It was recently posted on The Elder Scrolls Online website’s forum by the community coordinator that they had noticed an increase in fraudulent keys being sold for The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited.
Fraudulent keys come from companies selling stolen keys which were bought from stolen credit or debit cards or even using card information from their own customers to buy codes from legitimate retailers for them to resell.
The companies that do this often sell the game for the lowest price available for a digital key; the consumers who purchase from such vendors are at great risk or identity theft or having their card information used at a later date when the company buys more keys.
Usually fraudulent companies are easy to spot as a consumer as the price for the game is far below what other retailers are selling the game for. There was an issue like this last month in regards to Witcher 3 preorders when Green Man Gaming had a 35% discount on the preorders making it the cheapest retailers by a huge amount.
As a result of the increase in the sale of fraudulent keys, all game accounts created with such keys will be deactivated starting today. The main target will be fraudulent keys obtained through Steam. Users affected by this will receive an email with instructions on how to regain access to their account through the purchase of a valid game. There is no word yet on their plans to prevent this or punish retailers selling fraudulent keys.
A full list of official retailers has been provided for all major regions including North America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. For those who are concerned about their accounts that is the list to check the purchase against and remember to always check official retailer lists when purchasing digital copies of games to prevent the accidental purchase of a fraudulent copy.