UK PSN account permanently suspended? Help?

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He previously outlined the specific reason in an old thread/post:




So yeh, it's either due to him giving out the Concord codes and then cancelling, or (most likely) the keys he was getting from CDKeys etc were flagged as being obtained through fraudulent means.

I bough Spider man remaster on cd keys (when game wasn't available to buy on PSN at all, only in MM) years ago and my account is fine.
 
There is always a high probability that OP is leaving SOME information out, just like the last guy who posted something like this and it turned out they were sharing their account with like 6 people or something like that iirc.
So what? They paid for their games. No reason for you to defend Sony for something like this for any fucking reason. It is absolutely not acceptable.
 
What's wild is the consoles ability to save to the hard drive is tied to its .kv file in the kernel (keyvault) so that's what they target and ban. Renders the console a brick even offline. If you have it JTAG'd or RGH you can purchase clean ones and swap them out but average user is screwed.
My console is usable. I can save. But I cannot connect and patch games
 
So yeh, it's either due to him giving out the Concord codes and then cancelling, or (most likely) the keys he was getting from CDKeys etc were flagged as being obtained through fraudulent means.

Did he mention anything about keys?
 
My PSN online ID is Barso, could anyone check what they see if they try on their PS5?

I can't see anything on PSN for just "Barso". But then again, I only had a quick look because the friends search is shit on PS tbh.

For the people saying its because of Concord beta, I'm not so sure. This is what it says for pre ordering -

nNAnzu3.jpeg


From Sony UK refund page -
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I bough Spider man remaster on cd keys (when game wasn't available to buy on PSN at all, only in MM) years ago and my account is fine.

You'll also find plenty of people who have purchased keys from G2A etc and never experienced any issues.

But when you are purchasing from unauthorised sources you are playing roulette. There is always a chance the key you receive was originally obtained through fraudulent means and that then changes the whole picture.
 
Did he mention anything about keys?

 

And there we have it...
 
While the site itself is reliable (along with their customer support), a word of caution when using CDKeys and similar sites for stuff like store credit:


Reddit thread with more information:


The issue is that the origins of the keys from these grey market sites are untracable, and sometimes originate from fraudulent transactions (stolen credit cards for example). Once flagged playstation/xbox/Nintendo get notified of all the keys involved in the transaction and they will then ban any accounts that have redeemed them.

The first step of course will need to be confirming that that was in fact the reason for the ban. Once you have the you need to follow the steps in the reddit thread above to try and prove your innocence.

But I'd strongly advise people to use the likes of CDKeys etc for steam games only and not store credit for any digital platforms, particularly not the console ones. With steam games, all steam will do is revoke the key in question rather than suspend/ban your entire account.

If you need store credit/subscription codes then use a legitimate source such as Amazon (the ones sold by amazon themselves, not third parties on amazon).

Man, this is worrisome since I've been getting my PSN wallet funds from instant gaming® exclusively for the past 2 years to buy games from the PSN... 🤔
 
I can fully understand the skepticism and reasons for everyone thinking there's more to this but I'm being as honest as I can with the information I have. I've taken as much care that I can to try and provide any account I have that has digital content that I've purchased such as my Apple and Microsoft accounts.
I just don't understand PlayStation's reasoning for banning for fraud when fraud can cover a huge spectrum of reasons.
But they offer me zero action of recourse and they have access to all of the data they've collected, surely they can see with that data that why would I risk it all for an act of negligence such as fraud.
 
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I will keep this thread updated with all information I receive from all of the actiion I've taken with images of any emails I receive.
I personally believe that users need to understand the threat that the digital libraries they build are constantly under threat from any action the company deems breaks any rules they feel that you've broken, even if you personally believe that's it's all been one misunderstanding.
We are all human and we make mistakes.
 
Man, this is worrisome since I've been getting my PSN wallet funds from instant gaming® exclusively for the past 2 years to buy games from the PSN... 🤔

Wouldn't advise it. It's one of those "works until it doesn't" situations.

Personally I think the way that the console manufacturers enforce against this is far too heavy handed. I previously purchased a key from CDKeys that was later revoked by Steam (no further action against my account, the game was just removed from my library), I then contacted CDKeys and explained what happened and they eventually refunded me after an investigation.

Had that been on PSN then my whole account would have been banned. But I also think it gets far more messy when the code in question is for store credit, particularly if you've already spent the credit in question.
 
You'll also find plenty of people who have purchased keys from G2A etc and never experienced any issues.

But when you are purchasing from unauthorised sources you are playing roulette. There is always a chance the key you receive was originally obtained through fraudulent means and that then changes the whole picture.

