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Common topic : Email changes in response to RMT Spam
There are quite a few ideas floated typically for dealing with RMT spam. Trial account limitations were one thing tried by the devs, and worked reasonably well until lately (early 2009.) This is a common topic in the suggestion forum.
Since it is, a tip on searching.
1. Click on "Search" up at the top of the forum.
2. On the left, under "Forum(s) to search," select "Suggestions and ideas."
3. On the right, Keyword Search Terms. This is probably where your problem was if you did search. Try the following, exactly as typed:
+mail -"re: "
This will search for anything with "mail" in the title. Why not "email?" Because not everybody spells it the same. Some will call it email, others "e-mail" or "e mail," and still others may just call it the "mail system" or "Filters on Mail." This gives you a better chance of catching all of those. The -re: portion of it removes replies, so you'll see the root of every thread that comes up, letting you see just how many threads there are on this. (The last helps for other subjects, as well.)
4. Click the "In subject and body" radio button. Normally I say just in the subject, but this comes up in a few different ways, so for this search - both.
5. Leave Username Search blank.
6. Date range, Newer Than, change the 1 to a 3, and the time to Months.
7. Result format doesn't matter. Click on "Submit."
What do we see with this result? There are 34 returned threads as I type this (3/23/09.) My first page? Here's part of it.
Give me an option to block emails, Im sick of spam
Change email to mail system
We need another ignore list
Lock out e-mail until 15
Be able to disable or restrict e-mail
Maybe the worst idea ever, or maybe not.
Tired of RMT Emails?
Shared storage slots
Email link not turning red
In-game E-mail spamming
Going to just one month would have cut it down to just 13 results, in this case. Three months, though, is a decent search range. You can see already the reason for putting in "Mail" instead of "Email." And those without it in the title have it in the body somewhere.
Personal Opinion
I am, as always, strongly in favor of client-side filtering. Something like:
Accept email from:
o Friends
o Global Friends
0 Supergroup
o Teammates
0 Coalition
0 Any
with "Any," honestly, being the default - I use the system and help people I run across in PVP zones, for instance.
Why not keyword filtering (blacklisting?)
Well, say I'm spamming from www.infspammer.com (to make one up, I don't know that it exists.) I can tell you right now, just from *regular* email experience, that the second you block the entire name, it's going to get changed. www. infspammer. com is not the same. Block infspammer? 1nfspammer. i n f s pa a m m e r. in fs pa mm er. And if you finally manage to blow all that time and money setting up and testing the blocks for all the permutations of that - I spend five bucks and get buymyinf.com, and you get to start all over again. A blacklist is just more work for less gain. After all, years after the huge push from overseas, I still get the occasional creative spelling of "viagra" showing up in my own (whitelisted) junk mail filter.
"But blacklisting would cost them money!" And they care why? They're using stolen credit cards. They just charge Joe Sucker an extra $5 for the new domain. (If that, even.)
IP blocking
This also, really, wouldn't work. It's not hard to get a new IP address, and if you cast the net too wide, you'll block legitimate customers - or, rather, ex-customers. And I don't mean those using the service, who would be breaking the EULA/TOS anyway.
Are they doing anything at all?
Yes, NC/PS have taken measures in the past and continue to. Unfortunately, it takes time to (a) assess how well measures are working, (b) find how the spammers are getting around *current* measures, and (c) come up with, plan, implement and test new measures. They won't, for obvious reasons, tell us what they're planning, any more than a general would (or should) broadcast their plans for an attack on the ten o'clock news.
Prior measures are why we have the trial account restrictions (and believe me, it was MORE annoying when we had spam tells coming up every few minutes,) the /ignorespammer command and the "Spam" button on the email window. /ignorespammer and "Spam" both send a report to the administrators with details (and the spam button also happens to clear out email from the same global name, so you may well get rid of several with one click.) All those "Empty" ones? Dead spammer accounts.
What I'd like to see implemented
I'd like to see several things introduced at the same time (sub-points optional)
1. The clientside filter mentioned above.
2. A larger ignore list, or better yet a separate "Spammer ignore list."
2a. Allow me to mark people I purposely ignore (/gignore @somejerkingame) as "Permanent, do not remove"
3. Automatic deletion of emails (even "empty") when an account is deleted as a spammer. (Not just when it's "empty," as I have emails I'd actually like to keep from friends not in the game who are also, now, "Empty.")
3a. Subfolders for email - move stuff to "SG," "Friends," or whatever folders you want,
3b. Option to clear all email from a folder, with a warning ("Are you sure?")
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I would like an option to complete disable the in game Email. Ive never once had a regular mail sent to me, or have needed to send one to someone else its only purpose seems to exist for spammers, and simply dont want to deal with reporting them anymore.