Important Safety Reminder for All Pirates (07/23/13)

Jason O'martin said:
I find it ridiuclous that we even have to pay for "enhanced gameplay." Doesn't disney make enough money with Disneyland, Disneyworld, their tv networks, etc..? Hackers will just keep making new accounts. We need more protection from Disney, not that they even care at all.
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Honestly I don't care about paying for unlimited access, as long as a good portion of it is going into the game itself. Which it is not.
 
I know this is a hot topic for all of us and I interject my thoughts in spite of a backlash. I am going to defend Disney for a second, an unpopular stance I know. When we sign on the game via Disney servers, we are protected from identity theft by them. As long as we do not give out personal info we can not fall victim to these malicious antics of a few really vile kids. Don't hold Disney responsible if you give up your password. Period. I understand the idea that they can do a little more but I am not sure how you expect them to know if the person making a new account is a hacker or just a new player to the game. Sure there are IP addresses and other methods to possibly block things but I just want to say, GET REAL. This is not a financial or healthcare institution with critical life info. They put in place basic safeguards for you to play a game. They tell you DON'T share your password. DON'T connect outside the game. When a player disregards all that advice and gets burned I hear everyone pointing back at Disney. You have only yourselves to blame. I know this is an unpopular stance and it is easier to get on the bash Disney bandwagon but I think we all have to accept responsibility for our own accounts safety. I am not siding with "hackers", I think they are slime but you may as well learn as kids that you need to protect your identity and be cautious. As an adult and a parent I think of this situation like this: I can protect my child for only so long and I have to trust him to make sound decisions and listen to what he has been taught. Same with the game Disney can protect your interests only so long as you listen to their directions and resist the temptation to do otherwise.

As far as Disney caring about our interests, they are in fact a business and a very good one at that. And yes, as soon as a business division looks to have lost its viability it will cut its loses and close it. I don't think we are there yet with POTCO and I still love playing and interacting with my in game chums.
 
I respect your opinion, however I have some other thoughts.
Griffin the Crazed said:
I As long as we do not give out personal info we can not fall victim to these malicious antics of a few really vile kids. Don't hold Disney responsible if you give up your password. Period.
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What about keyloggers? Those don't require giving out any personal information. The blog post points out not to download any hacks as they could contain keyloggers, however they can be passed through more ways than this. Also if I may point out that your account ID is stored in plain site through the logs. If a hacker were to get this somehow, they would need only your password.
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Griffin the Crazed said:
Don't hold Disney responsible if you give up your password. Period. I understand the idea that they can do a little more but I am not sure how you expect them to know if the person making a new account is a hacker or just a new player to the game. Sure there are IP addresses and other methods to possibly block things but I just want to say, GET REAL.
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Yes of course, if you give up your own account information you and only you are to blame. And you are right about hackers changing their IPs.

Sorry for singling your post out. However this is directed to everyone.
 
In this instance, you have a valid point the hackers are using methods beyond Disney's control. Keylogging is something that you can not really protect against directly.

However this is just one side of a very systemic coin. Glitchers are rarely dealt with. Users of Python program are not stopped. The game itself is a security sieve that even the makers of the program app say should be easy to plug.

As for the 'other computer' solution, it requires a way to log or track IP addresses
 
David Ironeagle said:
That whole "7 days for regular access" is not true. I have about 4 alt accounts that are nearing a year old without ever purchasing UA on them.
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Nah man, I meant like if someone were to delete a regular access member you can only have up to 7 days to restore said character.
 
Griffin the Crazed said:
They tell you DON'T share your password. DON'T connect outside the game.
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Ok, I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but c'mon. Disney honestly expects us NOT to connect outside the game, when they have Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts for POTCO? What, did they think players would use their real-life accounts to follow/subscribe and comment on POTCO releases for all our out-of-game friends to see?

