Account Recovery Process

[BIZmarkIE]

It's 2019. Surely SC can develop a better process for recovering an account that won't cause a person to lose an account because they cannot remember every single detail. I have been playing this game since the beginning, I cannot remember the month and year I made my first account. It's a highly unreliable way to determine if someone owns an account. I am just shocked that I see all of these post about people losing their accounts because they cannot answer every question correctly. I can tell you right now I have owned my account since day 1 and I can't answer the first question of when I created it so it would be instanbanned if anyone ever got into it for some reason. That is a clumsy process and should be evaluated. There should be a process in place to verify your account with the email you have on the account.

A simple log out all current sessions signed in would suffice. Many people have people logging in because they used a device or gave away or sold a device with the login stored. The owner of the email should be able to confirm with a code and anyone accessing it without the email would be locked out.

[Phoenix1027]

You're joking right? You want account ownership verification to rely on an email address? What happen when someone steals your phone? Now they know your email address and can have access to your account on other devices. That's such a low level security measures. Yes, its annoying that you have to answer hard questions but it also ensures that the wrong people can't get your account

[BIZmarkIE]

You're joking right? You want account ownership verification to rely on an email address? What happen when someone steals your phone? Now they know your email address and can have access to your account on other devices. That's such a low level security measures. Yes, its annoying that you have to answer hard questions but it also ensures that the wrong people can't get your account

Hard questions? How many people do you think can remember the account creation date???

[SamirMishra]

I think you should remember those essential details such as when you created your account and where, because those information can't be leaked, unless you told someone, only you know such details, so it's the right way to verify the genuine owner of the Account. Infact, you can prevent this happening if your account is secured by Supercell ID.

I believe the issue is with the newly automated chat in the in-game support.

[BIZmarkIE]

I think you should remember those essential details such as when you created your account and where, because those information can't be leaked, unless you told someone, only you know such details, so it's the right way to verify the genuine owner of the Account. Infact, you can prevent this happening if your account is secured by Supercell ID.

I believe the issue is with the newly automated chat in the in-game support.

If when I created the account I knew I would need that info I would have noted it. But I can't just recall it now.

[SharkyFinn]

A few things stand out to me. First, it's unclear from your post if you're commenting on your own experience if if you're commenting based on your perception of other players' experiences? Have you actually gone through an account recovery process? If not, I'd take anything posted here by some rando with a grain of salt.

if anyone ever got into it for some reason.

I admit it's a pat answer, but said simply: don't do that. Don't violate the Terms of Service by allowing other people to play your account. When you play with fire, you sometimes get burned. You have many options to protect your device with passwords and 2-factor verification, to wipe it when lost, and to recover it. Personally, I'd be far more concerned about someone accessing my banking account, my stock portfolio, my emails, my beta testing access, my forum priveleges, and all the other things I keep on my device than my CoC account. Protect your assets and don't share them with others.

A simple log out all current sessions signed in would suffice. Many people have people logging in because they used a device or gave away or sold a device with the login stored. The owner of the email should be able to confirm with a code and anyone accessing it without the email would be locked out.

That does sound simple. Here's where it doesn't work. A large number of the instances where people lose their account is they ignore common sense and all the warnings in the game, and they register their account with someone else's email address. It's a very common tactic and one we see on the forum all the time. According to your simple remedy, the person who owns the email address owns the account. They can disconnect anybody else from it and the true owner who spent years building up their account has no way to recover their account. That doesn't sound like a good plan to me and, in fact, that is a large portion of the people who end up needing to verify their ownership through other means.

Another scenario is when a player claims to have deleted their email account, lost the password, they were "hacked", or for whatever other reason, they can't access their email account under which they've saved their account. Whatever occurred, if email address were the sole identifier, these people would not be able to get any help at all. Support asks other questions about the account, because email address alone doesn't work.

[2222]

It's 2019. Surely SC can develop a better process for recovering an account that won't cause a person to lose an account because they cannot remember every single detail. I have been playing this game since the beginning, I cannot remember the month and year I made my first account. It's a highly unreliable way to determine if someone owns an account. I am just shocked that I see all of these post about people losing their accounts because they cannot answer every question correctly. I can tell you right now I have owned my account since day 1 and I can't answer the first question of when I created it so it would be instanbanned if anyone ever got into it for some reason. That is a clumsy process and should be evaluated. There should be a process in place to verify your account with the email you have on the account.

A simple log out all current sessions signed in would suffice. Many people have people logging in because they used a device or gave away or sold a device with the login stored. The owner of the email should be able to confirm with a code and anyone accessing it without the email would be locked out.

It is a tricky discussion because you are starting from the misconception that a player must remember every detail about their account to get it back and then arguing that is not good. Many players have posted examples of getting their account back without knowing everything. I think it is laughable at times some of the players I see that are mad they were banned for not knowing some very basic information about their account. There are players that have started threads thinking they should be able to get their account back just based on information that any of us could look up online. Imagine how horrible that would be.

[SharkyFinn]

There are players that have started threads thinking they should be able to get their account back just based on information that any of us could look up online. Imagine how horrible that would be.

Or an old photo they found. On this one, I pointed out that now everyone else has that photo, too. It's far from enough to prove ownership.

Hi, first of all , i lost my village. A couple of years ago I had an accident and my phone flattened, so I lost my village, I turned to support but I did not return the village. Today I was able to find an old photo of my account and wanted to try again. You understand that if it turned out I wouldn’t be here. Help is needed. 8 or 9 lvl of town hall, last clan is Гомель!Attachment 214085

[BIZmarkIE]

It was from personal experience. I sold a tablet that I didn't wipe because it was a friend and I only used ot for limited stuff. I did play Clash Of Clans on it and didn't wipe the data. So somehow someone who ended up with the tablet can now login to one of my accounts. The only account I logged into on the tablet. I put in a request to log out all of the current sessions so I could confirm the account with my email. The account was locked. I asked to unlock it and was greeted with 5 questions. I answered them and my account was banned. I can only guess it was due to the creation date. I did my best to recall the month and year but it's been over 4 years and I have multiple accounts. They also asked for a copy of the latest purchase from the account. I have 20 accts...I don't know what purchases go to what accounts. I listed the last 2 purchases I made and explained that I had no way of knowing which purchases went to what accounts.

It's a clumsy way to verify ownership and I know that SC can make a better more secure way. Everything else you can just change the password to and the invader cannot keep accessing your account. With the storage of the login you have no way of securing your own account without risk losing it. Luckily this account wasn't an account that I will surely miss but I did invest money in it so it sucks to lose it.

[Bigdome757]

It’s incredibly easy to find the exact date you downloaded CoC. Google search is your friend. I just found my download date on my iPhone and there were equally simple instructions on how to do it on Android devices.

edit: You can also view every single purchase you have ever made on each account. It’s right there in your phone. If I were asked a “security question” for something that is important to me, the last thing I would do is guess.