Ironically the only problem i've ever had with one of these sites was Fanatical, who is an authorized reseller. Steam revoked a key but they gave me another one. I'm sure that gave me some kind of strike against my account tho. I have bought dozens if not hundreds of keys from CDKeys and never had an issue. Those guys rule and have good customer service too.
 
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Scary stuff. In the PS4 days I also bought some codes from CD keys with no problems though. Never going to do that again... and once, I remember trying to buy some Star Wars dlc for PS4 on Ebay, and after making the purchase the seller contacted me and said "in order to receive the dlc you have to system share and allow me to take control of your system to add the dlc" and that freaked me the hell out, so I demanded him refund me and he did. No way in hell I'd allow something like that.

Anyways, I hope you get your games back TC, and this further solidifies my stance on digital gaming on consoles. Dystopian digital days of doom.
 
It might be worth contacting the citizens advice bureau as one of the things they deal with is consumer complaints.

Just be wary you might be on hold for over an hour before you get to speak to someone.
 
Ironically the only problem i've ever had with one of these sites was Fanatical, who is an authorized reseller. Steam revoked a key but they gave me another one. I'm sure that gave me some kind of strike against my account tho. I have bought dozens if not hundreds of keys from CDKeys and never had an issue. Those guys rule and have good customer service too.

When it happened to me with the key from CDKeys I confirmed with the customer service rep at steam that the first time it happens there's no strike against your account, that only happens if it's repeated.
 
I can fully understand the skepticism and reasons for everyone thinking there's more to this but I'm being as honest as I can with you information I have. I've taken as much care that I can to try and provide any account I have that has digital content that I've purchased such as my Apple and Microsoft accounts.
I just don't understand PlayStation's reasoning for banning for fraud when fraud can cover a huge spectrum of reasons.
But they offer me zero action of recourse and they have access to all of the data they've collected, surely they can see with that data that why would I risk it all for an act of negligence such as fraud.

I will keep this thread updated with all information I receive from all of the actiion I've taken with images of any emails I receive.
I personally believe that users need to understand the threat that the digital libraries they build are constantly under threat from any action the company deems breaks any rules they feel that you've broken, even if you personally believe that's it's all been one misunderstanding.
We are all human and we make mistakes.

A big misunderstanding that has been ongoing for over a year?

Meryl Streep Doubt GIF
 
I bough Spider man remaster on cd keys (when game wasn't available to buy on PSN at all, only in MM) years ago and my account is fine.
Game codes for PSN usually come out of retail packages or are packed in with consoles, so the chances of those being fraudulently obtained are lower unless someone stole physical copies of games to get the codes or stole the codes out of the game or console boxes like GameStop used to do. They once tried to sell me an open PS3 game as new and the online play voucher was missing. They claimed it was lost, but it was probably because the employee who played it redeemed it. They did offer to sell me one, though.

But digital wallet fund codes can be purchased from multiple online retailers and are easily purchased with stolen credit card information. If a legitimate retailer gets a chargeback for a digital code purchase for wallet funds then they charge the funds for those codes back to Sony. If those funds have been redeemed and used then they'll certainly ban the PSN account that redeemed the code for fraud. I can't say that's happened here, but I do know people who lost their PSN accounts for fraud when purchasing wallet funds from key sites.
 
Not even fucking warnings on anything. Just permanent ban...

Investing much money into anything other than steam is not a good idea (and steam is not ideal but at least they don't go from 0 to 100%).
 
Not even fucking warnings on anything. Just permanent ban...

Investing much money into anything other than steam is not a good idea (and steam is not ideal but at least they don't go from 0 to 100%).

If you have to go digital, at the moment the only two choices that make sense are GOG and piracy.
 
Not even fucking warnings on anything. Just permanent ban...

Investing much money into anything other than steam is not a good idea (and steam is not ideal but at least they don't go from 0 to 100%).

Yeah this is absurd. I get the feeling OP is leaving out important details, but even if I banged Hermen Hulst's wife they shouldn't be able to just nuke your account like that. Stop me from playing online, stop me from using the store, stop me from sending messages…. Ok. Take away things I paid for arbitrarily, not ok.
 
Feel for you mate. Had it happen to me last year. 18 year old Xbox account down the drain. In the end after all the back and forth they said my account was used for selling games
(whatever that is) I'll never spend another penny on Xbox or Playstation stores. I'll use Reward points on Gamepass or buy 2nd hand games. Fuck the lot of em!

P.s
It happened at the same time as when they got hacked. Wouldn't be surprised if it had anything to with that.
 
Well this really sucks. And this is the reason why a lot of people are afraid of an all digital future where servers get shut down or they ban you for whatever arbitrary reason and don't give you a refund or explanation.
Exactly. I'll either find another hobby or go back to a high end gaming PC, if PlayStation go fully digital.
 
