First and foremost I think it important to figure out what the commonality is between all of the lost toons so it doesn't happen to the rest of any toon-adjacent characters in the guild. /It could be a bug but I have my doubts.
To anyone including the op, the why they generally do not give assistance is , they have 0 ways of knowing if your telling the truth on how it appeared miraculously on the only large population free trade server. And anyone that answers with a hint of well possibly at one time I let someone have my log in info is admitting they broke a dbg rule. It isn't dbg fault 99.9 percent of the time.
The problem is how to prove the accounts were hacked? And if you get past that who then are you giving it back to? How do you prove you own it? It would be great if there were facial recognition software in the game as another way to prove you are the person behind the keyboard who made that account. But all they have is someone typing responses to their questions. How many players use the parent's or friend's or wife's credit card? I can give them any card number I want and say I am the name on the card and there is nothing to prove that is me or not. They put in the 2 step authorization some years ago - 5 or 6? I know it was buggy when it first came out years ago but it has smoothed out now. And yet players whine about putting a cell phone number in there for it - but your charging all those sodas at the local convenience store where the gas pumps are frequently hacked and you have no problem handing your card over to them? So I wonder, how many of those accounts were using 2 step? We never hear about "they got past my 2 step" etc. https://help.daybreakgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002980587-How-Do-I-Set-Up-2-Step-Authentication
They know where the characters were. If they move them back I guess you could say the person benefited if they faked it and had a character on FV they were giving stuff to. But if they are moved back without gear they still have to regain their gear. Since it was multiple people all at the same time this is pretty obviously not them doing it themselves.
I've never seen a message about 2 step logging into the game. I do have it enabled on my accounts (I had to because apparently changing countries is suspicious behavior). The only time I've ever been asked for my 2fa, is when I went to change to a new credit card. I have never seen a 2fa message for logging into my EQ account (I was in vegas two weeks ago on an entirely different laptop, so they are not remembering my computer or IP)
Don't share your passwords but especially don't share passwords on insecure forums. Was the free raid currency or achievement some random guild member logged you in for worth it?
I really hate to see this happen. I logged into FV myself that night and personally saw one of my guildmates stripped naked and guildless in the guild lobby- the only thing on his inspect window was a TS trophy. The person who did this is a real $@#$% and frankly I hope they ate bad turkey for Thanksgiving. Imagine being a real piece of trash and ruining a 20 year investment for a few million platinum (or maybe $75 bucks per character?). Was that worth it? Rathe is already on life support with two (three?) actively raiding guilds. We really cannot afford to lose anyone else... I wonder if the person (guildmate) who did this really just wanted to move servers.
Not to add fuel to the fire, but sharing your account information is just a bad idea. I don't care who it is. Even if you trust the person you shared with, did they properly secure your information? I have heard tell of people sharing info with guildmates or in-game friends, then those guildmates' friends or family members acquiring the shared login information and stripping/selling characters for profit, or outright selling the entire account. One in particular (years ago) was a popular figure in a guild, many people shared their account information with them. This person had written everyone's account information on a notepad, and a not-so-trustworthy sibling found the notepad. You can fill in the blank of what happened next. DTA, Norrathians. Don't Trust Anyone.
