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Can't supply some info to verify old account - any other options or am I SOL?

vin5cent0

Visitor
Hi there,

I have an old account that I played on many years ago, and was hoping to reactivate. Long story short, my original UO account was hacked a long time ago, and I subsequently quit the game. Well, the drug that is UO reeled me back in, but not wanting to start over on a new account with no vet status, I purchased a few year old account off of ebay. I played on this account for many years (I'm guessing from ~2005ish to 2014ish, on and off) with no issues.

I now have a daughter who has been wanting to play a video game with me, so I thought UO would be a fun way to spend some time together. I cannot remember my old UO password, so through email I tried verifying ownership. I believe I supplied most of the correct answers to what I was asked, but I cannot verify the original owner's name or DOB. I got a quick email back saying that they cannot verify I'm the owner and that was that. I mentioned in my email that I had purchased the account many years ago, and I have to imagine changes of IP logins, change in account payment, etc. all have to verify my story of having purchased the account. I also know various things about the account that one would be unlikely to know without having owned it. Just to make absolutely sure I had the login name right, I searched my emails and found an email from myself to someone at EA dated back to 2007 where I mentioned my login name, so I am 100% certain I have the right account.

Is there anything else I can do at this point, or am I out of luck without the owner's name and DOB? Probably dramatic, but I feel like a part of my childhood died when I got that email saying they couldn't verify me as the owner :(

Appreciate any advice
 

Xris

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Hi there,

I have an old account that I played on many years ago, and was hoping to reactivate. Long story short, my original UO account was hacked a long time ago, and I subsequently quit the game. Well, the drug that is UO reeled me back in, but not wanting to start over on a new account with no vet status, I purchased a few year old account off of ebay. I played on this account for many years (I'm guessing from ~2005ish to 2014ish, on and off) with no issues.

I now have a daughter who has been wanting to play a video game with me, so I thought UO would be a fun way to spend some time together. I cannot remember my old UO password, so through email I tried verifying ownership. I believe I supplied most of the correct answers to what I was asked, but I cannot verify the original owner's name or DOB. I got a quick email back saying that they cannot verify I'm the owner and that was that. I mentioned in my email that I had purchased the account many years ago, and I have to imagine changes of IP logins, change in account payment, etc. all have to verify my story of having purchased the account. I also know various things about the account that one would be unlikely to know without having owned it. Just to make absolutely sure I had the login name right, I searched my emails and found an email from myself to someone at EA dated back to 2007 where I mentioned my login name, so I am 100% certain I have the right account.

Is there anything else I can do at this point, or am I out of luck without the owner's name and DOB? Probably dramatic, but I feel like a part of my childhood died when I got that email saying they couldn't verify me as the owner :(

Appreciate any advice
I think its against the terms of service to buy an account so I don't think they will help you, vet status isn't as important anymore, you can ride any ethy you want. I'd start over (and have several times), there are lots of guides here, if you want to 120 skills as fast as possible, or relearn the game as you play. My original account was in my mom's name I was 13 when I started (20 years ago :D), I'd love to get it back, but starting over is the more sensible move.

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Fridgster

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I think its against the terms of service to buy an account so I don't think they will help you, vet status isn't as important anymore, you can ride any ethy you want. I'd start over (and have several times), there are lots of guides here, if you want to 120 skills as fast as possible, or relearn the game as you play. My original account was in my mom's name I was 13 when I started (20 years ago :D), I'd love to get it back, but starting over is the more sensible move.

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Actually back then uo offered a safe account transfer program. While they did end that you can understand why folks have, had and will buy accounts.

As far as the above post I think you may be sol. Though that is just me hypothesizing.
 

Basara

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Back then they had an official channel for transferring accounts between people. If you bought an account without going through that process, you were typically in a hard place if the account got hacked.

The only thing that could possibly help you is if you can come up with the full credit card info you paid your subscription with back then.
 

Xris

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Actually back then uo offered a safe account transfer program. While they did end that you can understand why folks have, had and will buy accounts.
True I remember the official transfer of accounts. I believe it was very limited, my rl friends uncle played UO and when he quit he tried to transfer it to me but it was rejected. I believe it was more for official name changes and minors.

