I've been using GB on and off for a few months now. I am not a gold seller, I mainly use it to gear out my toons, and help out members of my guild. Was on for the third day in a row and got a whisper from blizzard this morning that my account is under investigations for misuse. I didn't rememeber to cut and paste the exact text, so I lost it - sorry about that. Three days ago was the first day since the new patch that I've started farming again. Also I make sure never to sell more than 10 stacks of any item, and break down all ore into gems, cut them and sell them in max stacks of 4, I also make flasks out of herbs and sell -- all of this done on different toons. I've so far manage to avoid any Blizzard eyes. So.....am I in deep do-do?
my guess it's a fake! why should blizzard inform you? the close your acc. and that's the message that the had an investigation ^^
fake fake fake this is what i alwys tell them you MF i hope you die verry soon go fuck yourself and then untill they logoff kjhh;jh;jhd;shf;sdkhjf;hjsa;orhw;oahuf'dh'fah sdf;hdsf;hs;dkfh;dsf fds;jhs;kdjhf;gd agian untill they log off
Don't think it's legit that warning. I may be wrong, but they won't warn you they're watching your account. If they find something, they'll close it when they want to. Also, you use my method to sell things. I just sell a lot more things between 3 bank characters.
Ok so after reviewing this thread and others: -- This message is a fake. -- I probably won't be banned unless I am a seller. -- I won't be messaged in game -- Since I have a clean account I should expect a suspension first (true?) -- I should use some sort of automated reply addon with a custom reply. Also I want to make sure I am doing everything I can to prevent Big Brother from coming down on me. In addition to my post above, I only bot for 8 hours max, and usually only 4 days a week. I don't have multiple accounts, so this might be an issue. I am also very careful about using the auction house and try to sell in limited lots. I've always been a whore of a gemcutter, every since cata came out, I tend to set prices often on AH and get yelled at by other gemcutters. I've been better about this lately. I'll be totally honest here, as a shareholder of Activision Blizzard (i own a good chunk of shares), I find it disturbing that they are really throwing their resources at this and not at improving gameplay and doing everything they can to expand their subscription base bringing in more money and getting that stock price up over 12. If I were in development over there and identified a gold seller, what I would is warn them and then increase their month fee by adding on a "gold seller" tax.
trimmed some here: Yes, the message is a fake and everyone who falls for it is an idiot. Sorry, maybe you are being cautious, but even thinking Bllizzerd is a GM who sent you a message to go to Stealmyaccount.com apparently NOT Blizz... Banned since not seller...WRONG. You can be banned if anyone reports you for botting, you sell gold, you get caught botting, suspected of botting, or look like your mom dressed you. The EULA pretty much says they can end your subscription at any time. Bot at your own risk. Bot only what you can afford to lose without bitching about it. You may be messaged in game. The GM will have the Blizzard logo, it will be a GM, it will be something like "May I ask you a question?" or "Are you there?" or anything else a human might type...or a canned introduction. They may test whether you are a bot, or just watch you and ban you...seen it both ways, but contact is rare and only when your bot is spectacular and they have doubts to your being a bot or human. Clean account only means you MIGHT get a second chance, and really depends on a couple factors. If players are reporting you and enough warrant an auto-ban you might get a 72 hour suspension. If you are investigated, even momentarily by a GM, then expect a perma ban if they know you are botting. Even if you get a 72 hour, they might investigate you and perma ban you without warning any time after... Auto-reply should be damn good...half the time I ignore replies, even if I am right there, especially "Wanna tank CoC ones"...if they ask again, I tell them no, and to stop asking and put them on ignore. No auto reply should reply "hi!"...I'm always a dick, so I say "What?" or "Kinda busy atm" or "Was that you stealing my herbage when I was fighting off that croc, ass?" Keeps em on their toes and they usually say "fuck off" which triggers a "fuck you too"....rarely use auto-rply, I'm within earshot of the PC's so even a minute wait makes you human enough. Any selling to chinese buyers could result in a ban. Selling to other players seems safe enough to do guild drop or withdraws from a main account, but that is no guarantee. Sell at your own risk, use vanilla accounts, or find some way of doing it safely. Shareholder? Suck it, they don't give a shit...Verizon isn't offering us free cell phones despite me owning $30K in stocks...just means you get a piece of the pie when you get banned and they profit off you buying a new account.
OK thanks. I don't expect any special treatment as a shareholder (have no idea how you got that impression) other than Blizzard caring what happens to their stock price. Mass bans for botting doesnt seem the right way to go, when they could just start charging sellers more. Starting a new account doesn't bring in Blizzard any more money on top of the account they already banned as there are many free trials out there these days. It's sort of like the drug war. Why fight drugs, just make em legal and tax the hell out of it.
Absolutely fake. Got a message like yours too but you can see that's a normal player who's trying to steal your account data because you have to click his link and login. Furthermore a GM Chat is different from normal Whispers. If the Playername is first it's never a GM. For me it was Playername: GM-Name: blabla banned blabla click here and login. Got it on EU Servers.
yeah there is a guy/s with the name blizzard but the (i) has one of those commas instead of a dot. hard to notice in wow chat. tell him to go screw himself. if you check armory theres one on nearly every sever, must be a big gold farming company or something. i have got whispers from him on many diffrent toons on diffrent servers. so dont worry.
also, blizzard chats will always open their own "window" not in the normal chat window.. so ya, unless it's a completely different window with a little Blizz symbol by the name, it's fake.