Kat Five Knives said:
I'm beginning to think they see this game as a burden and not an asset, and certainly not a priority. Pulling UA may only give them an excuse to close the game down. Then where will we be?
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The idea is not to actually pull UA. It's to have as many people as possible send an email over to Disney about all these terrible problems and a whole list of complaints (which shouldn't be that hard to create). If this is done at the same time, Disney will most likely do SOMETHING.

I agree with you on the seeing this game as a burden. Disney doesn't exactly have a terrific record with MMOG's. Here's some I can think of:

Toontown - Nearly dead due to a lack of updates and Disney showing that they still care (at least it was a few years ago, haven't been on since)

Club Penguin - Doing pretty well, but mostly because they are run by a completely separate group. Disney bought out the original owners several years back

VMK (Virtual Magic Kingdom) - Completely shut down because Disney didn't think to try and make money off it

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Disney only recently bought out LucasArts, and from the looks of it, haven't yet gotten to SWTOR. The game is still thriving from what I can tell, but just like CP, it is run by a completely separate group that has not (yet) been tainted by Disney executives.

And lastly..

Pirates of the Caribbean Online - I'd say it's mostly still alive due to player devotion to the game. Disney makes no maintenance and when they actually do, pretty much nothing is done, the last major update was December 14, 2011 (Ship customizations), does not deal with the hacking situation as it should be dealt with, and overall shows a very major lack of effort on their part.
 
Dear Kris,

Thank you for your email.

I see you are wondering if Disney is planning to close Pirates Online. We've heard many rumors from players, and I'm not sure where that started other than from the players. But if we did have plans for something like that we would let players know on the What's New blog, where we post official information.

You've mentioned hackers and being able to track your information. This is not true, so you don't need to worry about someone playing the game with you and having them be able to get to your information.

Sincerely,

Kathryn
Pirates of the Caribbean Online Member Services
 
John Foulroberts said:
It's pure laziness on Disney's part; they just refuse to get involved in outside matters. They could be doing so much for this game - we throw so much money at them month after month - and yet they do absolutely nothing. Everywhere you look, you see blue names; people that are subscribed to the game. Where is all of our money going to? Obviously not this game - we would've seen something by now. There is absolutely no excuse for them to NOT be doing something - what do they do, use all of our money to buy cheese puffs and soda and lay around the office all day? Seems like a logical scenario if you ask me.

I'm extremely disappointed in Disney's lack of care and responsibility for what goes on in a game that THEY run. I've been playing this game for five years, and I must say I am disheartened by what this game has turned into.
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Hmm... So this is what they do with our money
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?
 
Kat Five Knives said:
We have seen pirates who steal accounts continuing to play despite our turning in screen shots and evidence against them.
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Not sure if my comment on the Grog will entice them to respond but, below is what I had written:
POTCO is worth "protecting." Although I feel this reminder is exactly what the game needs in response to such measures, may I ask...will there ever be a time to where those whom consistently violate POTCO's terms of service will have more than just a single, in-game account terminated or banned? Oftentimes, players do in fact construct "numerous" POTCO accounts to where they will only continue to do as they please. Thank You.
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Kris said:
Dear Kris,

Thank you for your email.

I see you are wondering if Disney is planning to close Pirates Online. We've heard many rumors from players, and I'm not sure where that started other than from the players. But if we did have plans for something like that we would let players know on the What's New blog, where we post official information.

You've mentioned hackers and being able to track your information. This is not true, so you don't need to worry about someone playing the game with you and having them be able to get to your information.

Sincerely,

Kathryn
Pirates of the Caribbean Online Member Services
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First paragraph: "Yeah, no kidding." (shakes head) Quite the obvious statement.:facepalm:

*Within your correspondence to them, I don't know exactly what was said but it's too bad they didn't give you the benefit of the doubt to understand (for yourself) the obvious, lol.

Second paragraph: A perfect case of plausible deniability.

Kathryn needs to spend some time on POTCO because people do "get to your information" (through various means).
 