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Pawain

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Email Mesanna and you can transfer an account to another person. But, in this case the OP prob has no contact with the owner.
 

vin5cent0

Visitor
Yeah, I bought the account in the early 2000's, so that won't work. I really thought having all of the other account info, plus the fact that billing and login locations clearly changed around the time period I said it did, would be enough, but I guess it isn't. Such a bummer, great account that will forever just sit dormant now. Thanks anyways, all
 

ShriNayne

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A few years ago we were told by the producer that the person who knows the answer to the secret question owns the account. Asking for the original owners name and DoB must be a new thing as when I got my account back in 2013 I wasn't asked for that info, I had that account since 2003 and had long since lost the name of the person who created it. I have two other accounts that were given to me by friends who left UO and I would have no idea of their real names or DoB. As has been suggested contact Mesanna and supply proof of billing to your name and address and you might get lucky.
 

ShriNayne

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Well you never know she might just be having a day where she feels helpful, once in a blue moon it happens, so worth a try as a last resort.
 

Lore

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She's helped me before. I'll never say a bad word toward her. It was super easy to just compose an email and she made it a good experience. Maybe if you didn't get a response it was user error or you took a spawn from her in the past.
 

Keven2002

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I had/have a similar issue where I have an account that I got from a friend. Basically he started it and became bored with the game and gave it to me. I eventually quit myself for a few years shortly afterwards. As with most, I eventually returned several years later (after account management moved to the new platform) and cannot for the life of me remember the password. In fact the only way I even remembered the account names were going back into my UO folder to look up the chars under the account name. I looked for the password in those files but didn't find anything (unless it's hidden?).

I chalked it up as a lost cause because I can see that it definitely sounds pretty sketchy that I don't have much info about the account (never changed the info from what my buddy made it in the old account page) and I paid for it with game time codes so there is no credit card on file to reference with my name on it. I do keep a Frostbringer (remember when those were actually used?? lmao) with one of the chars personal blessed deeds as a little reminder of that account but that's probably as close as I'll get to seeing that account ever again :(
 

Lord Frodo

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Well if you refuse to even try to contact her than you have nobody to blame then your self. NEVER accept no as an answer until you hear it from the other person.
 

skett

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I had 2 accounts from 99 and was able to get customer service years ago to reactive 1 took me months to get it. but not the other both had same email and cc on file but I couldn’t verify the cd code correctly one account do to numbers/characters being scratched off
They make the account retrieval to difficult
 

Keven2002

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Sorry to resurrect this old thread but just wanted to see if anyone had any success getting an old account through customer support if they weren't the original owner?

Like @ShriNayne I got an account from a friend who quit like 15 years ago that I played when I was in college. So I don't have his DOB or address or CC info. I also didn't use a credit card to pay; I used game certs at that time since I didn't even own a credit card in college. I gave all the actual details about the characters, as I know them and spent most looking at them (not the account details page), but I'm being told that's insufficient. I asked what other character type details I could provide (I even told them I have the bless deed of one of the chars on that account in my house) and they only responded with "sorry the information you provided was insufficient".

Anyone had any luck giving something random about the account to retrieve it or do I need to have details about the account page?
 

Xris

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Sorry to resurrect this old thread but just wanted to see if anyone had any success getting an old account through customer support if they weren't the original owner?

Like @ShriNayne I got an account from a friend who quit like 15 years ago that I played when I was in college. So I don't have his DOB or address or CC info. I also didn't use a credit card to pay; I used game certs at that time since I didn't even own a credit card in college. I gave all the actual details about the characters, as I know them and spent most looking at them (not the account details page), but I'm being told that's insufficient. I asked what other character type details I could provide (I even told them I have the bless deed of one of the chars on that account in my house) and they only responded with "sorry the information you provided was insufficient".

Anyone had any luck giving something random about the account to retrieve it or do I need to have details about the account page?
There was just offical info on this from maybe the newsletter? Cant remember but its recent. You need several pieces of personal info to recover an account. It was also in the newsletter that they will reactivate banned accts (banned over 1 year ago) on a case by case basis.

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Lord Nabin

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Damn everyone says she helps peeps out, I've only emailed her 3 times in my entire UO tenure. I've never even gotten an email back.

