Does Square Enix Support Scammers selling their accounts and reclaiming them?

I noticed players can report other players for RMT activity, botting and cheat/hacks/mods within the game. Why doesn't support accept reports for scammers who are original owners selling their accounts and later reclaiming them back? The Original Owners lie stating their account was compromised when in reality it was sold and they are reclaiming it back so they keep the money they sold their account for and they get their account back. If you can provide proof of the transaction/bill of sale, conversations and the website where the account was sold then why can't those accounts get permanently suspended to prevent others from being scammed in the future? I've had others tell me they wrote up a contract with the account name, the OO name and all that during the transaction and after 6 months to a year when the account gets reclaimed they contact support and support does nothing. All they do is give the account back to the scammer to rinse and repeat. Since the TOS state you can't share or sell accounts, how come those selling accounts aren't being held accountable??? So anyone can max out their account sell it, reclaim it back and sell it again and continue to scam others and support does nothing about it? This is a huge issue I'm seeing online and it's a shame Square Enix doesn't care and allows players to scam others by selling their account over and over again with no consequences. Does Square Enix support scammers? Is Square Enix interested at all in having accounts being sold reported??? The scamming needs to stop!

You scammed yourself by buying an account. No sympathy

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Originally Posted by Shinkuno

You scammed yourself by buying an account. No sympathy

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I never bought an account. I'm asking for those online who have and why doesn't Square Enix do anything.

Buying (or selling) an account IS explicitly listed in the ToS:

https://support.na.square-enix.com/f...la=1&kid=68216

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Examples of RMT include offering or receiving compensation for the following:

- Accounts
- Characters
- In-game currency (gil)
- In-game services
- In-game items
- In-game activities (such as selling clears)

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The thing is that in-game, it's pretty clear to see a reported chat ad saying "FFXIV gold for sale sketchywebsite.com!!!" Any specific transaction/report would need to be appended with a bunch of additional out-of-game information.

With that said, attention to the ToS once more:

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Examples of RMT include offering or receiving compensation for the following:

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You are considered a guilty party as a buyer just as much as if you were a seller. Why would SE help people who willfully breach the ToS? It's not like there's any "legal" means of doing so through an official sanctioned marketplace, and you're talking about people "accidentally" buying one off a "black market" - from the first, trading accounts is explicitly verboten.

Just don't buy accounts. The game is NOT hard.

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Originally Posted by Seminole

I noticed players can report other players for RMT activity, botting and cheat/hacks/mods within the game. Why doesn't support accept reports for scammers who are original owners selling their accounts and later reclaiming them back? The Original Owners lie stating their account was compromised when in reality it was sold and they are reclaiming it back so they keep the money they sold their account for and they get their account back. If you can provide proof of the transaction/bill of sale, conversations and the website where the account was sold then why can't those accounts get permanently suspended to prevent others from being scammed in the future? I've had others tell me they wrote up a contract with the account name, the OO name and all that during the transaction and after 6 months to a year when the account gets reclaimed they contact support and support does nothing. All they do is give the account back to the scammer to rinse and repeat. Since the TOS state you can't share or sell accounts, how come those selling accounts aren't being held accountable??? So anyone can max out their account sell it, reclaim it back and sell it again and continue to scam others and support does nothing about it? This is a huge issue I'm seeing online and it's a shame Square Enix doesn't care and allows players to scam others by selling their account over and over again with no consequences. Does Square Enix support scammers? Is Square Enix interested at all in having accounts being sold reported??? The scamming needs to stop!

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to be honest. if you want square to care about this then they need to hit the house buyers/sellers too who sell off the game

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Originally Posted by KatiaRelanah

Buying (or selling) an account IS explicitly listed in the ToS:

https://support.na.square-enix.com/f...la=1&kid=68216



The thing is that in-game, it's pretty clear to see a reported chat ad saying "FFXIV gold for sale sketchywebsite.com!!!" Any specific transaction/report would need to be appended with a bunch of additional out-of-game information.

With that said, attention to the ToS once more:



You are considered a guilty party as a buyer just as much as if you were a seller. Why would SE help people who willfully breach the ToS? It's not like there's any "legal" means of doing so through an official sanctioned marketplace, and you're talking about people "accidentally" buying one off a "black market" - from the first, trading accounts is explicitly verboten.

