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How Zenimax identify gold buyers?

wolfaust
wolfaust
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Greetings,

I was searching that how to make gold faster in the game. So I searched lots of pages on Google, then saw something about Gold Selling. I didn't buy anything from them, because I don't want any trouble with my ESO account. I have been playing since 2014. Are these sites real or they are just impostor? If it's real and illegal, why Zenimax didn't do anything?

I'm spending lots of time to make gold in game(and this is the right thing), but these players gain golds with easy way. It's not fair.

How they identify and ban these players? I don't want to play an unbalanced game.

Bests,
  • Voxicity
    Voxicity
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    I'm sure there are real sites and scam sites out there, depends which one you're talking about.

    I'm also pretty sure ZOS has done one hell of a lot to keep gold sellers/buyers as far away from the game as possible.

    Actually in the 12 months I've been playing I've never seen anyone advertising gold selling/buying, whereas in my previous MMO of choice the main auction building was spammed with them all day every day.

  • LadyNalcarya
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    I think most of these sites are frauds anyway.
    And afaik they ban botters and can track the goods that were sold to players.
    Dro-m'Athra Destroyer | Divayth Fyr's Coadjutor | Voice of Reason

    PC/EU
  • wolfaust
    wolfaust
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    I don't know which one is real or which one is scam site. It's hard to know.

    Anyway, I also seen these gold sellers in the game before. Now can't see anybody with their 'fraud' sentences, I also believe that ZOS trying to keep them away.

    Unfortunately, they are already announced their sites before, and they don't need to announce it again. Players know the sites who wants to buy gold from them.

    I think ZOS can note the sites and then begin a legal process against them.
  • kampori
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    I've actually never noticed any gold-seller spamming in chat, which literally every other MMO has in often huge numbers.

    However gold-selling has been a massive business ever since MMOs first came out really. And as long as people will buy from them, the industry will never diminish. They will always find new ways to make/sell their gold, and distribute it in game.
    Devs ban their account? They make free ones. Free accounts can't make X amount of gold? They use things like friends-referral or something to upgrade the account. Or they just hack proper player accounts and use them.

    There really is not much that can be done. Even less so by Zenimax to take down the entire multi-million dollar business.

    It's like something like racism- it's not something governments can fix, it comes down to the people. If they change, so will it (gold-selling/racism etc)
    Edited by kampori on April 28, 2016 11:36AM
    This Is Not Here
  • lolo_01b16_ESO
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    Those sites are at least to some extend real, but to use at own risk. Gold trading for real world money is one of the few things where ZoS is very strict with permanent bans for everyone who participated.
  • Thevampirenight
    Thevampirenight
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    kampori wrote: »
    I've actually never noticed any gold-seller spamming in chat, which literally every other MMO has in often huge numbers.

    However gold-selling has been a massive business ever since MMOs first came out really. And as long as people will buy from them, the industry will never diminish. They will always find new ways to make/sell their gold, and distribute it in game.
    Devs ban their account? They make free ones. Free accounts can't make X amount of gold? They use things like friends-referral or something to upgrade the account. Or they just hack proper player accounts and use them.

    There really is not much that can be done. Even less so by Zenimax to take down the entire multi-million dollar business.

    It's like something like racism- it's not something governments can fix, it comes down to the people. If they change, so will it (gold-selling/racism etc)

    They unlike other mmo companies really did something about the gold spammers they hurt their abilty to get money off of eso so bad they left for good.
    Also don't buy from gold sellers they will hack your account and then use it to create more bots, later on, also I think they do perm bans for third party sites. They most definaity do not tolerate gold sellers and gold buyers. Don't do it, earn your gold its easy to get anyways just quest, and steal, or sell items in zone chat.

    People always complain about lag guess who you got to blame for them adding the very thing thats causing it, the bots.
    They sacerficed server preformance in order to hurt the botters. Because the botters basically ruined the launch, of eso and they were losing money because of this problem. They most definably do not tolerate botting.
    Also they unlike other mmo companies ban accounts bought by stolen creditcards or false credit cards. If a game code is not legit, that code will be useless and they would be forced to buy a legit one. So to put it blunt, they have measures beyond the measures in the game that allows them to make sure bots can't get easy accounts they have to buy by using the legit method.

    What also drove bots off is when they added the delete limit this drove the botters off all together they could no longer get a profit from the game with there main source of farming gold cut off for them.
    You will not see bot spam because they made it so the bots could not get a good foot hold in the game. By building a wall that they could not get around. Mass bans possibly also took place, because of the anti bot code they put in allowed them to track all the gold that was sent to other accounts and all they had to do is trace where it goes and ban those accounts.
    In other words Zenimax won the war, against the botters and thats the reason why you don't see bot spam.
    Edited by Thevampirenight on April 28, 2016 12:24PM
    PC NA
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  • wolfaust
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    I can't distinguish gold buyer and non-gold buyer in the game. I hope ZOS do something about the sites in future.
  • rootimus
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    wolfaust wrote: »
    How they identify and ban these players?

