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

Thesiren

Scrambled_Brain wrote: »

better solution: go to curse.com - search for "ESO spam filter" - download it. navigate and extract to the addons folder by going to "c" then "users" then "your user" (whatever that is , probably your name) now the odd part is - go to "mydocuments" THEN find the ESO folder and after it the add ons folder. Thank you microsoft *** *** for making folder navigation the most ridiculous process it could possibly be. This is their idea of making it "easier for the common user" - wtf was wrong with "program files" - "program" ... ... ... ... ...
-

Good grief- Curse is a rats' nest of viruses and trojans, it always has been anyway. Hack city. I mean, how do you know who made that program and what else is tucked away in it? It's probably the gold farmers who made that program, lol, because they won't need you to see their spam anymore once they give you a key logger in that addon download.

*ducks*

And if some schmoe can actually make that addon so fast, why couldn't Zenimax have incorporated it into ESO from the get-go if it's that easy? Why don't they make their own official one as quickly and incorporate it directly into ESO's chat system?

hilelorangutan

Definitely agree. Everyone who is upset about this spam and wants to blame Zenimax should be aware that there wouldn't be a gold farm business if there weren't people out there going to their websites.

thismudtasteslikechocolaterwb17_ESO

EQ2, for all its faults, has had a very good spam filter in place for years. Gold seller spam was a simple fact of life in early EQ2, just as in all other MMO's, until Sony finally decided to do something about it.

They tasked a coder (Zoltaroth, iirc) with coding the filter, but also left him in charge of updating it with filtered words and phrases.

After 3 months, chat spam went from being a once every 5 minute thing to happening only three times in the five or so years I played the game after the filter went live - and in all threw cases the lengths they had to go to in order to get around the filter made the message all but illegable.

The simple act of adding a chat filter is easy to get around. Adding a filter and updating it regularly (weekly at a minimum) on the othe hand, works.

Thete

Scrambled_Brain wrote: »

now the odd part is - go to "mydocuments" THEN find the ESO folder and after it the add ons folder. -

Hmm, I like how the profanity filter is removed when you are quoting someone.

Anyhow, just to point out that this would only apply in your case. I can't imagine too many people have their game folders in Mydocuments. Just go to where the ESO is actually located. Good tip with the spam filter addon, may have to get it. Shame there's no built in version.

nerevarine1138

hilelorangutan wrote: »

Definitely agree. Everyone who is upset about this spam and wants to blame Zenimax should be aware that there wouldn't be a gold farm business if there weren't people out there going to their websites.

Absolutely. The best way to stop gold-sellers is to stop buyers.

nerevarine1138

An update after the recent patch:

- Character limits have been implemented in chat, so there should no longer be an issue with you having to resize the font in order to see the player's name.
- When filing a report, you can select a category. Gold-sellers should be categorized as "Spam".
- The latest trend seems to be in-game mail. You can report the player by pressing F1 and following the normal report procedures. Please report them before deleting the mail, or Zenimax doesn't have any information to go on when implementing new security features.

nerevarine1138

Because people still don't seem to get it, a quick update:

Don't waste ignores on accounts which will only be in use for a few minutes.

StarScythe

Rourke wrote: »

Ban China.


Problem solved.


5 dollars please.

It's called VPN (virtual private network) technology and proxy servers. Banning China or any other country is impossible. All they have to do is use a proxy server in North America or Europe and they can bypass any IP blocking techniques. In the end all you do is alienate the legitimate players while the gold sellers just use a proxy server to make accounts and log into the game. Gameforge did this with Tera Online, and completely failed to even reduce the gold selling / botting problem.

The solution is making gold selling unprofitable, by not using it, protecting your account, reporting spammers, and by Zenimax creating an in game environment where either real world money can be used legally and legitimately, or where people would not be tempted to use it to get ahead.

nerevarine1138

StarScythe wrote: »

Rourke wrote: »

Ban China.


Problem solved.


5 dollars please.

It's called VPN (virtual private network) technology and proxy servers. Banning China or any other country is impossible. All they have to do is use a proxy server in North America or Europe and they can buypass any IP blocking techniques. In the end all you do is alienate the legitimate players while the gold sellers just use a proxy server to make accounts and log into the game. Gameforge did this with Tera Online, and completely failed to even reduce the gold selling / botting problem.

Exactly.

Although I have to say that ESO's IP-awareness system seems to be working very well so far. I haven't heard any reports of compromised accounts yet, so it means something's working.

demendred

Don't be a Rich Vos.

Never stupidly give out your password on a national radio show thinking its your account name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N1v2iJruOs

RustyBlades

Well here is one I see often - sdafdaq keeps getting re-created and hides out in the room to the left of the bank in audiron. I'm tempted to add him to my friends list since he always looks the same and usually is on around the same time wearing his coldharbor escape gear.

That being said, I think the worse thing we might see is some of the trade guilds might actually be ran by gold farmers to sell their warez. Not saying don't join one, just be wary if all the goods are being sold by the same player.

nerevarine1138

RustyBlades wrote: »

Well here is one I see often - sdafdaq keeps getting re-created and hides out in the room to the left of the bank in audiron. I'm tempted to add him to my friends list since he always looks the same and usually is on around the same time wearing his coldharbor escape gear.

That being said, I think the worse thing we might see is some of the trade guilds might actually be ran by gold farmers to sell their warez. Not saying don't join one, just be wary if all the goods are being sold by the same player.

Player names can be recycled. If that's the same gold-seller, they're just coming back on different accounts each time.

I'd be extremely surprised to find out that trade guilds were run by gold-sellers. Most gold-sellers are using automated programs to do all their work. They are rarely actually getting behind the keyboard and performing independent action.