Suggestion to eliminate in game mail spam.

Soupypoop

In game mail spam. Ugh. So annoying and probably difficult to tackle for the developers. However, I do have an idea!

First, all mail from ZOS staff such as GM responses or customer support should be marked with an official logo of some sort. Personally, unless it has items/gold attached to it, I delete all of my mail without reading it, even if it's from an official employee because, to me, they look no different than spam mail/phishing attempts. Just look at the mail gold spammers are sending us now that are labeled as "Raw Materials" and "Item Sold". Just a matter of time before we see mail titled as "Account Suspension" followed by a body of text asking us to reply with our password to confirm or some crap.

This is exactly why you want to mark your mail, ZOS! First, people will fall for phishing attempts if your mail looks no different than phisher mail. Also, people like me will just purge any and all non official looking mail, no matter how good your grammar and punctuation is, because it's as good as phishing attempts to me.
Now, if you're already marking your mail, then just ignore this. However, last time I received an expected response from ZOS via the mail (note, I was expecting it, hence why I didn't delete it immediately), it was not distinguishable from other mail.

Second, I think all player sent mail should also be distinguished in some way, Not entirely necessary, but it does help to distinguish it from expired auctions, sold items and hireling mail.

Now, this is the meat of it. I think that players should be given an option to block mail from other players with a few conditions. The first condition would be to block all mail from players except for players on the friend list. The second condition would be to block all mail from players not in your guilds. Of course, you can toggle both on and off individually. Either way, the point here is that a player can use their guild rosters/friend list as sort of a 'hey, I trust these people' list (because that's exactly what they are) and block mail from all other strangers.

I don't see this as anything but a benefit to the sanity of players that will help put another nail in the coffin of the ever ongoing gold seller spam.

Aardalynn

Seeing game mail spam is no different from email spam, it's annoying. The difference is our inability to mark it as spam in game. I know there are add-ons for this, but the annoyance is having to filter them yourself.

I agree with Soupypoop and there ought to be a service provided by Zenimax just like any email program. We're grateful for all actions taken against spammers, but it sure feels like nothing is happening.

YourNameHere

I would love the option to copy what is in the mail to send to Zenimax in the report, since I can't take a SS of it and attach it.

Roscoe

I would be fine with a one-click spam report button. Much of the spam I get goes unreported because, after the first couple, I don't feel like going through the entire process. I know it doesn't take that long, but I just want to start playing.

UrQuan

Roscoe wrote: »

I would be fine with a one-click spam report button. Much of the spam I get goes unreported because, after the first couple, I don't feel like going through the entire process. I know it doesn't take that long, but I just want to start playing.

This would be great. I make a point of reporting every single piece of spam, because those guys can go f themselves, but it really is a pain to do it under the current system - especially when you log on and you've got a dozen or more to report.

Argruna

I would love a one click report spam button on the mail. It would really break it down easier then having to explain in the report what it is you are reporting. right now they are titling their mail to me with ~ESO or something similar to try and trap. I'm not in any guilds right now but am dreading when they start titling their stuff with Invited to join guild and then a link to their supposed guild website.
It's also troubling finding out that there is no way to tell an official gm response in mail from a fake one. The easiest fix to that would be to to change the color of the text if a real employee sends mail.

Soupypoop

Roscoe wrote: »

I would be fine with a one-click spam report button. Much of the spam I get goes unreported because, after the first couple, I don't feel like going through the entire process. I know it doesn't take that long, but I just want to start playing.

While this would work with regular email, it's not very effective in MMOs because spammers are usually gold sellers. From my experience and knowledge with gold sellers, they utilize multiple (stolen) accounts to send you spam. So, even if you reported and blocked the @Spammer that hit your inbox, you would still get mail from @Spammer1 through @Spammer100.

In other words, spammers don't care if you report them. In fact, they are one step ahead of you by having more accounts ready to go. They are expecting to get banned/ignored, hence why you just keep getting more spam no matter how many players you report.

A system that either allows players to block all untrusted incoming mail *OR* a system that checks for something like total time played on the account or the level of the highest level character could also help reduce mail spam drastically.

Soupypoop

Argruna wrote: »

It's also troubling finding out that there is no way to tell an official gm response in mail from a fake one. The easiest fix to that would be to to change the color of the text if a real employee sends mail.

In WoW, official mail from Blizzard has a blue Blizz logo attached to it. It's a super simple technique to implement, especially considering there is NO way any player can replicate it. It's like watermarks on money. And it most certainly stands out from all the other mail.

IMO official ZOS mail should have the white/black/red ZOS logo next to it, system generated mail should have the current con next to it (like sold guild store items), and player sent mail should have a silhouette of a person next to it. I think it would be cool that, once guilds can customize their flag and colors and whatnot, they should also be able to select from a list of mail icons which will appear on mail they send to others.

phaneub17_ESO

This is going to sound redundant, but I would like 3 mailboxes. First mail box is for in-game messages, items received from hirelings, and items purchased through guild stores. Second mail box is for messages, items received, or COD's from people who are on your friend list and guilds you are in. Third mail box is for public, stuff you get from outside those other two categories.

greeat-scottb14_ESO

goldsellers are in the guilds or started a guild. thats the predominant way they get our game tag. never got any spam before joining a guild

eobethb14_ESO

greeat-scottb14_ESO wrote: »

goldsellers are in the guilds or started a guild. thats the predominant way they get our game tag. never got any spam before joining a guild

Just not true. I am only in a guild with friend with whom I have played MMO;s for more than a decade.

I still get plenty on mail spam.

Bookwyrm

greeat-scottb14_ESO wrote: »

goldsellers are in the guilds or started a guild. thats the predominant way they get our game tag. never got any spam before joining a guild

Yeah, disagree. I'm in guilds now, but I had received multiple spam mails prior to ever having joined a guild. Most of them titled something about "message from your guild" or some such nonsense. All I could think was "I'm...not...in a guild? What?" Now I don't get any with such a title. I get "Raw Materials" (which I got prior to having hirelings) and others that "appear official" (as far as titles go).

Soupypoop

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

This is going to sound redundant, but I would like 3 mailboxes. First mail box is for in-game messages, items received from hirelings, and items purchased through guild stores. Second mail box is for messages, items received, or COD's from people who are on your friend list and guilds you are in. Third mail box is for public, stuff you get from outside those other two categories.

Or, ZOS could expand on the the addon API to allow developers to code addons that allow you to sort mail based on player determined criteria. In other words, ZOS could mark each type of mail with a string which addons can call upon and sort. Then, as a user of such an addon, I could sort my mail based on sender, based on source (guild store vs. generated from a skill such as hirelings). I personally would just have two mail 'tabs', if you will - one for mail with items/gold attached and another that's just plain text.

Soupypoop

greeat-scottb14_ESO wrote: »

goldsellers are in the guilds or started a guild. thats the predominant way they get our game tag. never got any spam before joining a guild

It's possible, but not required nor the primary source of spammers getting user tags. These are the same spammers that also try selling gold in other MMOs, so I'm sure they have a whole arsenal of techniques and name generators to hit up as many people as they can.

Orizuru

greeat-scottb14_ESO wrote: »

goldsellers are in the guilds or started a guild. thats the predominant way they get our game tag. never got any spam before joining a guild

The bots are parsing the chat windows. If you type a message into zone chat while a bot is parsing that channel, then your name is added to their spam list.

ers101284b14_ESO

Finally someone with actual ideas. I agree with this. Not sure about ease of implementation but still, would be awesome.