the logic behind this chain freezing?

[Mystique]

ok, since neopets is seriously too laggy to restock, i might as well post and discuss this thread i saw on the battledome neoboard:

http://www.neopets.com/neoboards/topic. ... 501&next=1

apparently, this player, once a very rich restocker, known as steven_munn recently got his latest account frozen for "autobuying", which he denied, of course. what caught my eyes was the reply he claimed to get from neopets:

Hello,

Thanks for your e-mail. Your screenshots certainly work in your favour, but "autobuying" was not the reason your account was frozen, despite what the log-in page says. You may be aware that you are on a "Chain freeze" for past misgivings. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about this except wish you well in the future, however short your accounts may last.

If you have any other questions, don't forget to include the entire text of this e-mail with your username clearly at the top. This will help me better address your situation.

Bryan.
mailto:Bryan@support.neopets.com

so after proving that he did not "autobuy" (and he even claimed to have a video recording how he rs), he was frozen becoz of what happened to his past accounts? as soon as his previous identity was made known, as he claimed again, his current account is frozen. of coz, i am not taking his words as 100% believable but if it is true, i can't accept this concept of player targetting. it sounds really sadistic to me and i hope there is a good explanation from the staff for this.

[jellyoflight]

What Is An Auto Buyer,I Forgot

u don't need to know New Member

Shut Up New Member,I Was Just Asking You

O.o

[hynfaeries0]

that is totally outrageous. I can't believe this. It says no where in neopets rules that you would get frozen for your past account's mistakes. neopets has really gone over board. Maybe we should start another boycott!

[StarryEyed502]

Hello,

Thanks for your e-mail. Your screenshots certainly work in your favour, but "autobuying" was not the reason your account was frozen, despite what the log-in page says. You may be aware that you are on a "Chain freeze" for past misgivings. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about this except wish you well in the future, however short your accounts may last.

If you have any other questions, don't forget to include the entire text of this e-mail with your username clearly at the top. This will help me better address your situation.

Bryan.
mailto:Bryan@support.neopets.com

imo - the letter looks a little fake to me. Having received a few replies from other Neopets staff, the email looks to be set out slightly differently. All the emails I received start "Hi," not "Hello,". The email address is always in lower-case, never with a capital at the beginning.

You may be aware that you are on a "Chain freeze" for past misgivings.

I can't believe that would be true. Even if it were happening, they are unlikely to admit it in open email.
This sounds to me like someone stirring. I can't access Neopets at the moment (it's not loading for me), so I can't see the rest of the conversation, but I can't in any way take this to be true without more conclusive proof.

[Mystique]

i seriously hope to hear the other side of the story from a staff. so far, the victim himself seems ready to prove he's not autobuying and is even willing to show the video of him restocking. if he's willing to go to that extent to prove he's not autobuying, then i think neopets must unfreeze him. this whole chain-freezing idea is just plain idiotic and underming the effort of players who want to start over.

[Duke of Earl]

I would think a response that's not an automatic one would state the username for clarification....

Either way, i don't believe that message *shrug*

[Mystique]

firstly, though the authenticity of this message is debatable, chain freezing is a known situation in neopets, not something made up. i think there was a PPT member who was subjected to this treatment in the past where every new account he made got frozen. in that case, he was chain-freezed quickly because all his usernames he created looked similar.

[iconoplast]

I must agree with many of you -- this looks very fake. It's close to the format that the support staff tends to use for the emails they send out to users, but it's not quite right. And my guess would be that this time around the account was frozen for trying to make trouble.

That said, even if it were true, they'd technically be within their rights to do it. The terms and conditions say pretty clearly that "we reserve the right to prohibit the use of the site to any user at any time." Which pretty well means that if they don't like you you're gone should they feel like making that happen. Potentially sad for some, but also a pretty standard way of doing business. This doesn't mean that I agree with it or that they do it a lot, just saying it's there.

[Fiddelysquat]

Chain freezing happens. Stephen made a new account after his main was frozen, and they kept freezing all of his.

[coming2atvnearu]

Hey, ya! I haven't seen him around for a while. Too bad. He had some funny posts.

[Jasujo]

Messs17 is a victim of chain freezing. We think they might have done this because of the hacker that entered his account shortly before the old PPT went down. Since then every account he's tried to start has been frozen in short time. He's written and faxed repeatedly, but has not received a response yet. It royally sucks because he is an excellent person. I just wish there was someway to get through to them that he didn't do anything and to stop punishing him for this.

[everconfused]

Hmm, I just pulled up a saved email I got from someone at Support and yes, it does start Hi, not Hello. And on the email, yes again, the person's name is lower case, not capitalized. Oh, my response was not an autoform, but the person didn't use my name. Just Hi, then the message.

So I don't know whether this is real or not, I wouldn't want to speculate. I do tend to lean toward this being, if not fake, at least "doctored" in some way. The person actually posted this email on the boards?

As far as chain freezings go, yes they do that. An account gets frozen, so a person starts a new one (either while waiting for the other to be unfrozen or just moving on) then that gets frozen, etc. ad nauseum.

I've never heard it called chain freezing, I thought that was an IP ban? Either way, I don't know that anyone from TNt would actually come out and say that a person was chain frozen.

As to the person, well I remember that name from the BD (I'm a great lurker) and I know that person's been frozen numerous times for a couple of different reasons.

Jasujo, they must be going by IP if Messs keeps getting frozen. Don't you think? I guess that's the way it's happening, it's the only thing I can think of.

When necessary, like in the case of someone truly scamming, trying to hack, using an ab, a program for a game -- really bad stuff, then an IP ban is completely understandable. But I've also seen innocent people get caught in an IP ban who cannot get their accounts back or have luck starting a new one.

[smudgeoffudge]

I don't think that they really Chain Freeze anyone. I mean, don't people get another chance? If they did something really bad they might get every account they have frozen. But then once every account linked to that Ip is frozen why would they freeze each new additional account? IF that is the case, he could contact his Internet Provider and set up a new IP address and get a new account like that. It would have a New IP address so I think that it would work...

[raudf]

I don't think that they really Chain Freeze anyone. I mean, don't people get another chance? If they did something really bad they might get every account they have frozen. But then once every account linked to that Ip is frozen why would they freeze each new additional account? IF that is the case, he could contact his Internet Provider and set up a new IP address and get a new account like that. It would have a New IP address so I think that it would work...

This has happened to other players with the same IP too. I do remember a story of a person who's sib was a scammer and their account got frozen for being on the same IP. No, not everyone gets a second chance, because Neopets Team are human. I won't say they have grudges, but they do tend towards narrowsightedness.

[autechre]

that letter does seem a little off but you ca't deny that alot of people have been frozen lately for no apparent reason, a close friend of mine in my guild recently got her main frozen, and she does't even restock, yet was frozen for using a ab