The Gold-Seller and You (A Comprehensive Guide to Prevention)

nerevarine1138

So after answering this question in another thread, it occurred to me that this may be a useful guide for new players (especially those who are totally new to MMOs). Feel free to add anything you think I've missed.

What is gold-seller spam?
If you see any in-game chat where it's someone repeating the same "Go to [x] website to get [x] gold for $[x]," or powerleveling services, or (outside of the forthcoming cash shop) any services at all that involve paying real-world money for in-game currency/items, that's gold-seller spam. It is a scam. In the event that they actually do provide the services advertised, your account will be compromised later so they can use it to drum up more business from other people who don't know any better.

How does this hurt the game?
Gold-selling/buying is not a victimless crime. If the gold-seller is using a bot to farm, they're breaking the game for any players who aren't playing with a bot. If they're just stealing the gold from compromised accounts, they're obviously hurting those players. More importantly, gold sellers rarely, if ever, follow through on their promises. Their sites are designed to take your information so that your account can also be compromised and used to take more people's money. And of course, in any MMO, gold-selling hurts the player economy.

Can't Zenimax Online just stop this from happening?
Short of hiring someone to stand behind every player and slap their wrist when they do something stupid online, no. They can only take action against accounts after they've already been compromised, which is too late for the affected player. 100% of account compromises happen clientside, so it's up to you to protect your information. And just like Smokey the Bear says, "Only you can stop Chinese gold farmers from ruining our game."

So how do I stop this happening to me?
1) Never, ever, ever, ever in a million years should you go to the linked site. Even if you're curious. Don't go. You'll get malware, even if you don't give them all your information for them to later steal.
2) Don't share your account information with anyone you don't know.
3) Have good anti-virus and anti-malware programs.
4) Always, always, always report gold-seller spam and report anyone who you believe is using exploits or buying gold. Players are the first, last, and best line of defense against scams.

Hellsaint

Since the servers opened I've only been seeing one gold seller that is constantly spamming, every time an account is banned they create the same one, with a number after it. Zenimax could probably just ban the name they are using (which is also the name of the site) and then not allow that site name to be seen in chat. Problem solved, either that or keep reporting this person until they run out of numbers. : P

nerevarine1138

Hellsaint wrote: »

Since the servers opened I've only been seeing one gold seller that is constantly spamming, every time an account is banned they create the same one, with a number after it. Zenimax could probably just ban the name they are using (which is also the name of the site) and then not allow that site name to be seen in chat. Problem solved, either that or keep reporting this person until they run out of numbers. : P

You may just be lucky (or whatever word you want to apply to that probability). I've seen plenty of different accounts spamming, and there have been multiple sites trying to lure in buyers.

And yes, Zenimax can ban that user ID, which will simply result in a new user ID being created. Anything they do has to be reactive. WoW's been running for 10 years. That's a decade of new chat filters to try and combat it, and they still haven't been able to eliminate the spam chat.

ZurinArctus

I only saw one spammer to begin with as well, but now there are a handful of them. It will only get worse as time goes on, and they pick up more accounts.

At least when you ignore it hits their whole account so you're not dealing with individual characters. That would have been a total PITA.

Ithug

I think that IP block should be great too (ok then can change ip.. but well..)

SeñorCinco

A comprehensive guide to say... don't do it?

Khafar

Other games have added a "Report as spam" option to the chat box context menu, which both adds the player to your Ignore list and reports them to a GM instantly (without needing to fill out a form). That would help. Preventing characters below level 5 from doing yells or whispers would help too - it raises the time cost of getting a character to a point where the gold selling can begin, slowing them down. Yes, that does impact new players a wee bit, but they'll usually be past level 5 within a few hours.

nerevarine1138

Khafar wrote: »

Other games have added a "Report as spam" option to the chat box context menu, which both adds the player to your Ignore list and reports them to a GM instantly (without needing to fill out a form). That would help. Preventing characters below level 5 from doing yells or whispers would help too - it raises the time cost of getting a character to a point where the gold selling can begin, slowing them down. Yes, that does impact new players a wee bit, but they'll usually be past level 5 within a few hours.