    No MMO developer is going to answer that because the people they're trying to ban will use the information to make themselves harder to detect.
    Even on the internet, clear communication is important; it can be the difference between "helping your Uncle Jack off a horse" and "helping your uncle jack off a horse"; the difference between "knowing your s***" and "knowing you're s***".
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  • wolfaust
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    Also don't buy from gold sellers they will hack your account and then use it to create more bots, later on, also I think they do perm bans for third party sites. They most definaity do not tolerate gold sellers and gold buyers. Don't do it, earn your gold its easy to get anyways just quest, and steal, or sell items in zone chat.

    This one is very important suggestion. If they can do anything about the sites then they can search on Google with related keywords. Again; I hope ZOS do something about the sites in future.
  • Thevampirenight
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    wolfaust wrote: »
    Also don't buy from gold sellers they will hack your account and then use it to create more bots, later on, also I think they do perm bans for third party sites. They most definaity do not tolerate gold sellers and gold buyers. Don't do it, earn your gold its easy to get anyways just quest, and steal, or sell items in zone chat.

    This one is very important suggestion. If they can do anything about the sites then they can search on Google with related keywords. Again; I hope ZOS do something about the sites in future.

    They can't the sites are out of reach they can't touch those sites all they can do is make sure those sites don't benefit from eso players. The most they could do if the sites owners are in a country that allows them to sue bot site owners. The measures they put in really hurt the botters they could not get a profit because of all the mass bans and the delete limit hampering them. So they left, they had no choice and they moved to some other mmo, abandoning eso.
    I like eso because its gold spammer free and because they do care about the player base and are a good company because they do not tolerate frauds like these gold sellers. I wished more companies would follow their example and do the same as zenimax when it comes to botters.
    Edited by Thevampirenight on April 28, 2016 12:27PM
    PC NA
    Please add Fangs to Vampires.
  • CasNation
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    ZOS has actually done a really excellent job of limiting gold sellers in ESO. PC launch was plagued with them, but now they are almost nonexistent. They will always be around, in every MMO, but in ESO they are far less frequent than in others.

    ZOS can't do anything to legally prosecute these sites that are hosted outside the US. The most they can do is make it unprofitable for the gold sellers to farm the gold that they need to sell.
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  • Thevampirenight
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    CasNation wrote: »
    ZOS has actually done a really excellent job of limiting gold sellers in ESO. PC launch was plagued with them, but now they are almost nonexistent. They will always be around, in every MMO, but in ESO they are far less frequent than in others.

    ZOS can't do anything to legally prosecute these sites that are hosted outside the US. The most they can do is make it unprofitable for the gold sellers to farm the gold that they need to sell.

    They more then limited them they drove them off. I have not seen one spec of gold seller spam since they put the changes in that hurt and drove them off to this day I don't think you will see any gold seller spam. You will only see player spam, or people trying to sell in game items but this does not bother me only the gold sellers that drove me nuts.
    There is still botters but most likly players too lazy to play the game. Or are using macros or are multiboxing, but other then that if gold sellers are still botting they are no longer, advertising. They have measures to detect them and they can't risk getting there accounts wiped. Which is good because this keeps the zone chat free, thus making it player only!
    Edited by Thevampirenight on April 28, 2016 12:37PM
    PC NA
    Please add Fangs to Vampires.
  • Egonieser
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    I think most of these sites are frauds anyway.
    And afaik they ban botters and can track the goods that were sold to players.

    Not really, I've used sites like these in a old Korean Grindfest called: Mu Online (a game where progress comes with real money and devs actively encourage it - not actively, but they don't deny it either) and most of them are pretty much legit and actually CS there is much better than the AAA games xD
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  • kevlarto_ESO
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    I would not use any them, this is how you end up with, keyloggers by just visiting the sites, you end up with your credit card number stolen and used to buy accounts in other games, I knew a couple of people that tried something like this in another game, they got hosed afterwards.
  • JamilaRaj
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    wolfaust wrote: »
    Greetings,

    I was searching that how to make gold faster in the game. So I searched lots of pages on Google, then saw something about Gold Selling. I didn't buy anything from them, because I don't want any trouble with my ESO account.

    Good. It would be a serious crime if you did! Participate only in the official ZOS-run cash to gold conversion schemes such as subscription or crown store consumables, if you want to be sure you do not take part in some unscrupulous scam.
    wolfaust wrote: »
    I have been playing since 2014. Are these sites real or they are just impostor? If it's real and illegal, why Zenimax didn't do anything?

    I'm spending lots of time to make gold in game(and this is the right thing), but these players gain golds with easy way. It's not fair.

    How they identify and ban these players? I don't want to play an unbalanced game.

    Bests,

  • wolfaust
    wolfaust
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    Egonieser wrote: »
    I think most of these sites are frauds anyway.
    And afaik they ban botters and can track the goods that were sold to players.

