A 'Fallout 76' Support Ticket Glitch Gave Access To Other Players' Private Info (Updated)

In what may very well be the most bizarre and unsettling twist in the ongoing saga that is Fallout 76, some players reported Wednesday that they inadvertently gained access to the support tickets of fellow Fallout 76 players.

Not only did other gamers gain access to these tickets, they were able to see personal information such as addresses and contact information as well as credit card numbers (see update below.)

It gets weirder, of course---I'm not sure it could get any worse---because not only could players see this information, they could actually edit and resolve support tickets themselves, giving them all sorts of power over the fates of their fellow Fallout 76 players. Many of these tickets were apparently related to the canvas bag kerfuffle surrounding the $200 Power Armor Edition of the game---a controversy that feels quaint compared to what just happened today.

This is, to put it mildly, beyond shocking---and a massive invasion of privacy. The implications of this security breach could haunt Bethesda well into the future---certainly more than the usual Bethesda glitch. While the issue appears to have been resolved, it's more than a little unsettling to think that anyone with bad intentions could have grabbed up loads of personal information from Fallout 76 players.

Writing on the Fallout 76 subreddit, user u/Jessiepie revealed what was going on, though other players quickly discovered that they, too, could see and edit other support tickets:

Hi guys! First time Reddit poster here. I am a gleeful vault dweller as yourselves and as of this moment I am receiving every single one of your support tickets on my Bethesda account. Mostly it's your receipts for you power armor set requesting a new bag. These receipts contain all your info. Your email and home address and the card you used to buy this extremely glitched game. I can see the problems you are having with the game, yes I'm having them too. And I know a few of you want a refund that Bethesda has said can't happen. I can update your ticket for you, if you'd like. And close it! How fun is that? Please rest assure I have no desire to stalk you or mess with your Fallout 76 experience. I just wanted to let y'all know that this is happening atm. Anyway, I gave Bethesda a heads up via the Twitter. So we will see. I wouldn't want to be the person having to respond to all of you. Currently there's 8 pages of canvas bag requests, tickets and "fix or refund me" demands. Is there anyone enjoying the game like me? Oh well! See you in Appalachia. Be nice to each other. I love you!

On the Bethesda forums, a user opened a thread with this:

Beware with what information you put in your tickets, cause they are basically public ! I went on the support website today, to update a ticket of mine, and surprisingly (or not...) I ended up being able to see all sorts of tickets, with people putting their personnal informations in them, like receipt screenshots, names, addresses and so on. I'm assuming this is a bug in the website, because I don't see for what reason Bethesda would make tickets public. I'm not going to paste screenshots of what I have access to for the privacy of people, but I can see receipts of people from all over the world, and if I can, other people probably can too. It seems like the code of the web site sucks as much as the one of the game. Please wake up Bethesda, this is becoming really serious here. You might wanna fire all your disabled coders ASAP, for the good of the players and the Fallout series, thanks.

Both posts initially included screenshots as proof but those were, understandably, taken down to protect private information. And while Bethesda has told customers that the issue has been resolved, there has been no other communication assuring customers of the security of their private information. Bethesda even locked the threads on their own support site, shutting down discussion (though discussion continues on reddit, Twitter and elsewhere.)

This is, if you hadn't gathered yet, a very big deal. It's a much bigger deal than the nylon "bag-gate" controversy. It's honestly a bigger deal than Fallout 76 not being very good. Somehow Bethesda allowed anyone with a computer, an internet connection and a Bethesda account to have access to hundreds of other players' support tickets and private information as well as the ability to edit and close those tickets. I can't even.

Hopefully we get a more detailed statement from the publisher soon. I've reached out to Bethesda for comment and will update this post when we learn more.

While Bethesda didn't respond to my email request for information, they did release a statement late last night on Twitter which has now been brought to my attention. Apparently full credit card numbers were not visible to players, nor were passwords. That's a good thing! And it's good to see Bethesda communicate and start to set the record straight on all of this. Here's the full statement: