First and foremost, I would like to address everyone in the Lineage II community about an incident that occured on the 18th of March 2017.
A friend had her account hacked, what's more even her e-mail account. For anyone saying, that this has something to do with 3rd party tools, RMT, account sharing etc. she was completely clean and legit, considering the usual accusations, it is up to you, after reading through this (if you will that is), whether you believe it or not but to give some actual proof, that this CAN actually happen, here is a link to an incident like this, that happened in 2010:
I will give a summary of how everything went down.
On Saturday 18th of March, we went together with my clan on Beleth. Everything was fine, she logged off and went to study. I went to continue exping my box char. Few minutes passed and she logged in game and I pmed her. Here is the chat from the screenshot (earlier before we were talking about the last armor part so that she would finish her +8 Eternal Leather set, that's why the first question):
Thereafter I contacted her on the phone asking, if she is making fun of me, she said, that she is not logged into the game. That is when everything was clear, the account was compromised by an unknown source, which you can also see by the change of questions I was asking the individual, that logged on the account.
The first login on her character wasn't for too long, this is when the first support ticket was sent, since it was weekend, we couldn't expect to get an early reply on it.
Inbetween while waiting on the reply from NCSOFT Support Team, the character was logged again and as soon as that happened, I went to search for it around the game towns as fast as possible, found the character standing next to the Auction House in Gludio, seeing that several things from the gear were still on it; armor, weapon. While running to the character I confronted it through the white All-chat, few seconds after it was logged off. She logged an alt character and we both were staying at the spot where the main character was logged off. Few minutes after the second login, there was finally a reply from NCSOFT Support Team. They said, that indeed the account was compromised and put on lockdown for investigation and information verification. They went through the submitted tickets with the owner of the character, going through all the information, that NCSOFT Support Team asked for and which was provided to get the account back (all of it was done through NCSOFT sites Lineage II Support and NCSOFT Zendesk). I myself also submitted a ticket, so that we could speed up the process.
Before I continue, the computer was scanned as much as possible several times for any kind of threats, I am aware, that sometimes not everything can be found.
After a couple of hours, while going back and forth with the informations and verifications. The account was restored. It was put on a new e-mail (with every possible security lock, that the email provider has), new passwords, new PIN, 2-step verification, everything possible. After getting the account back, she logged the character to see how much damage it was done to it and from what she could see, 3 things were missing, alright not much of a problem but eitherway, she added another ticket asking, if there was any chance that she could get them back, there wasn't much hope for this anyway but asking never hurt anyone.
All fine till the next day 19th of March 2017, she logged in again in the morning and logged out after a few minutes.
An hour or so later, she recieves an e-mail from a different staff member from NCSOFT Support Team, that multiple persons were trying to access the account while being able to provide all the information to NCSOFT Support Team to verify it, due to the old information from the compromised e-mail account. Another ticket was submitted and the reply was, that ANOTHER PERSON, NOT multiple persons this time, can provide all the information to verify the account, hence the old information from the hacked e-mail account and therefore they terminated it.
After researching around I found on the Official Lineage II forum this post from the thread, that I added earlier:
Which gives a similar vibe as to what happend here, in this incident and frankly, I do hope it is not something like that all over again, getting the account terminated by an employee that made a mistake.
On 21st of March 2017, she recieved another reply from a different NCSOFT Support Team staff, saying, that the issue was thoroughly investigated by multiple staff including senior investigators and came to the conclusion, that the account was participating in prohibited behavior and thus will stay with the sanction, which was bestowed upon the account.
On 21st of March 2017, she tried to log with the account on the Lineage II site and underneath where you put in the account information, appeared a red bracket which informed her, that due to auspicous activity, the account has been locked and to write an e-mail to [email protected] . Due to her studies and due to studying in another town, she returned home on the 23rd of March 2017.
On 24th of March 2017, after returning home, she had her PC formatted and cleaned up. So we decided to write an appeal to the [email protected] . On the same day, 24th of March 2017, the e-mail provider was contacted. They were able to recover all deleted e-mails from the account among which was also the e-mail with the password change and the one which shoved the hackers IP address, which was also noted in the ticket, that it can be provided, if necessary.
On 25th of March 2017, she recieved a reply from another different staff from NCSOFT Support Team, stating, that the account has been permanently closed for violations of the User Agreement. In the end, she submitted yet another ticket, where she tried to get an answer, by asking what the reason for breaking the User Agreement was, since she was accused for it. Though the response, that she recieved, wasn't even connected to the questions in the submitted ticket, it was just another identical mail like the first time when the account termination was mentioned (on 19th of March 2017) and yet again having multiple persons used in it.
