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Epic Games account was stolen, Epic is refusing to help

Frosty Death Knight

Frosty Death Knight

Member
Oct 31, 2017
229
I have never made my own forum post before but I don't really know where to go next with this, apologies if this is against TOS and feel free to close if needed. Looking for help from anyone. I have had an epic games account since fortnite save the world and have probably spent a few hundred dollars on skins throughout the years and I have also collected a few free games on the epic games launcher. I used to have my nintendo, psn, and xbox accounts all linked to the one account and now I no longer have access to anything, none of the accounts are linked anymore and I have no way of getting into it again. When I emailed epic games today I was told that "something" of the information provided was either incomplete or didn't match, and because of this they could no longer help me. No number provided, no person to speak to, nothing. So good people of Resetera if there's anything else I can do please let me know, it feels awful to have a multiyear time investment and monetary investment just disappear altogether.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
43,477
Send another email and ask what info this is, do you have emails sent by Epic with receipts? Send those too
 
Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,279
Damn, sorry OP. I don't personally mess with EGS, but I wish you the best of luck. You're going to need it.
 
OP
OP
Frosty Death Knight

Frosty Death Knight

Member
Oct 31, 2017
229
I have sent receipts from across every platform, they wanted:
  1. Your public IP address (IPv4)
  2. The original Display name of your Epic account
  3. The names of any PlayStation, Switch, Twitch, Xbox, or any other external accounts connected in the past and present to your Epic Games account
  4. Locations (city and country/state) where you made purchases on the account
  5. The last 4 digits of the first payment card used in the Epic account
  6. The invoice ID or Transactions number from your Epic Games purchase or mobile/console receipts for purchases made in-game
  7. A screenshot of your oldest available receipt for this Epic Games account. This can be also a screenshot of your oldest in-game purchase made on your console/mobile. If you have trouble finding your console receipt, refer to the corresponding link:
which I provided all to the best of my ability
 
OP
OP
Frosty Death Knight

Frosty Death Knight

Member
Oct 31, 2017
229
Chance_Boudreaux

Chance_Boudreaux

Member
Oct 27, 2017
776
My first Epic account was hacked. I never bought anything so I lost nothing of value as it was just an account made to play Epic games on console. My Xbox Live and PSN accounts were linked and the person changed the PSN account, as well as my Epic name. I was able to change the name back but was unable to link my PSN account back.

I was told by Epic support that only one of each platform account is allowed to be linked to an Epic account (so one XBL, one PSN, one Nintendo) and that if they're unlinked (which mine was), it would result in an error message and that I'd need to make a new Epic account to link my platform accounts to. When I asked how the PSN account was changed in the first place I was offered no explanation.

Anyway I had to make a new Epic account and decided to make two: One for console(s) and one for PC.

This was in 2019 and it appears that support is as helpful now as it was back then? Sorry you have to go through this, OP, and I'm sorry that I can't be much help. Just here to say that you should be prepared to have to make a new account to link your console accounts to again.
 
BaneOnTheLoose

BaneOnTheLoose

Member
Sep 12, 2020
143
I went through this same thing late last month. Someone changed my name and email to someone in Russian and they refused to help me as well. Even after showing them receipts. So I just gave up.

This is part the last email I received

"When the e-mail is changed in an Epic Games account, the former e-mail receives a notification. If the compromiser had access to the account, which is the most common case, they may have deleted the e-mail.

After reviewing the case as a whole, the account was disabled due suspicious activities, and will remain disable as we can't precise you as the creator of the account.

Thank you for understanding that this is a security procedure and we can't go into details, but we have our procedures and tools in which we trust, and the duty to protect the accounts and the players as well.

Regards"
 
OP
OP
Frosty Death Knight

Frosty Death Knight

Member
Oct 31, 2017
229
BaneOnTheLoose said:
I went through this same thing late last month. Someone changed my name and email to someone in Russian and they refused to help me as well. Even after showing them receipts. So I just gave up.

This is part the last email I received
"When the e-mail is changed in an Epic Games account, the former e-mail receives a notification. If the compromiser had access to the account, which is the most common case, they may have deleted the e-mail.

After reviewing the case as a whole, the account was disabled due suspicious activities, and will remain disable as we can't precise you as the creator of the account.

Thank you for understanding that this is a security procedure and we can't go into details, but we have our procedures and tools in which we trust, and the duty to protect the accounts and the players as well.

