"used to impersonate EA employees" implies these hijackers were not EA employees. However, that does not mean to say they were not hijacked by people who provide their forum system - who might well be outsourced.

I guess the questions still remain though...at least for me. If that quote really represents EA's official position how can we know that 1. EA corporate itself is telling the truth and 2. if we assume they are, how can we know they actually have proof it wasn't their own employee or even their own administrator(s) who did it?

It isn't as if any process of fact-checking has been revealed here. They just issued a statement (if SimGuru's statement can be assumed to come from EA's corporate heads) and, apparently, expect everyone to go, "oh...ok...so that's what happened" without providing any proof of the statement at all.

If EA corporate really believes the statement is true it's unclear *why* they believe it. Their fact-checking could have been very thorough. Or it could have involved nothing more than asking the admin whose account was "highjacked" if (s)he had done this and trusting them when they said they had not.

For all we know, some admin's disgruntled secretary got hold of a password and did this. EA has provided nothing beyond a claim of being highjacked. Claims like that have been floated many times in Simland and they aren't always true. Just sayin'.

And actually, if you get down to it, the exact English of the quote doesn't imply that it wasn't an EA employee who did it...the language doesn't bar one employee from impersonating another.

Yes if they decided to use the language creatively, it doesn't rule out cross-employee impersonation. I suppose I was reading it naively, assuming the SimGuru to be attempting normal communication :D

Heh...and I guess I was reading it literally. The information provided is that the accounts were used in a malicious fashion but there is no claim made as to who used them in this way...the actor is unmentioned. The fact that EA employees were impersonated does not negate the possibility that it was other EA employees who impersonated them. "Normal" communication often includes attempts to obfuscate the truth by providing implications and hoping people accept them as if they were explicit statements Since no explicit statement was made I think it's jumping to conclusions to operate as if one were.

I actually read it like there were NEW admin accounts made (like the SimGuru_Sim that made that Alex Post we were talking about a few pages back) not that existing ones were hacked but then again, English is not my mother tongue.

Since we're talking about epistemology here... how you know what to believe... I would say that I would tend to assume that it's highly likely that the flow of information at EA is screwed up, most of them are as much in the dark about what really happened as most of us are, and that though the SimGuru that posted may currently believe the version of events that s/he described, we can't really know if it's accurate -- without ascribing any malice to anybody

In other words, I've completely given up attempting to determine the real state of affairs here.

I could be late in response since i haven't read all the posts. This got my attention quick because i got scared that users were being banned for something unknown. Especially since it pertains to giving gifts but then i saw this posting and now I feel better. (advice: Don't cheat the stores get a paypal account and saveyour money truthfully then buy.

All,
There have been a handful of accounts that have been permanently banned from our websites since last month. Those accounts were banned from TheSims3.com and The Sims 3 Store because they were used to exploit our Store and acquire thousands of SimPoints without purchasing them. This activity violates our Terms of Service.

It's important to note that users are NOT being banned for gifting Store items. However, accounts will be banned if they are used to exploit or hack our service or violate our Terms of Service.

Thank you for your cooperation
-The Sims Team

I'm so CoNFusssEEDDD!!!!

lol... check the dates... case of thread necromancy here Prodiege reposted something that was posted over a month ago on EA's forum.

Case closed, no news is good news