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Thanks for posting. I just wanted the option available to those who do find out if someone is scamming others and to report them. So that's all I was asking is why doesn't Square Enix do anything about it when they are busy banning for other violations? You'd be helping prevent those from being scammed and would be stopping the scammer just like they are stopping the botters and RMT from scamming. It's the same thing just adding accounts being sold to the mix to be reported and for them to act upon it.

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Originally Posted by Renalt

Just don't buy accounts. The game is NOT hard.

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Well we could say the same about just don't buy gil, plots in game, accounts or boosted services. My goal here is to stop the scamming and I was just asking why Square Enix isn't doing anything about that.

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Originally Posted by Ravenblade1979

to be honest. if you want square to care about this then they need to hit the house buyers/sellers too who sell off the game

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I totally agree with you.

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Originally Posted by Seminole

Well we could say the same about just don't buy gil, plots in game, accounts or boosted services. My goal here is to stop the scamming and I was just asking why Square Enix isn't doing anything about that.

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its so blatantly obvious why. They don't give a darn if it happens outside the game. they only care if it happens in game. where logs can prove it.

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Originally Posted by Ravenblade1979

its so blatantly obvious why. They don't give a darn if it happens outside the game. they only care if it happens in game. where logs can prove it.

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If it can be proved outside they should care just as much in my opinion. I understand not every transaction can but those who do include the username to the account and the first and last name into the transaction that right there would be proof and to show the lodestone and to show the site it's being sold on to match it up with. It's not rocket science. I wish they did care though as I hate seeing other people being scammed online.

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Originally Posted by Seminole

If it can be proved outside they should care just as much in my opinion. I understand not every transaction can but those who do include the username to the account and the first and last name into the transaction that right there would be proof and to show the lodestone and to show the site it's being sold on to match it up with. It's not rocket science. I wish they did care though as I hate seeing other people being scammed online.

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Its like the reason they don't really accept 3rd party pics for proof. Stuff can be doctored. This isn't the first or the last game that someone will do this. This thread was summed up in the first response.

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Originally Posted by Shinkuno

You scammed yourself by buying an account. No sympathy

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Even if they did give the account back it would just be terminated for outing yourself as a participant in RMT. If the mod team acted on this like you described it would just open up another can of worms with people falsifying stuff to just steal accounts.

This is an interesting thread topic to make. Is this something you witnessed? If so I’d think you’d want to use one of the reporting options on the Lodestone Support Center or in the Contact Us in game

If you have any screenshots make sure to add that to your report

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Originally Posted by Seminole

Thanks for posting. I just wanted the option available to those who do find out if someone is scamming others and to report them. So that's all I was asking is why doesn't Square Enix do anything about it when they are busy banning for other violations? You'd be helping prevent those from being scammed and would be stopping the scammer just like they are stopping the botters and RMT from scamming. It's the same thing just adding accounts being sold to the mix to be reported and for them to act upon it.

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Presumably no part of the transaction is taking place within the game so SE has no way to verify that such a transaction happened.

The buyer has zero rights with respect to SE enforcement regardless. They assume all risk by engaging in such a transaction that is clearly against the ToS.

The idiot buyer should be reporting the scam to whatever platform the seller used for the transaction and to their payment provider.

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Originally Posted by Seminole

Well we could say the same about just don't buy gil, plots in game, accounts or boosted services. My goal here is to stop the scamming and I was just asking why Square Enix isn't doing anything about that.

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You'll never stop the scamming just as RMT can't be stopped. There will always be sellers if there are idiot buyers willing to pay.

The only way for the scamming to stop is for buyer to get smart and stop buying things they know they shouldn't.

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Originally Posted by Ravenblade1979

its so blatantly obvious why. They don't give a darn if it happens outside the game. they only care if it happens in game. where logs can prove it.

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I wouldn't say they "don't give a darn". I would say they won't take action if they can't be reasonably certain of the truth of the situation. That's gnerally going to require some sort of in-game evidence supporting the nature of the transaction.

Easy for me to say "I paid Ravenblade $100 to buy their account, here's the proof I paid them" and yet it could be that you had actually sold me a completely different item for $100. Maybe I'm just trying to make trouble for you for some obscure reason.

Buyers need to take responsibility for their actions. They are warned it is against ToS. They are warned they would be at high risk of being scammed without recourse. And yet they do it anyway.

Maybe they should take the loss and learn their lesson for once.

I think in the end, the scammer should just automatically get their account back, and the victims need to wise-up. It's a game account and not life-saving medicine or food after all.