I agree with that. A report-as-spam feature is an awesome way to make reporting easier for players and GMs. As for the yells/whispers, maybe not so much that. New players in a new game generally need a lot of help, and since leveling isn't instantaneous in this game, I don't mind letting lower levels have those features.

S1D3FX

SeñorCinco wrote: »

A comprehensive guide to say... don't do it?

You're ok with someone telling you to/not to do something "just because"? People that are that easily manipulated make me nervous...

The OP was just trying to give a little more detail for (like he said) those who might not have a lot of experience in MMO's.

Darlgon

Hellsaint wrote: »

Since the servers opened I've only been seeing one gold seller that is constantly spamming, every time an account is banned they create the same one, with a number after it. Zenimax could probably just ban the name they are using (which is also the name of the site) and then not allow that site name to be seen in chat. Problem solved, either that or keep reporting this person until they run out of numbers. : P

I saw no gold spammers in the starter zones, and none in Bal Foyen.. but once I got to Stonefalls it was pretty crazy. Glenumbra and the other Coldharbor landing site were even worse.

BTW.. found out something interesting if you want to fight these guys by reporting them. If you right click and Ignore them, it gives you their account name. So, in your player harassment report, you can say "Player name, account name, is a goldspammer", along with your screenie.

nerevarine1138

Darlgon wrote: »

I saw no gold spammers in the starter zones, and none in Bal Foyen.. but once I got to Stonefalls it was pretty crazy. Glenumbra and the other Coldharbor landing site were even worse.

That makes sense. They're generally very efficient with their time, and they aren't going to waste it going back to starter islands.

Yankee

I reported a few, then finally I just turned off zone chat in my main chat window. Some of the player venting and QQ is as bad as the gold sellers.

I just have guild chat up, I can view zone chat if I need it later.

nerevarine1138

Darlgon wrote: »

BTW.. found out something interesting if you want to fight these guys by reporting them. If you right click and Ignore them, it gives you their account name. So, in your player harassment report, you can say "Player name, account name, is a goldspammer", along with your screenie.

Quick note: when you right-click and report a player, it automatically notes which chat line is being reported in your ticket. They'll be able to see the account info from that (because they have access to that information).

Kangas

I have seen and reported 24 gold spammers.
I am level 20.

They changed report iptions to remove "other"
So now I report them all as "harrassment" since they are spamming and viilating the terms of service.

SeñorCinco

S1D3FX wrote: »

You're ok with someone telling you to/not to do something "just because"? People that are that easily manipulated make me nervous...

The OP was just trying to give a little more detail for (like he said) those who might not have a lot of experience in MMO's.

While my comment was quite generalized, I thought I might be missing something. Granted, the OP was well in describing what it was, the comprehensive prevention was in question.

I see it right up there with, don't talk to strangers, look both ways before crossing and wear your seat belt. It wasn't meant to be snarky.

kyuven

It's unfortunate but this problem won't go away as long as people are idiots.
"Oh my good golly gosh! This chap is selling gold! I should most definitely visit him!"
Uuuugggghhhh

Bloodsip

How are they starting new accounts? Do you have to pay to play?

Gere

Would be nice if Devs put in a script that spawns Unicorns to hunt down and kill gold farmers after X number of reportings.

nerevarine1138

Bloodsip wrote: »

How are they starting new accounts? Do you have to pay to play?

If they aren't using a compromised account, they're generally using stolen credit card info to pay for a throwaway spamming account. They move through them extremely rapidly.

nerevarine1138

kyuven wrote: »

It's unfortunate but this problem won't go away as long as people are idiots.
"Oh my good golly gosh! This chap is selling gold! I should most definitely visit him!"
Uuuugggghhhh

Agreed. That's why I wanted to post this. The more informed people are, the less it happens.