I had the same issue with my JP PSN account. Never got it back and had thousands of dollars in it. I went physical after the PS3 era. Not going to indulge into digital drama anymore. Still pissed to this day.
 
He previously outlined the specific reason in an old thread/post:




So yeh, it's either due to him giving out the Concord codes and then cancelling, or (most likely) the keys he was getting from CDKeys etc were flagged as being obtained through fraudulent means.
The thing is unlike GTA, CDKeys directly sources their codes. They either buy them cheaper in Central/Eastern Europe / Middle East or get them from publishers (for games, it currency of course).

GTA2 and such have "marketplace" sellers which could come from anywhere. I really doubt it's CDKeys.

And of course if god damn Concord causes this, it's sheer insanity.

The whole thing of "we can't tell you why we banned you and took away £1000s from you" should be illegal as hell, and I don't care that it's theoretically "licenses".

The other thing OP could do is just tag everyone he could think on X and do some posts. Include Sony, BBC, UK Watchdogs, some media and so on.
 
I had the same issue with my JP PSN account. Never got it back and had thousands of dollars in it. I went physical after the PS3 era. Not going to indulge into digital drama anymore. Still pissed to this day.
Yeah, and of course this one is even harder to figure out due to language barrier. I do have some games on Japanese PSN, but always felt a bit iffy and started importing physicals back in PS3 days. I do have some DLCs though.

This shit is why I just go for PC gaming or mainly physical copies on consoles, because even if Valve bans you, they usually a)Tell you the reason and b)Take away only a certain key or c)Ban you from MP. At least this is my understanding.
 
Yeah, and of course this one is even harder to figure out due to language barrier. I do have some games on Japanese PSN, but always felt a bit iffy and started importing physicals back in PS3 days. I do have some DLCs though.

This shit is why I just go for PC gaming or mainly physical copies on consoles, because even if Valve bans you, they usually a)Tell you the reason and b)Take away only a certain key or c)Ban you from MP. At least this is my understanding.
It was mostly PC Engine games as it was my favourite retro console and not many games were released for North America. I even had a Vita TV just for the PC Engine emulation.
 
The thing is unlike GTA, CDKeys directly sources their codes. They either buy them cheaper in Central/Eastern Europe / Middle East or get them from publishers (for games, it currency of course).

Nah man, they don't. Not always at least.

I was specifically told that the key that got revoked by Steam was because it was stolen.

They are by far the best and most reliable grey market keystore but they don't always get their keys through official channels.

hwu2kOY.jpeg
 
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It was mostly PC Engine games as it was my favourite retro console and not many games were released for North America. I even had a Vita TV just for the PC Engine emulation.
Ahh, yeah, that's a good point. And you can't exactly import that. Thankfully between MiSTer and emulation this isn't as big of an issue now days.
 
Nah man, they don't. Not always at least.

I was specifically told that the key that got revoked by Steam was because it was stolen.

They are by far the best and most reliable grey market keystore but they don't ways get their keys through official channels.

hwu2kOY.jpeg
Huh, that's interesting and I have been using them with no issues for many years.

I thought the other keys came from them buying cheaper copies in lower cost EMEI countries and not "otherwise" sourced.

This is especially then relevant to PSN and Xbox currency and such, because bans on consoles are completely insane. I only used CDKeys for Valve thankfully.
 
Huh, that's interesting and I have been using them with no issues for many years.

I thought the other keys came from them buying cheaper copies in lower cost EMEI countries and not "otherwise" sourced.

This is especially then relevant to PSN and Xbox currency and such, because bans on consoles are completely insane. I only used CDKeys for Valve thankfully.

Yeh I still use them on a regular basis because of how well their customer service handled the situation, but it's still very much an at your own risk situation.

No chance I'd use them for anything other than games for steam (which is their bread and butter anyway).
 
I gotta say, I completely understand people being skeptical of these things, because the horrors of them being real are the stuff that nightmares are made of. No one wants to think that anyone can lose access to all their digital titles, over what basically amounts to nothing egregious, but it does seem to happen to a select few as of right now, but what if these occurrences happen at much higher rates?

On the other hand, fuck these people who are victim blaming, as if even it were true they'd somehow deserve to lose their entire paid libraries? And those making fun of the situation are even worse. You wouldn't laugh if it happened to you or someone you know.
 
Buying keys is not illegal. It is called competition (so we don't all have to pay 80 euros forever i guess). At least from legitimate keysellers (like cdkeys). I have been buying from there for years with no issues let us not try to demonize them. If you buy from a site that sells keys gotten in a non legit way that is on you of course. There are sites that give you prices from different stores and what risks they have.
 
