EA Investigating Bogus BF3 Bans by Rogue Hacker

Last week, it seems that a number of Battlefiled 3 PC players were finding themselves unceremoniously and mysteriously banned from the game for no reason. While various posts since the release of Battlefield 3 have shown EA to be pretty trigger happy with the banhammer, this time they’re in the clear.

The culprit, it seems, is a hacker who goes by the handle Anonpbspoofer in the BF3 forums, says a post on GameSpy. Mr. Spoofer announced that he was a junior member of hacking site Artificial Aiming, and explained that he was banning players because of the presence of PunkBuster software in Battlefield 3 servers.

From Anonpbspoofer’s post:

“We have selected ggc-stream as the target since they have the most streaming bf3 servers and makes it very easy to add fake bans. In 2011 we hit them with a mass ban wave and now were are banning real players from battlelog while ggc-stream is totally unaware. We have framed 150+ bf3 players alone.”

Interestingly, Artificial Aiming has denied responsibility and left Spoofer out in the cold, writing in response to the hacks, “This has nothing to do with AA […] The person who posted the first link is a junior member here.”

And now that EA and DICE know about what’s going on, they’re investigating the situation and looking to rectify it. According to another post on GameSpy, the bogus bans are already being repealed:

“Together with the 3rd party service providers we have taken steps to remove the faulty bans, and improve the protection against future fake bans.

“We have determined that the root cause resulting in the server bans is not directly related to Battlefield 3, but rather related to select 3rd party services which server owners can use in conjunction with PunkBuster to protect their servers.

“If you are able to log in to Battlelog, your account has not been banned by EA or DICE so there is no need to contact Customer Support.”

In addition, DICE has put out an ad for an “anti-cheat administrator” position, for which they’re looking for “an Internet savvy administrator. The administrator will compose an absolutely vital function to secure the online experience our games represent by actively be [sic] a part of the community and keep up to date with current cheat exposure.”

Maybe Anonpbspoofer can apply. He’s already mastered the art of banning players for little to no reason. BAM! ZING!

Via GameSpy and GameSpy again

SHARE THIS POST WITH YOUR IDIOT FRIENDS: