Discussion: Zero Tolerance RMT Tells and Spam
By
Agent_Kendt,
Posted on: 2007-08-07 13:34 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
I must be either sheltered or not in game when these happen.
Has anyone noticed a patern concerning server/time/day?
Sometimes, I impress my boss. Sometimes, I impress myself. The rest of the time, I scare people. I can live with that.
It happened to me on the Liberty server about a week ago around either 9pm or 10pm EST....that's all I got for ya ;P
Leader of The LEGION/Fallen LEGION on the Liberty server!
SSBB FC: 2062-8881-3944
MKW FC: 4167-4891-5991
While I soundly agree with zero tolerance for spammers, I want to ask if anything is being done to track down and stop the people actually doing the farming in the first place?
It's plain that any advertising is done on throwaway accounts that they fully expect to get banned, however I'm curious as to how rigorous the investigations are in trying to track down the initiators, the people that are supplying the ingame money or items.
What really makes me sad is that in thinking about it all I realized, it's probably player money, not farmed money that is being sold. The Market is so potentially lucrative right now (this is a good thing) but it means someone sufficiently devious doesn't even need to Farm missions, they can just siphon off money from the marketplace and resell it to people who go for the RMT lure.
If you guys choose to elaborate on this side of the issue, I would appreciate it. Working to stop the spam is only treating the symptom, not the illness.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
I've reported each incident via petition, including sending account and text of message. It happens with regularity beginning each night approximately 10 PM PST, and the spams will be coming in at least two cases from accounts reported up to two days prior via petition. The website referenced is always the same site in 90% of the instances. Please send a private message if you need the ticket references from the filed petitions.
And thanks for attacking this parisitism.
Some days I just wake up cranky. Today might be one of those days...
Glad to see that this issue is being looked at. And glad to know that what I did is exactly what is recommended, I ignored, global-ignored, and sent a petition with name and global name to make sure the activity was known about 
Might I suggest something in the 'message of the day' to make sure others know about this process, and/or something in the help files in-game? The more people know that there's something that they can do to help, the more help can be given.
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It happened to me on the Liberty server about a week ago around either 9pm or 10pm EST....that's all I got for ya ;P
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It happened to me several times from the same user in a span of an hour. I wont reveal the global name since myself and my SG mates all sent a petition and did the global ignore.
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Please use this thread to discuss the below article:
Accounts that engage these practices are quickly closed and banned from further activity in all NCsoft games.
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What's to Discuss here? ...other than a hearty "[censored] YES!! YOU GUYS RULE!".
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Lemur_Lad wrote: If you guys choose to elaborate on this side of the issue, I would appreciate it. Working to stop the spam is only treating the symptom, not the illness.
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Ooh... someone is just beggin' for a nasty letter from one of Rove's operatives. We can't discuss that cuz it's HARD WORK and the RMT'ers might be Watchin' 
Seriously though... Lighthouse just said "Banning them from ALL NCSoft games" ...obviously this entails "following the money" and blocking all credit cards numbers found supporting these accounts. The RMT'ers could try going for Game-Cards but that'd eventually cut in to whatever profit they're making on INF sales and would eventually lead to them being "tracked down" to a specific City/Store by US investigators and then hauled into court for Commercial-Rights Copyright infringement. 
You calling me out Janlee???
Yeah I believe this is bad for in game. Yeah I think such things most be earned.
However a market place for that exist its called e-bay they don't need to advertise it in game.
If it happens to me, it's always during 'Primetime', between 7-10PM Central. I've gotten them on Victory, Infinity, and Guardian.
Remember that /petition is your friend!
Thanks, LH, for clarifying NCSoft's and Cryptic's position on this!
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Then make use of the in game /petition command to let our Customer Support Team know of the activity so we can address it.
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could you elaborate on this, as to exactly what information you need the petition to contain, what petition topic to enter it under. also how do you globally ignore someone without knowing their global name ?
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While I soundly agree with zero tolerance for spammers, I want to ask if anything is being done to track down and stop the people actually doing the farming in the first place?
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While your post brought up a legitimate point, it's going to be nearly impossible for them to find and punish people farming things to sell for RMT and actual players doing it for badges, salvage, inf, etc. I certainly don't want them punishing me because I was out farming for arcane salvage the other day and I don't want them to make getting a Hamidon Goo any harder than it already is. How do you propose they tell the difference? If they can do it without making things harder on legitimate players, that would be terrific and I'd fully support it.
~Missi
http://tinyurl.com/yhy333s
Miss Informed in 2016! She can't be worse than all those other guys!
You can globally ignore someone by typing, /gignore <player name>. You don't need to know their global handle. Just the name of the player sending the spam. They'll then show up with their global handle on your global ignore list.
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Then make use of the in game /petition command to let our Customer Support Team know of the activity so we can address it.
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could you elaborate on this, as to exactly what information you need the petition to contain, what petition topic to enter it under. also how do you globally ignore someone without knowing their global name ?
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I agree. Most of the time, all you get is their throwaway toon's name not their global.
I've reported the toon's name not knowing their global.
Btw: Under Petition, you check it off under harassment/ exploit.
Please also note time of sent tell including your server and time zone.
/tell, Lighthouse, so im confused do you want to buy some influence or not.... lol
Now only if the petitions got answered faster.....