    Not really, I've used sites like these in a old Korean Grindfest called: Mu Online (a game where progress comes with real money and devs actively encourage it - not actively, but they don't deny it either) and most of them are pretty much legit and actually CS there is much better than the AAA games xD

    There are MMO games that allows outsource gold buying. But I'm not surprised when I learned that. but grinders in any case can earn lots of gold.
  • olsborg
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    Buying gold for real cash will get you banned, also if you sell it. They have ppl monitoring large gold transactions.
    Edited by olsborg on April 28, 2016 1:07PM

    PC EU
    PvP only
  • idk
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    There are good sellers in every MMO. Zos seems to do a descent job managing them. This is obvious since we do not get messages in game from sellers and rare we see them in game.
  • wolfaust
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    olsborg wrote: »
    Buying gold for real cash will get you banned, also if you sell it. They have ppl monitoring large gold transactions.

    The ban is good action to keep them away. But it seems "ppl monitoring" is not very effective as we thought. Of course I can't see what ZOS doing on background, but still there are players who can buy gold. And still I'm thinking this is unfair. I also have played MMO games and some players sells gold but I was thinking the same thing on these games.
    Edited by wolfaust on April 28, 2016 1:11PM
  • bloodenragedb14_ESO
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    they were really spammy during the first few months, personally i havent seen a gold seller in ESO in nearly a year
  • Valrien
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    wolfaust wrote: »
    olsborg wrote: »
    Buying gold for real cash will get you banned, also if you sell it. They have ppl monitoring large gold transactions.

    The ban is good action to keep them away. But it seems "ppl monitoring" is not very effective as we thought. Of course I can't see what ZOS doing on background, but still there are players who can buy gold. And still I'm thinking this is unfair. I also have played MMO games and some players sells gold but I was thinking the same thing on these games.

    ZOS can't do much more than they already have. There is zero action they can take against websites like that. I seriously doubt people are still buying from websites like that anyways.
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  • vyndral13preub18_ESO
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    It is truely fantastic what you can accomplish when you are willing to sacrifice you own games playability to stop gold sellers.
  • lathbury
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    It is truely fantastic what you can accomplish when you are willing to sacrifice you own games playability to stop gold sellers.

    it hasnt though I know of at least one player selling 100 mill gold to sites like this
  • Ballzy321
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    Who really cares honestly. Gold isn't a big deal in this game
  • wolfaust
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    Ballzy321 wrote: »
    Who really cares honestly. Gold isn't a big deal in this game

    I thought it is. Because there are guild stores that I can buy good armor, weapon, accessory or craft items. I care about earning gold while playing in MMORPGs.
    Edited by wolfaust on April 28, 2016 1:49PM
  • Skybird821
    I have seen way too many people trading gold or AP for PSN cards and it is frustrating while I sit here with my crafting biz to make my gold.
    DC FOR LIFE! -Skybird821-
  • wolfaust
    wolfaust
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    Skybird821 wrote: »
    I have seen way too many people trading gold or AP for PSN cards and it is frustrating while I sit here with my crafting biz to make my gold.

    Then they are expanded their business. I totally agree with you, this is a frustrating situation.
    Edited by wolfaust on April 28, 2016 2:28PM
  • themdogesbite
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    You don't see any goldseller spamming zonechat anymore cause it's simply not enough profit in it for them. I don't want to go too in-depth about this on here, but i do see some faulty claims in this thread so far unless they've changed something about their policy recently. If anyones intrested feel free to PM me.
    :]
  • Nestor
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    When this game first launched, Gold was hard to get. Just staying on top of Repairs and Upgrading Bag Space and Bank Space and Horses and deconning loot rather than selling it meant we were all broke while leveling on our first characters. Gold was scarce when first playing the game.

    Now that we have the Legerdemain System, a player just out of the Wailing Prison can make 10K gold in the first hour they spend in the actual game. And 10K each day after that for each character they roll. ZOS does not need to stop Gold Farmers as there is no real need for them in this game. Just playing the game can make you rich in Gold with minimal money management effort.

    Thing is, what do you have to spend money on? Agility and Willpower Rings and Monster Helms and Shoulders. That's it. By the time you need those items, you have the gold you need to buy them just from getting to the level that you need them at. Gold Tempers? Maybe, but again, you have the gold you need by the time you get to the level you want to make things Legendary

    So, there is no real market for Gold Sellers for this game.
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  • wolfaust
    wolfaust
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    Nestor wrote: »
    When this game first launched, Gold was hard to get. Just staying on top of Repairs and Upgrading Bag Space and Bank Space and Horses and deconning loot rather than selling it meant we were all broke while leveling on our first characters. Gold was scarce when first playing the game.

    Now that we have the Legerdemain System, a player just out of the Wailing Prison can make 10K gold in the first hour they spend in the actual game. And 10K each day after that for each character they roll. ZOS does not need to stop Gold Farmers as there is no real need for them in this game. Just playing the game can make you rich in Gold with minimal money management effort.

    Thing is, what do you have to spend money on? Agility and Willpower Rings and Monster Helms and Shoulders. That's it. By the time you need those items, you have the gold you need to buy them just from getting to the level that you need them at. Gold Tempers? Maybe, but again, you have the gold you need by the time you get to the level you want to make things Legendary

    So, there is no real market for Gold Sellers for this game.

    Thank you, this is a reasonable explanation.
This discussion has been closed.