Zone chat spammed by gold sellers (for real world money) every day - Goldsellers ruin ingame economy

Onyx_Werewolf_Gnome

How are they getting away this? I'm going to stop reporting it if they aren't being dealt with, waste of time. I hate cheaters & this will destroy the game economy.

I've redacted the name & website before posting this

This is this mornings offering on the EU server AGAIN

[06:27] [@_____]: Good News ： WVVW,

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, C 0 M ! Cheap ESO G0ld and item st0re . Current price 1M g0ld=€1 & 15 of Celestial Crate only 19€ .
[06:28] [@_____]: Good News ： WVVW,

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, C 0 M ! Cheap ESO G0ld and item st0re . Current price 1M g0ld=€1 & 15 of Celestial Crate only 19€ .
[06:28] [@---------]: Good News ： WVVW,

---

, C 0 M ! Cheap ESO G0ld and item st0re . Current price 1M g0ld=€1 & 15 of Celestial Crate only 19€ .
[06:28] [@______]: Good News ： WVVW,

---

, C 0 M ! Cheap ESO G0ld and item st0re . Current price 1M g0ld=€1 & 15 of Celestial Crate only 19€ .

EDITED
ADBlocking is not the answer! Quite apart from the ever changing spelling, etc to get around blocks. It is akin to sticking your fingers in your ears & saying lalala I can't hear you. They will destroy the economy they MUST be stopped or the game will suffer

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Dagoth_Rac

The same chat bots are in Vvardenfell on PC-NA, too. ZOS seem to have slacked off with enforcement, maybe because of holidays, and the scammers are taking advantage of ZOS' absence.

Onyx_Werewolf_Gnome

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

The same chat bots are in Vvardenfell on PC-NA, too. ZOS seem to have slacked off with enforcement, maybe because of holidays, and the scammers are taking advantage of ZOS' absence.

Really, they really are low lifes. You make a good point, about Xmas. One thing I wish Zos would make a priority especially with so many newbies because of the sale & Xmas is email EVERY account & make clear that this is illegal so newbs don't buy (get scammed) by these low life sellers. And their accounts get banned.

Not everyone uses the forum

The best way to shut them down is make sure there is no market. I saw yesterday some kid screeched at by other zoneies for trying to answer the message in zone chat. He was level nothing apparently & instead of telling him nicely he was hollered at. I think he genuinely didn't know.

Lintashi

If you are on PC, there is highly customizable addon to block spam. I think called adblocker. I got it to avoid Craglorn insane spam about gold/run selling. That is the only solution that I found, because the moment they are banned, they just create another account, same with blocking- every day atleast 5 new guys spamming same message about achievement run sales, you block five of them, next five will spam same message next day. Not a single spam message since addon installed.

Amottica

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

The same chat bots are in Vvardenfell on PC-NA, too. ZOS seem to have slacked off with enforcement, maybe because of holidays, and the scammers are taking advantage of ZOS' absence.

I think it is cause for concern for multiple reasons. I hope that Zenimax takes action quickly since this type of behavior can get out of hand fast.

Onyx_Werewolf_Gnome

Lintashi wrote: »

If you are on PC, there is highly customizable addon to block spam. I think called adblocker. I got it to avoid Craglorn insane spam about gold/run selling. That is the only solution that I found, because the moment they are banned, they just create another account, same with blocking- every day atleast 5 new guys spamming same message about achievement run sales, you block five of them, next five will spam same message next day. Not a single spam message since addon installed.

Hi thanks, I already use that & it isn't blocking the ones I posted they use creative ways to write words using spaces numerals etc

And I believe the answer is ZOS being more proactive in both bans & regularly (once a quarter or 6mthly) sending out an email to ALL accounts making clear your account will be banned if you buy gold with real world money.

No market then less sellers

woe

Report them in-game and they get banned pretty fast. The only issue is that they can just vpn, new account, etc. and keep doing this over and over.

Araneae6537

It’s on the PC NA server too and not just in Vvardenfell, although I encounter these “ads” more frequently there now that I think about it.

GOAT4EVAR

Thank you for making a post about it, was going to do it myself. So i hope zos takes action fast.

Pryius

It's gotten bad the last few days on PC/NA. Vvardenfell and Auridon is where I keep seeing the message. Seems like every couple hours it's a new account.

NarutoUzumaki24

Stonefalls too, and in fact, starter zones are prime targets for these things.

Onyx_Werewolf_Gnome

Add Glenumbra & Rivenspire - it is constant now

Umbro100

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

The same chat bots are in Vvardenfell on PC-NA, too. ZOS seem to have slacked off with enforcement, maybe because of holidays, and the scammers are taking advantage of ZOS' absence.

A year ago on pc eu I was buying crowns for 1:300. now they are 1:1500 .the 10 million gold I had a year ago is wothless today with these prices. The money we sell items to the npc is the same, the reward money for doing something in game is the same, everything we do, worth 5 times less then a year ago. Imagine new players coming into the game, making some funny amount a day just by playing the game and then seeing prices like 7 - 20 - 120k for 1 gold mat. when will they make a million just by normally playing the game ? never. and that 1 million is worth nothing today because you can not even gold out all your gear for that. so imagine them seeing omg, I can buy 1 mil gold for just 1 euro ! 10 million for 10 euro ! of course they gonna go for it. and that is ruining the games economy even more. and you can say it is players greed, it is us doing this but you can not blame the kids for doing something the parents allow. you can punish them, sure, but this is on ZOS. they made a sistem that is going downhill fast and I honestly have no idea how to remedy this. hope they employ someone smarter then me

or they did already ... because this way more people will buy crowns with real money ...

