Thu Sep 15, 2005 12:06 pm
is the threat over?
Thu Sep 15, 2005 2:47 pm
I'm pretty sure it is.
Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:38 pm
So it's safe to do quests and all that?
Finally.
Finally.
Fri Sep 16, 2005 1:40 am
Well, one of my friends who was a victim was just frozen...
Stupid hacker.
Edit: I need phone numbers. I have premium, does that get me a special phone number?
You MAY have either fallen for a scam or submitted your account information to a fake login page. If you'd like information on getting your account back, please contact us by clicking here.
Stupid hacker.
Edit: I need phone numbers. I have premium, does that get me a special phone number?
Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:02 am
Try the 1877NEOPIAN, that's the only number I know. Is this the person they're talking about on the charter board right now?
Apparently all is NOT well in Neopia yet. I feel really bad for this person and anyone else affected by this. I tried looking a topics that were linked in another topic, but all of them had been removed. But from the one topic remaining, that person did go to a shop, it did have some sort of pop-up and contact info -- and did have contact with someone via AIM. So it may not be on the site itself, it could have happened somehow via the AIM conversation. I don't know how that works to be honest - I hardly ever use my instant messenger - don't like them, don't trust them, find them annoying.
Either way, whoever was behind this mess needs to be dealt with. And I really hope anyone affected gets their accounts back, and quickly.
Am still not taking any chances shopping, visiting lookups or anything else besides playing some games, trying to figure out the tomb tablet and checking in on the boards.
Apparently all is NOT well in Neopia yet. I feel really bad for this person and anyone else affected by this. I tried looking a topics that were linked in another topic, but all of them had been removed. But from the one topic remaining, that person did go to a shop, it did have some sort of pop-up and contact info -- and did have contact with someone via AIM. So it may not be on the site itself, it could have happened somehow via the AIM conversation. I don't know how that works to be honest - I hardly ever use my instant messenger - don't like them, don't trust them, find them annoying.
Either way, whoever was behind this mess needs to be dealt with. And I really hope anyone affected gets their accounts back, and quickly.
Am still not taking any chances shopping, visiting lookups or anything else besides playing some games, trying to figure out the tomb tablet and checking in on the boards.
Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:15 am
I don't know, I don't go to the boards... Pyro is the one I'm talking about. (well, that's his nickname. I don't want to give out his full name without his consent.) I feel so bad. 
I still don't think that you should be frozen forever, I think a year suspension would be bad enough to make hackers give up, but hope for people who it shouldn't have happened to.
<hr>
I know petitiononline's been done before, but this time Neopets has gone far enough. I'm putting this one up, and it's going on channel 4 news. How about some comments?
<hr>
If anyone wants to help out, I need addresses for the following "clients" of Neopets:
ENTERTAINMENT
· 20th Century Fox
· Atari
· Discovery Kids Channel
· Disney
· New Line Cinema
· Nickelodeon
· Nintendo
· Paramount Pictures
· PBS Kids
· RCA Records
· SONY
· Turner Broadcasting
· Universal Studios
· Virgin Digital
· Vivendi Universal
· Warner Bros.
CONSUMER
· Campbell Soup
· General Mills
· Hershey
· Kellogg's
· Kraft Foods / Nabisco
· Mattel
· McDonald's
· Nestlé
· Pepperidge Farm
· Procter & Gamble
PUBLISHING
· Condé Nast · Gruner + Jahr · Primedia
AGENCIES
· Avenue A
· Campbell Mithun
· Initiative Media
· MediaCom
· OMD
· Real Branding
· Starcom
· Tangible Media
· The Digital Edge
· Universal McCann
They can be PM'ed to me if you don't think it appropriate to post the address on the forum.
SNak Edit: Please don't double (or in this case triple) post. If you ever have anything to add, use the EDIT button instead! You should know this by now...
I still don't think that you should be frozen forever, I think a year suspension would be bad enough to make hackers give up, but hope for people who it shouldn't have happened to.
