How My Top 100 Account Got Hacked, Suspended, and Banned

I am writing today to explain, in detail, how my account was inaccurately flagged, suspended, and banned for coin distribution. Let’s start from the beginning:

January 7th, 2019

After nearly 4 months of grinding, I finally cracked the Top 100 for Xbox (gamertag: bergalicious69 – don’t ask).

January 9th, 2019 @ 4:52PM (Central Standard Time)

I receive this message from an account named FUTRewards 19 (I presume I was targeted as I had recently entered the Top 100).

Foolishly, I went to the website (at the time it did not have Deceptive Site or Security messages as it does now) and inputed my EA email and password.

IMMEDIATELY after hitting enter and the waiting for the next page to load, a light went off in my head that something wasn’t right. This website had nothing to do with EA’s website. There wasn’t an ‘https’ attached to the URL. As the next page was loading (1 to 2 seconds after I hit enter), I exited out of the website. I received an SMS message with a 6 digit verification code, but I did nothing with this as I came to the conclusion that this was some sort of scam.

Giving out my credentials was 100% my mistake. I understand that.

January 9th, 2019 @ 4:55PM

Even though I had 2-factor verification enabled, I still wanted to take any precaution I could to ensure my account was secure. I changed my password. I created new security questions. I deleted all trust devices.

After doing this, I contacted an EA support representative in order to make sure I had taken the appropriate measures. He assured me that “my account is fully secured“.

January 9th, 2019 @ 7:34PM

What the account representative failed to mention, however, was the fact that a secondary email could also have be used for two-factor verification. I received this email on my secondary email asking for a password reset – something that the hacker initiated, not myself.

January 9th, 2019 @ 11:15PM

I log on to FIFA Ultimate Team and find that my account balance has went from 17 million to 7 million. I contact EA immediately telling them, again, what has happened. I was assured that “there were some suspicious activities in my account“.

However, I could not proceed with further action until the “experts” were online to restore my coins at 2AM Central Standard Time.

January 10, 2019 @ 2:15AM

My account is escalated to the expert team.

February 1st, 2019 @ 2:19AM

After 22 days I receive this email from EA.

February 1st, 2019 @ 11:08AM

I open this case with EA.

February 2nd, 2019 @10:36AM.

I receive this message from EA in regards to my case.

One portion of the User Agreement reads:

“You are responsible for the activity on your EA Account. Your EA Account may be suspended or terminated if someone else uses it to engage in activity that violates this Agreement.”

I assume this was their basis for banning my account.

Did I make mistakes over the course of this case? Of course. I should not have given out my credentials. I should have been aware of the fact that I had a secondary email that could have granted two-factor verification.

But at the end of the day, my account was hacked. I was not involved in coin distribution, and the actions of the hacker are the reason I no longer have my account, coins, and Top 100 Transfer Profit ranking.

Be aware of scammers and do not make the same mistakes I did.

In addition, don’t expect much when dealing with EA support.

Cheers,

Chief