Gil Spammers and sellers - a petition for a solution.

Hello,

Over the last few days I've started to get more and more /tell messages from users with random names whom are obviously bots trying to sell me gil, items, or power leveling services and other random crap I simply don't care about. I am on leviathan server but i'm sure this issue is affecting ALL players on all servers.

At one point, I zoned into Limsa lominsa lower deck and had to Blacklist not 1, not 2, but 3 user names who were literally flooding the /yell and /shout with repeated sales messages and I could not interact with anyone else until I blacklisted them.

While I understand that completely eliminating these malicious users is going to be quite a process, I also know that there are some effective ways that the issues can be subdued and alleviated.

I ask that this message be given some notice and that the developers please address this sooner rather than later before these malicious greedy users destroy the social / fantasy aspect of the game. I'm sure many users will support me on this.

I urge developers to implement text filters in the log to spot and eliminate spammers who shout as well as those who send large volumes of /tell messages as soon as possible. As an alternative (because i know customer support and schedules can be tight), I ask that you empower the player base to blacklist/report these spammers via a quick and simple right-clicking their names on the chat log.

Thanks.

~Danny

/signed

I'm standing in Ul'dah on Sargantas server and I literally cannot read the chat logs because of all the damn gold spammers. And the text is flying by so fast I can barely find names to blacklist.

Would a developer PLEASE reply to this to let us know what is being done to fix this, and when it will be implemented? It's seriously affecting gameplay. You can't ask for help in /shout or /yell before you block these jerks, and the blocking process is extremely awkward for these channels. You can't answer questions. In fact, i'm getting ready to turn off the channel entirely, which kinda defeats the purpose of a massively multiplayer game...can't interact with other players over the easiest interaction method.

Add blacklist as a right click option in the chat frame, put a hard limit on how many times a player can shout in a given time frame, like once a minute, and auto detect identical yells and mute that player for ~10 minutes or so.

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Originally Posted by DannyB

I ask that you empower the player base to blacklist/report these spammers via a quick and simple right-clicking their names on the chat log.

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also, it would be nice if it copied the text of the offending message, the server, and all other supporting data and sent that to an appropriate place in customer service. also, this would make it so that people couldn't misrepresent a cheater when reporting to CS that this character is a gold/power leveling seller. the same could be used for some cases of harassment.

however this solution has issues since as another poster mentioned the spam is getting pretty silly and is hard to right click on one it goes by so fast.

that said, i would also like to see limits placed on how fast someone can send to shout, yell and tell because this is getting very annoying for not just me but others in the local chatter... once you can see it after blacklisting the spammer.

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Originally Posted by Kalysta

/signed

I'm standing in Ul'dah on Sargantas server and I literally cannot read the chat logs because of all the damn gold spammers. And the text is flying by so fast I can barely find names to blacklist.

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When faced with a flood of gil spam that is flying by too fast to catch names, easiest way I have found is walk out of town......then the spam flood ends. Then just blacklist each spammer, then you can go back into a nice peaceful town.

This should be there prime focus because each and every one of them created the maximum number of characters wasting precious space while the free access still exist!
They are so out of controll they type up to 15 lines of txt and repete it so fast it makes it even hard to black list cause it toggles from Yell & Shout!
I thought there are GM's in every areay that work for SE surely they can see this as well!
It's almost makes you think that they may be part of the problem because it's not getting any better fut infact worse every night!
Last night alone i blacklisted 8 random and regular names Spamming the txt box!
Totally out of controll!
One Character that keeps comming back uses random letters for name but always starts the name off with a Capital D.
Ive sent at least 10 Harrasment notices but that character keeps comming back!
As if they totally ignoring the problem that they think it isnt important at the moment!
As soon as this free trial ends and I'm having to pay monthly payments for the game they better have solved this problem or i as well as thousands of others will leave!
This was the very reason I left FFXI because they didnt do nothing about it, Because the RMT's horded all the areas power leveling, farming Armor, and gill for their paying customers!

