Priority club account deleted!

Old Feb 23, 2011, 2:53 am
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: belfast, northern ireland
Posts: 18
Priority club account deleted!

After trying to unsuccessfully log into my account today and to play the win it in a minute game I have found that my account has been deleted! I had around 50k points from numerous hotel stays amd from my PCR visa card and was told by the Service Centre that the account was fraudulent? How can the account be fraudulent if I have paid for stays and use their credit card? (which I pay off fully every month) Apparently a member of management will be in contact with me in the next 3 days. I know there has been a lot of talk about cheating in the WIIAM game but I wouldn't have the first notion of how to create a bot or anything like that. What's worse is that a few of my family's accounts have been deleted as well, I can only presume for same reason! Has anyone else encountered this? This is ridiculous I haven't done anything wrong and they've deleted mine and my family's accounts!
sara5571 is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 4:25 am
  #2  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Four Seasons Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,865
PC is very aggressive in closing accounts. It has happened to me twice (when admittedly I was running two accounts in my name, at the time when you could refer yourself back to RA). The main reason is usually duplicate accounts in the same name and accessed from the same computer, even if the address on the accounts are different.

That said, on one occasion they were willing to merge the points from both accounts so I didn't lose anything. On the 2nd occasion there was only a 5k points balance so I didn't bother chasing it.
Raffles is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 4:28 am
  #3  
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: NRT/PDX
Programs: Willamette Valley Cropdusters Silver Elite, National Tent Frequent Stay program, Ed's Rent-a-tractor
Posts: 3,357
Are your accounts actually deleted, or are they frozen pending investigation? It could be the latter, especially since you were told someone would be contacting you concerning this. If you look at some of the past threads in this forum, Priority Club has been known to freeze/close accounts in those cases they suspect some sort of fraudulent point activity.

I assume that when you contacted the Priority Club Service Centre they did not give you any details or reasons (aside from the fraudulent charge) for why this happened. You mentioned the WIIAM trivia game. To your knowledge would the Priority Club Service Centre have any other reason besides the WIIAM to look into your account?

If it is the WIIAM game that has prompted this action, perhaps there is something (besides making a bot) or actually a combination of things that taken individually are would not cause a problem, but that together may have raised suspicions within Priority Club? For example, while not yourself, have a few or more your family members recently opened new accounts and have only played the game with these accounts? Have you or anyone in your family won any points in the WIIAM game recently? Have you or anyone in your family opened the browser cache to look at the questions before playing the WIIAM game?

In any case, this is all conjecture. I assume when the Priority Club representative contacts you, you will gain a clearer understanding of what happened. I hope everything gets cleared up.
DoubleJ is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 4:39 am
  #4  
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: NRT/PDX
Programs: Willamette Valley Cropdusters Silver Elite, National Tent Frequent Stay program, Ed's Rent-a-tractor
Posts: 3,357
Originally Posted by Raffles
PC is very aggressive in closing accounts. It has happened to me twice (when admittedly I was running two accounts in my name, at the time when you could refer yourself back to RA). The main reason is usually duplicate accounts in the same name and accessed from the same computer, even if the address on the accounts are different.
Earning points (especially the same promo points) in accounts with the same name could do it. I do have the impression since the OP mentions that a few of the family members also have had their accounts affected that this might not be the cause. On the other hand if the names on the accounts were similar or very close, and especially if the accounts were all opened recently and used exclusively to play the trivia game--something I think many of us saw on the trivia scoreboard, this could easily be the reason. If this is the reason, and the OP can show that there are real people in the same household using the same IP, then hopefully the OP will be successful in clearing this up.
DoubleJ is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 5:44 am
  #5  
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Bergen, Norway
Programs: Eurobonus Diamond, Flying Blue Gold, PC Platinum Ambassador, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 521
I am sorry if this is the wrong thread for this, mod: Please move if not.

I am a little bit confused now... Is it not allowed to have two accounts in one household? I was planning on opening an account for my husband if I get problems with holding my RA-status and then give him my referral cert. Will this be illegal? (Most likely I will have enough nights to renew my RA-status, but you never know these days... :-/)

Xxx.
no-backpacker is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 6:28 am
  #6  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: belfast, northern ireland
Posts: 18
Hey guys thanks for your posts. All of the accounts have different names for each of my family members, there's no duplication other than the same surname for 4 of the accounts, 3 of these have been frozen/deleted and 1 is fine. All of these accounts were in existence long before WIIAM. I think the highest amount won so far has been 30k on my sister's account. All of the accounts are played on my laptop and same ip address but I didn't think this would be particularly problematic. I did look at the browser cache once on Friday to see what everyone was talking about, that was the day they eliminated all the scores above 50k. But accounts were fine until this morning and my mum got an email this morning to say she had won a daily prize and then suddenly her account was gone. They didn't explain on the phone what they meant by fraudulent, but even if my looking at the browser cache on Friday was enough to disqualify me from the game surely closing the account is a bit excessive, especially when there have been paid stays etc on it? The T+Cs only mention disqualification, not account closure. I can't think of anything else that could possibly be described as fraudulent activity with regards to these accounts, this seems a bit heavy handed.
sara5571 is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 6:36 am
  #7  
 