At this point, we're not even sure anymore as to what the actual cause for the termination was anymore.
Please Neutron, I know, that it has been hectic there due to the upcoming update coming to the game and for other NCSOFT games but can't anything be done about this? For the people that will actually read this, thank you for the time spent on it. I am sure, that, if something like this happened to anyone else, they would definitely not give up at recovering their account, considering how much time a person puts into the game and I am aware, that some of you will say, that it's easier to just start over but when you put so much time and effort into building up a character, it is not so easy to just let it go.
I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but in the NCKorea screenshot forum section there are repeated warnings about not clicking on any screenshots or videos: http://lineage2.plaync.com/board/image/list
I myself got a warning from my Symantec anti-virus that an attack had been blocked while just looking at a screenshot after having opened the page via the link under it, not even clicking on it. So something is going on. Maybe Support could contact their counterparts in Korea.
I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but in the NCKorea screenshot forum section there are repeated warnings about not clicking on any screenshots or videos: http://lineage2.plaync.com/board/image/list
I myself got a warning from my Symantec anti-virus that an attack had been blocked while just looking at a screenshot after having opened the page via the link under it, not even clicking on it. So something is going on. Maybe Support could contact their counterparts in Korea.
Thank you for sharing something like this. It is hard to find a reliable program, which can find such malicious things. You can use one, that doesn't show you anything for years and then all of a sudden it happens.
that multiple persons were trying to access the account while being able to provide all the information to NCSOFT Support Team to verify it, due to the old information from the compromised e-mail account. Another ticket was submitted and the reply was, that ANOTHER PERSON, NOT multiple persons this time, can provide all the information to verify the account
This is the reason for the ban. It's completely normal, since this goes into account sharing and if more than one person can provide all the requested recovery info, that means account sharing is in place and there is no way to tell who the owner really is.
Also account security is responsibility of the user, unless they hacked ncsoft's servers, which is probably not the case.
This is the reason for the ban. It's completely normal, since this goes into account sharing and if more than one person can provide all the requested recovery info, that means account sharing is in place and there is no way to tell who the owner really is.
Also account security is responsibility of the user, unless they hacked ncsoft's servers, which is probably not the case.
The only option is reroll.
That's exactly what we discussed earlier today, due to the hacked account and with the multiple persons loging in, it got considered as account sharing, which I told her but the thing is, since they can track the IP Addresses, they can quite well track who the real owner of the account is. Since these people recently tried logging the account, it's totaly different as to what she was doing as in logging from her IPs the account ever since it was created. What is more, she even provided them with a digitalized ID to prove her identity, which I doubt, those that tried taking it can do.
But the point was, first it was said "multiple persons" can provide it, after that "one person" can provide it, which makes absolutely no sense.
So they can easily throw it on the account "sharing".
Furthermore, her e-mail account was compromised as well, which led to the game account, due to the e-mail account having all the game account information on it. The e-mail provider restored the deleted e-mails, whilst one having the IP of the one, that compromised it. They tracked the IP down, we know what country it originates from and as well from what town it is.
1. You cannot log in any characters without knowing the Account PIN.
2. The Account PIN is set independently of the Password on the account.
3. You must know the current Account PIN to set a new Account PIN.
This was most likely the result of Account Sharing.
The e-mail account was compromised (which I stated) as well on which the game account was on, there is even an e-mail, that the one that compromised it, sent a request to NCSOFT Support Team for PIN changing.
The e-mail account was compromised (which I stated) as well on which the game account was on, there is even an e-mail, that the one that compromised it, sent a request to NCSOFT Support Team for PIN changing.
Even if the email account was hacked, they would have no way of knowing the pin to be able to log into the game. You can't even change the email address without the current password. You cant change the pin without knowing the current pin.
Account sharing it seems, someone went rogue on you.
If they had the account info, are you absolutely sure that your friend was the original owner and it wasnt a bought account?
Even if the email account was hacked, they would have no way of knowing the pin to be able to log into the game. You can't even change the email address without the current password. You cant change the pin without knowing the current pin.
Account sharing it seems, someone went rogue on you.
If they had the account info, are you absolutely sure that your friend was the original owner and it wasnt a bought account?
First password was resseted, after that the password was changed. Due to personal data on the e-mail account, it wasn't hard to figure out the PIN.
