Guide to Account Security

Introduction

It is very important to keep your FFXIV account secure. Failure to do so may result in unauthorized access to your account, resulting in loss of gil or items, or even get you banned.

Do not buy game keys from grey market resellers

Do not buy from "grey market" key resellers, even if you think you may be saving a few dollars/pounds/euros/yen. Keys from these sites are often obtained illegally (Credit card fraud, etc.) or may not actually be valid keys. It is also against the FFXIV TOS.

A scam might work like this:

1. Bob steals a credit card, buys a bunch of game keys from the official store, and sells the keys on a reseller site to launder the money.
2. Billy buys a key from the reseller, saving a few dollars. He registers it and for now everything seems to work just fine.
3. Later, the rightful owner of the card reports the fraud and disputes the charges. The credit card company charges back Square-Enix. Square-Enix then locks all accounts that had the resold keys attached.
4. Billy has now lost access to his account that he spend thousands of hours on. At best, he will have to pay Square-Enix back the entire amount out of pocket. There is also a very strong probability his account will be terminated forever.

To avoid this, buy game or expansion keys only from Square-Enix itself, or from Steam or PlayStation.