Got a strange email

[Flutter]

It appeared to be an automatically generated email in response to someone who was unable to log onto a character.
I have not had this problem or opened a ticket regarding this.
The email gave instructions on how to delete certain files from your UO folder in order to be able to log on to the bugged character.
There were no links to click or suspicious attachments.

I feel like it was sent to my email somehow by mistake. Now this is an email address that I use only for UO and isn't CLOSE to anything anyone could type in on accident and isn't on any of the "popular" free email account services.

That being said, isn't it kind of scary to be getting someone elses emails regarding account issues? How does this happen and how should I report it. Further, who should I report it to? Seems most of the time the only one who understands what is going on at EA is Mesanna.

 

[Endal]

Perhaps someone was trying to get your account information. Perhaps they found the Account Name and were trying to get them to send a password reset. It happened to me on WoW (one of the 9,001 reasons I left that game). Not really a lot you can do about it.

 

[Giggles]

 

[Wenchkin]

Hmm, it might be worth sending Mesanna a copy of the email, just in case there is some kinda problem with their support emails. Especially as another poster seems to have a game code they didn't ask for too. Sounds like the customer support hamster got cross eyed.

Wenchy

 

[claudia-fjp]

Is there anything that isn't completely screwed up on their end? I mean you page a GM then cancel the page and they still reply as if you didn't cancel it and send you an email...

 

[The Zog historian]

Just out of curiosity, what files does this e-mail suggest deleting? A character being stuck on login is a server-side issue.

 

[Flutter]

I'll have to dig it up later and tell you.

 

[Viper09]

I don't know. I use to get emails regarding my Diablo 3 account for quite some time. Oh, I also never had a Diablo 3 account.

 

[DJAd]

Can you post the contents of the email in this thread?

 

[The Zog historian]

I don't know. I use to get emails regarding my Diablo 3 account for quite some time. Oh, I also never had a Diablo 3 account.

Haha, yes, it's phishing like with the Wells Fargo and BofA accounts I don't have. There are, of course, enough positive hits for the scammers to do this. Flutter received a strange e-mail, though, if it didn't really try to get her to login anywhere.

Flutter, it's a worry how your e-mail address was obtained. Have you ever used given that e-mail address to websites that might have sold it to spammers (like "Complete these offers and get a free iPad"), and/or have you posted it in clear text somewhere? When the first extractors appeared in the early 1990s, a lot of us used to putting our addresses in a Usenet .sig had to stop, and those were the days before spam filters.

 

[Gorbs]

Just out of curiosity, what files does this e-mail suggest deleting? A character being stuck on login is a server-side issue.

That's not necessarily true. If you corrupt some of the configuration files you can run into this as well. Remember the character may login server side just fine, but the client may not be able to progress beyond the connecting gump.

 

[The Zog historian]

Possibly, but those are rare client crashes from strange things in uo.cfg, like a large circle of transparency (I don't know if it still causes crashes). The game wouldn't permit those parameters anyway through its normal interface, so a player had to have been fooling around. One would only need to undo the changes without deleting the file.

 

[Flutter]

Here is the email (edited in case that really is a characters name)
This is a quoted email. I am in no way suggesting anyone do what is listed in the email

Greetings,

We are contacting you regarding your appeal, Ticket#: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused for you. In order to resolve this issue, I recommend taking the following steps:

1) Make sure the UO Client is closed.
2) Open your Ultima Online folder. The default location is C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\.
3) Open the Desktop folder.
4) Open the folder that has your account name.
5) Open the stuck character's shard folder (e.g. Atlantic).
5) Right-click the stuck character's folder (e.g.XXXXXXX-not a character i have) and select Copy.
6) Click Edit on the menu bar at the top of the window, and select Paste. (This will make a copy called 'Copy of XXXXXX'.)
7) Right-click the XXXXXXX folder again.
8) Select Delete.

Once you have taken these steps, attempt to login with the character again. Upon logging, default files should be created for the character, removing any possibly corrupt files that were causing issues. If you are still experiencing issues after taking these steps however, please do not hesitate to re-petition and we will be happy to take a further look into the matter.


Thank you for playing Ultima Online,


Ultima Online In-game Customer Support
Mythic, A Division of EA

 

[Aurelius]

If the problem was something in the character folder, that makes sense, and even though that's not often the cause of login problems I can see EA's 'customer support' people having been told to try that as a fix. Pretty much everything in there does look like a genuine customer service response - just apparently sent to the wrong person!

 

[Viper09]

That is odd. Doesn't sound like a phishing email. It doesn't appear to suggest you do anything that would compromise the security of your account (doesn't ask for account name, password, go to a website, download anything, etc).

 

[old gypsy]

"I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused for you..."

The first sentence contained "we"... not "I". Probably no big deal, but anything odd seems to cause my paranoia flag to pop up these days. lol

 

[The Zog historian]

Here is the email (edited in case that really is a characters name)
This is a quoted email. I am in no way suggesting anyone do what is listed in the email

If that's an attempt at technical support, it's a poorly written one. Character directories, for at least a few years now, are saved in the Windows user's My Documents folder. The directory could also just be renamed, rather than copied and the original deleted.

It's a legitimate first attempt to ensure it isn't a client settings problem, depending on the actual login problem. However, the only characters I've ever had (or others' I've heard of) that had login problems were those being blackholed due to server-side problems.

 

[weins201]

Just letting you know what is suggested will in now way affect your account it just clears up your character folder- i use this to copy characters from one shard to another to make character the same all you do is copy / paste and rename and wala all your character have exactly the same desktops, macros etc. as for i coming from Ea and not at your request "could" be someone contacting them saying I have a char on such and such account that I cannot log in please help????

 

[Doubleplay]

Here is the email (edited in case that really is a characters name)
This is a quoted email. I am in no way suggesting anyone do what is listed in the email

This is obviously a fake E-Mail. If it had been from Mythic, it would have said "Thank you for playing Warhammer" , not "Thank you for playing Ultima Online".