Pogo Prizes

[ealohahonus2]

Hi, I am new to this, so please bear with me. Ty. I have won 2 money prizes. $10.00 and $5.00. I claimed my prize and got badges for winning the prize. Now I find out that since I used a auto to play my pogo games. I don't get the money or the badges. This is what Pogo told me when I asked them what happen to my badges, when I couldn't find them. Did anyone have that happen to them. I thought the autos were not detected, when using them. >:(

[Barbara]

Yes, this has happened before to other players.  It happened to one player 3 times, with two $20.00 prizes and one $5.00 prize.  No, Pogo cannot tell that you have an auto player on your computer.  What they can detect is movements that are exactly timed, inhuman- like play, long periods of play without breaks, and other tell tale signs.  They could also just be guessing.  They could look at your stats and badges and see, for example, that you used the wordjong glitch a penalize you for that.  They can detect token dumping also.

[sentinels]

   That happened to me as well, lol. I won $5.00 in whomp wackdown and claimed it. they had given me the badge as well. Later on i received an email saying i was ineligible to get the $5.00 because i used and auto. But at the time i won (7:30 am) i wasnt using the auto, but i had had it on all nite and decided to play a few in the am. Needless to say they kept the money and took the badges back. BUT!!!! my account wasnt canceled so i consider myself lucky, and now know not to claim the $$$, im in it for the badges now

[fluster]

Pogo forfeited my 2 prizes & badges!!! I filed a complaint with Better Business Bureau and won!!!!

More ppl should fight back!!!!

[ealohahonus2]

Ty for answering. I am glad that they didn't take away my acct. and tokens. I guess i have to be more human-like when using the autos. But I did read on a web site somewhere that they look at their java logs to see if the autos was used. Does anyone know if this is true?

[Adacia]

   I did use the wordjong glitch to my advantage and for that reason alone I pray never to win a prize. Otherwise, I have never used an auto though I know a pogo friend of mine has used hers on my account on a few occasions in past.
   While pogo uses the auto thing as a means to not have to fork over the winnings, I can appreciate the BBB idea. I doubt if I could get away with this as I do have the last 3 wordjong badges showing in one day's time.
    The reason I appreciate the BBB (better business bureau) is because of one thing. There have been many a days when I had company over for slumber parties and such. When I have a party it generally lasts for three days or more. Back in the day before I ever even heard of autos I would have pogo running for a week at a time without signing off. Sometimes I would be in the same game playing for this amount of time. Yes, I had to sleep at times. Between my company, room mate, and other company nonstop playing on my account, there was no need to sign off unless pogo shut down for maintenance.
     I'm sure there are many other players like me out there that are competitive with badges. There are those people out there who have large enough families that pogo stays running on their accounts. The time factor should never be an issue.

    I have really slowed down on playing pogo since I learned how big auto usage is. It makes me feel like getting these badges overnight is a mute point. I mean, why should I wear out my behind sitting and playing something for 24 hours straight when someone else is running their auto and not having to go to the trouble? I am a bit envious of auto users, I will admit. I do feel like pogo would still be heaven on earth without the existance of these devices.
    I spent a while despising autos before I joined this forum. The conclusion I came to though, is that there is nothing wrong with it as long as it is not being used in ways that cheat regular players out of wins. What I mean by this is tournies (which I have nothing to do with personally), and games such as Omaha (being able to see other players' cards). That is the type of auto usage that would set me off.

    I have 331 badges as of this post. I would hate to lose my account over something as silly as getting lucky on the jp spinner. With the exception of wordjong, I have won my badges fair and square.  Yes, one of my pogo friends used her auto with my name. I didn't ask her to, but it's done and over with. I am not fretting over it now. It got me a few ranks in pop fu and bingo, no biggie.
    I have better things to do than pop balloons for half a day at a time. If I stand any chance of completing poppit or the dreaded pop fu, I will rely on an auto. One of these days, I probaly will invest in an auto for these games alone. I will buy them from here at that lol. My account is already tainted and I am not starting over from scratch unless pogo gives me the boot.

    When the group challenge came out last year, every game I had got reset back to rank 0. This was a pogo error and it was never resolved. I spent many months feeling resentment for pogo and still do somewhat. There were a few games I was very close to finishing. I was on z18 on www and had to start all over. I dreaded it, but I went and got that golden carrot anyway. Pogo messed up my stats and if they caught me using an auto I would want to call it even. I doubt if pogo would see it that way.

    Well, I didn't mean to make such a long post out of this, but here it is. Pogo is a business and making money is more important than giving money, as with any business. They love auto's for that reason. It gives them a reason to save when a winner has broken the rules in their eyes. Like Whitney Houston says, "It's Not Right, But It's Okay".
     If my using walkthoughs to get past certain playstation games is wrong, so be it. I bought the game and I want to get through. It's no different from pogo other than with playstation, you will not win cash prizes. I see nothing wrong with using them. We pay for our pogo too. Þ

[homelessdog]

Ty for answering. I am glad that they didn't take away my acct. and tokens. I guess i have to be more human-like when using the autos. But I did read on a web site somewhere that they look at their java logs to see if the autos was used. Does anyone know if this is true?