She made the account when the Ertheia Update came to NCWest, in 2014, she even has screenshots of the character while it was being leveled. So yes, it was a totaly new, non-bought account. Screenshots are dated.
Not intending to be an a*****e here...... any chance the "her", you are referring to, is actually lying to you about some of the circumstances?
No, be cause there are far too many people, that can vouch for her from the game. Even I, myself, can bet everything that I own, on this. What's more, any kind of criticism or finger pointing (which isn't something out of the ordinary), is welcomed, I will answer on it the best as I can.
. Due to personal data on the e-mail account, it wasn't hard to figure out the PIN.
Its a 6 digit pin, with zero being allowed to be first, which means there are a billion different combinations (10*10^5)...how in the world can it not be hard to figure out the pin?
Its a 6 digit pin, with zero being allowed to be first, which means there are a billion different combinations (10*10^5)...how in the world can it not be hard to figure out the pin?
You're underestimating those, that are familiar with actions such as these.
Even so, I mentioned, that there was as well a PIN changing request, which was sent and recieved. So, if you have the account password, if you have the e-mail from the game account, you can easily request it by just saying, that you forgot the PIN.
For example, if I would get my hands on your e-mail account and get the password of your game account, I could easily send a request to NCSOFT Support Team and request a PIN change, since I "forgot" it. Site log, mail/pass switch, new PIN, done. Believe it or not, it's easy as that. What's more, all of the account information changes can be done while you are online.
I play here since C3 in Ncwest . Thats very long time guys. I have leveled alot of accounts to farm instances idk maybe 20 of them . And on top of that noone never hacked my account . Never. Because i NEVER share it to noone , I dont sell accounts or something like that.
If you managed to lose your account , I can assure you; It is your own fault.
I play here since C3 in Ncwest . Thats very long time guys. I have leveled alot of accounts to farm instances idk maybe 20 of them . And on top of that noone never hacked my account . Never. Because i NEVER share it to noone , I dont sell accounts or something like that.
If you managed to lose your account , I can assure you; It is your own fault.
It's understandable, that people don't read all of it, since it is quite a lot of text, the links that I provided, show the same, exact case. If exceptions are made, can't do much about it.
The one victim, on the first link, never shared or anything and got everything taken away, yet returned.
It is obvious her PC has been hacked by some kind of trojan. (PIN on dcouments?)
Since she was hacked and the person knows how the game works etc, it is most likely a "friend" or something similar who sent her a link to **** her, random attacks resulting in attacks like these (stolen game accounts) are very uncommon, especially on a small game like this.
I would personally be more worried about potential pictures or videos from the computer's webcam (if any) being taken and/or distributed.
best of luck to you, hope you get this issue resolved without any more trouble..
bluntly said if the IP that took the gear pre existed in the IP access logs it's a clear case of account sharing and then you got no chance on getting it back period.
L2 dramaz, just say no to account sharing or don't cry when your trust gets abused.
bluntly said if the IP that took the gear pre existed in the IP access logs it's a clear case of account sharing and then you got no chance on getting it back period.
L2 dramaz, just say no to account sharing or don't cry when your trust gets abused.
Just like Elenar x Bromiaris amiright?
Funny how he got his items/account back and in this case it got banned/denied, feels like he didn't get scammed and y'all invented some bs just cuz he left IC.
You're underestimating those, that are familiar with actions such as these.
Even so, I mentioned, that there was as well a PIN changing request, which was sent and recieved. So, if you have the account password, if you have the e-mail from the game account, you can easily request it by just saying, that you forgot the PIN.
For example, if I would get my hands on your e-mail account and get the password of your game account, I could easily send a request to NCSOFT Support Team and request a PIN change, since I "forgot" it. Site log, mail/pass switch, new PIN, done. Believe it or not, it's easy as that. What's more, all of the account information changes can be done while you are online.
Why you think the NC gm's that easy give you new PIN if you ask "because you forget last one" ?
make simple test, ask support for you pin for some your alt, you will get ask for your b-day, chars names, lvl of chars, servers, where you last time in server log off-location ingame, items, what is your country (IP) where you log and etc... is not as "hi i forgot PIN, -np, this is your new one"
I tell you, make simple test, ask for new pin for ID what you know current pin and copy here what will gm's ask from you to you prove the you are real owner...
ffs I forget one time code of char what i not have log half year, when i try get new one I accident miss birth year instead 82 to 83 w/o to see in my replay to gm and send him my answer. Then they respond the I make photo of my RL personal card where is true year if my b-day to back me ID and in that time they temporary ban me to not even may log to web master ID not just ingame.