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Originally Posted by Helli

When faced with a flood of gil spam that is flying by too fast to catch names, easiest way I have found is walk out of town......then the spam flood ends. Then just blacklist each spammer, then you can go back into a nice peaceful town.

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a great idea... thanks for posting this. i will put it to good use.

but... what are we going to do once we have 200 spammer names in our blacklist?

i already have 40 plp in my blacklist atm...this has got to end!!

Fully agree with putting a stop to this annoying problem and as food for consideration what about those that have bought the Gil or power levelling that encourages this situation.

Not 100% sure on the numbers but in Neverwinter if a person that was posting Spam, Gold sellers etc...had 5, 6 or 7 or more people right click his/her name as a Spammer within a 1 minute time frame, that person could no longer type in chat for 24/48 hours or so and needed to submit a Ticket to unlock themselves from chatting. Now in Neverwinter as it is F2P, they could probably just create another account and start all over again (after a mandatory 15 minutes tutorial) as in this game they would need legitimate paying accounts.

For me, I found it worked well enough, in this game as I play mostly solo for the time being, I pretty much ignore the chat box but like others said in here, as soon as I zone, literately 50 lines of Spam Gil Seller messages fly by in that box. Just no way I can find the time to put them on ignore one by one.

i usually turn off shout and yell when i go into citys to not see these people, made a seperate tab for fc and other forms of communication, when i leave the city i put shout and yell back on

Yeah, in order to enjoy the game we have to shutdown more than Half of communication options in game OR fill our blacklists up(which is a pain in the ass to do). My friend just got on game today and had to track me down in person and jump in front of me and use emotes since I had /tell /shout /yell /say off so he could get added to linkshell and free company. Fell sorry if some new player tries to ask me for advise or help I would seem like a complete jerk because of this.

Do you all really think SE isn't going to fix this? Of course they are. And they've said it in dev posts. People get a life and learn to overcome little annoyances that will be fixed. It's as freakin easy as creating a new chat tab for cities that you switch to that filters out shout. Takes 20 seconds to setup and 2 seconds to switch to once you step into city. You people are such babies.

Wanna get rid of gil sellers?

Add an in-game item that grants the redeemer a month of paid subscription that can be purchased directly from Square-Enix with real money and either used to pay for a month's subscription or sold to other players for gil. Square-Enix still gets paid their monthly fees and players with disposable in-game incomes get to save a little extra money each month, meanwhile the players who would be interested in spending real money for gil end up sending their money to the creators of the game instead of shady characters who'd just as soon turn around and rob you blind.

This in-game item should only be allowed to be sold to other players via the market. No direct trades. This should prevent scamming.

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Originally Posted by radic202

Not 100% sure on the numbers but in Neverwinter if a person that was posting Spam, Gold sellers etc...had 5, 6 or 7 or more people right click his/her name as a Spammer within a 1 minute time frame, that person could no longer type in chat for 24/48 hours or so and needed to submit a Ticket to unlock themselves from chatting. Now in Neverwinter as it is F2P, they could probably just create another account and start all over again (after a mandatory 15 minutes tutorial) as in this game they would need legitimate paying accounts.

For me, I found it worked well enough, in this game as I play mostly solo for the time being, I pretty much ignore the chat box but like others said in here, as soon as I zone, literately 50 lines of Spam Gil Seller messages fly by in that box. Just no way I can find the time to put them on ignore one by one.

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Wow I didn't know it was that much worse on other servers. I'm on Excalibur (Legacy) and for the first few days there was only private message types of gil spam, and then in the last 2 days, every town's zones has them. Here's the thing... nobody has been able to create new characters, so these are all v1 characters that either were previously spam or were hacked since v2 started (the one bot I found, was wearing both Unique and Untradeable gear from a Level 15 dungeon, which means that someone was at least played it till then.)