<hr>
I know petitiononline's been done before, but this time Neopets has gone far enough. I'm putting this one up, and it's going on channel 4 news. How about some comments?
NeoPets, Inc needs to stop freezing accounts. The majority of the time an account gets frozen, it is because of a mistake on NeoPets’ behalf. A good idea was started when NeoPets began suspending accounts for a period of time, however this only happens occasionally. Stopping the freezing and making long-term suspensions would prevent accounts that should not have been frozen to be unlocked in the future automatically. Too many accounts get frozen each day for the staff at NeoPets to investigate whether the freezing was warranted or not. Many frozen accounts stay frozen, whether the user deserved it or not.
Examples of accounts being wrongly frozen:
1. A user takes advantage of a glitch in the Neopets computer system, duplicates some items, and sells them to unsuspecting users. The users who bought these items end up frozen, without knowing they were buying illegitimate items. (3 months suspension)
2. A user puts a cookie grabber on a Neopets page, and other users visit that page. The first user gets into all those accounts they cookie grabbed, and posts words against the Terms of Service on the NeoBoards, getting the innocent user’s account frozen.
3. A user has a new top of the line computer, with extremely high speed Internet connection, and plays some games. That user gets frozen for cheating on games, even though no cheating program was used.
4. A user again uses a new top of the line computer and high speed Internet connection to restock in the NeoShops. That user gets frozen for using a bot, even though the user was not.
5. A user gets frozen for posting on the NeoBoards just because another user does not like the first user. Nothing was said out of line of the Terms of Service, or wrong at all, other than the second user got enough people to report the first to get them frozen immediately.
6. A user is in school, and a dozen users play NeoPets from the library computer. All of the users playing on that computer get frozen for using too many accounts.
7. A family of four all play Neopets on their home computer, and each have two accounts. The family gets frozen for having more than five accounts.
What the undersigned suggest to NeoPets, Inc:
~Stop all freezing and use suspensions instead. For a reason that would have warranted a freezing, suspend the account for a long term such as a year.
The above examples all should receive 3-12 months suspension, and notes explaining why. Suspensions often make the person who has wronged see that there are repercussions of doing wrong, and they will not do it again. If it is a hacker/scammer who is in one of those accounts that is frozen, they just turn around and make a new account to do the same thing. Freezing is meaningless to hackers/scammers.
The only users hurt by freezings are the ones who did no wrong, or who did wrong and regret it, but do not have a second chance to prove themselves with. We, the undersigned, are real people who care about our Neopets. We are parents who see our children devastated when their account is frozen wrongly and they never get it back. We are business employees who just wish to enjoy a break from work. We are college students, for whom the site was intended, who share dorm rooms with four other kids. We are school kids, who don’t know that there are hackers on the Internet. Some of us are paying customers, who expect protection from harm, not punishment. We are NeoPets members, and we want our accounts unfrozen!
<hr>
If anyone wants to help out, I need addresses for the following "clients" of Neopets:
ENTERTAINMENT
· 20th Century Fox
· Atari
· Discovery Kids Channel
· Disney
· New Line Cinema
· Nickelodeon
· Nintendo
· Paramount Pictures
· PBS Kids
· RCA Records
· SONY
· Turner Broadcasting
· Universal Studios
· Virgin Digital
· Vivendi Universal
· Warner Bros.
CONSUMER
· Campbell Soup
· General Mills
· Hershey
· Kellogg's
· Kraft Foods / Nabisco
· Mattel
· McDonald's
· Nestlé
· Pepperidge Farm
· Procter & Gamble
PUBLISHING
· Condé Nast · Gruner + Jahr · Primedia
AGENCIES
· Avenue A
· Campbell Mithun
· Initiative Media
· MediaCom
· OMD
· Real Branding
· Starcom
· Tangible Media
· The Digital Edge
· Universal McCann
They can be PM'ed to me if you don't think it appropriate to post the address on the forum.
SNak Edit: Please don't double (or in this case triple) post. If you ever have anything to add, use the EDIT button instead! You should know this by now...