Regards"
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That's insane, you'd think that as a company dealing in digital goods that protecting said goods would be the most important thing to them. I now have every reason in the world to avoid their storefront like the plague since they can't guarantee I'll keep that content.
 
dex3108

dex3108

Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,566
BaneOnTheLoose said:
I went through this same thing late last month. Someone changed my name and email to someone in Russian and they refused to help me as well. Even after showing them receipts. So I just gave up.

This is part the last email I received

"When the e-mail is changed in an Epic Games account, the former e-mail receives a notification. If the compromiser had access to the account, which is the most common case, they may have deleted the e-mail.

After reviewing the case as a whole, the account was disabled due suspicious activities, and will remain disable as we can't precise you as the creator of the account.

Thank you for understanding that this is a security procedure and we can't go into details, but we have our procedures and tools in which we trust, and the duty to protect the accounts and the players as well.

Regards"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Awful customer service and account tracking from their side.
 
anaa

anaa

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Jun 30, 2019
1,554
surely we can say a company is anti-consumer for having really poor customer service?

sorry about your account OP, hopefully if you pester them enough you'll finally get through to someone who can help.

I once had a similar thing happen, losing access to my amazon seller account where I had like 1000$ in pending/complete sales attached to it. Automation incorrectly flagged my account as fraudulent and completely locked out all access to it. I spent dozens of hours in endless call loops with people who couldn't help at all, seemingly not knowing anything before actually getting the issue resolved. the stress probably took a couple years off my life and looking back probably wasn't worth it, but I DID eventually get the thing recovered.
 
Mocha Joe

Mocha Joe

Member
Jun 2, 2021
9,304
I definitely have read similar situations as you OP with zero luck. Best just keep contacting customer service and keeping chat logs. If they don't help you out, contact your bank and/or CC company and see if a chargeback is justified on recent purchases.
 
BaneOnTheLoose

BaneOnTheLoose

Member
Sep 12, 2020
143
I should mention that I was able to get back into the account Before they disabled it with my linked ps account, but couldn't do anything since it takes 3 or months to be able to change my email back. I'd do charge backs but since I bought some vbucks on my ps I'm outta luck.
 
OP
OP
Frosty Death Knight

Frosty Death Knight

Member
Oct 31, 2017
229
Honestly I think I'd rather they shut down my account. I know there was some of the skins that are considered "OG" but I'd almost rather the account be frozen than in the hands of some thief.

One of the other strange things that happened was I had a message on one of my consoles that said something along the lines of "I have a question about your fortnite account and I can't talk about here, this my discord reach me there" and I deleted it thinking it was a phishing message/scam. That was a few months ago but it's been since kratos came out to fortnite that I even played.
 
Exposure

Exposure

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,654
Yeah this and other incidents across a variety of companies both gaming and non-gaming sectors like banking are like

that low key (to the public) major problem with all security systems involving things that are primarily handled over the internet called "most corporate support services are hilariously vulnerable to social engineering attempts and god help us when a major organization realizes that fact", since there's a bunch of very strict things they're supposed to follow when it comes to certain actions for accounts that are also tend to be bended by the actual people meant to be following them because the idea that someone lost access to their 2FA thing and don't have access to their backup codes is...well, it actually happens a lot and is part of the reason why I imagine a great deal of people who will read post and is using a 2FA thing is using something that's online enabled even if it's a service that may have had known problems in the past, because you don't want to worry about that kind of thing if you lost your phone or what not.

And then someone abuses that and hell for the actual user starts because your account's been compromised and you want it back...except it's very likely it got compromised through the support method you want to use and thus it likely got marked "do not listen to anybody else about this for this account" by then.

Your only real option from what i've read in regards to other incidents is to just keep escalating whenever possible and hope you get someone high up in the chain that's willing to work with you on it.
 
Sheepinator

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
27,923
Frosty Death Knight said:
I have sent receipts from across every platform, they wanted:
  1. Your public IP address (IPv4)
  2. The original Display name of your Epic account
  3. The names of any PlayStation, Switch, Twitch, Xbox, or any other external accounts connected in the past and present to your Epic Games account
  4. Locations (city and country/state) where you made purchases on the account
  5. The last 4 digits of the first payment card used in the Epic account
  6. The invoice ID or Transactions number from your Epic Games purchase or mobile/console receipts for purchases made in-game
  7. A screenshot of your oldest available receipt for this Epic Games account. This can be also a screenshot of your oldest in-game purchase made on your console/mobile. If you have trouble finding your console receipt, refer to the corresponding link:
which I provided all to the best of my ability
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You said they said something was incomplete or didn't match. Are you 100% confident all the info was correct?

