I found this thread on the Bioware forums.

I recieved a large amount of credits (millions) after a multiplayer
match. After checking it out it seems other people have had the same
thing, It's probably from when the host has modified their game files.
Any way, I made the mistake of spending said credits just to see what sort of stuff you get out of spectre boxes. I bought a lot, like, loads.
Anyway tried to play the game again today, 'this account is invalid'. Contacted EA support it turns out my account is banned because of 'suspected credit hacking'.
Now, I wouldn't mind if I can't play the multiplayer anymore, it's my own stupid fault for spending said credits.
However, this also means I can't access any of my single player DLC, I had already recruited the DLC character, I was wearing DLC weapons. It's effectively screwed up my game.
It's so frustrating, I barely even play multiplayer games, to me mass effect is a single player series, I was only playing multiplayer to get galactic readiness to 100% so that I could feel my single player game was 'perfect'.
Anyway, consider yourselves warned.

Bioware's Jarrett Lee responded:

Hi guys, real quick: cheating is a top item under review/investigation by the live team. We'll have more info soon, but I'll pass along your situation (OP) to them to look at fixing you up. Please note that the intention is NOT to ban people who are "victims" of these kinds of hacks (ie got credits they didn't ask for). If this happens to you, I recommend not spending them :)

IMO this is just another screwup that will deter potential buyers. While I am glad that Bioware and EA are on top of it this doesn't excuse them from having a "Shoot first ask questions later" mentality. EA/Bioware are basically punishing not only the cheaters but the ones that got effected by said cheaters. Until this get fixed it means that any players effect by this cannot even use the legit credits they own.

I seem to remember the same issue with DA2 where players who got banned from the BSN got locked out of a DLC they paid for. You'd think EA will learn from it and made sure this won't happen again, you'd think.

For now I suggest playing with friends only as getting into public matches is a major risk.

I suggest you guys read the thread through.

That sucks. :|

Should it even matter? People hacking and getting more credits doesn't effect me any. It just means EA loses out on people buying the stupid equipment packs with actual money.

@Discoman said:

Should it even matter? People hacking and getting more credits doesn't effect me any. It just means EA loses out on people buying the stupid equipment packs with actual money.

Wouldn't that actually mean the other way around since people can't use their earned credits?

PS: I love how people act indifferent because it doesn't effect them...until it does effect them.

Or he could have not spent a shitload of credits at once.

Yes, it doesn't excuse the perma-ban, but just a word to the wise.

@Napalm said:

Or he could have not spent a shitload of credits at once.

Yes, it doesn't excuse the perma-ban, but just a word to the wise.

See I wonder if it's the spending if a large amount of credit or the spending of any credits after said incident. At least the guy admited it was his mistake in spending them.

Damn hope your account gets sorted soon.

Can you still play the game but with no multiplayer and DLC?

I played last night and didn't get this, but a way around it is to host a game yourself. You can host a public game, it might take a bit to get going, but you aren't going to risk getting some asshole.

@corruptsaves said:

Damn hope your account gets sorted soon.

Can you still play the game but with no multiplayer and DLC?

Oh I am sorry but it's not my account. I found it on the Bioware forums and I wanted to share it.

Interesting. I'm not interested in the mass effect horde mode so I'm good.

@AhmadMetallic said:

Interesting. I'm not interested in the mass effect horde mode so I'm good.

Neither am I but it's turing out to be more then just an "unfortunate incident" for EA where even if you get effected by cheaters you get punished for it or getting banned from forums blocks you out of content you paid money for. Even if it's an over sight it shows a level of incompetence from EA. The OP on that thread even goes on to tell how he got mistreated by EA customer service and personally I am thinking that is he didn't raise the issue and was persistent with it then EA wouldn't have even mention that.

It's worth noting Jarrett Lee's second response:

Jack - unfortunately the data analysis on your account does not entirely support your story. I'll leave it at that and not make this awkward (I can only go by what I'm told by the back-end teams). I had them double check the data, and didn't take this lightly.

What I have done is reach out to the teams to investigate why you can't access your single-player game and/or DLC. It may take some time, as we have to evaluate the best course of action here. Also, I'd rather not discuss over PM simply because I'm not really a customer service person, per se.

I've got your case being looked at and it's being escalated, but I'll step out of this situation now because it's not really my territory.

It basically sounds like the guy hacked the game and after getting banned he came up with some bullshit story in order to try and get his account unbanned.

@MattyFTM said:

It's worth noting Jarrett Lee's second response:

Jack - unfortunately the data analysis on your account does not entirely support your story. I'll leave it at that and not make this awkward (I can only go by what I'm told by the back-end teams). I had them double check the data, and didn't take this lightly.

What I have done is reach out to the teams to investigate why you can't access your single-player game and/or DLC. It may take some time, as we have to evaluate the best course of action here. Also, I'd rather not discuss over PM simply because I'm not really a customer service person, per se.