The reason I say this is; if there is even a 0.001% chance that someone could write up a convincing enough (but completely false) "Contract" or proof or evidence that the honest owner of an account sold their account (when they absolutely didn't), and SE perma-bans an innocent player and destroys what could be years of time, progress, and memories? (As a gag, out of revenge, out of sheer boredom, etc)

No thank you.

If it comes down to a greater-than-zero risk for innocent players, or two people engaging in equally shady business conduct, I'd rather the system lean towards the innocent players' benefit every time.

In addition to what others have said, SE has zero obligation to care what happens to idiots who buy an account and get it reclaimed by the original owner. Both parties are breaking the ToS. If the buyer has data to show, report away, but otherwise you should have known the risk.

At the end of the day, the only reason sellers exist is because buyers exist. The buyer should be going into the arrangement knowing it's risky...or as the kids say "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes".

I think the easiest way for SE to get rid of Bots, scammers etc, is to sell a token for Gil like WOW does. As for houses, SE should implement a way for us to buy and sell our homes on the MB. Why no? They are so intractable that it actually hurts them. Every day I see action taken against RMT, banning 100's of accounts weekly yet I see the same morons selling gill on line all day. So much for an effective way of dealing with this. I know I'm talking to deaf ears when I post this.

This is why they don't

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Transferring, selling or sharing an account is strictly prohibited. A SQUARE ENIX account should only be accessed and used by the original user. Account information should never be given to any individual outside of your legal guardian, a minor in your care, or a SQUARE ENIX Support Center representative.

Not sharing an account in this manner provides additional protection for the account from outside influences that may damage, alter or otherwise compromise the account.

Please note that sharing account information is also a violation of the FINAL FANTASY® XIV User Agreement. Sharing this account information can lead to disciplinary action being taken against the account.
Source: https://support.na.square-enix.com/f...aqtop&c=2&sc=0

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They don't mention it because they don't support people account sharing in the first place, and account selling would also fall under the umbrella of 'sharing'.

Also as per their section on 2. License Limitations in the Terms of Service / User Agreement:

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2.2 Real Money Trading, Farming and Power-Leveling. You may not sell, purchase or exchange for real-world money or value any in-game currency, accounts, characters, in-game services, or in-game virtual items. You may not play the Game for the purpose of acquiring virtual items or advancement in game play on behalf of a third-party or for the purpose of selling any virtual assets to a third party for real-world money, specifically including "gold-farming" and power-leveling services.

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Account sharing has always been forbidden is any MMO. With good reason as this creates issues for customer service they can't solve. People still don't know this by now? If you're willing to take the risk you accept the consequences that come with it.

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Originally Posted by Seminole

I noticed players can report other players for RMT activity, botting and cheat/hacks/mods within the game. Why doesn't support accept reports for scammers who are original owners selling their accounts and later reclaiming them back? The Original Owners lie stating their account was compromised when in reality it was sold and they are reclaiming it back so they keep the money they sold their account for and they get their account back. If you can provide proof of the transaction/bill of sale, conversations and the website

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Are you for real? Someone gets scammed by an unknown 3rd party while engaging in prohibited activities through a dubious site and complains about SE not following through with the prohibited transaction?

Duh, both RMT and transferring an account are in contravention of the Licence Agreement and the ToS. As for the “proof of transaction”, the transaction itself would be null and void as it’s prohibited. SE can terminate the account of seller for breaching the ToS if they think they have sufficient evidence but that’s their decision.

SE has no contractual relationship and no responsibility towards the buyer. One would have to be pretty naive and ignorant nowadays to think that buying an MMO account directly from another player was permissible (their responsibility to verify anyway). Let it be a lesson for those buyers. I have zero sympathy for those who engage in buying/selling accounts. Both sides are scammers.

Want to play? Buy the game through normal means.

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Originally Posted by Seminole

I never bought an account. I'm asking for those online who have and why doesn't Square Enix do anything.

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A friend of a friend, right?

*Wink, wink*

*asking for a friend*

You The people on whose behalf you're asking should politely tell the GMs that you they bought the account fair and square. I'm certain that they'll be happy to assist you your friends with properly completing your your TOS violation.

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Originally Posted by Shinkuno

You scammed yourself by buying an account. No sympathy

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"Hey officer, he stole my cocaine."

I don't have sympathy for the OP, but I also would like to see account sellers permanently banned as well.

As far as Square is concerned, the account was compromised and they returned it to the original owner. If someone is dumb enough to buy an account then they deserve to be scammed.