Didn't you have an email associated with EGS? Do you no longer have access to that email?
 
OP
OP
Frosty Death Knight

Frosty Death Knight

Member
Oct 31, 2017
229
Sheepinator said:
You said they said something was incomplete or didn't match. Are you 100% confident all the info was correct?

Didn't you have an email associated with EGS? Do you no longer have access to that email?
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To the best of my ability, everything a gave them was correct. Hard to know what the last 4 numbers on a card for an epic game store purchase was when all my purchases were for the free games. I do have my email but it seems that someone changed the email on the account back in October of last year. So I still have all of my old purchase information from then and prior to as well.
 
Nano-Nandy

Nano-Nandy

Member
Mar 26, 2019
2,302
Since you had 2FA enabled; didn't you get an email or a few?

Like, I get an email whenever I just sign-in on a new device...or just time later (most recently to sign-in to the Lantern Trials in Fortnite).
 
Sheepinator

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
27,923
Frosty Death Knight said:
To the best of my ability, everything a gave them was correct. Hard to know what the last 4 numbers on a card for an epic game store purchase was when all my purchases were for the free games. I do have my email but it seems that someone changed the email on the account back in October of last year. So I still have all of my old purchase information from then and prior to as well.
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Didn't you use a card for the skins you bought? Or were those all codes you redeemed? If the former you could check your cards statements and confirm which card was used on which date to buy something from them.
 
ShinUltramanJ

ShinUltramanJ

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,949
Frosty Death Knight said:
This requires the same information that was requested from me, which is apparently incorrect from their records.


This would be so much easier if they had a telephone line I could reach out to but a las its only email.
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I think they have an online chat function as well. Not sure how much that would help, but maybe they'd have a customer service number to give you.
 
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,654
Boston, MA
This is concerning. I also have 2FA enabled on my Epic Games account, and I also use this account for Unreal Engine development. If my account gets deleted, I wondered if my dev account also gets deleted.
 
GrrImAFridge

GrrImAFridge

ONE THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,659
Western Australia
baconcow said:
Surprised that 2FA didn't help, here.
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Epic offers e-mail 2FA as an alternative to backup codes (which is a terrible idea and completely defeats the purpose of backup codes), so what has likely happened is that the OP's e-mail account was compromised, the unauthorised user found e-mails indicating it's tied to an EGS account, was able to successfully log in to the account, and then used the e-mail 2FA option to bypass the standard 2FA method.
 
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,654
Boston, MA
GrrImAFridge said:
Epic offers e-mail 2FA as an alternative to backup codes (which is a terrible idea and completely defeats the purpose of backup codes), so what has likely happened is that the OP's e-mail account was compromised, the unauthorised user found e-mails indicating it's tied to an EGS account, was able to successfully log in to the account, and then used the e-mail 2FA option to bypass the standard 2FA method.
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Ah, so it's email 2FA. I used the mobile app 2FA, and thought Epic only offers the mobile app 2FA.
 
GrrImAFridge

GrrImAFridge

ONE THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,659
Western Australia
delete12345 said:
Ah, so it's email 2FA. I used the mobile app 2FA, and thought Epic only offers the mobile app 2FA.
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You can set up app 2FA, SMS 2FA, or e-mail 2FA, but even if you've opted for one of the former two, e-mail 2FA is still presented as an option when clicking "Try another way" after logging in and reaching the 2FA screen. So, essentially, your Epic account security is only as strong as your e-mail account security.
 
Nano-Nandy

Nano-Nandy

Member
Mar 26, 2019
2,302
delete12345 said:
Ah, so it's email 2FA. I used the mobile app 2FA, and thought Epic only offers the mobile app 2FA.
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They offer the 3 options: email , app, SMS.

The thing is that changing/adding them; sends emails about it.

So login sends an email; maybe the person changed the email but that also sends an email and changing 2FA or deactivating it also sends an email ; and is weird that a person might have access to OPs emails but leave it as is.

Or OP just ignored the emails about it.
 