Simple, you give your PIN to someone or was to stupid to make 111111 or 123456 and they access to game....
I dug around and found the case you were referring to, but I must agree with the decision taken by the support staff in this case.
Account disputes occur when there are multiple users able to verify the ownership of the account.
This happens in most cases because one person creates an account and either let's someone else take over and play it or sells it to someone else.
While I understand it's common practice for people to share and trade accounts in games, be advised that even if you believe that you have legitimately taken possession of another's account, the original account creator can at any point claim it back and you will lose any time and work you put into the characters.
NCsoft does not sanction or support the exchange of accounts between different owners.
When we find cases of account beings used this way we will permanently ban it so that the account cannot be repeatedly sold or traded to other players and continue the cycle of scamming more victims.
I dug around and found the case you were referring to, but I must agree with the decision taken by the support staff in this case.
Account disputes occur when there are multiple users able to verify the ownership of the account.
This happens in most cases because one person creates an account and either let's someone else take over and play it or sells it to someone else.
While I understand it's common practice for people to share and trade accounts in games, be advised that even if you believe that you have legitimately taken possession of another's account, the original account creator can at any point claim it back and you will lose any time and work you put into the characters.
NCSoft does not sanction or support the exchange of accounts between different owners.
When we find cases of account beings used this way we will permanently ban it so that the account cannot be repeatedly sold or traded to other players and continue the cycle of scamming more victims.
Will final patch notes be up before update, and did you ask Korea to rethink these changes to the dragons?
I dug around and found the case you were referring to, but I must agree with the decision taken by the support staff in this case.
Account disputes occur when there are multiple users able to verify the ownership of the account.
This happens in most cases because one person creates an account and either let's someone else take over and play it or sells it to someone else.
While I understand it's common practice for people to share and trade accounts in games, be advised that even if you believe that you have legitimately taken possession of another's account, the original account creator can at any point claim it back and you will lose any time and work you put into the characters.
NCsoft does not sanction or support the exchange of accounts between different owners.
When we find cases of account beings used this way we will permanently ban it so that the account cannot be repeatedly sold or traded to other players and continue the cycle of scamming more victims.
But why were exceptions made in the past for occurances such as these? I don't understand it. Even when the owner can fully prove the legitimacy of the account by providing every possible thing, which she did, that you would require for it? Even while going through the User Agreement, sanctions like this being put on someone while being accused of this, while not doing it, just doesn't seem right and thus brings it to a loophole in it. Or exceptions are being made simply for those that make payments and for those that do not?
Multiple users, isn't this strange in itself already? I fairly doubt, that even a single one of the multiple persons went to such lengths as the real owner of it, to confirm, that the account belongs to her. It only brings misery and mental instabilities, while trying as hard as you can to prove, that you are that person...
People just don't understand how it is, when you get your identity stolen and try everything possible to reclaim it.
It makes me wonder, how anyone else would act, if it happened to him/her, in a situation like this, even when you say, that it's "impossible" for ever happening to you, due to I don't know what and after it comes out of the blue.
Just like Elenar x Bromiaris amiright?
Funny how he got his items/account back and in this case it got banned/denied, feels like he didn't get scammed and y'all invented some bs just cuz he left IC.
But why were exceptions made in the past for occurances such as these? I don't understand it. Even when the owner can fully prove the legitimacy of the account by providing every possible thing, that you would require for it? Even while going through the User Agreement, sanctions like this being put on someone while being accused of this, while not doing it, just doesn't seem right. Or exceptions are being made simply for those that make payments and for those that do not?
Multiple users, isn't this strange in itself already? I fairly doubt, that even a single one of the multiple persons went to such lenghts as the real owner of it, to confirm, that the account belongs to her.
Account disputes are not an uncommon thing actually, so it's not really a strange thing to occur unfortunately. I have little insight I can provide on past occurrences where you said an exception was made, if that even happened or what the circumstances where, as I was not in a position to make any judgement on that. But my current philosophy would be to continue to block disputed accounts.
Here a possible scenario as an example.
Person A: "I've been playing this account for years and can't Login now"
Person B: "I'm returning to the game and can't login to the account reset my password"
Both person A and Person B 'somehow' know all of the critical information needed to claim they are the owner.
Who gets the account? Person A or B, how can we decide which one is more worthy of it?
The simple matter is we can't, so neither person gets the account back.
Account disputes are not an uncommon thing actually, so it's not really a strange thing to occur unfortunately. I have little insight I can provide on past occurrences where you said an exception was made, as I was not in a position to make any judgement on that. But my current philosophy would be to continue to block disputed accounts.
