The Hoax of "Linked Accounts"

[Peace-=Of-God=-]

  It has come to my attention that some of our guests, members, and even admins are using a tool put out by a known cheater (by the name of Rifle[Hazard], to be precise) in order to fabricate evidence against possible cheaters in our server by the use of "linked accounts" -- that is to say, there is some shred of possibility that the person has another account that is banned somewhere, so they use that to disrespect someone in our server.

  Allow me to make this very clear: Anything with a copyright by "Anticheat Incorporated and Rifle[Hazard]" ranks right up there with horoscopes and mythology, as far as the true AA anti-cheating community is concerned. "Linked accounts" mean absolutely nothing, other than that an account that got caught cheating at one time had the same IP address that another account had at some other time or has now. If IP addresses were all static and never changed, then it might possibly be able to be considered evidence ... however, IP addresses are not all static, and even static IP's can change. (For example: I've had about 15 different IP addresses today, with this lousy connection I've got at home and the different places where I connected via wireless while I was out .)

  Even if there was 100% proof that it was a cheater on a new account, that is not evidence for a kick or ban. The AASA policy (and ours as well, for the most part) is that we ban the account, not the person ... if the person makes a new account and keeps it clean, they can play on AASA servers (including ours) on that account. Also, our server rule #6 does state that no player is permitted to be disrespected on our servers (and being made the subject of such an ACI/Hazard witchhunt is extremely disrespectful).

  I know that most people aren't aware of this info -- that's why I'm bringing it up. But kicking a player for having "linked accounts" (or even hinting at cheating by mentioning "linked accounts") is not permitted on our servers -- such disrespect never has been permitted on our servers, nor will it ever be in the future. If you're among those using that cheater's tool, I highly recommend that you get rid of it now; if you've been accusing others of cheating because of "linked accounts", stop doing so now ... and if you see someone do it on our server, tell that person that they are not allowed to disrespect other players in that manner on our server. Thank you.

    ~ Jeff

[Titan-=Of-God=-†]

Jeff.

I will admit i do use the tool and i use it often....and if this is reference to a kick earlier today then i take full responsibility for it...the proof was ourstanding...identical IPs..to other banned accounts..im not saying i dont agree with what you said about rifle. but when evidence is so clear it must be acted apon. especially considering his name was "noobacc31" and the banned account[banned by aasa] was "noobacc51"

again its not the admins fault. i accept full responsibility.

-Tony

[Eskimo]

Tony,

Being the admin on at the time, I definitely need to take some of the responsibility for this as well.

While I agree that he did seem slightly suspicious, the plain facts of the matter were that none of us watched him long enough to determine whether he actually was hacking. One of Jeff's points that you may have missed was as follows:

May 15, 2008 20:08:59 GMT -5 Peace-=Of-God=- said:

  The AASA policy (and ours as well, for the most part) is that we ban the account, not the person ... if the person makes a new account and keeps it clean, they can play on AASA servers (including ours) on that account.

Basically, it doesn't matter if he did have previously banned accounts with AASA, if he wants to make a new one and keep it clean, we will allow him to play on our server. I do not say this to harp on you but more to bring it to your attention and the attention of all of our clan members. This wasn't something I was aware of and I'm an LC member (guess I'd better read up on some things). It is also something that I have witnessed numerous times with members using, as strong evidence, the fact that one of these players' previous accounts was banned for cheating to say that they are cheating now.

Anyways, now we all know and can avoid this in the future.

[Peace-=Of-God=-]

  Thanks, Quin, well said ... I appreciate that. As he said, Tony, this is intended to make us a better clan now and in the future, not to browbeat anyone for past mistakes . And to that end, I do need to refute a point that you made regarding "clear evidence".

  "When the evidence is so clear" is when you have a PBSS that shows the player cheating on that account or the player gets removed on that account for a banable CVAR or MD5 violation, so that the player can be banned by AASA; identical IP's and near-identical names are only circumstantial evidence, at best (and especially from that tool ... how can you verify the integrity of any of the data in Rifle's tool when it was all obtained through illegal means and maintained by someone who has frequently demonstrated his willingness to create and use illegitimate means to accomplish his purposes? how can you be assured that the data wasn't fabricated to frame an innocent player that got on his bad side [as he has done in the very recent past]?).

  And again, for purposes of making us a better clan -- let's stop for a moment and compare what we gain to what is lost if we throw such a person out of our server:
    * what we gain: a few minutes of peace and quiet, the satisfaction of thinking that we weren't worse players than the person (even though we can't prove that the player was cheating), and a bad reputation for accusing people of cheating without concrete evidence thereof (which is very hypocritical considering that we frequently tell our guests not to do so).
    * what we lose: if the person really is cheating, then AASA will get no evidence of it (via PBSS, MD5, CVAR, etc.), so that person will be free to go cheat other AASA servers; if the person really isn't cheating, though, the losses can be far more eternal in nature -- what if the person really has tried to "turn over a new leaf" and has come to our server on a new clean account in order to start afresh and atone for previous faults -- and then we throw the person out without even a chance to begin that new AA life? How does that reflect on us? on God? That's a risk that I'm personally not willing to take just to salvage the fragrates and/or soothe the egos of our server guests.

  I apologize if this sounds harsh ... it's hard to "tone it down" when I believe so strongly about something. I didn't mean to offend anyone, but I did need to re-state the policy, since this has been going on in our server (again, as I said, by both guests and members; that's why I posted this in our public AA board instead of in a private members-only board) -- and it needs to stop so that we can be a better clan and a better light to the dark world of AA. Thank you for understanding and cooperating with our mission.

[andrewbuddy12]

I think the message is perfectly acceptable and understandable. Thanks for the news-flash Jeff.

EDIT: Message #2: My name is Andrew Ellis, and I support this message. (heheheh)

[Peace-=Of-God=-]

May 16, 2008 0:06:50 GMT -5 Titan-=Of-God=-† said:

his name was "noobacct31" and the banned account[banned by aasa] was "noobacct51"

  As I was saying -- here is some real proof of that player's cheating -- good job, Bethany ! [NOTE: you might not be able to see the thread in that link until the account has been officially added to the AASA MBL.]
  So in this case, yes, this player was still cheating on the new account (wallhack caught by PBSS) ... but the policy still remains as stated ... do not use "linked accounts" as proof of identification with a cheater, and do not mention (or allow the mention of) "linked accounts" in the server chat. Thank you.