As for what SE can do:
- Whitelist (friends)/Greylist (people in this zone, last-shout coordinates)/Blacklist (abuse/spam), and apply a type of report karma to them. eg (number of friends - blacklists = greylist value) with negative blacklists being restricted from all but auto-translate communication
- automatically take a screenshot before showing a report form
- Be able to right-click on a username in the chat or if you can physically find them and hit report after a double-confirmation. "You are reporting (NAME), continue" - "Are you sure you wish to report (NAME)? The user will be added to your blacklist and reported for (HARASSMENT|SPAM|RMT|SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR)"
- As per the suggestion above, throttle anyone posting faster than 50wpm.

I've found expanding the chat window to full screen slows it so you can actually copy and paste the names.

Copy, open Blacklist add them then open support and report, go on to the next. I have blacklisted so many, I have to scroll down twice. Good news is, I noticed today that many at the top of my list were {deleted}.

When you expand full screen chat, it's not hard to do. Takes about 2 minutes to report and blacklist 7-8 of these guys. Use your copy and paste function.

Keep in mind they made a post regarding this, whatever you do, don't talk to them if they private message you.

Well read this, it was posted on the 6th.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...33498e43afd6f4

/signed

this is a huge issue on diabolos as well

When blacklisting, no need to copy/paste. Just click on the name in the chatbox, select send tell, replace "/tell" with "/blist add", and then put quotes around the name.

For spam you get in PM's, you can set up a user macro like this:

/blist add <r>

and it will blacklist the last person who sent you a tell

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Originally Posted by TunaSalad

Do you all really think SE isn't going to fix this? Of course they are. And they've said it in dev posts. People get a life and learn to overcome little annoyances that will be fixed. It's as freakin easy as creating a new chat tab for cities that you switch to that filters out shout. Takes 20 seconds to setup and 2 seconds to switch to once you step into city. You people are such babies.

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i think your missing the point. yes, you can do exactly what you said. but then, what is the purpose of shout and yell in a city? also, they are not just doing this in shout and yell. i get direct tells all the time. i don't spend a lot of time in the citys so its really not an issue for me. banning these people runs into an issue where there appears to be a 200 person limit. also, if your going to say the devs said something point us to that, with a link.

The reason I posted this petition is because they posted on the 6th about taking action and 1 week later I now have 8x the spam I had 1 week ago. This clearly shows me that their methods are currently not working effectively. It's nice that they banned 518 accounts, but there is a growing problem rather than a problem that simply needs policing. It is my belief that they can optimize their work by empowering players and this is what I hope comes to their attention. I think the suggestions for such a system here are fantastic and I hope they are all considered. Ideally, we want to treat the problem and not the symptom. I think many of the suggestions here would help alleviate the issue.

speaking of suggestions, I would like to see the following:

If a high number of people blacklist a name (say over 100?), That individual would be flagged and would be locked from /shout /tell /yell / say until their profile was reviewed for consideration (something that would have to be requested from that player). I believe something like this would easily empower users. If the account was hacked, most likely the hacker would also abandon the account (as opposed to requesting to be unflagged again) in which case the real player might get a chance to reset their standing as opposed to being permanently banned. a moderator could easily determine if the flagging was legitimate upon review and take any necessary action.

Maybe what I'm thinking of currently is something the special task force already does. Or maybe it isn't and they should definately impliment it.

Perhaps the STF could purchase a small amount of Gil from these sites on various servers (I would start with legacy servers to hit rmt hardest) and receive the product on a GM toon. Once product is received that rmt is banned and the transaction reversed so they don't actually get squares money. After that the GM runs a search of every character who has ever traded or sent Gil to the rmt that was just banned. This will lead to the discovery of several auction house bots as well I suspect. The GM them bans all accounts proven to be giving the rmt selling account any Gil for little or nothing in return. Wide spread rmt genocide commences. Just a thought, and maybe they already do it, but something to think about.

I like how there was a maintenance, and they didn't prioritize this as an "important" issue to respond to.