Otherwise ty for coming out and noting that the banstick will be swung to the /tell, advertisers.
Im rich because you trust the previous 5 bids!!
My market signature is the highest bid!!!!
I happily reported my first RMT'er the other day. After the details of the offer, I was sure to include:
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get the farming [censored]! 
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Okay - not the nicest way to put it. I would love, however, to see articles thrown up on how and WHY buying inf is such a stupendous waste of time and money - clearly these guys don't understand how generous the community is here, nor how easy it is to get money. Hell, the sg I'm in has been giving away costume parts as gifts to friends since i9 hit, myself included, as well as invention salvage, recipes and influence. Since I've started COH over two years ago I've given and received millions of influence as gifts and thank you's.
A good article on the risks of RMT, including fraud, in-game and real-world identity theft, etc., might be in order, and should be co-authored by several MMO companies and developers. Help educate the player who might not see it as a big deal, yeah? Make it more real than "you will get banned" and show them "OMG what are all these charges on my credit card?"
I wonder though if someone buys items from one of these merchants do they get banned also?
Just one request, LH:
I'd like to see an 'example petition' of what formatting works best for you guys.
No offence, but the screening process on the 1st layer of Hell at PlayNC has in the past produced some whacky results, such as Petitions from COH being forwarded to the staff of entirely different games. As such, I'd rather we be armed as well as possible to get our petitions regarding RMTs forwarded to the proper authorities as expediently as possible.
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
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While I soundly agree with zero tolerance for spammers, I want to ask if anything is being done to track down and stop the people actually doing the farming in the first place?
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While your post brought up a legitimate point, it's going to be nearly impossible for them to find and punish people farming things to sell for RMT and actual players doing it for badges, salvage, inf, etc. I certainly don't want them punishing me because I was out farming for arcane salvage the other day and I don't want them to make getting a Hamidon Goo any harder than it already is. How do you propose they tell the difference? If they can do it without making things harder on legitimate players, that would be terrific and I'd fully support it.
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Close to impossible using using only ingame monitoring of activity yes I agree (I've said as much in the past). But they're not limited to that, are they? A bit of elbow grease and good old fashioned investigation using the information they have at their disposal could net results.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
Great to know, but honestly, It doesn't bug me that much so far. I mean, I did come from WoW.... they got PM's every half hour for the same crap. Only had it here once, victory at about 4 PMish.
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We wanted to make our customers aware that we have a zero tolerance for any such activity that interrupts normal game play through the use of advertising tells. Accounts that engage these practices are quickly closed and banned from further activity in all NCsoft games.
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Thanks!
I got spammed once on Pinnacle or Champion and immediately petitioned it with the name of the spammer and the text of the message.
I'm glad to see Cryptic and NCSoft are on the case.
I would feel a lot better if you had also said at the same time that the actual RMT, not just the spamming for the RMT, was also zero-tolerance. Any account believed by NCsoft to have sold inf or items for cash should be deleted and the IP address banned, any account believed to have purchased inf or items for cash should have the items deleted and the inf debited from the character (on first offense) or deleted and IP banned themselves (second offense).
Otherwise, the situation you're in is someone who's busily stomping on ants while not cleaning the kitchen: as long as the "food supply" is there, as long as customers can get away with buying inf and items, there will always be a steady supply of new sellers, who will reappear faster than you can "squish" them. Make sure that every player knows that they can't get away with cheating in this fashion, though, and the demand for RMT will decrease to an easily managed trickle.
Hero A hands the item to B who hands the item to C who sells it on consignment, bought by D who trades it directly to E for some other nice loot. So which ones are guilty and in need of banning? Which ones just ended up with the item? If they chat in game about it then, if you've still got the chat logs and the tools to dig into them, you might be able to tell. If they are talking over the phone, IM, or whatever other way then you'll never know.
Really, I think the only group with a chance against these guys is actually Cryptic. The game design has to be such that people don't want gold farmer services. I think a big reason WoW has massive farmer issues is that people are wanting to skip to the end game. Cryptic has taken care of that - we haven't really got an end game here. Paying $500 to have somebody PL your hero up to 50 is like paying somebody $50 to tell you the end of the latest Harry Potter book. (Of course, there's still the matter of getting the players to understand that there's no end game....)
The players have some weight, too, of course. We have to resist the temptation. But with 100,000+ people....
I just hope they don't do something like limit trial accounts because of this.
Please use this thread to discuss the below article:
With the rise in popularity of Issue 9: Breakthrough and the increase in commerce within Paragon City and the Rogue Isles we have seen more issues of annoying spam behavior to advertise Real Money Trading (RMT) web sites.
We wanted to make our customers aware that we have a zero tolerance for any such activity that interrupts normal game play through the use of advertising tells. Accounts that engage these practices are quickly closed and banned from further activity in all NCsoft games.
Should you receive such a tell in City of Heroes or City of Villains advertising a web site, or any other such annoying behavior, please first use the /gignore and /ignore command to ignore that user globally and locally to stop any further such tells. Then make use of the in game /petition command to let our Customer Support Team know of the activity so we can address it.
We appreciate your feedback on this issue and your continued input about new spammers that crop up. We are working hard to provide the best play environment possible!
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.