Formal Letter to SE about RMT situation.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sicno

You know, I was thinking... something that would be good not only for the gilsellers issue, but overall socially would be that blacklisting would work account-wise, not character-wise.

Think about it. If there's a person I don't want to contact me they can always make a new character and contact me again, which would be unfortunate. I want to block a person, not a character. In the specific case of gilsellers this would mean that after I block them they won't send me a tell 10 minutes later from their new char, and that may reduce the frequency of spam. This and a right click -> blacklist/report feature would work very well I think.

---

Unfortunately, gilsellers have hacked accounts like crazy, on top of accounts they buy. Most often they switch between accounts rather than characters. Though it may hinder them a bit.

Still no response.

You know what's funny? There's threads with one reply and it makes it on the "Popular Threads". They should just change that segment to "Approved Threads" since it apparently has nothing to do with popularity. They're ignoring this thread so hard.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kassiekane

Still no response.

You know what's funny? There's threads with one reply and it makes it on the "Popular Threads". They should just change that segment to "Approved Threads" since it apparently has nothing to do with popularity. They're ignoring this thread so hard.

---

I'm beginning to get the feeling there could be 10,000 replies to this thread and it would still get ignored :D. But with each page added it just makes it look even more absurd that it gets ignored. SE, you know you don't have to tip your hand to us, right? You could simply post something like "We are going to implement new measures and tighten our security on RMT." You don't have to say what the measures will be, just some acceptance that your current measures aren't enough, and that you're going to do something about this situation. That'd be nice, because there's a lot of people here who have lost faith that you care about this problem, me included. :/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ametrine

snip

---

Wow! Am I reading this wrong?

Quote:

---

Through FC chest. We can deposit your FFXIV Gil to your FC chest

---

They can hack FC chest too? o.O

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BobbinT

Wow! Am I reading this wrong?

They can hack FC chest too? o.O

---

No, they have a character join your FC, and then deposit the money to the FC chest. That way, it can be claimed that they were asked to pay an entrance fee via an outside the game communication method.

its despicable to think of, but remember, these are professional criminals we are talking about. Some of them are bonafide terrorists. If there is some loophole that can be used to keep them in business, they will use them.

Also, 500th post. wow, I feel like a Chatty Kathy now...

lol gratz on ur post count.

btw, I do seem to recall incident on early ARR days where either MB / housing / fc chest were hacked and ppl losing their gils. This might be similar though... :?

That ad I posted is still there, untouched.

I wonder if SE is even reading these threads...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ametrine

That ad I posted is still there, untouched.

I wonder if SE is even reading these threads...

---

Well, this thread is probably not going away anytime soon. Honestly, if this isn't fixed by Heavensward, I most likely will unsub out of principle.

I hope we all realize that Square Enix is profiting off of this in some way. I hate to say it but they are; RMT accounts pay just as much as we do a month to keep their accounts live and able to send /tells. There's really no other explanation why they go so untouched for so long.

How many days of investigation does it really take to see 100% of PMs coming from an account is RMT advertising. Well at the rate I receive /tells I'd say it'd take about 10 minutes to confirm. This game doesn't need a monthly sweep to catch them it needs a constant boot to ass set to /always.

Let the RMT buy a new account and as soon as it reaches its threshold of reports for RMT ban it that day not 3 weeks later when the damage has already been dealt to your playerbase.

It's like seeing a fire; calling the fire department and then them waiting till the house is burnt to the ground before they turn on the hoses to put out the ashes.. LmAo my gracious I can't help but laugh at this point the rage is so strong.

While the tells are a big issue on Leviathan they have resorted to sending friends list invites. I can hide the tells even tho it's annoying having to do so, but having to go busy just to keep from getting friend requests spammed at you by a level 1 gil seller is a little to much.

The little groups of ThGHGHGGHGGHG (made up name of course) and their clones are busily logging in to The Drowning Wench here on Jenova today and going to work - KILL THEM WITH FIRE!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Morbid

It's like seeing a fire; calling the fire department and then them waiting till the house is burnt to the ground before they turn on the hoses to put out the ashes.. LmAo my gracious I can't help but laugh at this point the rage is so strong.

---

Actually, in the early 20th century, when most fire departments were privately owned by the insurance companies, fire companies would only put out fires in houses that had purchased fire insurance. There were many companies that would control the fire and make sure it didnt spread to the insured houses, but let the uninsured house burn.