I am sick of taking ages reporting the gold spammers manually and from what I've seen SE aren't even banning them while they still haven't added a quick option to report and block them despite asking them to add this feature with every report while also seeing numerous forum posts also asking for this feature. COME ON SE SORT THIS OUT! As quick as I block one spammer, another appears. Some are even sending tells, while many others are repeatedly spamming the chat channels often so quick that the window scrolls up almost constantly making it very difficult to copy the usually randomly generated name along with the evidence. If only SE would simply put a member of staff online travelling between cities who could ban people instantly they caught it would soon put a stop to it, if these spammers get banned quickly enough before they get a chance to sell much or anything they'd lose money as each account costs. SE should also ban anyone who gets caught buying gold from these people too and make an announcement stating that there will be a zero tolerance on this issue beforehand, if no-one ever bought gold off these spammers there wouldn't be any point in spamming FF XIV ARR any more, so in many ways the buyers are just as bad and they're also cheating which is unbalancing the game economy while giving them an unfair advantage over honest players. Obviously people who are banned should be-able to appeal and report cases where they've been hacked. SE should investigate and reinstate any innocent victims quickly after their account has been secured properly. I'm sure SE have methods to distinguish between hacked accounts and the actual gold seller accounts themselves. To ensure you don't become a gold seller hacked victim ensure you use a very secure password that you don't use for any other online service that is preferably a random combination of letters, numbers and special characters, plus ensure you keep your antivirus software up to date along with anti-keylogger software if possible (some good anti-virus software has this included).

The bottom line is SE need to act now, yet they haven't even made any announcements what-so-ever about the terrible gold spammer problem which is worrying as they seem to have their heads buried in sand at the moment and it's just not good enough. Also I've never ever seen an SE member of staff ever reply to any player started forum post, let alone regarding gold spamming, WHERE ARE THEY? WOULD A SE MEMBER OF STAFF LIKE TO REPLY TO THIS POST OR A MODERATOR? Do any staff ever read any of these forums, if so then please REPLY TO THIS to prove it? (this is a good test - if staff never read the forums then we're simply wasting our time trying to petition them here about anything!)

What annoys me is that on the PS3, it takes forever just to load the "report cheating" message window. By the time I can get it loaded, the message is gone. I actually have to write down names and messages on a separate sheet of paper (or on my laptop) because it takes a good 3-4 minutes to get the report window working. /blist "Name" or /blist <name> doesn't actually blacklist the spammers. It loads a separate blacklist window, that can also be slow to respond. Its to the point where I dread having to go into the cities.

/signed

Why even talk in zone chat?

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Originally Posted by DannyB

If a high number of people blacklist a name (say over 100?),

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Doesn't even need to be 100, only needs to be like 4. What I don't understand is why SE doesn't just utilize the blacklist data check the last 10 sent messages sent by that character for duplicate strings and then nuke the character. Every single one of the blacklisted bots I've run across so far (as in I found where they are standing in Gridania and Ul'dah ) are just standing there talking to themselves, which means the server is telling my client that they are still talking.

BTW, this is the tip of the iceburg. One of the most visible sites that carries hacks/bots for all mmo games has several for FFXIV already. I wish these people would get banned in a hurry (and this is likely a source of hacked accounts as well.)

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

Doesn't even need to be 100, only needs to be like 4.

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4 is too low unfortunately and way too easy to abuse.
"It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone's_formulation

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

What I don't understand is why SE doesn't just utilize the blacklist data check the last 10 sent messages sent by that character for duplicate strings and then nuke the character.

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2 reasons, first is that some players legitimately repeat themselves. EX: lvl 50 goldsmith looking for work! please send tell bla bla bla... and unfortunately, if they start to only use text pattern checks, the hackers will start to randomize their writing to bypass the system (ex: .c0m instead of .com). if its based on how often they spam, they will limit themselves or alternate the spam with multiple bots... As a programmer myself I can tell you that it will only escalate into an algorithm battle and SE will ultimately lose because there are WAY more spammers and hackers than there are developers and staff. Ultimately, SE developers may be tempted to restrict the game to keep things under control and the players are going to be the ones to suffer. Staff is expensive, especially for an operation like this that runs almost 24/7. I'm positive that customer support has their hands full just with the account hacking alone.