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Okay sure, common sense = dont give out your info. But the thing is that some of us have never done that and get hacked. Or rather, keylogged. It is a development that has risen recently on the site I administer. Some people are keylogging. But see some of these people we believe are our friends and when we download something that is not at all fishy, we get keylogged. Im telling you if you believe Disney, just for one second, cared for their customers in their post.....I tell you my friend you must re0think that. Disney is concerned..... about their bags of money..... Disney is putting this out saying *Hey we warned you*.

This is not a different circumstance.
 
In light of the recent events (Cory), I had sent Disney a request for help via their contact us page. Here is the response I received...

Dear Michelle,

Thank you for your email.

We have heard from many pirates about these players, we can't say what we are doing in regards to them.

I will definitely pass along that this is becoming more and more of a problem and hopefully we get another reminder about safety.

Sincerely,

Kathryn
Pirates of the Caribbean Online Member Services
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Today I have'ed called up the Pirates Online staff about what has been going on recently in the game and it has escalated very terribly. I spoke with a representative of Pirates Online and told her what these hackers are doing in the game. I told her everything. The programs that they use to hack the game and the key-logging that has been going on recently.

First, I have been talking with the Rep. of POTCO about the programs that they use to hack the game. "I told her Does Disney hires companies to to prevent hackers from hacking the game?"

She replied "No."

Secondly, I talked to her about the Key-Logging.

I asked her "What is Key-Logging?" Her reply was. "Key-Logging is when a person promises you something and they give you a link to download some type of software then once you have downloaded it then you have now been key logged. Now the person can see what you have typed like for example passwords."

After that I said, "Thank you." and we both hanged up.

LISTEN UP​
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  • PLEASE BE CAREFUL of Links that you don't know. If you see a link please do not click it and report the person who has sent it to you.
  • DO NOT give out your personal information to anyone.
  • DO NOT talk to anyone that you don't know on the internet.
  • DO NOT download anything from the internet that you don't know of.
  • PLEASE DO report these hackers to the Pirates Online Staff.
  • PLEASE BE CAREFUL of who you invite into your guilds.
  • PLEASE BE CAREFUL of who you player friends with and who you pirate friends with as well.
  • PLEASE DO NOT BE AFRAID to report these hackers for they are breaking the law now and should be put behind bars. And when you report these hackers please take screen-shots because they are vital evidence to help you why you are reporting that person.
  • PLEASE REPORT people wanting information. Even if they offer you anything DO NOT TRUST THEM for it is a scam and click the report button on their players card. When you are reporting it should say "Asking or wanting or even sharing information to players"
 
There are the normal cheaters you find on every MMORPG who just modify the game using 3rd party software and then there are the account stealers. On games with trading systems they do it to steal peoples items. But I have no idea why they do it on games without trade. They get nothing off the account they steal.
 
John Foulroberts said:
Disney's number is 1-888-507-9507.
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I noticed that a while ago when I went to contact Disney, their customer services email and phone number had mysteriously disappeared from the site. How odd.

Captain Star said:
In light of the recent events (Cory), I had sent Disney a request for help via their contact us page.
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Disney will be no help when it comes to events such as that, as sad as it is. Not sure if you know, but a member of the group Anonymous has supposedly taken down the guys who hacked and deleted Cory's account, and it can be seen here.

Marc Cannonshot said:
First, I have been talking with the Rep. of POTCO about the programs that they use to hack the game. "I told her Does Disney hires companies to to prevent hackers from hacking the game?"

She replied "No."
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I'm not surprised at this. Disney has not made the realization that in order to stop hacking, they need outside help. The abilities of Disney are sadly lacking when it comes to fighting the many hackers that have been plaguing the game. Sooner or later Disney will have to get the message that they will need outside help if they are to repair the damage that their lack of care to POTCO has done, else the damage risks becoming irreparable, and that's if it isn't already.
 
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