Fri Sep 16, 2005 1:13 pm
I didn't know that a user could be frozen by having a very high speed internet conection and playing games. That's just...silly and of course, the rather common account freezing because of hackers/dupped items is silly too, the persons did not know that the items were dupped or that they were hacked!
Fri Sep 16, 2005 2:57 pm
agreed Asparagus Queen
also if u like are on the scoreboard for neopets for beating NQ like the 5 fastest people, u get frozen for no apparent reason
and also like they froze this guy in the meridle war because he scored the 2nd most points for the merridle team and they did not want the merridle team to have so many points so they just froze him to get rid of like 10k points
also if u like are on the scoreboard for neopets for beating NQ like the 5 fastest people, u get frozen for no apparent reason
and also like they froze this guy in the meridle war because he scored the 2nd most points for the merridle team and they did not want the merridle team to have so many points so they just froze him to get rid of like 10k points
Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:03 pm
imre wrote:agreed Asparagus Queen
also if u like are on the scoreboard for neopets for beating NQ like the 5 fastest people, u get frozen for no apparent reason
and also like they froze this guy in the meridle war because he scored the 2nd most points for the merridle team and they did not want the merridle team to have so many points so they just froze him to get rid of like 10k points
I'd like to see proof on the meridel war thing. And i've known people on the NQ fastest winners board who havn't been frozen (bumped off it now, but not frozen)
Fri Sep 16, 2005 4:14 pm
Asparagus Queen wrote:
OK, having been around the summer there were mass freezings for "cheating at flash games" and people not getting their accounts back, I agree some of the games need to be looked at (#3). Some of the games are timed and people have been and continue to be frozen for cheating when all they have is either a fast computer/fast internet or a slow computer/dial-up or other slow connection and then a program is suspected to slow the computer down.
#4, well, I don't know. I think there needs to be absolute proof someone's using an ab program, but I guess that can be hard to do, especially if someone's really fast. There's also a good degree of finger pointing on the site - people see something good, don't get haggle and start yelling AB'ER! and post on the boards or start mass reporting.
#5 - Mass reporting in general. Adding that "report this message" on the boards has caused alot of problems - that should be taken away I think. People are reporting for everything and anything.
Numbers 6 and 7 I also agree with - there's too many people who've either been frozen or fear being frozen for sharing a computer - not accounts - that IS against the rules with IMHO good reason - but just the same IP. Especially if things are sent to another of the accounts (like a gift) via the TP or Send to Neofriend.
Numbers 1 and 2 - whoever perpetrated said duping/putting something somewhere on or off the site to gain access to accounts - they should be frozen and banned. Cheating/using programs, bots, etc. should not be tolerated. So I would change the wording of 1 and 2 - right now it reads as though the actual cheaters should only be suspended which would be unfair to the rest of the users and would encourage cheaters. They'd be like, so what if I cheat and get caught, I'll just get a suspension. Not that freezing really stops them either. That's got to be a huge problem for the staff and I give them credit for the work they do to try to at least curb the cheating.
Now if your point in #1 is that innocent people being given/buying a duped item getting frozen, then I agree - they should not be frozen or suspended. Take the item, fine. Better to lose the item and the np than your account.
The main reason people are frozen re: #2 is usually to protect the scammed/hacked/cracked account from any more damage being done. In that case, maybe a suspension of the account would be better. At the same time, if the baddie changed the email and/or password, a suspension wouldn't do any good - they'd just wait till it was over then go back into the account and clean it out.
What do I think is needed? More staff, maybe separate sections to deal with specific reasons for being frozen. That way things could be looked into more closely. And a more timely real response, not waiting for weeks, months or sometimes never and in that response what exactly is happening.
#2 speaks more to whatever just happened on the site with the whole script/cg/however this was done to gain access to others' accounts. And I hope anyone affected does get their account back, and back quickly.
Petitions don't work 99% of the time, from what I've seen. Most of the addresses you're looking for probably can be found online, doing a google search. Or try the BBB, they usually have an address, phone and fax number. The advertising agencies (the banner ad people) probably wouldn't care one bit to be honest. Avenue A I know is considered spyware, so ...
