Just for fun try this in game

Step 1) Do a 'Player Search' on your server for level 50 Thaumaturges and Archers (not
bard or black mages)
Step 2) 'View Search Info' on them to see how many have absolutely nothing else
leveled
Step 3) Pick a couple to look up on the lodestone and see if they have no fc, no gc, no
mounts and no minions
Step 4) Refresh the search results for about 10 minutes and see that they're all entering
into duties and coming back out every 2-3 minutes.

Guess what....in that 10 minutes you just found almost all the bots that the RMTs are using to farm gil on your server. Now can we get SE to have some real GMs monitor those dungeon runs and ban them the first time they teleport to a coffer/boss?

Edit:
INB4 - limited resources/manpower, just report them, maybe they aren't RMTs, hey you forgot to mention.. , if it's that easy, that's probably what SE does already

Why even go to lodestone when we can just check their search info in game. Fyi I checked and some have all jobs and classes at 50 I'm sure those guys not bots. Nvm only one has that lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Macka

Why even go to lodestone when we can just check their search info in game.

---

yeah, I guess you could tell the FC/GC info from the Player Search window. Maybe I should re-name step 3 to "Assume they're an RMT bot"

The other day in Mor dhana I did a search looking for an FC. I seen many groups of THM only all in AV? I think it was that dungeon.

What's up with that. What's so special about that pace
Place. Forgot about that till now I meant to ask someone.

Why can't they perma ban RMT accounts and make them purchase another.

Didn't see any arc but lots of thm's, all in ul'dah and many in the same FC. Hmm.
Also nonsense names, that gives it away too.

Someone give this man a cookie!

The biggest problem is they aren't breaking the ToS by having level 50 classes, garbage names etc. Nothing can be done until they breach the ToS and you would need a huge fleet of GMs to monitor everything. Instances are the biggest issue since there can be several hundred of them minimum at any given time. You want SE to hire 200-300 GMs just to police the instance servers? It still wouldn't speed up the bans (which are done in the 100s each week if you read the Lodestone) because the GMs just feed all the info to another group who investigate and slap bans. The worst an in game GM can do is Gaol you and temp ban.

Thaumaturages aren't limited by TP for AoE killing groups, so I'm not surprised that the bot/gil farming organizations have caught on. Depressing, but not unexpected. The frustrating thing is those accounts may never actually get banned if they aren't part of the exchange process.

Just for fun, I like to do the follow:

Step 1: Log into the game
Step 2: Play the game
Step 3: Don't concern myself with crap like RMT and how SE goes about dealing with the issue.

I found there are groups of them all over behemoth. seen them just randomly standing around open zones like central thanalan, old gridania by the mail box, uldah, limsa there are groups of them all over have been different ones over the months i reported sent times names multiple times for weeks and they still doing it daily

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Legend_

Why can't they perma ban RMT accounts and make them purchase another.

---

They do permanently ban RMT accounts. In one week (May 8 to May 15) they banned over 1,000 accounts for RMT and other illicit activities. (http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...95a656e7ee5da0)

Wow! Cool finding. Instantly found about 30 bots at Sargatanas with this method. Most of them are THM and ARC.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dejavutwo

They do permanently ban RMT accounts. In one week (May 8 to May 15) they banned over 1,000 accounts for RMT and other illicit activities. (http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...95a656e7ee5da0)

---

It's not that SE doesn't (eventually) get around to banning a small subset of RMT accounts every week. It is that they haven't yet figured out how to keep them from infesting the game in numbers I've never seen before in other games. I don't have a solution, but I sure hope SE figures one out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mags

Just for fun, I like to do the follow:

Step 1: Log into the game
Step 2: Play the game
Step 3: Don't concern myself with crap like RMT and how SE goes about dealing with the issue.

---

I assume you believe RMT is of no concern to you because it doesn't affect you and you don't care if others cheat by buying gil? Are you unaware of the fact that RMT causes massive market inflation if left unchecked which affects EVERYONE on the server?

With regards to the OP: They won't ban an account as soon as they find it guilty of RMT activities as this makes it easier for the culprits to tell how they've been caught and adjust their methods to evade it in future. Instead SquareEnix gathers their names and bans them all at once every few weeks. This is exactly how they handled it in FFXI and it makes sense for the most part.

In another thread I suggested adding a "Report RMT" option in the right click menu on someones name, and if they get enough reports on their account, it would lock them out of public chat channels until a GM investigated it to either ban or reinstate, with the important part being that its account linked instead of character linked.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alberel

I assume you believe RMT is of no concern to you because it doesn't affect you and you don't care if others cheat by buying gil?

---

Bingo.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alberel

Are you unaware of the fact that RMT causes massive market inflation if left unchecked which affects EVERYONE on the server?

