RMT spammers getting brave aren't they?
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2011-11-17 06:34 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
The same thing is happening on Freedom help chat too. It strikes me as more desperation than anything else. They must be going through a lot of trouble to create accounts, spam help a few times, and then get banned almost immediately.
And some RMTers are overly idiotic as well.
Noticed on one Character I have on Exalted I started getting spam e-mail from a RMT company. Yes, I said Exalted. A change in my filter fixed it for that character, but still, you would think they'd learn by now...
Thank you for the time...
@Travlr (Main) / @Tymers Realm (Test) 
I know I saw one on Justice last night.
On Justice
Global @Desi Nova Twitter: @desi_nova Steam: Desi_nova. I don't do Xbox or PS3
Hmm, they have yet to make to Pinnacle *knock on wood* at least in any noticeable fashion. Guess I'll count my blessings, yikes.
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I am a blaster first, and an alt-oholic second.
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Nah, they are there, I saw one last night post three times in a row on the help channel.
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Originally Posted by Winterminal
Hmm, they have yet to make to Pinnacle *knock on wood* at least in any noticeable fashion. Guess I'll count my blessings, yikes.
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i think ive only seen a total of 2 RMTers on victory and that was only in the help chat
Absolutely unsurprising. Thankfully, I don't view Help by default.
I was wondering when they'd start hitting the Help channel.
Was only a matter of time I suppose. I've been waiting for this move for a while now, I just avoided saying anything about it in case they hadn't figured it out yet and have people reading the forums.
The sad thing is: There will be free players buying influence from them, not understanding that there is really nothing for them to spend it on, and getting their credit card number stolen, as well as getting potentially banned from the game.
And they'll blame it on the game, not their own stupidity in buying an intangible item with their credit card from someone in China. They'll go around telling their friends the game has crappy security because their credit card number got stolen, completely ignoring the fact that they willingly handed over their information to a third party company for something that is against the game's terms of service.
The even sadder thing: You know as well as I do I'm absolutely right about that. I just hope it doesn't put a sour taste in too many people's mouths about the game, a lot of the free players are decent enough people.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
RMTers are kind of absurd. I saw one spamming a weekend beta test of another game and offering a discount for their services.
Why would anyone pay real money for in-game money when it's not going to carry over to live? I'm sure a couple of people did, but it just boggles my mind.
MA Arcs: Yarmouth 1509 and 58812
I think sometimes you don't see them due to blocking them. I was running two accounts doing tips in Atlas and one day when they sent their stuff out. On my main account that I have had for years I saw nothing. On my second account that I have only had for a few months I saw the chat. I can only assume I had blocked them due to some e-mail they sent me on my main. How their global account didn't get squashed I don't know but I /petitioned it from my second account and copied their message into the petition so the mods had the info needed to take action.
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when i have seen a RMTer on victory immediatly 2-3 people shout out that hes an RMTer and even explain how to do the ignore spammer command|
Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
I was wondering when they'd start hittng the Help channel.
Was only a matter of time I suppose. I've been waiting for this move for a while now, I just avoided saying anything about it in case they hadn't figured it out yet and have people reading the forums. The sad thing is: There will be free players buying influence from them, not understanding that there is really nothing for them to spend it on, and getting their credit card number stolen, as well as getting potentially banned from the game. And they'll blame it on the game, not their own stupidity in buying an intangble item with their credit card from someone in China. |
after one such time there were poeple who were unsure what RMT meant so i explained it to them and that what they were doing was illegal as well as dangerous to use
RMTers remind me of Harry the Haggler in Life of Brian:
Stones, sir?
Naah. They've got a lot there, lying around on the ground.
Oh, not like these, sir. Look at this. Feel the quality of that. That's craftsmanship, sir.
http://www.scene-and-heard.com/cov/covsig.jpg
RMT scum drove me away from one MMO. They won't do it here. Therefore, I removed all talkie channels from chat and never post. Only do 1 to 1 Tells. Sorry guys for missing your unforgettable chatter but only way to forever be blissfully unaware of RMT existence.
