Spoofed Guilds on PC-NA Traders

baratron · December 2025

For the past three weeks, guilds on PC-NA have found themselves spoofed at Guild Trader time. GMs have logged in to find a clone of their guild in their usual Trader spot.

These clone guilds have been formed as follows:

The name is identical bar one character (e.g. switching lower case "l" (el) for upper case "I" (eye)).
An identical guild tabard.
Players in the guild have trollish @names like "WeStoleYourTrader" and "UMadBro" (examples of the type of name, not real @names to avoid Naming and Shaming).
The guild is selling nothing but Tomatoes from 69 gold through 420 gold up to 6,969,696 gold.

While of course no guild is "owed" a Trader spot, nor indeed does any guild "own" a Trader spot, these clone guilds are causing significant confusion to players as well as significant concern to Guildmasters. Theoretically, with the font used in game, any guild whose name contains a lower case "l" or upper case "I" could be cloned.

It is only possible to see the difference between the real and cloned guilds if you use Gamepad Mode, which forces the Guild names into block capitals.

In addition, GMs and Guild Officers are concerned about the risk to guild reputations IF said clone guilds were to recruit openly. Even though the guilds concerned so far have been bigger ones (in Vivec City and Wayrest respectively), any guild could be copied in this way if their name contains a character that can easily be switched out in the ESO standard font.

Multiple GMs have reported the cloned guilds, even citing parts of the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct that we believe this spoofing is against, but our tickets have been closed on the basis that Support believe that no violation has occurred.

Please would ZOS look at this situation again and tell us for certain whether this trollish behaviour is considered acceptable, or not.

Screenshots:
Tuesday 2nd December 2025
Real Savage Blade is on Sebastian Brutya, fake Savage Biade is on Mauhoth.

Guild Tabards are identical. Guild names appear identical in the standard game font.

Tuesday 9th December 2025
Real Unstable Unicorns is on Atin, fake Unstabie Unicorns is on Morg. Notice that again the Guild Tabards are identical.

Tuesday 16th December 2025
Savage Biade is back in Vvardenfell.

Kelinmiriel · December 2025

Please do something about this, ZOS! All we really ask is that you make these NEW, IMPOSTER guilds CHANGE THEIR NAMES.

Outbidding a guild for a trader is fine. It happens. But this deliberate impersonation is wrong. It's trolling.

(edited for clarity)

ZOS_Kevin · December 2025

Thank you for posting this. We're sharing this thread with the team now to investigate.

hiyde · December 2025

It's perfectly clear that:

- Anyone with the gold can bid on and win any spot they'd like to, even with an empty store.
- If a character name like "IStoleYourSpot" is within the TOS, then it's within the TOS
- Guilds don't own copyrights on their names. Similar names are allowed.

Where I think this becomes problematic:

- The system bars *identical* guild names from being created. That rule is being circumvented with creative capitalization to make the names look completely identical (outside of gamepad mode).

At the very least, a Guild Name change should be required. If they want to be "Savage Biade" then let it be seen by the public as such.

Edit: Just saw your reply, @ZOS_Kevin - thanks for looking into this!

DenverRalphy · December 2025

I don't know whether I should be impressed or dismayed over the amount of cost and effort put forward to even accomplish that.

That's some dedicated trolling right there.

ZOS_Kevin · December 2025

DenverRalphy wrote: »

I don't know whether I should be impressed or dismayed over the amount of cost and effort put forward to even accomplish that.

That's some dedicated trolling right there.

Someone internally said they are simply shocked at the lengths folks go through to troll. It's exhausting.

This has been escalated to customer service to review and we'll follow up if there are any questions Customer Service has to help resolve this issue. Thanks again for escalating, @baratron.

hiyde · December 2025

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Someone internally said they are simply shocked at the lengths folks go through to troll. It's exhausting.

I'd estimate there's easily 100 Million Gold invested in this so far.

All I could think of is the uplifting, fun things I could do with 100 Million Gold. Have fun guild (or server) contests to give it away. Invest it in a real trading guild startup. Fulfill wishes on the 2025 ESO Gift Exchange...

YandereGirlfriend · December 2025

This is reminiscent of the uprising against the "Deshaan Mafia" ancient ages ago!

hiyde · December 2025

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

This is reminiscent of the uprising against the "Deshaan Mafia" ancient ages ago!

I'm not familiar with that one. Or are you thinking of the Rawl'kha R.I.O.T.S.? That one I'm painfully familiar with lol

SeaGtGruff · December 2025

The cost of pulling this off-- especially if the intended goal seems to be nothing more than to tarnish a guild's reputation-- makes me wonder if it's being done by someone who has some very intense "bad blood" with the guild(s) being spoofed. That sort of thing seems like it would definitely qualify as malicious and targeted harassment, which should definitely be against the game's COC and TOS.

DragonRacer · December 2025

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

I don't know whether I should be impressed or dismayed over the amount of cost and effort put forward to even accomplish that.

