Key Stolen-Got It back via Youtube [No Keygen]- Played Next Day banned?

[Pushacher19 1]

So My Key was stolen. Friend said click this link and it somehow stole my key. So every time I tried to play it said "Bad Key Given In setup". So looked it up and found this I did what he said and next day was banned. I thought it was legit and it seemed like it. I don't have the funds to buy again I really need help and would like to be be unbanned.

Link Removed

Edited February 20, 2013 by smasht_AU
Video contains suspicious download link

[Rott (DayZ) 218]

Cool story Broseph...

[Max Planck 7174]

Pretty lousy friend.

Try contacting BattlEye, they deal with bans.

[Pushacher19 1]

Nvm im already fucked...

[Pushacher19 1]

As already mentioned in the previous news post, there is currently a massive ongoing effort by certain entities to steal people's cd-keys to then sell them for a profit. Private hack forums are full of posts of these fraudsters trying to sell heaps of cd-keys for a cheap price. We are talking about hundreds of cd-keys here, so this is not a small issue at all. The game developers confirmed that this is a huge problem right now.

Their process of stealing cd-keys is quite simple: They advertise a supposedly undetected hack on sites like YouTube and the moment you download and run it (it will probably report that the hack failed to load) your cd-key is already stolen. In many cases your actual cd-key in registry is overwritten with a banned one, so you will automatically receive a global ban message on join (see below). This is done to prevent you from using your cd-key again, so the fraudsters can sell them claiming that they are valid and not in use. Note that this can be fixed (temporarily) by deleting the cd-key from the registry and reinstalling your game. While your original cd-key is not banned due to this, it might very well end up being soon when your cd-key is being used by a cheater that purchased it. This causes many players to think they were innocently banned when in fact their cd-key was stolen and used for cheating. At the very least you will often receive a "CD key in use" message when trying to connect to servers.

If you think this is false propaganda to cover up supposed false global bans I advise you to do some research on this yourself. You can easily verify this by searching for "free ***" on YouTube. You will see lots of results and almost all of them are scams. Most of them are actually quite popular and have thousands of views. When downloading them and opening the .exe file in e.g. Notepad (warning: do not actually run the .exe!), you can find cd-key related strings such as "SOFTWARE\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2 OA" (the registry location of the cd-key) inside.

In short, heed the following: DO NOT EVER RUN ANY HACKS OR OTHER SUSPICIOUS SOFTWARE! If you end up being banned due to your cd-key being stolen there is nothing we can do for you.

Edited February 20, 2013 by Pushacher19

[PK Richie 507]

Friend said click this link and it somehow stole my key.

Then your friend owes you a new key, then find some better friends :P

Also look at what the link is before you click it :rolleyes: It's common sense

[Nicolaitic 26]

Well.

I must admit.

Not the smartest choice to click a unknown link?

+ Your ''friend'' kinda owes you a new key? :)

[Pushacher19 1]

How can I buy another key?

[Pushacher19 1]

Well he was a good friend I think it was a accident of some kind.

[SmashT 10907]

You don't accidentally steal someones CD Key and get it globally banned. My advice is to find some better friends. You can't get a stolen key back either. Sure, you can fix the registry entry if it's been replaced with something else but that won't stop the person who stole it from using it.

As BattlEye have explained, they can't help you if your key is stolen/banned, you are responsible for ensuring it remains secure. You will need to buy a new copy of OA.