---

I know what they do, I just don't care. I'm playing a video game to entertain myself.. I don't have time to worry about who buys gil, who sells it. I've removed the ability to receive in game tells to ignore RMT adverts. SE reports they remove x amount of those caught so obviously they are doing what they can. If other players didn't use their services, there wouldn't be RMT.

Doesn't matter to me. From the time I log in to the time I log out, I am personally unaffected by RMT and those that use their services.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mags

Bingo.



I know what they do, I just don't care. I'm playing a video game to entertain myself.. I don't have time to worry about who buys gil, who sells it. I've removed the ability to receive in game tells to ignore RMT adverts. SE reports they remove x amount of those caught so obviously they are doing what they can. If other players didn't use their services, there wouldn't be RMT.

Doesn't matter to me. From the time I log in to the time I log out, I am personally unaffected by RMT and those that use their services.

---

I can understand your point of view, though obviously many others, myself included, have a different one. Just hope you use a security token, as they also like to steal accounts.

I've given up reporting RMT. Last group I reported were using ground/speed hacks in a garlean camp and farming npc drops while spiritbonding gear.. They are still on my blacklist and not deleted.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kule

I've given up reporting RMT. Last group I reported were using ground/speed hacks in a garlean camp and farming npc drops while spiritbonding gear.. They are still on my blacklist and not deleted.

---

They are most likely gone. As has been said a million times on this board in the past, [Deleted] means the account holder deleted the character. SE themselves do NOT delete characters. It ensures a hacked account can be reacquired by its owner and that the email etc. associated with the SE Account cannot be used to create another account. It also preserves evidence of RMT activities.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lithera

They are most likely gone. As has been said a million times on this board in the past, [Deleted] means the account holder deleted the character. SE themselves do NOT delete characters. It ensures a hacked account can be reacquired by its owner and that the email etc. associated with the SE Account cannot be used to create another account. It also preserves evidence of RMT activities.

---

A million times and I only just learned that. Thanks for clarifying it for me though.

This is unrelated but search for players in game doesn't show every single player. I don't know why it misses some.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zakalwe

I can understand your point of view, though obviously many others, myself included, have a different one. Just hope you use a security token, as they also like to steal accounts.

---

There is nothing to be done from a player point of view other than reporting those that break ToS. SE is doing what they can. This has been an issue in these type of games for over a decade. They (RMT) will not go anywhere so long as there are people willing to use their services.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mags

There is nothing to be done from a player point of view other than reporting those that break ToS. SE is doing what they can. This has been an issue in these type of games for over a decade. They (RMT) will not go anywhere so long as there are people willing to use their services.

---

There is actually a lot more SE could be doing, but basic point well taken. The real bad guys are cheating players who are gil buyers.

I was queueing up for a duty with a few friends when I was near Cutter's Cry and saw about 10+ bots underground killing the enemies there. However, the enemies could still attack them, so I would initiate a trade to get them to stop performing any actions, they would die, teleport away, get raised at some point, then go back to... whatever they're doing.

There's so many bots, it feels like a pain to report them all, especially on PS4.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zakalwe

There is actually a lot more SE could be doing, but basic point well taken. The real bad guys are cheating players who are gil buyers.

---

I don't mean to criticise your knowledge on the topic, but could you elaborate on what more SE could be doing? And explain why they wouldn't do more than what they are currently doing? From what I understand they do these ban waves and not singular remove of those that break ToS in this way. Also I imagine they have a process they follow to help ensure no legitimate players are caught in the process. Not to say that those doing wrong escape and those that do no wrong get false positives, but less so if they rushed the process.

I will say there could be easier tools at a players disposal to report these activities... lift the cap on blist... other than that I don't see the need to do anything else then what they are doing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alberel

I assume you believe RMT is of no concern to you because it doesn't affect you and you don't care if others cheat by buying gil? Are you unaware of the fact that RMT causes massive market inflation if left unchecked which affects EVERYONE on the server?

With regards to the OP: They won't ban an account as soon as they find it guilty of RMT activities as this makes it easier for the culprits to tell how they've been caught and adjust their methods to evade it in future. Instead SquareEnix gathers their names and bans them all at once every few weeks. This is exactly how they handled it in FFXI and it makes sense for the most part.

---

yes and no... after being active a few weeks the damage is already done thousands or more of items are now in circulation (be it shards harvested items or just gil in general) so the economy is already polluted with their goods

so while it keeps them from changing their tactics do their tactics really need to be changed if they are working for long enough to do the job

<_<; Don't scare me. I have an alt who is a lv50 Arcanist, purposefully leveled up through FATEs alone just to get the Lightning event level requirements for her. I don't wanna get banned T-T.