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Try saying please :) oh and ask her if she can kill you at the next meet and greet. That usually helps
 

Keven2002

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There was just offical info on this from maybe the newsletter? Cant remember but its recent. You need several pieces of personal info to recover an account. It was also in the newsletter that they will reactivate banned accts (banned over 1 year ago) on a case by case basis.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk
Yea I think I remember seeing something like that too but in this case (like some others) I didn't actually create the account so I don't have that info. I saw something about secret word etc that weren't even a thing 15-20 years ago. I would think a pretty obvious sign would be that I know all the characters on the account and their template (roughly) AND the account hasn't been active in 10-12 years. Not sure if anyone else had a similar issue and gave some kind of random piece of info like "used to own a house near the graveyard in Britain" and was able to recover the account.
 

Xris

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Yea I think I remember seeing something like that too but in this case (like some others) I didn't actually create the account so I don't have that info. I saw something about secret word etc that weren't even a thing 15-20 years ago. I would think a pretty obvious sign would be that I know all the characters on the account and their template (roughly) AND the account hasn't been active in 10-12 years. Not sure if anyone else had a similar issue and gave some kind of random piece of info like "used to own a house near the graveyard in Britain" and was able to recover the account.
They need personal info, in game stuff wont get you anywhere. The secret word PLUS 2 other personal info would probably get it for you. Full name on acct, last cc used, address, etc they wont look into ingame information. Must be from billing page.

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Danpal

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My thing is how do you not remember the information. You spent years logging into the game with that info.

If you cant remeber the user's name and password then eather it was hacked or you sold the account.

I left the game for 6 years and I remembered the password.

Edit. If you bought the account back then and dont remember the information then maybe the person toke it back
 

Captn Norrington

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My thing is how do you not remember the information. You spent years logging into the game with that info.

If you cant remeber the user's name and password then eather it was hacked or you sold the account.

I left the game for 6 years and I remembered the password.

Edit. If you bought the account back then and dont remember the information then maybe the person toke it back
A lot of people with multiple accounts use spreadsheets to remember their passwords. They can't even log in on a normal day without looking up which password goes to which account.
 

Keven2002

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A lot of people with multiple accounts use spreadsheets to remember their passwords. They can't even log in on a normal day without looking up which password goes to which account.
Yea this is pretty much the case. I have like 10 different passwords or variations of passwords because I have to change passwords elsewhere. (I've had to change my 10 passwords at work every 90 days for the past 10 years).

At the time I was playing (10-12 years ago) I was in college and tbh I can't remember any password I used in college... it was probably a beer or something because that was cool and memorable to me at the time. I'm sure I probably had it written down somewhere because I had another account that I actually found the name/password on a sticky I had tucked away in some old boxes. That's what got me to log back into UO at that time. It's not like we are talking about me logging into the account maintenance page every day for a couple years; I just went into the game to kill time so that's what I actually remember (not the account details from those pages). I get it that it seems suspect if I can't identify some account details but I didn't create the account and I didn't use a credit card to pay for the account and I'm pretty certain there wasn't a secret word/phrase as an option 15 years ago... I couldn't even tell you what that would be for my accounts I have now and pay for.

It's not a huge deal if i can't retrieve it but I was just curious if there was anything else I could do to try to retrieve it. It's a shame that I could potentially resub an account that has been inactive for 10+ years because I don't know my online friends address from 15 years ago but I do get it.
 

Dragkarah

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My thing is how do you not remember the information. You spent years logging into the game with that info.

If you cant remeber the user's name and password then eather it was hacked or you sold the account.

I left the game for 6 years and I remembered the password.

Edit. If you bought the account back then and dont remember the information then maybe the person toke it back
Right. I can remember the account name and passwords of a couple of accounts that were banned in 99-2000 when I was in 8th grade
 

Danpal

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I remember all the account names and passwords falling back to Diablo 2. Only ones I don't remeber password for are for the ones I dont own anymore still know the user names for them but am sure the password was changed.
Right. I can remember the account name and passwords of a couple of accounts that were banned in 99-2000 when I was in 8th grade
 

Xris

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Well aren't you guys special at remembering things. Shame that we're all different and have varying strengths and weaknesses.

Quit being so pretentious.
If anyone looked at the log, they'd see I constantly misspell and forget my password for UO. But sorry OP I dont think they're going to help ya. They wont verify ingame info, they need official info.