Not only have there been several on Pinnacle, I've even run into one of the people who's been keeping them around there. They came into the Help channel to ask if there was anyplace to buy inf, since they do so in any MMO they play. Just so disappointing.
Whats really funny is how much they sell it for. That should be a big indicator of just how useless buying it is.
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Since RMTers are usually involved with credit card fraud, it's easy enough for them to use a stolen credit card to create a VIP account and spam any server they want.|
Originally Posted by Tymers_Realm
And some RMTers are overly idiotic as well.
Noticed on one Character I have on Exalted I started getting spam e-mail from a RMT company. Yes, I said Exalted. A change in my filter fixed it for that character, but still, you would think they'd learn by now... |
Only amateur RMTers will use free accounts to advertise their wares. The pros will rip off their previous customers' credit cards to create respectable looking accounts in their quest for new suckers.
*snerk*
Maybe I should make a new version of my anti-RMT ad...
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
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THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
Maybe Paragon should hire GM Dave to deal with those RMTs.
@Redcap
ANARCHY = A Society that does not need government
114. Ahrouns do not appreciate my particular brand of humour, so I should stop bleaching bulls-eyes in their fur.
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This cannot be stated enough. The pros also won't do it right away, that would be way too obvious. They'll wait a while after the purchase, hoping you won't notice the additional charges on your bill, or even hoping that you'll make more purchases from them. As soon as the money stops flowing, though, they have exactly zero incentive to not use what you've given them to empty out everything you have.|
Originally Posted by Rodion
Since RMTers are usually involved with credit card fraud, it's easy enough for them to use a stolen credit card to create a VIP account and spam any server they want.
Only amateur RMTers will use free accounts to advertise their wares. The pros will rip off their previous customers' credit cards to create respectable looking accounts in their quest for new suckers. |
The worst part about it is that the billing is coming from NCsoft, which masks the RMTer behind a reputable company. RMTer gets more money and accounts to ply their irreputable trade, legitimate customer gets ripped off, NCsoft's reputation gets a black eye. It's win-lose-lose, and yet there are people out there who 1) continue to subsidize this trade, thinking, "What does it hurt anyone?", and 2) think that because their card hasn't been dinged after a month or two, they've hit upon the one "honest" RMTer out there among the pile of bovine fecal matter.
Power leveling services are even worse, because that typically involves actually giving someone your account information, which is Darwin Award stupid. Then the RMTers don't even have to bother with stealing credit card numbers, they can just outright get your account banned. Oh, and don't think for a second that your username and password isn't tried on sites like Bank of America, Amazon.com, Gmail, etc. to try to get even more stuff from you, or that your credit card number, once you've figured out you're being scammed, isn't sold on the black market to people like, say, the Russian Mafia.
Like I said, this cannot be overstated. RMTers are NOT just harmless irritations that flaunt the EULA and ToS. They're thieves; professional criminals who WILL screw you over in ways that you probably haven't even thought about, and not just related to the game. Part of me relishes in the thought of your bank accounts being cleaned out and your identity stolen, but the only bitter pill to swallow is that the funds are used to round up even more people as naive as you.
So please, people, as you encounter these RMTers, report them with extreme prejudice. You're not just stopping them from pestering players, you're helping NCsoft cut off the income of organized criminals.
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
Not to mention helping to put a stop to several abusive third-world labor practices.
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Close, but not exact.|
Originally Posted by Rodion
Since RMTers are usually involved with credit card fraud, it's easy enough for them to use a stolen credit card to create a VIP account and spam any server they want.
Only amateur RMTers will use free accounts to advertise their wares. The pros will rip off their previous customers' credit cards to create respectable looking accounts in their quest for new suckers. |
It seems like a nuanced difference, but as an example:
- an "amateur" is more likely to have hacks that tries to install a password logger when you visit the spammed site, then use that account to further spam. They're fly-by-night, so if that site gets taken down, they'll start another.