Here a possible scenario as an example.
Person A: "I've been playing this account for years and can't Login now"
Person B: "I'm returning to the game and can't login to the account reset my password"
Both person A and Person B 'somehow' know all of the critical information needed to claim they are the owner.
Who gets the account? Person A or B, how can we decide which one is more worthy of it?
The simple matter is we can't, so neither person gets the account back.
So, is it easy as that for someone to claim their legitimacy?
I want to provide an example for this then, if by chance someone gets a hold of my email address and asks for a password reset, it gets resetted. I see, that I can't login, send request to the Support Team and even while providing everything that I can, whilst someone else provides half of what I did, due to it becoming an account dispute, my account will get a permanent ban?
What about, if only Person A would know all the critical information necessary for the account, how would it be handled then?
What I am pointing at with this, she provided screenshots of the character as it was being leveled, she provided a digitilized ID even, all the information possible. How can someone replicate this?
You can track IP addresses, I don't know how far you can go, even the domain should be enough to provide information, that can add some valid confirmation.
So, is it easy as that for someone to claim their legitimacy?
I want to provide an example for this then, if by chance someone gets a hold of my email address and asks for a password reset, it gets resetted. I see, that I can't login, send request to the Support Team and even while providing everything that I can, due to it becoming an account dispute, my account will get a permanent ban?
No what you're referring to an account theft, not an account dispute. in most cases the account would be blocked if it's been compromised, and returned to the owner once ownership can be verified again.
No what you're referring to an account theft, not an account dispute. in most cases the account would be blocked if it's been compromised, and returned to the owner once ownership can be verified again.
Exactly this happend, the account was stolen, it was blocked due to it being compromised which even your Support Team told her, the ownership was proven, even to such extents, that those pretending to be her, wouldn't in any possible way be able to.
Yet in the end, it was sanctioned with a termination.
Neutron, this is what I am trying to prove, all the information, with everything that she provided, noone and by this I mean noone, would be able to replicate it...
Exactly this happend, the account was stolen, it was blocked due to it being compromised which even your Support Team told her, the ownership was proven, even to such extents, that those pretending to be her, wouldn't in any possible way be able to.
Yet in the end, it was sanctioned with a termination.
I understand your position here, but your argument rests from a basis of it's impossible for an account dispute to have happened because your friend said so. We're not randomly banning accounts for fun, if the account meets a certain criteria it will be blocked as per set policies.
Based on my review here, there is nothing to suggest the incorrect action was taken.
I understand your position here, but your argument rests from a basis of it's impossible for an account dispute to have happened because your friend said so. We're not randomly banning accounts for fun, if the account meets a certain criteria it will be blocked as per set policies.
Based on my review here, there is nothing to suggest the incorrect action was taken.
I have never imposed on something like that. I witnessed everything myself, I was the one that made a PM on her char, I was the one, that was even getting mocked by the one, that compromised the account, I was the one that contacted her and after we both stood at the same spot where the character got logged into the game for the second time, therefore I am not making arguments, that rest on someones basis. I even submitted a ticket, to make the process faster to be done with that nightmare.
Incorrect action; even while information was provided, that noone else could? If so, what is the criteria for someone to fully prove the legitimacy of ones account?
I just want to know, if someone provides all the information possible, while "Person B" can't in any way. How can someone fall into the legitimacy criteria?
I have never imposed on something like that. I witnessed everything myself, I was the one that made a PM on her char, I was the one, that was even getting mocked by the one, that compromised the account, I was the one that contacted her and after we both stood at the same spot where the character got logged into the game for the second time, therefore I am not making arguments, that rest on someones basis.
Incorrect action; even while information was provided, that noone else could? If so, what is the criteria for someone to fully prove the ligitimacy of ones account?
I understand I probably won't be able to satisfy all of your questions, the issue is that I cannot go into intricate details about another users account here so that makes it quite difficult to provide a satisfactory response.
Anyways, here's my final comment on this. An account dispute is when more than one person can verify ownership of the account. This means that both individuals can provide enough information to satisfy our internal criteria to prove they have intimate knowledge of the account.
When an account reaches this level of compromise, it is no longer possible for us to provide any support for it and it must be closed.
Incorrect action; even while information was provided, that noone else could? If so, what is the criteria for someone to fully prove the legitimacy of ones account?
do you want to judge account ownership by screens? what if someone steal them too?
what if my friend start character, quit game in not as low level and give me account, then he want to play again? who will get account?
