In this thread I will be responding to my denied ban appeal which you can read here: https://bf4db.com/forum/thread/a-very-long-ban-appeal-6162#post-reply. I would've put my response there, however the thread has been locked and has had a character limit put on it which it is already surpassing (2,000 character limit and the post is over 8,000).

I will be responding to Angry_Cuban13's second comment, which has since been edited from its initial publishing (I take it we are letting cooler heads prevail as the comment was blunt and rude). I am only going to reply to the 1st paragraph of the comment, as my original post covers the rest. I plan on keeping this shorter as Angry_Cuban13 wasn't a fan of my "long-college essay" as they originally wrote. So without further ado:

I was happy to see the final comment revised but still was disappointed in the comment as it fell short of justice. As it is stated: "your account has been compromised at some point, and was used to cheat during that time" but my account remains banned because "cheats were used on that account". I wish to parallel this situation to the one in my original post, where a player asked for a hacked kit, received and used it, was banned for using it, and was then unbanned when they explained their situation. If it is proven that I was not the one who used my account for nefarious activity and I did not grant consent of the use of my account, why am I the one being punished? If someone who is willing to cheat gets a second chance why shouldn't I? I did not ask for some to cheat on my account and have never purposefully cheated in Battlefield 4. I have since changed the password of my account to prove that the person who forcefully logged in cannot access it again.

That's really all I had to say. I don't plan on playing Battlefield 4 again as finding a server I can play would be more effort than it's worth. My friends and I are discomposed at how this whole ordeal has gone down and none of us plan on playing the game anytime soon, which is a shame. Again, I hope someone looks over my case and can at least explain why I shouldn't get another go at the game.

Soldier Name : TheGrickRimes

Link To BF4DB Soldier Profile : https://bf4db.com/player/1100141802 

Have You Claimed Your Soldier : Yes

Appeal :

Reasons for Ban: Multihack (https://bf4db.com/player/ban/1100141802)

Battlelog: https://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/battlereport/show/1/1278889422572394304/1100141802/

Dear Administrator, Moderator, and/or other Battlefield 4 players,

I'm not here to bitch and moan about my account getting banned, it turned out to be a lesson in disguise. I'm here to point out some apparent flaws in EA's Battlefield 4 and its third-party associates that help run the Battlefield 4 community. Here's my story (TL:DR at the end of the recap):

It was Thursday, July 2nd at about 8:00 PM and I was playing Stardew Valley. I get a notification from Origin stating that "another computer has logged into my account." I think that that is pretty weird but I log back on. The message pops up again and I log back on. This happens back and forth for a bit before I look up to see if it is actually someone logging into my account. I find these posts from about a month ago: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Origin-Client-Web-Technical/Account-currently-in-use/td-p/9133975 and https://www.reddit.com/r/origin/comments/gp96ck/account_currently_in_use_bug/ and chalk it up to be Origin not working as per usual. The next day (7/3/2020) I try to join a server with my friend but realize he isn't in my friends' list. I checked that list and despite having a couple friends in there a day ago, it was empty. Now that's pretty weird, I'm starting to think that someone has logged into my account. Lo and behold when trying to join a server I receive the message "You were kicked by an admin." Trying to join through the web browser resulted in the same message, as well as stating I was banned for "Multihack." 

TL:DR: Someone got into my account, played about 4 matches and got my account banned.

The evidence provided by KarekCat (https://bf4db.com/profile/KarekCat) clearly shows some shady stuff, there's no denying that. (Also in the report that goes along with it you can see a guy with 320% accuracy? Might wanna look into that. Also in the Battle Report you can see that my skill went down by 5 which indicates the guy using hacks played worse than I typically do, which is kind of funny.) So of course I found the BF4DB message about hacked accounts, "Ultimately, your account is your responsibility" (https://bf4db.com/forum/thread/hacked-accounts-1174), which is a fairly decent statement and one I would get behind. I have learned my lesson that I probably should enable 2FA, but I have my reasons for not doing so. Origin, and therefore EA, gets hacked all the time and you think I would give them my phone number? Not likely. In 2014 hackers claimed to have stolen 1.2 million account credentials from Origin and all EA had to say was that "[they] found it to be bogus" (https://hotforsecurity.bitdefender.com/blog/origin-client-database-breached-by-hackers-1-2-million-accounts-and-passwords-leaked-9232.html) and in 2019 hackers could use a bug which gave hacker's remote access to the victim's PC (https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/16/ea-origin-bug-exposed-hackers/). So while my account is my own responsibility, it is EA's responsibility to keep my information safe and provide a safe and stable game launcher to use. (Side note: With the newest Bitcoin scam/hack on Twitter, it shows that even Bill Gates and Elon Musk can get hacked. And instead of ignoring the problem Twitter has actually responded to the situation instead of banning their accounts and marking them as stolen. (https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/bill-gates-elon-musk-apple-hacked-in-cryptocurrency-scam/))

