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Dear Ms. Netiquette,
I have been a Club Pogo member for years as well as the head admin of a league that plays on Pogo and I have NEVER been so outraged by the actions that Pogo has taken!
I have reported many times (through emails to Pogo and live chats) that I keep getting a pop-up error that reads: “someone has entered the room with my screen name”. I never heard a thing back from them. So, I sent another message in. Still not a word back.
So, I just forgot about it till now. I was playing in (or trying to play) in a game room when that stupid message about “someone has entered the room with your screen name” kept popping up. I would have to leave the room and try another one, but I kept getting this error. Finally, on the sixth try I was able to get into the game room when all of a sudden another error popped up saying I had been barred from playing due to my prior behavior!
I was in a room alone so I was stumped. I knew that if I email Pogo I wouldn’t hear anything back from them. So I got on the phone and called Pogo billing to try and figure out what was going on. I was told that I was barred for 72 hours because of my behavior in “Hog Heaven Slots”. This was not even the game I was trying to get into. I was trying to get into Bingo Luau (to finish the weekly badge).
From the error popping up that someone had entered with my screen name and what was said in the abuse report from Pogo, I deduced that I had been hacked and that person (under my screen name) used VERY rude words to another person. Pogo did not even give me a chance to tell my story but suspended my account for 72 hours instead.
I have emailed EA terms and services 5 times already and have never heard anything back from them. This whole situation has me very upset. If Pogo would have emailed me back from the start when I first sent in the reports about the error I was getting this might not have happened. Why is Pogo not emailing their members back?
To me this is not right. We pay our yearly membership only to get the cold shoulder when we have a question or a problem that we need help with. Please Ms. Netiquette help us to know what to do since Pogo will not, so this will not happen to another innocent victim of Pogo hacking.
Sincerely,
Hacked Pogo Mini
| Dear Hijacked Pogo Mini, The first thing you should note is that I’ve changed your name from “Hacked” to “Hijacked”. Technically, you were not hacked. Your account was hijacked by a player who was able to put two and two together and figure out your password. I’ll get to your issues with our Customer Experience team in a moment, but first I’m afraid I’m going to have to politely admonish you for choosing such a simple password to guess. As a former Tournament Director, you may be a target for people who want to hijack your account. You became a bit of a public figure, and my guess is that a former league member had a beef with you, took the information he had on you and was able to figure out your password and access your account, causing you all sorts of issues. Your password was the first four letters of your name and the year that you were born. Guess what? That’s pretty common, and those ne’er-do-wells who hijack accounts know what to look for, so my guess is that they probably figured it out in 20 minutes. On very rare occasions, there may be some technical or server issue that causes people to receive that message (the message in full is: “Someone with your screen name has entered the game room and you have been automatically removed from the room. Please be sure that you’re not trying to enter a room twice using only one screen name”). If you’re seeing it regularly, it’s likely your account has been hijacked. In your case, simply changing your password to something more robust would have prevented the ne’er-do-well from accessing your account again. I strongly encourage everyone who is unsure about whether or not their password is secure to read the Importance of a Secure Password article we posted a while back. As for your troubles contacting our Customer Experience Department, I do apologize that you’ve had such difficulty. You did mention you tried our Live Chat, but didn’t mention whether or not you actually spoke to someone there. Generally, we get back to our customers within 24 hours. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough information to understand fully what went wrong there. You did manage to contact us on the phone and you were not satisfied with our response. It sounds like our representative did not fully understand that your account was hijacked and didn’t lift the ban. I have forwarded your e-mail to them so that they may review and consider lifting the ban. You should be hearing from them soon. |
Dear Nettie,
Today, while playing Jungle Gin, a male entered and began to play the game with me. After a few hands he made a sexually explicit comment. This took me by such surprise that without thinking I just left the room.
On second thought I should have reported him. I do not understand why some people feel a need to voice their sexual needs, wants, or desires. This was an unsolicited remark made by the player. Am I just being an old prude? I am 67 and would never put such trash out there for the world to see.
To say I am outraged is an understatement.
Just Here to Play
| Dear Just Here to Play, First off, you’re not “just an old prude”. Sexually suggestive comments from out of the blue are disconcerting to most folks of any age, and I’m sorry you had to experience this. Welcome to the club! Unfortunately, there is no dearth of sexually aggressive players on the Internet (and believe me – it’s not just Pogo!). You’d think that these people would find a more suitable site upon which to take part in these activities (and believe me – there are plenty to choose from!). Yes, you could have reported him for abuse, and should you experience such a situation again, I encourage you to do so. Right now, you’re feeling outraged, but it will pass. And, alas, it is likely that you will experience a similar situation in the future. Now that you’ve had it happen, you’ll be better prepared for next time. |
Dear Nettie,
While I am not a forwarder myself, I do on rare occasions receive forwards in my Pogo inbox. These are usually not from friends, but folks I don’t know. While I realize that mass forwards are technically a TOS violation, I generally just delete them and move on. I don’t receive enough to feel the need to modify my settings so I only receive messages from friends, and I generally don’t report them as I recognize that the senders usually don’t have any malicious intentions.
However, the other day I received a forward of a different nature than the usual virus threats and Pogo rumors. I deleted it without reporting, but the content has continued to nag at me, and I’m now feeling that with this one I probably should have taken things further.
This particular message named another player by Pogo name, and cautioned that all women should stay away from him as he was an abuser. I know neither the sender of the message, nor the man named, so I cannot speak to the veracity of the statements made, but it seems to me that a statement like that could well qualify as libel.
The sender did seem to truly have the best interests of other women at heart, but the message still struck me as highly inappropriate.
How should I have handled this situation?
Sincerely,
Ethical Blunderer?
| Dear Ethical Blunderer, Ah yes, ye olde accusation posed as a warning! I know thee well! Your concerns are well founded. Anyone who has been falsely accused of doing something that they did not do understands this. Now, it could possibly be that everything in this e-mail is correct. But it’s also possible that the generator of the initial e-mail had a bone to pick with the named player and came up with “the ultimate revenge”. In my experience while working in Customer Support, I once worked with a woman who had a very similar thing happen. She had ended up in a chat argument with another player, it escalated into name calling, and the next thing you know, her name is pasted into an e-mail that made its way into thousands upon thousands of Pogo message accounts. The accusations were harsh, and many players took it upon themselves to dole out as much punishment as they could upon the accused. She ended up having to close her account and start fresh. Unfair? Definitely. And since it bothers you, it would probably make you feel better to do something. You have a couple of options. You could respond to the sender of the message and kindly tell her that these sorts of e-mails are unsubstantiated and encourage her to refrain from sending more. You might even include a link to this column. You could also report her for a TOS violation. If this person is a friend, the polite thing to do is to discuss it with her first. If she continues to forward messages, then you can report her – don’t worry, it’s anonymous. Sometimes people don’t change their behavior until they recognize that there is real risk involved. |
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