That's some dedicated trolling right there.

Someone internally said they are simply shocked at the lengths folks go through to troll. It's exhausting.

This has been escalated to customer service to review and we'll follow up if there are any questions Customer Service has to help resolve this issue. Thanks again for escalating, @baratron.

I’m glad this is being looked into. Sadly, trading guilds are HIGHLY competitive - which is by the game’s design - but the waste of gold to troll perceived rivals is, indeed, exhausting.

Years ago on PSNA and before multi-bidding - during the plague of “ghost guilds” created to win and hold spots for large allied guilds if their one bid lost - things were very heated. At times, the independent guilds were openly mocked. I run The PTK’s. We’re typically in Alinor. One week, we had the funds and I had the gumption, and we won a trader in Elden Root. We’re not an allied guild so we didn’t “belong” in a capital. Lo and behold, the next week came a guild with no trader listings in Alinor called PTKrushed - obviously I had gotten under someone’s skin. It made me laugh because of how petty it was.

This, though, the complete mirroring of those guilds is highly concerning. Bad actions committed by members wearing the tabard and linking the mockery guilds in zone chat could give a bad rep to the real guilds.

Orbital78 · December 2025

Now that is real endgame PVP or GVG.

DuckFayth · December 2025

The idea that some people out there will go to these lengths makes me hope that they haven't been opening recruiting, spoofing, and potentially scamming people while pretending to be these well known guilds.

More importantly, if they were just trolling, now actual scammers will have their ideas to work from. I understand that devs can't be held responsible when gullible people fall for scams but when preventable things like this come up and are an obvious threat to legitimate players, it's nice to see they're responding.

I hope there's ways to prevent scammers and bad actors from using this to leverage guild credibility to scam people.

IncultaWolf · December 2025

I think this is amusing, impressed also because that's a LOT of gold just to pull of this prank.

Hapexamendios · December 2025

Something similar happened on PS/NA last year. They didn't go to the extent of making similar guild names and tabards. Just took the spots of some regular capitol city traders. I think most people just laughed at them. The selection was terrible and regular trading resumed the next week.

Gabriel_H · December 2025

Someone has way too much time on their hands. They really should consider doing something prodcutive like cleaning their Mom's basement.

baratron · December 2025

Hapexamendios wrote: »

Something similar happened on PS/NA last year. They didn't go to the extent of making similar guild names and tabards. Just took the spots of some regular capitol city traders. I think most people just laughed at them. The selection was terrible and regular trading resumed the next week.

Simply taking another Guild's spot isn't so much of a problem. All of us who have been in the trading game for years know that no guild "owns" a Trader spot. It's specifically the part where the incoming guild pretends to be the usual guild that feels wrong. Copying the Guild Tabard and using, as @hiyde said, "creative capitalization" to make the names look identical definitely feels like harassment.

baratron · December 2025

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

I don't know whether I should be impressed or dismayed over the amount of cost and effort put forward to even accomplish that.

That's some dedicated trolling right there.

Someone internally said they are simply shocked at the lengths folks go through to troll. It's exhausting.

This has been escalated to customer service to review and we'll follow up if there are any questions Customer Service has to help resolve this issue. Thanks again for escalating, @baratron.

Let us know if you require any Support Ticket numbers.

katanagirl1 · December 2025

Hapexamendios wrote: »

Something similar happened on PS/NA last year. They didn't go to the extent of making similar guild names and tabards. Just took the spots of some regular capitol city traders. I think most people just laughed at them. The selection was terrible and regular trading resumed the next week.

There was a thread about that one, it was sort of a mafia uprising situation from the talk I heard on our guild. I don’t know how the smaller guilds ended up outbidding the bigger guilds, but yeah, the selection was very poor for an entire week.

Vaqual · December 2025

Trading and Scamming going hand in hand is actually quite immersive.

Tra_Lalan · December 2025

IMHO this is actually funny. I appreciate the effort, this joke must have cost millions of gold.

Events like that make good stories, game legends that people remember.
Beeing part of any community is expecting such shenanigans to happen. Its up to you how you gonna deal with them.
I guess theese days people tend to report everything instead of having any sense of humor.

Its not like someone is profiting for pretending to be your guild. They sell tomatoes..
And also, buyers don't care what is the guild name they are buing from. They only care about the spot/price.

Kelinmiriel · December 2025

For those of you who think this is funny? Maybe. Once. Three weeks in a row - so far, and who knows how much longer it would continue? No.

For those who feel it causes no harm? I don't know about you, but I use the TTC website to find things to buy sometimes. When I find something I'm looking for, I'll go to the guild where it was listed.

If that item doesn't come up on search, I move on, because it's been sold. I don't see a bunch of tomatoes, because I wasn't searching for them.

Would I see that there's a second guild with an identical name? Not necessarily. Would you?

So the seller would lose the sale, I would miss buying what I was looking for.

Tra_Lalan wrote: »

...And also, buyers don't care what is the guild name they are buing from. They only care about the spot/price.

