Frozen - rant, and a few questions

[Miss_Raven]

Yesterday, I found out that my 8-year-old account has been frozen And I got this weird message when I tried to login:

"WARNING!

This account has been FROZEN for the following reason:

This account was deactivated by the owner. If this was not your doing or you'd like to reactivate it, please contact us by clicking here.

If you think the above reason was applied to you by mistake, please contact our support staff by clicking here. Don't forget to include your USERNAME and explain why you think your account should not have been frozen. If you DID break the rules, please do not contact us again. Your account will NOT be unfrozen and you will not get your Neopet or items returned. But, you are welcome to create a new account, as long as you follow the rules.

Remember to read our Terms and Conditions thoroughly."

Well, I have not deactivated my account. I have been playing on the previous day and remember well what I did. I didn't gave my password out to anyone nor tried to login on a fake login page. The latter happened to my very first account and I've learned my lesson. I read several guides about different scams and I can't relate to any of them. I may have been cookie-grabbed, and whoever was on my account deactivated it after doing whatever he/she wanted with my account. That's the only explanation I can find. My pets haven't been pounded, and I had a PIN on every available area, but I suppose the cookie graber also stole it.

I emailed TNT, and filled every field of the form. No answer so far, but it's been only a day. I believe I'll have to wait at least one week, right?

Rant is over, now comes the questions:

Has this ever happened to any of you? Was your account returned? Can a cookie grabber steal not only your password, but also your PIN number? And finally, am I allowed to play on a side account untill everything is solved, and if I get my account back, can I transfer all NP and items made on said side account to the account that was previously frozen? I don't know if TNT will consider this cheating...

Sorry for the long post guys, and thanks in advance for any help or advice. I know it's only pixels, but still... I'm kinda angry for all this situation

And sorry for any bad grammar too, English is only my second language

[Duke of Earl]

I think you have a good chance of getting unfrozen, and I wish you luck! I'm not certain about the answer to those questions, though. Check the editorial database over at JellyNeo for the playing on another account question, maybe.

[Siniri]

Miss Raven, your English is excellent; I'd never have guessed it wasn't your first language had you not said so. Regarding your questions, I've never personally had an account frozen. I know sometimes people's PIN gets stolen, too, and other times it's just the password. The only way to know will be to check it once you get it back. Hopefully that'll happen soon.

In the meantime, yes, you are allowed to play on a side, at least according to the NT editorial:

I have just finished arguing on a board I made. I was asking if it was okay to restock on side accounts. Of course, there was an enormous amount of controversy. Some said that it was okay because it posed no unfair advantage, and it was still financed through your main. Other said it was earning NP on your side, and that was not allowed. I would appreciate if you could clear this up for us. (: ~rare

We think we already clarified this awhile ago so there's no point debating it on the boards. You may not restock on side accounts, even when your main account is suspended. Being suspended is a punishment, not just an inconvenience for you to have to play on your spare accounts. If your main account is frozen, you may play on side accounts fully, as you cannot know if the account will be returned.

[Miss_Raven]

Thank you guys!!! Awww Siniri, you're making me blush

I totally forgot about Jellyneo's editorial database! I should keep that in mind! And at least I'm allowed to use my side account to play, yay! I miss playing key quest, but not the sore losers

*EDIT*
They replied to my email already, wow But only to ask if I have any idea how someone else got my account information, which I still don't. I was expecting to hear from them in a week, so I guess they're taking care of these situations faster now. That's nice!

[Blue]

Sounds like you're getting good response from TNT. That's a great sign. Since your message was regarding self-freezing, I would expect that you will get your account back.

FWIW, I second Siniri's comment regarding your excellent English. I work with people born and raised in the US and their spelling and grammar is horrible...

[Siniri]

Regarding your password, make sure you change it as soon as you get your account back. Do you use the same pw on other accounts? Do you ever log on using public or shared computers? If so, maybe you forgot to log off?

If you didn't use a public computer, I'd also worry about spyware on your machine (especially keyloggers). While having your Neopets account info stolen is annoying, losing your e-mail, billing, or bank info could be a real headache. Run some good anti-spyware, then change all your passwords, etc. Better safe than sorry.

[Miss_Raven]

Aaaand I have my account back! In two days, Emily T. from the support team solved my problem. I've lost over 17 million NP from my bank account (ARGH!!!!!), and my lab rat (a ghost Acara) is missing as well. My gallery is almost intact, I'm only missing a Halloween and a Darigan Paintbrush - I wasn't expecting to still have those two, actually. So I'm in the process of rebuilding now, it's time to sell all that stuff I have lying on my SDB for ages

@ Blue, thanks I say that my grammar is sometimes bad because I still can't tell the difference between "in" and "on", and I confuse verb tenses too, just to name a few of my flaws

@ Siniri: no, I didn't use a public computer, and I use different passwords for my different accounts, just in case. As soon as I found out about my NP account being frozen, I thought about my bank info, so I deleted all cookies and internet history, ran a virus scan, anti-spyware and changed my passwords on my bank and email, so I believe those are safe now.


Thanks again guys, for all the support!

[Siniri]

Miss Raven, glad to hear you got your account back. I'm sorry you lost so many NP and your paintbrushes, and especially your pet. Have you looked for it in the pound? I hope they were able to trace the items and freeze your attacker's account, but I know that even when they do, they don't usually return the items or your pet. *huggles*

[Miss_Raven]

Yeah, I looked for my pet, and it's not in the pound, I get the message "The owner of this pet was frozen" I don't care much about the NP and items (since I can always get them back), but I asked Emily T. if it was possible to retrieve my pet. She didn't reply yet, but I don't think I'll have my pet back either *sigh*

*EDIT* Errr.... Earlier, my pet was still on that frozen account. But when I went to use the petpet lab ray I noticed her petpet on the list, went to check my pets and she's back home! Yay!

[Blue]

Yay! I'm very glad you got both your account and your pet back!

Too bad about the NP and items, though.

[shapu]

Yeah, I looked for my pet, and it's not in the pound, I get the message "The owner of this pet was frozen" I don't care much about the NP and items (since I can always get them back), but I asked Emily T. if it was possible to retrieve my pet. She didn't reply yet, but I don't think I'll have my pet back either *sigh*

*EDIT* Errr.... Earlier, my pet was still on that frozen account. But when I went to use the petpet lab ray I noticed her petpet on the list, went to check my pets and she's back home! Yay!

Good news. Congrats on getting your pet back, at least!