Visinji

Great post! This should be a "sticky."

I'd also add that folks who can't see the gold-spammers' name (due to multiple lines of spam at once), just go to:

• Esc
• Settings
• Social

Then change the font size to 9. Go back to your chat/message box and right click their name, ignore and report them. Go back and change your font settings back to normal. It's a chore but it will help in slowing these folks down.

YourNameHere

I cannot agree more with the OP in this.

DON'T go to the site.

DON'T click on links in forums. Gold sellers can and will visit forums and put links in posts.

DON'T click on links in e-mails. Gold sellers can and will send out phising scams pretending to be a company (Zenimax in this regard) to get you to 'log into your account' asking for your name and password. Companies will NEVER ASK for your password.

If you think for ANY reason you have been compromised, change your password IMMEDIATELY. Don't wait. Don't think on it.

And don't forget to Report the spammers. Ignoring them is just as bad and letting them stay around.

RoyalPurple

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Bloodsip wrote: »

How are they starting new accounts? Do you have to pay to play?

If they aren't using a compromised account, they're generally using stolen credit card info to pay for a throwaway spamming account. They move through them extremely rapidly.

YEP they are using the credit cards of the Idiots that bought gold from them.

nerevarine1138

Visinji wrote: »

Great post! This should be a "sticky."

I'd also add that folks who can't see the gold-spammers name (due to multiple lines of spam at once), just go to:

• Esc
• Settings
• Social

Then change the font size to 9. Go back to your chat/message box and right click their name, ignore and report them. Go back and change your font settings back to normal. It's a chore but it will help in slowing these folks down.

This is excellent information, too. I'm hoping the developers also start putting a character/line-limit on chat to help with that too.

Seraseth

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

This is excellent information, too. I'm hoping the developers also start putting a character/line-limit on chat to help with that too.

They should fix the scrolling so it works properly, then char limit wouldn't be an issue.

Paks_ESO

I'm betting some gold seller fixes will be included in the maintenance today.

Easy

To summarize some of the things you can do to combat gold spammers:
-report + ignore
-if you find that spammers have exploited the chat and you can't find their name-go to settings, social, and change text size to 9, now increase the size of your chat frame and locate the name.
-Here is my personal favorite- turn your zone chat off. Most of the comments in zone chat are children insulting each other or stroking their own egos. Turning off zone chat can help you to avoid constant face palms and annoyance at gold spammers/trolls. When you need it simply turn it back on.

nerevarine1138

Paks_ESO wrote: »

I'm betting some gold seller fixes will be included in the maintenance today.

Here's hoping. But every time a spam filter gets updated, the spam changes. It's like the circle of life.

Ecco

With every new character I make, one of the first things I do along with setting keybindings (why aren't these account-wide?) is set up a new chat window called "Silence", in which *everything* is turned off. My wife and I sit next to each other duo'ing, and we're fine with that. I may turn on "Say" now that we're starting to interact more with other players. But Silence is Bliss in many MMOs. Not always, I do love the social interaction around events and in town, some times, but when I'm out exploring and questing, chat can be so immersion breaking and disruptive. Silence is golden.

Metella

Easy wrote: »

-Here is my personal favorite- turn your zone chat off. Most of the comments in zone chat are children insulting each other or stroking their own egos. Turning off zone chat can help you to avoid constant face palms and annoyance at gold spammers/trolls. When you need it simply turn it back on.

I'm sure this is probably actually quite obvious, but I am terrible for overlooking things staring me in my face (and also just generally one of those noobs you hear so much about...) - how do I turn off zone chat?

nerevarine1138

Metella wrote: »

I'm sure this is probably actually quite obvious, but I am terrible for overlooking things staring me in my face (and also just generally one of those noobs you hear so much about...) - how do I turn off zone chat?

There's a settings icon on your chat window. Click it and select which chat channels you want to display.