Yes, that is true.  But it's pretty much impossible to be more human-like with most of the autos that are out there.  You can fool other players into thinking you're not cheating (and hence not get reported), but if anyone were to scrutinize your account (such as happens when you win a prize), it'd be very easy to tell that you're using an auto. 

[homelessdog]

   I did use the wordjong glitch to my advantage and for that reason alone I pray never to win a prize. Otherwise, I have never used an auto though I know a pogo friend of mine has used hers on my account on a few occasions in past.
   While pogo uses the auto thing as a means to not have to fork over the winnings, I can appreciate the BBB idea. I doubt if I could get away with this as I do have the last 3 wordjong badges showing in one day's time.
    The reason I appreciate the BBB (better business bureau) is because of one thing. There have been many a days when I had company over for slumber parties and such. When I have a party it generally lasts for three days or more. Back in the day before I ever even heard of autos I would have pogo running for a week at a time without signing off. Sometimes I would be in the same game playing for this amount of time. Yes, I had to sleep at times. Between my company, room mate, and other company nonstop playing on my account, there was no need to sign off unless pogo shut down for maintenance.
     I'm sure there are many other players like me out there that are competitive with badges. There are those people out there who have large enough families that pogo stays running on their accounts. The time factor should never be an issue.

    I have really slowed down on playing pogo since I learned how big auto usage is. It makes me feel like getting these badges overnight is a mute point. I mean, why should I wear out my behind sitting and playing something for 24 hours straight when someone else is running their auto and not having to go to the trouble? I am a bit envious of auto users, I will admit. I do feel like pogo would still be heaven on earth without the existance of these devices.
    I spent a while despising autos before I joined this forum. The conclusion I came to though, is that there is nothing wrong with it as long as it is not being used in ways that cheat regular players out of wins. What I mean by this is tournies (which I have nothing to do with personally), and games such as Omaha (being able to see other players' cards). That is the type of auto usage that would set me off.

    I have 331 badges as of this post. I would hate to lose my account over something as silly as getting lucky on the jp spinner. With the exception of wordjong, I have won my badges fair and square.  Yes, one of my pogo friends used her auto with my name. I didn't ask her to, but it's done and over with. I am not fretting over it now. It got me a few ranks in pop fu and bingo, no biggie.
    I have better things to do than pop balloons for half a day at a time. If I stand any chance of completing poppit or the dreaded pop fu, I will rely on an auto. One of these days, I probaly will invest in an auto for these games alone. I will buy them from here at that lol. My account is already tainted and I am not starting over from scratch unless pogo gives me the boot.

    When the group challenge came out last year, every game I had got reset back to rank 0. This was a pogo error and it was never resolved. I spent many months feeling resentment for pogo and still do somewhat. There were a few games I was very close to finishing. I was on z18 on www and had to start all over. I dreaded it, but I went and got that golden carrot anyway. Pogo messed up my stats and if they caught me using an auto I would want to call it even. I doubt if pogo would see it that way.

    Well, I didn't mean to make such a long post out of this, but here it is. Pogo is a business and making money is more important than giving money, as with any business. They love auto's for that reason. It gives them a reason to save when a winner has broken the rules in their eyes. Like Whitney Houston says, "It's Not Right, But It's Okay".
     If my using walkthoughs to get past certain playstation games is wrong, so be it. I bought the game and I want to get through. It's no different from pogo other than with playstation, you will not win cash prizes. I see nothing wrong with using them. We pay for our pogo too. Þ

I really agree with all of that.  I'm in a similar situation, as I used the Word Jong glitch before I knew it was against the rules.  When I found out that this cancelled my chances of winning, I emailed pogo to see if they could remove the badges and reset my stats so that I wouldn't be in violation of the TOS, but they didn't seem to understand what I was talking about.  However, since then I have tried several of the autos to see what they're like.  But personally, I paid $30 to use pogo because I wanted to play the games so I prefer to play them myself. 

[PogoMobile]

Y'all Are Talking About A WordJong Glitch What Is It?.....ANd Me I've Never Won Anything So I Don't Have 2 Cents To Put In...LOL ;D

[Adacia]

Y'all Are Talking About A WordJong Glitch What Is It?.....ANd Me I've Never Won Anything So I Don't Have 2 Cents To Put In...LOL ;D

Well, the wordjong glitch was a gift with a bow for people who hated the game. I love word games, but still was fatigued with wordjong. Last year for almost a solid week players could hold down 2 buttons and advance in ranks faster than lightning could strike your computer. You could go from rank 0 to rank 50 in 15 minutes. It was a very hot topic at the time. Ofcourse, pogo corrected this very quickly.
   I think they must have known sooner. It so happened that they repaired this glitch on the usual Tuesday maintenance. One more flaw in handing out $$$ lol. I believe a hacker started this whole thing , though I could be wrong on that. It's old news and invalid to use these days, so not worth details. It was a gift for us at the time, but overall (as I suspected and did anyway) screwed us out of winning that would be a keeper.