Celty, what we must not forget here is that it was not your friend's game account that got hacked, but her e-mail account where she unwisely kept things like password and PIN in the draft folder or an e-mail she had sent to herself.
What Neutron is trying to say is that from where he is sitting in the USA he can not verify this (the L2 account itself has not been hacked by technical means but "captured" via the e-mail account), so he is sticking to formal criteria. When two or more persons can provide information that suggests that they might own the account, NCsoft plays it safe and locks the account. In Arnaud Amalric's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnaud_Amalric) famous words, they kill them all and let God sort them out.
The more interesting question here is, how did your friend's e-mail account get hacked? Since it's you who is posting about the issue, and not her, I am assuming that she is not a native English speaker, and the assumption that the hacker is not only familiar with Lineage 2 but also from your country is also not too far-fetched. Some years ago key loggers were a major problem in Korean, Polish and Greek internet cafes, which is why NCsoft introduced the PIN verification (in Korea you can in addition to that have NCsoft send you a One-Time Password to your mobile telephone).
More recently, remote hacking/원격 해킹 is all the rage in Korea, with Teamviewer or whatever they use being downloaded via images posted on the NCKorea forum. I suspect this is a similar security problem as the one that induced NCWest to disable the function on this forum. So, do you have a clan forum where people post pictures? Can it be that this is the problem? ShakaZuluPP (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=190809) is deeply familiar with forum technology and a very helpful person. You may want to send him a pm and discuss the details with him :)
First of all thank you Neutron for answering on that topic.
And yes I am not a native speaker so please take it under account as you will be reading it and any mistakes I will make.
Did my best to prove that I am the owner of the account. All i can do is assure you that I didn't buy the account from anyone. If you will believe me or not... its YOUR JUDGMENT.
According to data provided by the person who managed to enter my mail post (as I worte in tickets ) ... all data about me was on it. From where he had my e mai.. I have no idea. Especially because it is my really private e-mail. Am not aknowledged wih PC's and whole systems so its very probable it all happend due to some maleware. Can't deny it. Came into contact with people more acknowledged in that topic and it occured that my e-mail was pwned or sth like that... quite long time ago. Wasnt aware of sth like that.
But it is not important anymore. If anything it is police who will investigate it further.
With recent information that I managed to gather it occurs that it was person from my country, at least was logged in my country at that time.
Am not going to defend myself at any point, since it isnt why this post was created. Therefore I really appreciate Neutron for your answer.
And ppl it was fun to play with you. Take care and maybe will see each other once again in the future. For now cant imagine starting all over again.
I have never imposed on something like that. I witnessed everything myself, I was the one that made a PM on her char, I was the one, that was even getting mocked by the one, that compromised the account, I was the one that contacted her and after we both stood at the same spot where the character got logged into the game for the second time, therefore I am not making arguments, that rest on someones basis. I even submitted a ticket, to make the process faster to be done with that nightmare.
Incorrect action; even while information was provided, that noone else could? If so, what is the criteria for someone to fully prove the legitimacy of ones account?
I just want to know, if someone provides all the information possible, while "Person B" can't in any way. How can someone fall into the legitimacy criteria?
Maybe the other person provided some legit information that no one else could, as well? How can you bemoan their decision, while knowing so little information on the matter? And what little you do know, is completely one-sided... You're going by only what your friend is telling you. That's a pretty poor vantage point to be lobbing any criticism at NCSoft Support, in this case.
From what I've read, it sounds like the other person recovered the account and then the account was locked when your friend disputed it. I may completely wrong on this, but Account Sharing or Trading seemed like it was at least suspected...
Secondly, they aren't going to tell you what information they ask for, because that would be stupid on their behalf. Share your account and get it "stolen," then you can find out when you go through a similar process.
I've had to verify ownership of an Account Before. The information they ask is non-trivial. This isn't a case of "I like Green Tea. Can I have it back, now?"
In these situations there is always a risk that you and your friend are lying, or that the other person is lying. They can't reconcile that, so they must lock the account to end the dispute and remove the risk of giving the account to an illegit owner. Kudos for standing by your friend, but from NCSoft's position there is also a risk that the other person was telling the truth and would get owned if they were to give that account back to her.
As much as it pains me to say, that the decision was made, out of courtesy, I wont push it further...
Whoever gave some helpful information for the issue, you have my thanks, also those that actually gave constructive criticism, thank you for your time.
As I said at the start, whether you believe it or not, it depends on the individual.