Yeah, doesn't make a difference. If you don't think it through.

ZOS_Kevin · December 2025

Just wanted to follow up here. Customer Service has informed me they are taking action against the related accounts today. If you see other examples, please let us know and we can escalate. Thanks!

baratron · December 2025

Kelinmiriel wrote: »

For those who feel it causes no harm? I don't know about you, but I use the TTC website to find things to buy sometimes. When I find something I'm looking for, I'll go to the guild where it was listed.

If that item doesn't come up on search, I move on, because it's been sold. I don't see a bunch of tomatoes, because I wasn't searching for them.

Would I see that there's a second guild with an identical name? Not necessarily. Would you?

So the seller would lose the sale, I would miss buying what I was looking for.

Yeah, I can only presume that anyone who says "buyers don't care what the guild name is" comes from Console and doesn't have access to the way we generally shop on PC.

If I need just about anything, I start by searching the guilds I'm actually in via the Guild Trader interface at the Bank. Then I go straight to the Tamriel Trade Centre website and search for the item there, sorting by price. I find the item I want, note which Guild it's in, and go straight to the city where the Trader is.

Crucially - because I always shop this way - I know the usual position of most of the larger guilds in game.

So if I get to "Savage BIade" sitting on Savage Blade's usual spot, and looking for all the world like Savage Blade - and can't find the item, I'll assume it's been sold and move to the next Trader on the list. I miss out on my bargain, and the seller misses out on the sale.

It's NOT a victimless crime.

Edit: Thank you so much for your help, @ZOS_Kevin. I'm sure that many GMs and Trade Officers will sleep a little easier tonight knowing that this behaviour is indeed considered a violation of TOS.

wolfie1.0. · December 2025

hiyde wrote: »

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

This is reminiscent of the uprising against the "Deshaan Mafia" ancient ages ago!

I'm not familiar with that one. Or are you thinking of the Rawl'kha R.I.O.T.S.? That one I'm painfully familiar with lol

Someone did the same thing as the "R.I.O.T.S" action to the Deshaan traders like a year/Year and half ago on the PS:NA servers if i remember correctly.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO · December 2025

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Thank you for posting this. We're sharing this thread with the team now to investigate.

@ZOS_Kevin this is also a problem in general with players impersonating others by exploiting the lowercase L and upper case I similarity - easily facilitated by the ease at which players can change @ names.

ZOS_Kevin · December 2025

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Thank you for posting this. We're sharing this thread with the team now to investigate.

@ZOS_Kevin this is also a problem in general with players impersonating others by exploiting the lowercase L and upper case I similarity - easily facilitated by the ease at which players can change @ names.

These instances should be reported as well. But you will need to show that they are not only copying the name, but actively pretending to be you when submitting the ticket. The Guild Trader spoofing is a bit easier to pinpoint than player impersonation.

DragonRacer · December 2025

baratron wrote: »

Kelinmiriel wrote: »

For those who feel it causes no harm? I don't know about you, but I use the TTC website to find things to buy sometimes. When I find something I'm looking for, I'll go to the guild where it was listed.

If that item doesn't come up on search, I move on, because it's been sold. I don't see a bunch of tomatoes, because I wasn't searching for them.

Would I see that there's a second guild with an identical name? Not necessarily. Would you?

So the seller would lose the sale, I would miss buying what I was looking for.

Yeah, I can only presume that anyone who says "buyers don't care what the guild name is" comes from Console and doesn't have access to the way we generally shop on PC.

Eh, I would be more inclined to say it comes from casual/non-serious buyers rather than platform-based. Someone who doesn’t shop often and occasionally hits a capital looking for mats or a motif likely doesn’t take note of guild names. Those who shop frequently are more likely to, and sometimes form a collection of guilds they prefer based on what is usually listed vs what they usually like to shop for.

I run a console trading guild and most of the time we are in Alinor. I have gotten guild applications or asks to join because “I always see you guys in Alinor” or when we aren’t there - like hitting a certain city to catch specific event traffic - I’ve occasionally had people spot me in my tabard and ask where we are this week because they noticed we weren’t in Alinor.

I imagine it’s similar for the larger alliance guilds who are almost always in the capitals. Well, save for the several sister guilds with similar naming conventions… I couldn’t possibly tell the difference between them. But unique names, yes.

radiostar · December 2025

Sounds like the old Goon Squad

scrappy1342 · December 2025

baratron wrote: »

=
Yeah, I can only presume that anyone who says "buyers don't care what the guild name is" comes from Console and doesn't have access to the way we generally shop on PC.

i probably wouldn't have noticed right away... but i wouldn't have missed out either. if for whatever reason what i wanted to buy wasn't on that trader in that spot, i'll be checking the other 4-6 traders there before i leave.

whatever it is they are trying to do.... it's weird. glad zos is doing something about it

KapiteinBoterham · December 2025

This is absolutely hilarious! Screw the 1%