- a more established RMT brand will instead either buy lists of hacked accounts on the exchange or use techniques to infect other sites with the logger to avoid direct involvement. They want to keep their established "brand" around as long as possible.
Similarly:
- an amateur site may use the credit card of someone they did business with to register spam accounts.
- a "pro" site won't use previous customers' accounts. They wait a bit of time, then sell the credit cards in blocks on the exchange (and/or trade for a block of card numbers that aren't directly traceable to use on their site).
- the highest-tier pros don't ever want to risk their brand at all-- they make too much selling the card numbers on exchanges to risk any really overt issues. They work through third parties, spam briefly from accounts they're being paid to powerlevel, bot-spam on free accounts, or pay commissions to 3rd parties-- pretending not to know that these parties aren't just using free accounts to spam.
Justice is getting hit pretty good by the Help channel spam at times, as is Virtue. I've even gotten a couple of emails on alts from RMT'ers, though that was a couple of weeks ago. Probably an account that was hi-jacked via a phish or trojan.
No tells yet, thank goodness.
Then it's sort of official, the RMTers have caught onto the accessibility of a server-wide communication channel and are spamming the hell out of it. Sure you can remove help from your chat tabs but that just means Help gets runned-down and the new players will think less of the game for it, not to mention trick the gullible into a financially painful trap.
I think maybe I should forward this new to Zwilly and see if they could figure out an action plan.
Home server: Victory
Characters on: Victory & Virtue
My first 50(0)! 18/11/11
@Oneirohero
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Yeah, I missed that one part. Since our cards would already have charges from NCSoft, it IS less risky for an RMT'er to use that same card on transactions with NCSoft, as I may mistake it for one of my own (particularly in a microtransaction-based service). They could possibly use their own customers' credit cards rather than buy/trade off the exchange and many of their customers wouldn't catch on.|
Originally Posted by TonyV
This cannot be stated enough. The pros also won't do it right away, that would be way too obvious. They'll wait a while after the purchase, hoping you won't notice the additional charges on your bill, or even hoping that you'll make more purchases from them. As soon as the money stops flowing, though, they have exactly zero incentive to not use what you've given them to empty out everything you have.
The worst part about it is that the billing is coming from NCsoft, which masks the RMTer behind a reputable company. RMTer gets more money and accounts to ply their irreputable trade, legitimate customer gets ripped off, NCsoft's reputation gets a black eye. |
Of course, that info might also just be added to the exchanges. I'd been doing some research on these and its remarkable how detailed they get. I mean as in "WTS block of 500 CCs, white middle-class female US Southeast- tested valid 1 month or less" detail. I wouldn't be surprised to see blocks specifying gamers, genres, frequent travelers on X airline, etc.
I'm doing my own thing on Virtue and I monitor the Help channel to help people and also participate in some conversations like the hilarious CoH slash-fiction pairings topic that got brought up yesterday (I'll spare you the details that could lead you up turning to Vigilantism).
But man, before I just saw the RMTers post locally inside Atlas' Wentworths building and once-in-a-while occasional in ads in #help, but now RMTers are posting the same ad two or three times in a row every time they broadcast. Once-in-a-while was annoying but multiple times is plain bumping off more important or enjoyable discussions and questions!
Judging by the names of the RMTers, they don't last long, but it still bugs me. Help is naturally very helpful but because it's server-wide it means the RMTers can reach hero, villain and even praetoriaside at once. Worse than Broadcast!
----
But unless a super-intelligent AI can cull them before they make an account, or if it were legal to trace and destroy the source, we'll just have to deal with the dross for now.
But yeah, there were some crrraazy pairings in the slash/fiction topic though! Anybody remember the temporarily canon Tyrant/Dominatrix? lulzy lore stuff.
Home server: Victory
Characters on: Victory & Virtue
My first 50(0)! 18/11/11
@Oneirohero