While on the topic of responsibility, I noticed the section underneath "Hacked/Stolen Accounts'' in BF4DB's Banning Policy (https://bf4db.com/banning). It states: "Players deemed to have used an illegal weapon (such as a DLC pick-up on a vanilla map, etc), or using a hacked kit (picking it up from a hacker) will be issued a ban for "Multihack". This can be appealed ONE time." How can you talk about responsibility when it is something out of your control but let a player who was willing to cheat go off with a slap on the wrists? An example of this case is a recent unbanning of a player named "Captsnare".  They used a hacked kit that was "just ‘for fun'" (https://bf4db.com/forum/thread/ban-appeal-captsnare-6093) (Note: I have no personal issues with the player Captsnare, they just provided a good example of how the word "responsibility" is used poorly on this site and EA's Terms of Service). I did not ask to be hacked, but this player and others can ask for hacked kits. Hacked kits, by the way, violate EA's Terms of Service under "Rules of Conduct": "Use exploits, cheats, undocumented features, design errors or problems in an EA Service.", "Engage in any other activity that significantly disturbs the peaceful, fair and respectful gaming environment of an EA Service." and "Promote, encourage or take part in any prohibited activity described above." (https://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC) .

Continuing down to the conclusion of the "Hacked/Stolen Accounts" section of the BF4DB Banning Policy it states: "BF4DB highly recommends purchasing a new copy of the game from a reputable source such as EA. Buying a second-hand account is at your own risk and is NOT recommended." (https://bf4db.com/banning) There is a lot wrong with this statement so I'll break it down one by one. Firstly recommending someone buy another copy of a 7 year old game that is still $40 (USD, premium edition that includes all DLC. Which the deluxe edition is $30 and all you get are 3 Battlepacks and the main game, which mind you is EA's fault at trying to make as much money as possible. (Source: Origin Store)) is just comical. Having over 400 hours in this game and being told by the people who banned you to just buy a new copy and start from scratch is a spit in the face and shows people how EA treats its customers. Secondly the words "reputable" and "EA" should never be in the same sentence. Besides the aforementioned reasons, EA's games have had some of the rockiest launches and have proven to only care about money (i.e. the Battlefront 2 fiasco). Lastly it says that "Buying a second-hand account is at your own risk." Well apparently buying the game from EA is just as risky since your account can get hacked either way. Had this entire statement come straight from EA on a newly released game, it would rival the infamous "sense of pride and accomplishment" from Battlefront 2 (https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/dppum98/?context=3). 

I've gone back and forth on whether I should post this or not, and truth be told I wasn't going to. But I figured I might as well give it a shot since one of my friends recently got Battlefield 4 and I was showing him the ropes before my ban. I would frequently play with both him and another friend (If it matters their usernames are: FAMWAM4 and Donald0Hump (Now Vayyoh)), I rarely played without them and we don't go to any server outside of the United States. That being said I did join a Norwegian server after my ban as I was testing to see what servers I could and could not join (If you're curious I could join the server). The reason I bring this up is because whoever got into my account mainly was in US servers, but also joined a Brazilian one. I wouldn't do this because a) I'd have really high ping and b) I don't speak Portuguese. (Link that shows the servers the hacker and myself have joined: https://imgur.com/jaPNv1o (censored some stuff for privacy reasons.)) This isn't good enough for an unban obviously because it's just my word, but I'd be happy to submit video/other proof if it helps. 

To those who read this entire thing, I thank you for at least taking your time to see what I have to say. I want to make it clear that I have no problems with any of the BF4DB staff, you guys are volunteers and I have respect for that. I have no problems with any of the players that I have previously encountered or the players I mentioned previously. I have a problem with BF4DB's policies and the flaws that have been inherited from EA. I apologize to anyone who was affected by the person who used my account. 

I hope an Administrator and/or Moderator takes their time to prove me wrong and show that they will at least try and investigate this. And like I said, any proof that I can submit I will gladly do so to progress this inquiry. I look forward to BF4DB's response.