Screwed out of my PSN account--any advice?

Jesse_Dylan

Jesse_Dylan

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The full story:

Back in 2010, near the end, I got a charge from the PSN for $50 that I didn't authorize. I called my credit card company, and they canceled my card and apparently set up a dispute. Sony banned my account.

I e-mailed Sony, and they told me I had to call. I e-mailed some more, procrastinated.

About a month ago, I called and got jerked around for a while. A woman did her best, and then I talked to a manager who accused me of giving away my info, blah blah, which I hadn't. He heard my whole story, apologized, and said I needed to call back and talk to an account recovery specialist.

So, I called back today. I talked to a guy for ages. He apparently talked to the account recovery specialist for me, but I didn't talk to them myself.

Basically, he said it couldn't have been the massive PSN hack that caused this, because that happened in 2011. What happened to me happened earlier (probably the massive Gawker hack). He said there is no way to retrieve my account, and all the stuff I had on there that I'd purchased is gone, forever.

None of this is my fault. Yeah, I procrastinated forever, but that's because I have a strange aversion to getting screwed around on the phone. So I've entirely lost everything I had on there, and they can do nothing about it. They told me to just start a new account.

CAG's worst nightmare. Who knows what all I had hoarded on there. Guess that's life.

Any advice? Anything that can be done? There's seriously no way to get my account/stuff back? I wouldn't even know where to post, whom to e-mail, whom to complain to. I only posted on CAG because it's my favorite community.

(My Battle.net account got stolen as well, which was also a tremendous pain to get back but not nearly so financially saddening.)

Can I go ahead and make a new account with my same old e-mail address now, or would that contribute to destroying any chance (apparently zero) I have of getting all my old stuff back?
 
you can keep trying but it sounds like youre sol when it comes to your old account. in the future juts use psn cards or giftcards to buy stuff on psn.
 
Yeah, that's a good idea to just stick to gift cards. Kind of a pain, but I don't know what else to do. I'm not very eager to even start a new account, but there's an Atlus PSP sale going on right now, and I'm a CAG...
 
Oh damn. That's bullshit. I'd try to get them to reimburse me for all my stuff. It's the right thing to do. Whether they will do it or not is up to them..
 
I'd be totally happy if they just gave me PSN credit for the current value of my stuff, so I could make a new account and rebuy what I want, but they won't do that or anything. I sent them one last e-mail, and I filed a complaint with the BBB.
 
I read about it happening to someone on Xbox too, actually... Someone hacked and stole their account, used it to hack others, and Microsoft claimed that behavior began before the user lost his account. Thus, permanent ban. Pretty screwed up.
 
[quote name='Jesse_Dylan']I'd be totally happy if they just gave me PSN credit for the current value of my stuff, so I could make a new account and rebuy what I want, but they won't do that or anything. I sent them one last e-mail, and I filed a complaint with the BBB.[/QUOTE]

At this point, you should consider yourself happy if you get anything...you certainly won't get credit, as that would just establish a way for people to get "refunds" off PSN. The best case scenario is they either reinstate your old account or give all the games/dlc your old account had to a new account.

All you can do is keep calling and hope to get lucky. I wouldn't expect much from them...if there's a period of time Sony allows for people to appeal bans, you've likely passed it. BBB won't do anything. By your own admission, Sony told you to call them, and you didn't for a year and a half. That's probably enough for Sony to say they had made a good faith effort to help, but you didn't follow their instructions. Realistically though, you should either write Sony/PSN off completely or get a new account. Chalk this experience up to a lesson learned, and walk away from your banned account.
 
They will never give you credit! If you used your credit card to make purchases they should easily be able to give you all the stuff you bought but i know they never really like to throw a bone to people even if they have a good argument. You need facts and sometimes that won't even work with them. If you used a credit card they should be able to verify that you made those purchases.
 
Well, one day after posting my complaint with the Better Business Bureau, I got a call from someone at Sony. I called him back, left a message, and he called me back. He asked me how my day was, was very friendly, and informed me that he'd settled all debts on my account (the $50 the hacker charged) and was restoring my access. I now have my account back. I'm in the process of making sure everything is still there, but it definitely seems to be.

So that's that. Kind of sad that no one at Sony would give me the time of day before, but the BBB certainly got their attention. I have a direct phone number for this guy at Sony, which he told me to call if I ever had any problems again.

Now, time to hit that PSP sale Atlus is running!!!!!
 
This shit happened two years ago and you're just now whining about it? How is none of this your fault? Funny thing is the $50 charge was probably user error.
 
It's good to see you get your stuff back, but you seriously waited way too long. It probably seemed sketchy to the people at Sony.
 
I didn't have a phone at the time and worked the night shift, slept all day. That's why I e-mailed them to begin with. I never really got a chance to call, and then I just forgot about it. I was busy with other stuff when it came to gaming. Now I'm thinking about a Vita, and I got Dragon's Dogma and wanted to get back into my account. I didn't think it'd be such a gigantic deal. When I finally talked to the guy at the direct number, it was no longer a big deal. He hardly had to do anything to get my account back.

The $50 was definitely not user error. I was hacked, and when my credit card got charged, I called my credit card company. I didn't even know I'd been hacked until later, and I didn't even know why I'd been banned until two days ago.
 
Maybe I'm just a bit skeptical, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. First off, change your password. And I don't just mean your PSN password... if you've had multiple accounts hacked, either you're doing something to invite trouble or your password is actually "password." Second, take your credit card off file and start using PSN cards. That should be a good start now that you've had your account reinstated.
 
Actually, Gawker got hacked, so my email/pw combination I used at Kotaku was compromised, and unfortunately I had the same email and pw for nearly everything back then. That was really the first of the big hacks. Now it seems like it happens weekly (Nvidia forums got hacked today).

So I myself never got hacked. Stuff I used did, and my information was compromised. Now I do it the hard way, with different passwords for everything. And these days there's two-step verification for gmail, Steam, authenticators for battle.net...

Actually I have to use PSN cards anyway, because, like for many, PSN refuses to accept my credit card information. I can't even buy the cards or download codes elsewhere online. My credit card works for everything else, but I always have problems, and it's not on my credit card company's side. So, I just have to buy the cards locally.
 
I'm just going to go ahead and reiterate what some of the other people have already said, "you waited too long." Really, no excuses. That much is your own fault, even if not getting hacked was really your fault. I admit to being a huge procrastinator too, though, so I know what it's like

However, it's still pretty BS that Sony wouldn't act until you reported them to the BBB, but I'm wholly surprised that they even did anything at all, even after being reported to the BBB.

At least, you were able to retrieve your account. :applause:
 
I was definitely on it as soon as I knew what was happening via email. Really didn't want to sit on the phone with them though and just assumed naively that they'd locked my account and everything was safe.

It's nice having it back. There've been a lot of changes. I got Rainbow Moon, and a few PS1 and 2 classics, and am having a lot of fun and looking forward to getting a Vita.
 
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