I really just came here and to this topic to see if there was any more information/if the problem had been taken care of.
NeoPets, Inc needs to stop freezing accounts. The majority of the time an account gets frozen, it is because of a mistake on NeoPets’ behalf. A good idea was started when NeoPets began suspending accounts for a period of time, however this only happens occasionally. Stopping the freezing and making long-term suspensions would prevent accounts that should not have been frozen to be unlocked in the future automatically. Too many accounts get frozen each day for the staff at NeoPets to investigate whether the freezing was warranted or not. Many frozen accounts stay frozen, whether the user deserved it or not.
Examples of accounts being wrongly frozen:
1. A user takes advantage of a glitch in the Neopets computer system, duplicates some items, and sells them to unsuspecting users. The users who bought these items end up frozen, without knowing they were buying illegitimate items. (3 months suspension)
2. A user puts a cookie grabber on a Neopets page, and other users visit that page. The first user gets into all those accounts they cookie grabbed, and posts words against the Terms of Service on the NeoBoards, getting the innocent user’s account frozen.
3. A user has a new top of the line computer, with extremely high speed Internet connection, and plays some games. That user gets frozen for cheating on games, even though no cheating program was used.
4. A user again uses a new top of the line computer and high speed Internet connection to restock in the NeoShops. That user gets frozen for using a bot, even though the user was not.
5. A user gets frozen for posting on the NeoBoards just because another user does not like the first user. Nothing was said out of line of the Terms of Service, or wrong at all, other than the second user got enough people to report the first to get them frozen immediately.
6. A user is in school, and a dozen users play NeoPets from the library computer. All of the users playing on that computer get frozen for using too many accounts.
7. A family of four all play Neopets on their home computer, and each have two accounts. The family gets frozen for having more than five accounts.
OK, having been around the summer there were mass freezings for "cheating at flash games" and people not getting their accounts back, I agree some of the games need to be looked at (#3). Some of the games are timed and people have been and continue to be frozen for cheating when all they have is either a fast computer/fast internet or a slow computer/dial-up or other slow connection and then a program is suspected to slow the computer down.
#4, well, I don't know. I think there needs to be absolute proof someone's using an ab program, but I guess that can be hard to do, especially if someone's really fast. There's also a good degree of finger pointing on the site - people see something good, don't get haggle and start yelling AB'ER! and post on the boards or start mass reporting.
#5 - Mass reporting in general. Adding that "report this message" on the boards has caused alot of problems - that should be taken away I think. People are reporting for everything and anything.
Numbers 6 and 7 I also agree with - there's too many people who've either been frozen or fear being frozen for sharing a computer - not accounts - that IS against the rules with IMHO good reason - but just the same IP. Especially if things are sent to another of the accounts (like a gift) via the TP or Send to Neofriend.
Numbers 1 and 2 - whoever perpetrated said duping/putting something somewhere on or off the site to gain access to accounts - they should be frozen and banned. Cheating/using programs, bots, etc. should not be tolerated. So I would change the wording of 1 and 2 - right now it reads as though the actual cheaters should only be suspended which would be unfair to the rest of the users and would encourage cheaters. They'd be like, so what if I cheat and get caught, I'll just get a suspension. Not that freezing really stops them either. That's got to be a huge problem for the staff and I give them credit for the work they do to try to at least curb the cheating.
Now if your point in #1 is that innocent people being given/buying a duped item getting frozen, then I agree - they should not be frozen or suspended. Take the item, fine. Better to lose the item and the np than your account.
The main reason people are frozen re: #2 is usually to protect the scammed/hacked/cracked account from any more damage being done. In that case, maybe a suspension of the account would be better. At the same time, if the baddie changed the email and/or password, a suspension wouldn't do any good - they'd just wait till it was over then go back into the account and clean it out.