Hotdog_23

Umbro100 wrote: »

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

The same chat bots are in Vvardenfell on PC-NA, too. ZOS seem to have slacked off with enforcement, maybe because of holidays, and the scammers are taking advantage of ZOS' absence.

A year ago on pc eu I was buying crowns for 1:300. now they are 1:1500 .the 10 million gold I had a year ago is wothless today with these prices. The money we sell items to the npc is the same, the reward money for doing something in game is the same, everything we do, worth 5 times less then a year ago. Imagine new players coming into the game, making some funny amount a day just by playing the game and then seeing prices like 7 - 20 - 120k for 1 gold mat. when will they make a million just by normally playing the game ? never. and that 1 million is worth nothing today because you can not even gold out all your gear for that. so imagine them seeing omg, I can buy 1 mil gold for just 1 euro ! 10 million for 10 euro ! of course they gonna go for it. and that is ruining the games economy even more. and you can say it is players greed, it is us doing this but you can not blame the kids for doing something the parents allow. you can punish them, sure, but this is on ZOS. they made a sistem that is going downhill fast and I honestly have no idea how to remedy this. hope they employ someone smarter then me

or they did already ... because this way more people will buy crowns with real money ...

ZOS will turn a blind eye to this unless specifically pointed out to them [snip] Sure, they will ban a few people and say don’t do it it’s against TOS, yada yada.

[snip] Players have asked ZOS to police this and create an better more secure system, But it would not make them as much money if they did so they have zero incentive to fix it and a lot more incentive not to in the form or real world money. Sure some people use the gifting system for what it is intended for and it does great for that purpose.

As far as price increase it has stayed stable exchange rate of 1:100 for years on PSNA. The inflation is a PC created problem. Plus I don't see much of this on PSNA. Then again I generally block the individual when I do see it.

Stay safe and Happy New Year!!!

[edited for misinformation]

BoraxFlux

Pryius wrote: »

It's gotten bad the last few days on PC/NA. Vvardenfell and Auridon is where I keep seeing the message. Seems like every couple hours it's a new account.

Auridon /PC-EU, yesterday:

colossalvoids

Already got tired reporting this [snip] on pceu.

[edited for profanity bypass]

Tandor

This sort of thread reminds me how glad I am that I disabled Zone Chat when I installed the game in 2014. I really don't regret not seeing gold sellers, guild recruiters, traders, and immature players trash-talking and making extreme political points etc while I'm immersing myself in the world of Tamriel.

scorpius2k1

HedgehogFeet wrote: »

Lintashi wrote: »

If you are on PC, there is highly customizable addon to block spam. I think called adblocker. I got it to avoid Craglorn insane spam about gold/run selling. That is the only solution that I found, because the moment they are banned, they just create another account, same with blocking- every day atleast 5 new guys spamming same message about achievement run sales, you block five of them, next five will spam same message next day. Not a single spam message since addon installed.

Hi thanks, I already use that & it isn't blocking the ones I posted they use creative ways to write words using spaces numerals etc

And I believe the answer is ZOS being more proactive in both bans & regularly (once a quarter or 6mthly) sending out an email to ALL accounts making clear your account will be banned if you buy gold with real world money.

No market then less sellers

BoraxFlux wrote: »

Pryius wrote: »

It's gotten bad the last few days on PC/NA. Vvardenfell and Auridon is where I keep seeing the message. Seems like every couple hours it's a new account.

Auridon /PC-EU, yesterday:

If you are using the AdBlock Plus Addon, try enabling custom filtering and putting the text below in under the custom Word List in Advanced settings. They all seem to be using similar copy=>paste spam so this works great for now. If they change the text later, just add one of the words to the custom word list (semicolon separated), they do not need to be case sensitive either.

g0ld;

Eiagra

I had to stop and stare for a moment and the state of gaming (not just this game) where we need to install an AD BLOCK add-on for our online games.

I mean, it doesn't surprise me, it was bound to happen, but the reality of it... just kind of shocked me a bit.

kargen27

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

The same chat bots are in Vvardenfell on PC-NA, too. ZOS seem to have slacked off with enforcement, maybe because of holidays, and the scammers are taking advantage of ZOS' absence.

The gold sale spamming has really picked up over the last couple of days in other games as well. I think they are counting on players that received money over the holidays spending it for in game currency whatever the game might be. People tend to spend gift money more freely than they will money they earned and on things they normally wouldn't purchase. Less employees to deal with the gold sellers is just a happy coincidence I think.
Whatever the incentive abuse has really picked up over the last couple of days.

thegreatme

Only good thing I can really say is that I've had zone on for a while and its been a long time since I've seen these types of ad spam on ESO. The last week or two though they've been rampant, as is bound to happen eventually even with the best anti-bot measures.

Already reported quite a few but I'm betting I'll see more of them.

Onyx_Werewolf_Gnome

scorpius2k1 wrote: »

<snip>

As I already explained.
I'm well aware of how to block them thanks. The messages are altered to use special characters numerals etc. I'm not adding a new iteration of a word every few days this is not helpful.

And blocking them does not solve the problem of them cheating so doing this misses the point

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They're baaa..aack!

[07:17][@*****][zone]Today: Оne milliön ğоld=1 EUR / 15*Celestîal Crāte=12 EUR



'

ApoAlaia

I hadn't seen these for a long time but since the week before Christmas they seem to be everywhere (PC/EU).

Don't know how many of these so-and-sos we have reported...

The thing is, in ESO there are already means - if one is that way inclined - to exchange real world currency for in-game gold that do not violate the TOS thus not putting one's account at risk of termination so what kind of niche they think they are going to fill in?

Alarde

It's endgame now.