SE, I would gladly pay an extra $2 a month for a cessation of the RMT spam. make this happen.

/signed

While it will never drive me from the game, it's really grating on my nerves to hear that tell sound so much whenever I do anything that's not an instance. I forgot to set myself to /busy on the first set of cutscenes from 2.55, and ohhhhhh boy did it start to take away from teh wonderful cut scenes by the time they were through. I really wish something could be done about this now, and not wait until HW.

Edit: Lmao, since when is my main class Fisherman XD, I need to change that >.>.

I haven't been getting as much tell spam lately, but have been getting more and more friend request spam here on Cerberus. And they're not even being subtle anymore, putting the website name right into the character name.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tocsin

Actually, in the early 20th century, when most fire departments were privately owned by the insurance companies, fire companies would only put out fires in houses that had purchased fire insurance. There were many companies that would control the fire and make sure it didnt spread to the insured houses, but let the uninsured house burn.

SE, I would gladly pay an extra $2 a month for a cessation of the RMT spam. make this happen.

---

Yes I know / have heard of this before. Which is why it's not like that now, I guess SE is looking at the historical vaule in letting their playerbases frustration burn..

On Tonberry here.

I haven't seen a single RMT over the last 2 months... SE are doing something right.
No friend requests either..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Viuiji

On Tonberry here.

I haven't seen a single RMT over the last 2 months... SE are doing something right.
No friend requests either..

---

Sounds like you're the lucky exception. I don't know how bots operate, but maybe your complicated name which also happens to be very very late in the alphabet may have something to do with it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Riepah

Sounds like you're the lucky exception. I don't know how bots operate, but maybe your complicated name which also happens to be very very late in the alphabet may have something to do with it.

---

I may be an exception, but I would think that shouts and random tells around the MB would still happen.. I used to see them all the time when I first started playing (feb this year). I like your theory on my name though, I'll make sure to never change it, just in case it's saving me :) You could be on to something.

I did get a few friend requests when I first started playing (only feb this year). Blacklisted them all and then nothing since.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Viuiji

SE are doing something right.
.

---

http://i.imgur.com/d9scq1c.jpg

Clearly

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Viuiji

Wow, that's crazy!

---

To clarify, in my previous post in this thread from a week ago on page 50 I had 15 requests, unfortunately I haven't kept count of the requests that have cancelled themselves so all I can really say is that it's above 30 in a week, maybe it doesn't seem like a lot to some but it's a lot worse than other MMOs I've played that had much more user friendly tools for players to ignore and report these sort of spammers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Viuiji

I may be an exception, but I would think that shouts and random tells around the MB would still happen.. I used to see them all the time when I first started playing (feb this year). I like your theory on my name though, I'll make sure to never change it, just in case it's saving me :) You could be on to something.

I did get a few friend requests when I first started playing (only feb this year). Blacklisted them all and then nothing since.

---

Isn't Tonberry one of those servers that is pretty full, thus blocks new character creation most of the time?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Riepah

Right after "Pay to win", "Overrun with bots and spam" is pretty much at the top of the list of things that will damage a game's and company's reputation. Ignoring this issue is neither smart nor fair towards the playerbase, in my opinion.

---

Especially when those bots and spam are deliberately trying to make this game "Pay to win". Mind-blowing that we haven't gotten a responce from SE about this yet.

Also, Signed.

Gotta keep this on the first page! Don't let SE off the hook guys! This needs to be fixed!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tyrn

http://i.imgur.com/d9scq1c.jpg

Clearly

---

Wow, that's crazy! I guess not seeing them myself I forget how bad it is for others. I take my comment back.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aerowaffle

Isn't Tonberry one of those servers that is pretty full, thus blocks new character creation most of the time?

---

Possibly, I'm not too sure but did find this site. (not sure on accuracy or server limits)
Tonberry has approx 16,000ish lv21+ PC's. If you compare that to say Odin, who has approx 13,700 lv21+ PC's.
From looking at Tyrn's image, 3000 members difference can make a huge difference.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else on Tonberry has the same experience as me. I don't play 24 hours, so when I am in bed it could be happening.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tocsin

Actually, in the early 20th century, when most fire departments were privately owned by the insurance companies, fire companies would only put out fires in houses that had purchased fire insurance. There were many companies that would control the fire and make sure it didnt spread to the insured houses, but let the uninsured house burn.

