Your Account Stolen? Here’s What to Do
In response to my last article in relation to what to do if your account is
frozen, were a few emails specifically asking me to write up a new article.
“Please help! What can I do if my account is stolen off me?” was one of the most
common questions asked after publishing the frozen article. In response to this
plea, I’ve set out to write up this article!
So what can you do if your account is stolen? Emailing Neopets won’t help too
much unless you have overwhelming evidence that the account is yours. By this, I
mean you state in your pet pages who the account really belongs to. You must
also be able to provide Neopets with a history of your account, i.e. past
trades, past emails used in the account, the email you signed up with and a
listing of your neofriends. Unless you can specifically provide all of those, I
would say that your chances of having Neopets transfer the account back to you
very, very slim. This is because Neopets has to also guard against random people
trying to steal accounts that don’t belong to them.
Emailing Neopets however should be a last resort, as the response time will be
quite considerable. The first step you should take is
1) Try to log in to your account. If you can, you have successfully gotten your
account back. Congratulations. If you have not, continue to step two.
2) Request your password sent to your email account which is registered in your
account name. To do this, click on “I forgot my password” and type in your
account username. Check your email 15 minutes later. If you have an email from Neopets, that means the person who took your account forgot to change the email
in the account, so you will be able to log in to your account, change the
password (must do) and reclaim the account back as yours. If you haven’t gotten
your password back within 15 minutes, wait another 15. If still no email,
continue to step three.
3) Email Neopets. Make sure you include in your email the following:
a. Your account username
b. The email your account username was in before your account was stolen
c. The email account you used to sign up with
d. At least three of your neofriends current listed as a neofriend on your
account.
e. A record of past shop sales, trades or auctions
Provided below is an example of an email which was sent to Neopets below.
==============================
Dear Neopets,
I am writing in reference to my account “youraccountname” which was entered into
by another user and taken over without my consent. I have tried requesting for
my password via the automated request form, however it is evident the person who
has stolen my account has also changed the email registered with the account, so
I am unable to reclaim my account through my own means. Thus I have emailed you
as a last resort.
I realize the reluctance expressed by Neopets in restoring accounts, thus I have
provided in this email overwhelming evidence that the account does belong to me.
My account username: “youraccountname”
Email I used to sign up the account with:
yourname@yourhost.com
The email which was registered with the account before it was stolen:
yourname@yourhost.com
Listings of neofriends in the account: “neofriend1”, “neofriend2”, “neofriend3”
and “neofriend4”.
Past shop sales: Water Faerie sold for 1,200 neopoints, Bubble Mote sold for
15,000 neopoints.
Past auctions: Fire Faerie sold for 98,000 neopoints
Past trades: Orb of the Fire Faerie traded for an Oak Wishing Stick.
I hope that provided is sufficient proof that the account really does belong to
me. If you would like extra information to check, please ask me as I would be
more than happy to provide it.
Thank you for you time,
“youraccountname”.
==============================
As you can see above, the standard rules for writing an email or letter is the
same. You are polite, you get to the point and you demonstrate that you are a
reasonable person. More than likely, the Neopets team will turn away in disgust
if you type you email like this:
==============================
TO NEOPETS
PLZ HELP ME!!!! MY ACCONT WAZ STOLEN YESTERDAY> I WANT IT BACK NOW!
FROM RODGER.
==============================
God help you if you are foolish enough to send an email like that. Having a
stolen account is definitely not a pleasant experience, so while you try to gain
your account back, be prepared for a long haul. Thus I would recommend starting
a new account or using a secondary account to play while you wait.
Good luck with trying to regain your stolen account again. Until next time,
happy NeoPetting!
Neopets Departments