UPDATE 10/29/22: As of the full release of the game, people are still getting falsely banned, even so during the early access campaign. Activision doubled down and said no bans were caused by error. If you are from the USA, I recommend submitting a complaint to California’s Attorney General as they will contact Activision about your ban: https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company
You can also use the MWII bug report form to submit your issue but you probably will not hear back from them: https://web.cvent.com/survey/de61a2b6-fd91-411d-b218-9c45e1c216ad/questions?l=en-US
If you haven’t heard by now, A lot of steam users were getting falsely banned from the MWII beta a couple days ago. Some users were getting banned because they connected their previous accounts which had bans from other COD previous titles but then there were those who did the same but were not penalized, maybe it was all a coincidence and the Ricochet Anticheat is indeed affecting people with the Caserma Rhino ban?
A way to open a ticket directly with activision is to go to https://support.activision.com/options then pick the MWII game, select platform such as STEAM, then “Activision Account” then click “I cant unlink an account” you can then scroll to the bottom of the page and there will be a SUBMIT TICKET link. So do this:
MWII > Steam > Activison Account > I can’t unlink an account > Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Submit Ticket. You will then get a case# and a follow up automated email regarding the ticket. Explain to them the issue going on with the false bans on Steam in order to hopefully drag attention to this issue.
RECOMMENDED: After you’ve exhausted all your options with their support, It’s a good idea to write an email to your state’s senator/representatives. If you don’t know who they are, you can google it. They will usually have a website in which they also have a contact form for you to send them any inquiries and/or concerns. On this website: https://antivisionblizzard.com/ you can read the story of someone who had a similar story and was unfairly banned from Vanguard, after being denied by Activision support he then went on to contact his state’s attorney general who was able to help him get unbanned. If you have been unfairly banned and have NEVER cheated then feel free to explore this option. Just let them know how you were unfairly banned and accused of cheating when you have not cheated and have lost access to game you paid money for. List your details such as Activision ID, etc when you email them. This doesn’t guarantee anything but if your representatives reach out for Activision in your behalf then maybe they can get a better answer for you.
You can also file a complaint with the attorney general of California which is where Activision is located:
https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company
Twitter, Reddit and the MWII beta discussion forums (Now closed) were being flooded with users being banned from the beta, most users that were banned from the beta were done so after they experienced crashes from the beta, upon restart they were met with the message that they had been banned from the game, a patch was released later that night to fix the crashing issues on Steam but it seems the damage for some players was already done.
Posts from users on the Call of Duty reddits are also being removed without notice, it seems they are trying to sweep this under the rug. Appealing the ban yields an automated response which states:
“Your appeal has been reviewed and we’ve confirmed with our security team that your account has been permanently banned for using unauthorized software and manipulation of game data. As you were the account holder at the time of infraction, your ban will not be overturned.“
While some prior offenders where being banned which is a good thing, a lot of innocent players were also affected by this but Activision most likely will sweep this under the rug as they would rather keep a couple players unhappy than to admit that their anti cheat was flawed during the early hours of the PC beta.
Searching on twitter will lead you to a few console players who do not own a gaming PC who also suffered the same fate. This issue seems to have affected mostly steam users who were part of the early opening of the beta that was met by an insane amount of crashes, after the crashes, some were banned for “data manipulation”.
If you were affected what can you do?
You can do various things but it seems they are all mostly being ignored as of right now:
Firstly you can appeal your ban here: https://support.activision.com/ban-appeal but be ready to get an automated message doubling down on “Data Manipulation”.
You can also make a thread on the official reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernWarfareII/ but again be also ready for deletion.
You can also try reporting this here: (UPDATE: This was closed, did they get overwhelmed?) https://web.cvent.com/survey/de61a2b6-fd91-411d-b218-9c45e1c216ad/questions?l=en-US, you most likely will not hear anything back but the more people that drive attention to this issue the better.
You can try contacting Activision on twitter but it seems they are also ignoring the issue.
Lastly you can file a complaint with the BBB, although this doesn’t do much, you probably will get a response from an Activision rep but don’t expect to get the ban overturned but again the more people who drive attention to the issue the better. https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/santa-monica/profile/wholesale-video-games/activision-blizzard-inc-1216-13075134
It’s sad to see so many aged Steam profiles stained with a ban record because a company is aware that they made some mistakes but isn’t willing to address the issue. Hopefully between now and the launch they are able to admit and address the issue as they did back for the Call Of Duty Cold War false bans.
Here is a recent reddit thread that was started because the main thread was deleted by the moderators without addressing the issue. https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernWarfareII/comments/xox55x/casemera_rhino/
Here is the deleted thread about the issue where you can read comments about this issue: (UPDATE: Now closed as well) https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernWarfareII/comments/xmolxi/caserma_rhino/