Join Date: May 2010
Programs: Ambassador, spg plat
Posts: 121
Originally Posted by sara5571
Hey guys thanks for your posts. All of the accounts have different names for each of my family members, there's no duplication other than the same surname for 4 of the accounts, 3 of these have been frozen/deleted and 1 is fine. All of these accounts were in existence long before WIIAM. I think the highest amount won so far has been 30k on my sister's account. All of the accounts are played on my laptop and same ip address but I didn't think this would be particularly problematic. I did look at the browser cache once on Friday to see what everyone was talking about, that was the day they eliminated all the scores above 50k. But accounts were fine until this morning and my mum got an email this morning to say she had won a daily prize and then suddenly her account was gone. They didn't explain on the phone what they meant by fraudulent, but even if my looking at the browser cache on Friday was enough to disqualify me from the game surely closing the account is a bit excessive, especially when there have been paid stays etc on it? The T+Cs only mention disqualification, not account closure. I can't think of anything else that could possibly be described as fraudulent activity with regards to these accounts, this seems a bit heavy handed.
The combination of same ip address, same laptop (they might place a tracking cookie) plus the high scores triggered them
hunkster is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 6:48 am
  #8  
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,233
This is an unfortunate situation. Are there any other facts that may help others understand why PC is investigating/closing your accounts? It sure sounds like this may be related to the Win It Game. Here are the PC rules about membership cancellation from the PC website:

4. Membership Cancellation. SCH reserves the right to cancel any Priority Club membership and revoke any and all unredeemed Priority Club points collected by any member for reasons that include, but are not limited to: 1) violation of these Terms and Conditions; 2) misrepresentation of any information or any misuse of this Program; 3) violation of any national, state or local law or regulation in connection with the use of membership privileges; 4) failure to pay for hotel charges; 5) a check to a participating hotel brand that is returned for insufficient funds or is invalid for any reason; 6) commission of fraud or abuse involving any portion of this Program; 7) more than one active account per member; or 8) physical, verbal, or written abuse of hotel or IHG personnel; or 9) action, in any other way, to the detriment of the Program or any of its alliances; all as may be determined by SCH in its sole discretion.
CokeandTaco is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 6:53 am
  #9  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Tokyo
Programs: NW Diamond, LH SEN, PC Spire - RA, TG PlatHyatt Diamond
Posts: 585
Originally Posted by sara5571
All of the accounts are played on my laptop and same ip address but I didn't think this would be particularly problematic.
This is the keyword.
Apparently this is a big NO NO for PCR.
spunk_tokyo is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 6:58 am
  #10  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: belfast, northern ireland
Posts: 18
Hi CokeandTaco, No this is the only thing I can think of that has prompted these accounts being closed. There are still 3 other accounts working but there's not much points in them, probably been in existence for 5 months or so. But my own account is the one with the most to lose, as it has the credit card and points from previous stays and it has been in existence for over a year. If it is because of the ip address and same laptop I don't understand why some of the accounts are still functioning? The only thing I can think of is when I looked at the browser cache on Friday, if they're going to use that as a breach of terms and conditions and use that to close the accounts? But then shouldn't this be happening to most of the WIIAM players if the forums regarding the cheating in the game are to be believed? Each account is held by a real person with separate email addresses and different home addresses for each branch of the family.
sara5571 is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 8:05 am
  #11  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Manchester
Programs: Hertz Gold / Hilton Diamond / Hyatt Plat / Marriott Gold / IC RA / SPG Plat
Posts: 707
Originally Posted by sara5571
3 of these have been frozen/deleted and 1 is fine.
Originally Posted by sara5571
There are still 3 other accounts working but there's not much points in them
Hi Sara...is it 3 that have been frozen/deleted or 1 that has been frozen/deleted??
Goonerfish is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 8:15 am
  #12  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: belfast, northern ireland
Posts: 18
Sorry I wasn't being clear, my mum, 2 sisters and I have accounts that all share the same surname but obviously different first names. 3 of these including mine are frozen, but one of my sister's accounts is fine. There are three other accounts that belong to other family members, which I referred to as still working but don't have many points in them. That makes 7 accounts in total. All of these accounts were accessed on my laptop with the same internet connection, 3 are frozen, 4 are working as of this morning.
sara5571 is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 8:21 am
  #13  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Manchester
Programs: Hertz Gold / Hilton Diamond / Hyatt Plat / Marriott Gold / IC RA / SPG Plat
Posts: 707
Originally Posted by sara5571
Sorry I wasn't being clear, my mum, 2 sisters and I have accounts that all share the same surname but obviously different first names. 3 of these including mine are frozen, but one of my sister's accounts is fine. There are three other accounts that belong to other family members, which I referred to as still working but don't have many points in them. That makes 7 accounts in total. All of these accounts were accessed on my laptop with the same internet connection, 3 are frozen, 4 are working as of this morning.
were all 7 accounts playing the game using your laptop??
Goonerfish is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 8:38 am
  #14  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: belfast, northern ireland
Posts: 18
Yes all accounts were played on my laptop at different times of the day
sara5571 is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2011, 8:51 am
  #15  
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: W29
Programs: It's Complicated...
Posts: 6,796
I would just tell them that you were playing for your family members. Should not be so uncommon to be honest and as long as these are real people then I would expect them to be reasonable about restoring your account. I opened an account for my wife hoping to get her into the crack the case promo but was turned down. I am sure it was because I communicated from my computer as opposed to her computer. Companies have to protect themselves.
mcgahat is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.