SE, I would gladly pay an extra $2 a month for a cessation of the RMT spam. make this happen.

---

Wow, I really need to learn not to go on these forums when im drunk...

I'm not really advocating this, in all seriousness. However, we do need a better response than we have gotten.

Kikori Lyehga of Sargatanas realizes he's typing in caps lock, deletes all his text, and starts over with a +1 to the petition.

Does logging off automatically decline pending friend requests? If so, it probably takes less time logging of then logging in again to clear the pending list, than to decline each request one at a time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lucke

Does logging off automatically decline pending friend requests? If so, it probably takes less time logging of then logging in again to clear the pending list, than to decline each request one at a time.

---

no, they persist until they are declined.

Personally, im sitting with 27 friend requests right now, all from gil buyers. it makes me feel more popular than I really am.

You know...I had this entire thing typed up, ready to post. I decided to delete it. You all will find out. This here will be a great learning experience for you and will harden you up for the long run in a SE MMO :x

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Valcro

This here will be a great learning experience for you and will harden you up for the long run in a SE MMO :x

---

Let me guess: Final Fantasy XI? Sigh. Was XI's RMT also so much better than the watered-down casual version we got in XIV or something?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SpiritMuse

I haven't been getting as much tell spam lately, but have been getting more and more friend request spam here on Cerberus. And they're not even being subtle anymore, putting the website name right into the character name.

---

I know Free Trial accounts are blocked from using /tell, /shout, and /yell, as well as from Trade, the Market Board, and FC chests, all so that they can't be used by gil sellers, but does anyone know whether they're blocked from sending Friend requests? If they're not now, then they really need to be. If that's a loophole in the Free Trial rules, it could explain why that's become a spam technique.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Niwashi

but does anyone know whether they're blocked from sending Friend requests?

---

As far as I remember (I started playing with a free trial) they can't send them.

And then we got an official response to a completely inconsequential request thread with a whopping two pages.

I realize your work is difficult, maybe even stressful, and that there's a lot you aren't allowed to say without authorization, but can you at least give us one of the usual, "we're aware of the situation and will keep you apprised as we know more." Pretty please?

You cant placate this situation by releasing a benchmark. We still want an answer for this! Bumping so it doesn't get lost under all the Au Ra threads.

Don't worry..the Au Ra threads will sink down by the end of the week, and it will be back to business as usual..

Perhaps I missed it, but has there been an official response to any of the spam/RMT threads or to the epidemic in general?

(edit: besides the periodic "action taken against rmt: we've banned more of them" posts which are nice and all but not really a response to the many threads/issues/suggestions which have been posted here and elsewhere.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Avenger

Perhaps I missed it, but has there been an official response to any of the spam/RMT threads or to the epidemic in general?

(edit: besides the periodic "action taken against rmt: we've banned more of them" posts which are nice and all but not really a response to the many threads/issues/suggestions which have been posted here and elsewhere.)

---

No, there hasn't been a response in any of the threads. I think Yoshida answered a question about it in an interview he did. Though I don't know the link or when this interview was. Within the interview he said he had people undercover in the RMT web and also that they were banning accounts. Basically no diff than what is happening now.

Oh, and they're on Gilgamesh now. The friend spammers, I mean. I got three today, in the few hours I was on.

Nowhere is safe anymore.

Special Task Force consists of THREE people. I sincerely hope these 3 people are not the ones dealing with the RMTs because if they are, it really shows that SE gives not a whimper about RMTs, and more about the money that the RMTs bring into the game by "playing" it. There has to be a change. I just recently changed server from Odin to Phoenix with a blank blacklist, that blacklist is nearly half-full! I joined Phoenix no less than 3 months or so ago. And yes, I delete the inactive ones.

Also, as people have touched upon, friend-spammers. I get at least 3 per day.

Oddly, I haven't had a single one on Sargatanas, and only one shout today. It is indeed as if the spammers are cycling through worlds, or data centers.

While honestly Shiva doesn't seem to be getting it anywhere near as bad as other servers, I've still had more than a few annoyances from RMT accounts. Just from the ones I've remembered to personally blacklist to get to stop spamming me, my Blacklist is nearly full, and I've only been playing for a few months with most of my game time being during the hours when the server is the quietest.....

/sign