[PogoMobile]

Ohhh So Thats How My Grandma Got 30 Ranks in One Day....LMAO....I Havent Even Got 5 Ranks Yet:D

[Adacia]

Seeeeeee! It's not just young people! :D

[Adacia]

  Homeless, what kind of reply did pogo give you? I am so curious.

[homelessdog]

I don't remember exactly as it's been so long ago, but it was something that completely didn't answer my question.  Something about their technicians were working to fix all of the problems in that game, and to try again later.  I didn't bother reasking my question.

[Barbara]

It was on Pogo's end.  Think of it as a guy working on a Coke machine and he had to leave for the day and he just happened to leave it open.  It was a happy little Easter egg for those who used it.  I was done with wordjong, sans auto.  I was not a happy camper when thousands of people in Pogo were walking around with a badge they didn't spell a single word for.

[ealohahonus2]

I can't file a complaint with the BBB, it is illegal in my state to gamble. If I file a complaint I can get arrested for gambling. It doesn't matter if it's online or not. Gambling is illegal here in Hawaii. So I guess I have to be more careful, when i use the autos.

[Homer]

Pogo isn't a gambling website.

[Hooper2092]

 I feel the same way as so many of you posters do. When it comes to what is an "ok cheat" and not an "okay cheat" I have come up with my own little ideas. It is OK in my opinion to use an auto to get a badge faster- Just like a pp has suggested when using a walktrhough for a playstation game to get to the end faster. I *do NOT* think it is ok to use an auto or any other program to cheat someone out of their ratings in games they work hard for. (Euchre, Spades, etc etc.) There is a difference here. No one is going to be hurt if I use an auto to get a badge. They however will be angry or whatever if I you a double browser or stall method to defraud them of their ratings and that is where I cross the line.
When it comes to claiming prizes on pogo...
I think it is ok to say "NO YOU CANT HAVE THE PRIZE" O N L Y IF you were running an auto at the time of your win on the Jp spin. However, if you were honestly there and playing that game at that given time, irregardless of if you have used an auto before  or not, I think Pogo should just give it up. I know it sounds like a twisted way to say its OK to cheat SOMETIMES... but thats just my honest opinion.
-Heather

[Homer]

Heather if it wasn't for walkthroughs i don't think I'd ever finish some games on my PS2. LOL

Unfortunately pogo has rules we don't necessarily agree with. I do think they have changed their policies slightly. They do not appear to be banning people for auto use anymore. It seems like you just forfeit the prize but you keep your account. I think they have come to realize a very large portion of their membership is using them and if they were to ban all these people there would be an awful lot of chargebacks on credit cards and with EA's current financial situation that is something they can no longer afford to do. At least that's my opinion on the subject. I may not agree with their policy of taking away a prize from an auto user but I do understand why they do it. Some autos run much quicker than you could ever play the game manually increasing the odds of an auto user winning a prize. It makes for an unfair advantage. You could get 60 jackpot spins an hour with TP2 but someone playing manually might only get 5 or 6 an hour if they're lucky. ;)

Myself I never play rated games with an auto. I could care less about rankings although I would like to get those Pinochle rating badges sometime. LOL

[1Lone1]

Here's something to read - this comes from pogo terms of service :

You will violate the Terms of Service if you (or others using your Account) do any of the following:

Use or distribute "auto" software programs, "macro" software programs or other "cheat utility" software program or applications.

Use of Machines, Computers, Scripts.
The use of machines, computers, scripts or any automated system on EA Online is strictly prohibited and may result in criminal liability under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Section 1030 of the United States Code. You may only play EA Online games with one type, version or copy of browsing software application at any one time. EA may terminate and permanently disqualify any Members who, in its sole discretion, determines as being in violation of these Terms of Service. All decisions by EA are final.

We understand that players who use cheat programs are a concern for the entire Pogo community. We feel very strongly that cheat programs are detrimental to the entire experience on Pogo. It's against our Terms of Service to use a cheat program, it isn't fair to honest players, and it really removes the fun out of the games for many people, which is what Pogo is all about. We do the best we can to prevent cheaters from receiving prizes by aggressively auditing prize winners for potential use of these programs. If we find evidence of cheating, we will take appropriate action, including prize forfeiture.

Pogo Sachieal
Customer Service Representative
Club Pogo


Hope this helps those of you who use an auto - I have never used one