I've got your case being looked at and it's being escalated, but I'll step out of this situation now because it's not really my territory.

It basically sounds like the guy hacked the game and after getting banned he came up with some bullshit story in order to try and get his account unbanned.

Exactly. It always pays to do some digging when you run into a story like this because you can be sure that each side is going to try to paint itself in the best light possible. I remember hearing about similar manufactured stories concerning SWToR. I guess some people just really have it out for Bioware and will jump at any opportunity without checking sources.

You are fined one credit for a violation of the Multiplayer Morality Statute.

It's really bullshit the way that they're dealing with all of THEIR problems. I got this e-mail yesterday:

It appears that you have had a Reinforcement Pack or Packs become relocked after using the online store. We are sorry for the inconvenience and want you to know that we are aware of your issue and that we are working for a solution.
In the meantime you can reduce your chances of this happening again by:

• Avoiding going into the Store while 'Ready' for a multiplayer match. It's best to un-ready yourself before you go to the store.

• Not accepting invites while in the store/purchasing

What the shit? Fuck your recommendations, give me a refund of the credits I spent (the 60k spectre pack) or the pack itself. Disgusting business practices here.

@murisan said:

It's really bullshit the way that they're dealing with all of THEIR problems. I got this e-mail yesterday:

It appears that you have had a Reinforcement Pack or Packs become relocked after using the online store. We are sorry for the inconvenience and want you to know that we are aware of your issue and that we are working for a solution.
In the meantime you can reduce your chances of this happening again by:

• Avoiding going into the Store while 'Ready' for a multiplayer match. It's best to un-ready yourself before you go to the store.

• Not accepting invites while in the store/purchasing

What the shit? Fuck your recommendations, give me a refund of the credits I spent (the 60k spectre pack) or the pack itself. Disgusting business practices here.

To clarify, there's a bug where if you're at the store, and the game starts, you lose all of your items.

happened to my friend after he spent 20$ on it.

There was already a thread for this here: http://www.giantbomb.com/mass-effect-3/61-29935/possible-heads-up-for-multiplayer-people/35-538888/#7
 
That said this is a non competitive MP mode, so the only real reason to ban people for tinkering with their game is because if people give themselves infinite credits buying Bioware points (lol) to unlock packs becomes a joke.
Banning people for this is not needed, unwaranted and bad for business. it would have been a simple matter to simply reset their MP progress or similar and a solution people would have bitched about less. 
This is inline with Bioware banning people from kotor mmo, for forum jokes.
 
I can cheat all i want in my singleplayer Steam games and non competitive MP  stuff, without fear of a vac ban.
It's my god given right as a PC gamer to tinker with my games, for my own entertainment :P
As long as you stay away from cheating where it would hurt other people, no one should give a fuck.

Secondly it's silly that a MP mode in a game stores unprotected info on the clientside in this day and age. It's plain bad/stupid design, that no one with any experience in MP development ever does anymore.
When currency in your multiplayer takes 5 seconds with a basic memory editor to find and edit, you done fucked up in your design/development.
People warned Bioware about this in the demo.
 
For reference I was tinkering with the game like i usually do after completing my first clean playthrough and was shocked to find that simple memory editing works on MP credits, it's basically unheard of, so i gave myself a couple mil for funzies.
Still not baned or anything.
This could be for 2 reasons:

• i didn't just spend it all like a dumbass, just made slighly bigger more frequent purchases of packs, nothing major
• the community backlash and threat of legal action by that poster made Bioware think twice about their overzealous banning and maybe seek other more rational solutions

I'm getting genuinely annoyed by the habit of EA of banning people from being able to play their single player games.

Things like this make me glad that they're attempted takeover of Take-Two Interactive failed a couple years ago. Can you imagine being forced to use Origin for games like Civilization, BioShock, Grand Theft Auto, and the rest? Then being banned from being able to play your game because you said something naughty on the forums or found a glitch? I'm sure they wouldn't have even allowed mods for Civilization. I try to stay objective about EA as a company, but it is increasingly difficult.

This is why developers need to learn how to restrict CVars/SVars or force checksum checks. Yeah, it won't stop people from exploiting the game, but it'll make 'em jump through a few more hoops than just a text editor. This is kind of like how Treyarch didn't restrict basic server commands that let you change how much XP you get from a kill because they're probably used to how locked down consoles are.

I just played a game and didnt get my credits because the game crashed in the loading screen, Bioware is now banned from using buft credits and can no longer play my DLC as it comes out...

@Mordukai said:

@Discoman said:

Should it even matter? People hacking and getting more credits doesn't effect me any. It just means EA loses out on people buying the stupid equipment packs with actual money.

Wouldn't that actually mean the other way around since people can't use their earned credits?

PS: I love how people act indifferent because it doesn't effect them...until it does effect them.

What I meant was, why ban people over it? I really couldn't give a shit if my teammates online had good items because they were cheating.

PS: I love it when people presume about how I'll react to a given situation when they've no accuracy or basis for their conjecture.