is this ligit (if so WTH?)

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I just got this email from frontier .... am hoping it's spam but if not I need more info as I have never used any exploits or anything in any multiplayer game.

just hoping it's a scam and I can ignore. has anyone else had it?

Elite Dangerous - Account Action by an agent on behalf of the requester

Community Safety (Frontier Developments)

Apr 17, 2025, 12:05 GMT+1

Hi Commander,

We are contacting you in regards to your Elite Dangerous account.

We have confirmed the use of a Client Manipulation method using your Elite Dangerous account, which breaches EULA and Terms of Use.

As a result we have removed assets from the account and we have also temporarily restricted your access to Elite Dangerous. This restriction means you will not be able to see or interact with other players in Elite Dangerous and will last for 7 days.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

from what I can tell my current ship is unaltered. I can't check my others as I do not have access to a ship yard
my colonised system seems ok and my position in the CG correct too.
I think my bank balance is ok.

my power play rank is correct and still have my fleet carrier

and don't have any in game messages.

not sure there is anything else I can check.
so I would think it must be spam but the email source looks legit.

 

[aRJay]

No idea but sounds much more like something to discuss with Support first rather than here.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I have just logged into frontier ticketing system and indeed it is legit. suffice to say I am v worried. I have replied to the ticket but I am expecting they will say something nebulous like

we won't tell you what you did wrong but rest assured you did do somethibg.

which is nonsense as I didn't

This modern way of gaming really concerns me as I feel I can be accused of something and the company are judge, jury and executioner with seemingly no recourse which is worse if a mistake is made which it has to be in this case .
I deny any wrong doing absolutely

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

No idea but sounds much more like something to discuss with Support first rather than here.

I was hoping people would respond that it is some cyber attack on frontier and loads had received them or something. however I can confirm it is legit.

the annoying thing is the game has bugs which have been ignored for ages (and playing on my steamdeck is a right old mixed bag with speed and performance all over the place
with so many bugs is it not possible what they think is me supposedly cheating isn't a bug?

 

[Sublime]

Maybe it was a mistake? I hope so and I hope you get it straightened out for your peace of mind. The email does say that your access to ED is restricted for 7 days but since you were able to log in to check on things then I guess that’s not the case.

I hope it works out for you!

Edit. I think maybe it just meant online restriction (shadow ban) and not an actual restriction from the entire game.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

yeah it's a bad from other players which doesn't bother me so long as I can do what I do in solo (on my steamdeck I only play solo anyway)

but it's the removal of assets which worries me

and the fact that I can be accused of something and have my account altered with seeming no recourse or ability to defend myself

if it is something i triggered in error I need to know to not do it again .
but other than playing on steamdeck and pc and swapping between the 2

as well as playing at home and at work on my lunch I have not done anything that I haven't done 100s of times before.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

we won't tell you what you did wrong but rest assured you did do somethibg.

If you aren't using any third party tools, that pretty much leaves network issues causing rubberbanding severe enough for FD to interpret as speed hacking, but removing assets doesn't really line up with that.

A bit disturbing, and doesn't instill confidence one can avoid it happening again due to FD's policy of not communicating what you supposedly did wrong.

 

[Nowski]

I just got this email from frontier .... am hoping it's spam but if not I need more info as I have never used any exploits or anything in any multiplayer game.

If this is anything like my seemingly similar experience it's to do with being suspected of combat logging.

One of my few ventures into Open, I was attacked by another commander (which I was expecting and wanted to test an escape strategy) whereupon my client promptly crashed to desktop. I thought no more about it, and went out exploring but a couple of days later experienced issues accessing the Fleet Carrier.

On contacting support through my normal email (not the Frontier acount email which is a spamtrap account that I never read) I was informed in very similar language about "client manipulation" but without spelling out the exact nature of my particular crime, that I was being penalised for something I'd done in game.

It was only months later, after learning more about this type of action from FD via some post on reddit that I was able to put 2 and 2 together and realise what had happened. At first I thought they noticed I was highly efficient at navigating the loading menu in PP1 and had me figured for a bot

I got locked out of my fleet carrier for a week, and then access was restored was the upshot. I never contacted them to put the record straight since it was too long past. It was a major annoyance for me though and came across as smugly Kafkaesque on the part of the organisation (though the support operative was clearly trying to be helpful within their given paramters.)

 

[Tifu]

I got locked out of my fleet carrier for a week, and then access was restored was the upshot. I never contacted them to put the record straight since it was too long past. It was a major annoyance for me though and came across as smugly Kafkaesque on the part of the organisation (though the support operative was clearly trying to be helpful within their given paramters.)

That story pretty much kills any remaining inclination on my part to go into Open for me. It's going to be PG or Solo - Open is just not worth this kind of hassle.

 

[Stealthie]

Wasn't this a "thing" a couple of years ago?

One of the hamsters fell off it's wheel, something went awry in-game and a bunch of people took the opportunity to get something (unlocked a weapon, PP module or something) and FDev sent emails like this to tell them their ill-gotten stuffz was being taken away again.

Never heard the thing about copping a shadow-ban before, though.

 

[Sublime]

Barring anything else, no third party tools and if it’s not combat logging I would also suspect it might be the steam deck. I know the compatibility on steam for steam deck and ED is listed as “playable” and probably many people are using it, the client installed on the steam deck is not exactly the same client that’s installed on a windows machine. Maybe that generated something strange that got picked up?

I’d suspect that and maybe see if you can find out if that is what it is so you can know to stop using it.

 

[Ozric]

I am going to lock this thread, because this isn't the place to discuss bans and support decisions. As you've already contacted support then there's nothing more that can be done, they are the only ones who can check why the action was taken and if it was in error.