What do I think is needed? More staff, maybe separate sections to deal with specific reasons for being frozen. That way things could be looked into more closely. And a more timely real response, not waiting for weeks, months or sometimes never and in that response what exactly is happening.
#2 speaks more to whatever just happened on the site with the whole script/cg/however this was done to gain access to others' accounts. And I hope anyone affected does get their account back, and back quickly.
Petitions don't work 99% of the time, from what I've seen. Most of the addresses you're looking for probably can be found online, doing a google search. Or try the BBB, they usually have an address, phone and fax number. The advertising agencies (the banner ad people) probably wouldn't care one bit to be honest. Avenue A I know is considered spyware, so ...
I really just came here and to this topic to see if there was any more information/if the problem had been taken care of.
Fri Sep 16, 2005 5:54 pm
everconfused wrote:Petitions don't work 99% of the time, from what I've seen. Most of the addresses you're looking for probably can be found online, doing a google search. Or try the BBB, they usually have an address, phone and fax number. The advertising agencies (the banner ad people) probably wouldn't care one bit to be honest. Avenue A I know is considered spyware, so ...
I know they don't, but it's a source of material that other companies *cough* news stations/papers *cough* could see that shows there's a want for a change. Media makes Neopets go 'round...
Sorry about the triple post. I forgot about last night's post, then the second two I forgot I was on PPT. On my other forum we allow double posting if it's different subtopics like those two.
Edit: The petition is up. http://www.petitiononline.com/neoice05/petition.html It may or not be helpful, but please take the time out to sign it in case it does help. Thanks
Hacker, don't worry!
Fri Sep 16, 2005 10:21 pm
Well, first of all, there IS a hacker and he hacked into Neopets;however, I've talked to some of my friends who were affected by this and some other users and they say the hacker doesn't want your account. He just wants to prove that Neopets CAN be hacked. He hacked into my friend's account and all he did was transferred all fo her stuff to her deposit box. That's what happened to them. I haven't seen any innapropiate pics posted anywhere so far. Also there was online petitions going on about Neopets. Go to http://www.petitiononline.com and search for "neopets" and you will see all the petitions listed that are going to be sent to the Neopets company
Re: Hacker, don't worry!
Fri Sep 16, 2005 11:12 pm
penguinland wrote:Well, first of all, there IS a hacker and he hacked into Neopets;however, I've talked to some of my friends who were affected by this and some other users and they say the hacker doesn't want your account. He just wants to prove that Neopets CAN be hacked. He hacked into my friend's account and all he did was transferred all fo her stuff to her deposit box. That's what happened to them. I haven't seen any innapropiate pics posted anywhere so far. Also there was online petitions going on about Neopets. Go to http://www.petitiononline.com and search for "neopets" and you will see all the petitions listed that are going to be sent to the Neopets company
Do you know that for definate?
Fri Sep 16, 2005 11:51 pm
Yeah, there are a lot of petitions against Neopets... I referenced them in my letters. Also on http://www.petitionspot.com as well.
If anyone feels comfortable sending me one, I am compiling a letter of testimonials from Neopets users who have been frozen. I'm looking for a 200 or so word paragraph that has your frozen account name, and why you were frozen, and what you think should have happened to your account instead of being frozen. I don't need any personal info, just your frozen account name and your 200 word story.
Also on http://www.petitionspot.com as well.
If anyone feels comfortable sending me one, I am compiling a letter of testimonials from Neopets users who have been frozen. I'm looking for a 200 or so word paragraph that has your frozen account name, and why you were frozen, and what you think should have happened to your account instead of being frozen. I don't need any personal info, just your frozen account name and your 200 word story.
Sat Sep 17, 2005 2:34 am
Sonics_Sakura wrote:I've changed my password and logged out.. I'm gonna start being paranoid and deleting my cookies once every few hours from now on, just watch. x.x
This is terrible though.. -.- I hope someone catches all of this and gets rid of it quickly..
I am confused about cookies.
Does anyone know how to delete them on Windows XP and what exactly would deleteing them result in? Just in case... I need them or something for later on?