Community News

We want to clarify our policy regarding fraudulent payment activity as it is unfortunately common in online games and we do take action against it. One thing to be aware of is that criminal organizations use stolen credit cards to purchase digital game access codes and then re-sell them, often at a discount from the original retail price. For customers who are looking for a bargain on a game, these cheap game access codes can seem like a good deal and are in fact too good to be true; these are fraudulent transactions that we and our partners cannot support.

We understand that some customers are unaware they are purchasing 'stolen goods' when they buy these codes, usually from online retailers and auction sites. For that reason we have not taken action against customers using these codes in the past, as despite not gaining revenue from their purchase, we still value them as a customer. Over time however, the number of legitimate customers using these codes has dropped, and the number of gold farmers using them has risen to a level where we can no longer ignore these illegal sales.

As a result, we are changing our policies to limit the practice of using fraudulently obtained codes. From May 2nd, 2012 any account created using a fraudulently obtained game access code (ie, one that was bought using a stolen credit card) will be banned from the game service.

This change may affect a very small number of users who believed they purchased an authentic game access code. If your game service is affected, you may contact Customer Service who will help you obtain a legitimate game code to re-instate your account.

To avoid this situation, we strongly recommend you always purchase digital game access codes from official sources such as Origin.com.

We will continue to take action against any activity that breaks the Terms of Service and EUALA for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ to ensure a safe and fair environment for all players.