Hackers and thieves are a growing problem around the world and coming as no surprise, it’s a growing problem in the game industry. It has been a problem for some time now, but we have definitely reached a point that should push companies to further protect consumers… I’m looking at you Activision.
Well, as the headline states, my CoD/Activision account was hacked and stolen from me. Fortunately, it was restored to me a day before the Season 3 in Warzone/Cold War begins, but not without a lot of hassle. Here is my story. I’m getting ready to leave the house and run some errands when my phone starts alerting me of email notifications. I don’t tend to jump when my phone notifies, but I got 4 emails in a row from Activision, so of course I checked it.
The first email informed me that my password was changed successfully. The second email informed me that my account was successfully unlinked from my PSN and Xbox accounts (wait, what?). The third email was to let me know my email address changed successfully and the 4th email, well, the 4th took the cake. The 4th email was to inform me of suspicious activity on my account. Thanks Activision! Instead of locking my profile in the first place, you allowed suspicious activity and informed me when it was all over. That is frustrating to me, but it’s Activision, so there’s that.
Anyway, I try to log into my account and of course, I cannot, but there is a little banner floating above the page that asks if I need to report suspicious activity and regain my account. Wow! That’s exactly what I need! This should be simple! It was simple, but at the same time, it was quite the empty experience.
Last week I published an article about the lack of customer support from Activision and having my account stolen is what actually sparked the theme. I did click on the account recover banner and filled in my information as it required. When I finished, I was informed by the website and email that it would take about 10 business days to finish my inquiry. Well, that took around 14 days and I did get my account back and I immediately updated my security info after the fact, including second step verification.
If you’re anything like me, 10 days sounded like a long time to wait and I really just wanted to speak to a customer representative to give me some type of reassurance and possible speed things up a little. My account was obviously stolen and I have all the info I need to prove it, as well as the hackers details as the CoD app kept me logged in and I could see their info. Sadly, there was no one to speak to. Activision ended social media support, most of chat support and the company phone number will just direct you to go back to the website for help.
Now, anyone that plays CoD regularly will understand where I’m coming from here. I have a lot of time and money invested into the CoD series. Out skins are no longer tethered to our PSN or Xbox accounts, they are tethered to the Activision accounts we have. It was that simple to lose all my skins, all my premium content and not to mention my stats from MW, WZ and CW. In the last couple of years I have garnered quite a collection and I just couldn’t believe it was so easy for someone to take it from me.
You might recall back in November of 2020, accusations went around saying Activision’s database has been compromised and over 500k Activision accounts were exposed. Well, shame on me for not changing my password or activating second step verification. Activision denied the allegations, but the company was obviously lying as I do not believe someone picked me out of the millions of players out there and put in the effort to steal just my account. I am confident in believing Activision did get hacked and my name details ended up on a list and someone bought my account from a hacker.
I have spoken with tons of gamers in the same boat I was in and many of them got their accounts stolen around the same time as mine was. Of course, Activision stands by their word that the company didn’t have a data breach and while I believe they are lying, the same week my account was stolen was the same week they canceled their social media and chat support system. It’s too coincidental and sadly, the company won’t be held accountable for their poor service tactics.
I’m the end as I stayed multiple times, I did get my account back and for good measure, I would recommend everyone change their passwords and activate second step authentication to be safe. If you do by chance get your account stolen, you should immediately go to the Activision website and start the recovery process. Hopefully Activision will put some of those billions they make and employ some customer service reps once again. Tightwads, I tell ya!