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Lore

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Well aren't you guys special at remembering things. Shame that we're all different and have varying strengths and weaknesses.

Quit being so pretentious.
If anyone looked at the log, they'd see I constantly misspell and forget my password for UO. But sorry OP I dont think they're going to help ya. They wont verify ingame info, they need official info.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk
IIRC I just provided character names and maybe an email. My account had been inactive for a while though. I don't remember passwords and I certainly don't remember User Names because UO still has archaic user name requirements like no numbers or spaces. She will help if you're patient. Maybe she just got tied up. It is a small team, and while that is a lame excuse... it doesn't change the facts. UO has a small team and everyone playing it or wanting to play it are just a small super fanbase. Just gotta accept that reality.
 

Danpal

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I been waiting 6 months for a banner because my house is over 10 years old.
 

Xris

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IIRC I just provided character names and maybe an email. My account had been inactive for a while though. I don't remember passwords and I certainly don't remember User Names because UO still has archaic user name requirements like no numbers or spaces. She will help if you're patient. Maybe she just got tied up. It is a small team, and while that is a lame excuse... it doesn't change the facts. UO has a small team and everyone playing it or wanting to play it are just a small super fanbase. Just gotta accept that reality.
She has never even replied to an email from me, I was super polite in it too.

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Captn Norrington

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I been waiting 6 months for a banner because my house is over 10 years old.
You just have to keep emailing Mesanna about it, if she doesn't respond to an email in a day or two she forgot and isn't going to. She's the only one who does it so there's no one else to contact. I got super lucky for mine, it took literally 5 minutes between sending the email and her showing up at my house to place it with me.
 

ShriNayne

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I have to write all my accounts and passwords in a little password book, yes it's actually a thing...

I know someone whose account lapsed because he couldn't work out how to change his cc details, he emailed Messana 3 or 4 times desperate for help and got no reply. Finally we had to ask a well-known 'banned' poster from here to help out as he is very knowledgeable about account problems, he sorted the mess out within 20 minutes! Yes, I know he is not popular because of RMT/Swag store allegations but he did help out a complete stranger when nobody at BS cared.

As I said before I think the criteria for getting your account back has changed over the last few years, but since account management is such a hot mess you would think they would cut people a little slack! Most of the very old accounts never even had a secret word, I know mine never did, surely that was a thing that came in with BS?
 

MalagAste

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I keep a "little black book" which is an address book which works great I just leaf to the letter I need and it's there though I "code" it with stuff to help me remember what I used for a username/password as I don't want to put actual ones in there... Though I'll say the only place my usernames and passwords are for UO or my bank or PayPal is in my brain... they aren't written anywhere... though I haven't played UO in awhile I'm starting to think I should some clues to them somewhere. Just in case.

Though I have enough accounts that I do make spreadsheets to help me remember which accounts have what characters and house. I tend to forget those things a lot.

If you never deleted UO off your computer your computer should have a folder with your usernames in it. That folder also contains all the character names ... just saying.
 

Keven2002

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As I said before I think the criteria for getting your account back has changed over the last few years, but since account management is such a hot mess you would think they would cut people a little slack! Most of the very old accounts never even had a secret word, I know mine never did, surely that was a thing that came in with BS?
I agree on this; I don't remember there being much to account management 15-20 years ago when I had my accounts set up and certainly didn't have a secret word or security question etc.

If you never deleted UO off your computer your computer should have a folder with your usernames in it. That folder also contains all the character names
@MalagAste - I booted up my old college PC that i stopped using about 10 years ago and I do have the folder with the account and char names; is there a password hidden in there somewhere (there i no password file)?

Thanks
 

Xare

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The option to save the password locally was removed uhh a long time ago, prolly around 2000? Maybe? I know it was stored in plain text, so it was incredibly risky.
 

MalagAste

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I agree on this; I don't remember there being much to account management 15-20 years ago when I had my accounts set up and certainly didn't have a secret word or security question etc.



@MalagAste - I booted up my old college PC that i stopped using about 10 years ago and I do have the folder with the account and char names; is there a password hidden in there somewhere (there i no password file)?

Thanks
No password that I know of but you now have the account name! Which will get you much further with getting your account back.
 
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