I gotta say, I completely understand people being skeptical of these things, because the horrors of them being real are the stuff that nightmares are made of. No one wants to think that anyone can lose access to all their digital titles, over what basically amounts to nothing egregious, but it does seem to happen to a select few as of right now, but what if these occurrences happen at much higher rates?

On the other hand, fuck these people who are victim blaming, as if even it were true they'd somehow deserve to lose their entire paid libraries? And those making fun of the situation are even worse. You wouldn't laugh if it happened to you or someone you know.

One thing that makes me skeptical of this thread is he has an old thread on it. Why not just bump the old thread instead of making it appear to be another ban?

As for fuck victim blaming. I do agree with that. No company should be able to remove an entire gaming library based on a single incident. Period. IMO, maximum should be to remove the title/funds in question for account purchases and for behavior to remove them from PSN. To lose an entire library that dates back to previous generations is brutal but this is the digital only future many want. 🤷‍♂️
 
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One thing that makes me skeptical of this thread is he has an old thread on it. Why not just bump the old thread instead of making it appear to be another ban?

As for fuck victim blaming. I do agree with that. No company should be able to remove an entire gaming library based on a single incident. Period. IMO, maximum should be to remove the title/funds in question for account purchases in question and for behavior to remove them from PSN. To lose an entire library that dates back to previous generations is brutal but this is the digital only future many want. 🤷‍♂️
It just goes to show what these companies think of their customers: docile consumers who don't think for themselves, and that they will just blindly buy whatever it is they're selling. It's pure gall these companies have to sell licences and then revoke them at the drop of a hat.

People of all regions need better consumer protection laws if they are to give up all physical ownership.
 
One thing that makes me skeptical of this thread is he has an old thread on it. Why not just bump the old thread instead of making it appear to be another ban?

As for fuck victim blaming. I do agree with that. No company should be able to remove an entire gaming library based on a single incident. Period. IMO, maximum should be to remove the title/funds in question for account purchases in question and for behavior to remove them from PSN. To lose an entire library that dates back to previous generations is brutal but this is the digital only future many want. 🤷‍♂️
In defence of the OP I don't think he is making it appear to be another ban, he says in the OP "I had my account permanently suspended in August and have constantly reached out with emails but had not one single reply."
His old thread was originally about something else, and he did bump it after getting banned. So maybe he just wanted a new thread for more visibility or something.
 
I read the other thread by OP. He mentions that Sony sent him an e-mail to recover his account and he clicked on it to change his password. He also mentioned that 2FA didn't activate when he did that. Maybe he fell victim to phishing as recently I also received a similar e-mail, but didn't click on the link as I never asked to change my password and I only use unique password for PSN.

The e-mail in my case looked legit (the address is said to be used by Sony), but I believe it was a spoofed e-mail.

No one actually changed my password. So, I was correct in ignoring that e-mail.
 
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Man that's why I stopped buying digital. Too many horror stories revolving banned accounts.

I once got a warning from Sony for violating the code of conduct. The violation apparently was sending a friend a link to a cooking recipe…
 
Man that's why I stopped buying digital. Too many horror stories revolving banned accounts.

I once got a warning from Sony for violating the code of conduct. The violation apparently was sending a friend a link to a cooking recipe…
Just to be safe, any game I by digitally and really like, I also purchase a physical copy, if possible, just to always have access to it in case of some weird shit, just like this.
 
Buying keys is not illegal. It is called competition (so we don't all have to pay 80 euros forever i guess). At least from legitimate keysellers (like cdkeys). I have been buying from there for years with no issues let us not try to demonize them. If you buy from a site that sells keys gotten in a non legit way that is on you of course. There are sites that give you prices from different stores and what risks they have.

CDKeys is NOT a legitimate key seller. They are probably the most trustworthy grey market key seller, but do not start telling people that their keys are legitimate. Their keys have been revoked due to fraud before. That's the risk of grey market key sellers.
 
The only thing to do in this situation is email the CEO, first for SCEE in the UK, then go up the chain, they have executive escalation teams, say you are seeking legal counsel to recover your money if they will not give you back access to the account and you have interviews lined up with journalists from mainstream and gaming media.
 
The only thing to do in this situation is email the CEO, first for SCEE in the UK, then go up the chain, they have executive escalation teams, say you are seeking legal counsel to recover your money if they will not give you back access to the account and you have interviews lined up with journalists from mainstream and gaming media.
Companies respond to numbers. OP stated he has more than 600 digital games. Calculate roughly the total cost and include it in the email.
 
Take it to Twitter OP. Just bitch about how Sony banned your account for seemingly no reason and refuse to give you any explanation. They hate bad buzz on social media so they'll try to resolve it quick. Not saying they will unban you for sure, but they'll at least give you a reason for your ban.
 
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