That's another reason why I am petitioning for them to empower the players. Not only are we all more than happy to provide the service of whistle blowing these asshats off the server, we are also willing to do it for free! SE just has to do a little filtering to make sure the whistle blowers are credible. This can be done with a simple point system. Ex: if 100 people expose a bot through our imaginative blacklist/report system, those people get a "whistle blower" credit. if it turns out it was just a bunch of jerks trying to bully someone into being silent, they get a negative point (in addition to losing their points). anyone with a negative point has little weight in future whistle blowing. Thus you have a method in place where players votes can be rated as trustworthy or not. over time, you might even be able to accurately pin point bots with much less votes if the players doing the reporting all have great whistle blower status. just my 2 cents anyway (ex: maybe only 10 people with over 10 points required). I'm glad you quoted me or I might not have thought to share that KisaiTenshi! :) [edit] Heck, SE can even reward players who successfully whistle blow bots out of the game with in game items like .. a whistle! or a stun gun! LOL. [\edit] This thread is gonna need a lot more attention for something like this to get implemented though.

Here is my best solution I can think of maybe if they would just hire people to play the game. In game GMs have worked wonders in the past by banning griefers and finding buggs. This would be the best possible solution maybe get some ppl who play the game to do it and you can compensate them with free playtime. I know I would volunteer in a quick second.

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Originally Posted by Demeos

Wanna get rid of gil sellers?

Add an in-game item that grants the redeemer a month of paid subscription that can be purchased directly from Square-Enix with real money and either used to pay for a month's subscription or sold to other players for gil. Square-Enix still gets paid their monthly fees and players with disposable in-game incomes get to save a little extra money each month, meanwhile the players who would be interested in spending real money for gil end up sending their money to the creators of the game instead of shady characters who'd just as soon turn around and rob you blind.

This in-game item should only be allowed to be sold to other players via the market. No direct trades. This should prevent scamming.

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This is what EverQuest did, and I am not joking when I say there are ZERO PLAT SELLERS. Why should there be when you can use loyalty token to get 16k plat with one item? Even EverQuest2 has things called Krono usable not only for game time, but you can put them up on the Auction House for other players to buy with their Plat. More coin in the market without flooding it.

Great idea.

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Originally Posted by Matrinka

What annoys me is that on the PS3, it takes forever just to load the "report cheating" message window. By the time I can get it loaded, the message is gone. I actually have to write down names and messages on a separate sheet of paper (or on my laptop) because it takes a good 3-4 minutes to get the report window working. /blist "Name" or /blist <name> doesn't actually blacklist the spammers. It loads a separate blacklist window, that can also be slow to respond. Its to the point where I dread having to go into the cities.

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This. Even on the pc and what a dev/mod said, the /blist <name> does NOT automatically blacklist the person. It brings up the window but that's it. Still have to manually put them in. So unless I am totally missing something, it's kinda fail.

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Originally Posted by pjcnet

snip

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They must be resorting to programs because my husband and I ... at the exact same time, from the exact same person, got a tell with the exact same message. There is no way you can do that w/o a program.

And I really feel bad for the people who have been hacked with the posts I see here. I will not insult them by saying they did this or that to deserve it, but some are saying that they might never get their account back. Wow ... that is horrible and uncalled for. I truly hope it gets worked out.

Lodestone said over 500 accounts were banned. I hope that number goes up BUT those caught in the crossfire are spared.

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Originally Posted by DannyB

Thanks.

~Danny

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Agreed. They should do what WoW implemented not to long ago and give 3min timer if you spam too much in chat. That will help slow them down at least. Its stopped ALOT of gold spamming in WoW.

I briefly glanced through this, however I would like to add to this and mention if we could please take volunteer GM's from the player base to enforce this.... I would gladly step up free of changer and monitor a city for a few hours. I play almost daily, and I am pretty sure if we had enough GMs we could eliminate this menace once and for all.

=Relain