CanUKlehead

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,390
delete12345 said:
Ah, so it's email 2FA. I used the mobile app 2FA, and thought Epic only offers the mobile app 2FA.
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Hmm, I wonder if that's more secure than getting an email or text, surely, as someone can hack into my phone or email easier vs the app (Thought I listened to a podcast where this is what happened so while they got the text notification, the hackers were able to view it or sth, I don't remember)? This is why I'm holding onto my bank authenticator dongle and not using my app though as long as they let me, I imagine that's even more secure.

Sucks OP, I can imagine this happening to anyone :(
 
OP
OP
Frosty Death Knight

Frosty Death Knight

Member
Oct 31, 2017
229
Nano-Nandy said:
They offer the 3 options: email , app, SMS.

The thing is that changing/adding them; sends emails about it.

So login sends an email; maybe the person changed the email but that also sends an email and changing 2FA or deactivating it also sends an email ; and is weird that a person might have access to OPs emails but leave it as is.

Or OP just ignored the emails about it.
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Yup I got the email notifications but at the time this happened I was rather swamped with projects to complete and wasn't going through my emails everyday and my personal email gets maybe 50+ messages a day. I didn't know there was an app available, I normally use those whenever available.
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,211
Like others said, keep trying and send them any old invoices you might have. If you still got the vouchers/cards for stuff to redeem in-game left somewhere in a drawer, scan those since they have a unique code. The more information they get, the more certain they can be it's indeed you, the account creator, contacting them.

Maybe also see if they can explain how the email address was changed, in case it was a breach to your email account or if it was by other means.
 
Last edited:
SixelAlexiS

SixelAlexiS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,717
Italy
Frosty Death Knight said:
Yup I got the email notifications but at the time this happened I was rather swamped with projects to complete and wasn't going through my emails everyday and my personal email gets maybe 50+ messages a day. I didn't know there was an app available, I normally use those whenever available.
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I mean, if your email is compromised (and must be since they knew what 2FA code use) then your epic account isn't the only thing at risk.

Have you already changed the email pass and added an app 2FA on the email account as well?
 
Bowl0l

Bowl0l

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,608
Epic successfully silencing Epic customers by not hosting forums to complain /s
Can you share what you sent to Epic?
Not the full details. Just to see what info you shared
Example: Name, credit card, etc.
 
Csr

Csr

Member
Nov 6, 2017
2,029
I went through the same thing a few days ago when I lost access to my email (I changed ISP).

Every representative I talked to kept giving me different bogus reasons for turning down my request. I found many similar cases online.

From what I can tell their policy for email change requests is to ask you a bunch of info and then turn you down for whatever reason. There was a widespread issue with a scammer group a few years back and I suspect their solution was to just deny all email change requests.

At some point after another rejection email and after providing things they requested multiple times, I told them that I would try to find a resolution with paypal then consumer protection agencies and then inform gaming news sites of the situation and they finally accepted my email change.

I did have access to my EGS account and linked accounts though.
 
COCONUT

COCONUT

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
164
Well I know your feeling. I lost by a hacker my 15 years old Blizzard account. I give them my ID, info of things i bought on Battle net and many more info. They refuse the info and give my account to the thief. Awesome.
 
Scarecrow

Scarecrow

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
3,505
I have a similar situation with my Amazon seller account. I can't get into it and sending emails to their help site just gives me a similar auto response that my info doesn't match and they can't help me. There's no human to talk to about this either, it's all automated. When you're making as much money as Epic and Amazon, they don't really have to care about customer service that much.
 
Kei-

Kei-

Member
Mar 1, 2018
1,040
This happened to me in February and I detailed my case and how I went about recovering my account. As others have suggested might be the case here, my email had been compromised.

www.resetera.com

Google account breached, Epic account stolen, email changed, have countless receipts but support refuses to help

Some time last week my Google account was accessed by some malicious software on my PC - downloaded some data recovery software (r-studio and recuva), I believe one of these was the culprit). I since ran rkill, jrt, adwcleaner and malwarebytes. Malwarebytes was the only one that caught it. Spent...
www.resetera.com www.resetera.com

Hope you can find some useful information here.
 
SunshinePuppies

SunshinePuppies

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 14, 2020
3,338
I don't have much to offer in the way of help but my heart goes out to you OP, I'm so sorry.

I'm just curious, is Steam support this bad about recovering accounts too? I'm seeing some posts here going into the territory about making that comparison but I haven't heard much about the recovery process there.
 
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