing the bigger picture here and so is OP.

The key phrase Support is using here is "Directly Linked" which means if i had to guess, they believe the account that got banned for gifting you then doing a charge back is also one of your accounts which is why they expect you to pay the balance.

There have been numerous posts about situations like this where Friend A gifts Friend B a skin and then charges back. The result is usually Friend A gets banned and Friend B has the content they were gifted removed from their account.

However since Support thinks you own both accounts in this case by stating they are "Directly Linked" the end result is both accounts being banned until the debt is paid. They would have to do this in order to avoid system abuse.

For example. I could make a brand new smurf. Friend my main account. Gift $50 dollars to it and then charge back. If Riot just banned the smurf i would have gotten away with $50 worth if free goods. But because they know i own both accounts then they have no choice but to ban both. If there is some innocence to be had and i really did gift a random friend then Riot would instead remove the gifted content from the victims account rather then ban it because the victim had no control over the situation.

The point is. They believe you own the account who did the gifting. You will have to prove to them otherwise. How? I have no idea.

Good luck.

VoidFellMay 26, 20171 votes

Well, thanks for the luck, I asked them to tell me what the gifts are, also can they remove them, but I have no idea about who gifted them to me. As you can see in my earlier post, I tried to get the gifter's name, but Riot denied due to privacy reasons, so now I only have hope left with my account.

VoidFellMay 27, 20171 votes

Here are the new messages from today, hasn't been any different...:

Ok, one last thing. Thank you for the replies. Also can you tell me what the gifts are (the champs, skins, etc.) and can you not remove them?

ELANVI Today at 14:26 Hey,

If the balance of 30 Euro is paid on the account which received the charge-back and sent you the Blast Zone Heimerdinger gift then you will regain access to your account and will be able to use the skin.

Let me know if you have any other inquiries.

Regards,

Elanvi Riot games player support specialist

VOIDFELL Today at 15:16 Ok, but 30 EUR only for Heimer? Aren't there any other gifts? Also again, can you not remove them?

69944531DEL1May 27, 20171 votes

I'm shook cause http://imgur.com/a/8zqKv

VoidFellMay 28, 20171 votes

They only want the money....

elanvi (Riot Games Player Support) I'm afraid that I can't provide any further details due to security reasons and to avoid any misunderstandings, the payment of the charge-back will give you access to your entire account and was placed there because the accounts have been directly linked. Regarding your second question we will not remove Blast Zone Heimerdinger from the account.

I guess I'll have to pay, tried everything but still Rito denies... summoner 3

YerroFeverMay 29, 20171 votes

It sounds like the two accounts are directly linked and for privacy protocols, it's most likely that they're not supposed to reference other accounts regardless of who owns it.

Sounds like what happened was you bought 30 euro of RP and spent it on gifts and then contested the charge and caused a charge back, and so due to the fraudulent behavior, your smurf and your main account were banned until you resolved the fraud.

VoidFellMay 29, 20171 votes

Don't know what to say. Didn't know there was such a thing until I contacted Riot. If they believe that I own both of the accounts, why didn't they tell me what was the other account?

YerroFeverMay 29, 20171 votes

Again for privacy protocol.

Even though it may not make sense, there may be a blanket rule of do not discuss who owns accounts. This would include not discussing other accounts that person owns unless that player logged into that other account and submitted a support ticket under that account instead of submitting a ticket from the main account and asking about a smurf.

VoidFellJun 15, 20171 votes

Ok, I payed, but I'm still waiting for the pardon. It's been 4 days now, I'm starting to think that I've payed for nothing.