RMT spam fixes need to happen sooner then later

[kukurumei]

The easiest way is to do it the same way ad blockers do it.

Make a world subscription Blist, and then have an option to participate on this blist. And make a simple query that if 100 people has the same name on the blist, then it goes on the subscription, and automatically filtered.

Then all the team has to do is gather up that list weekly or something, and cross check their account logs. It's pretty easy to find a spammer in that, signs like deleting and creating characters daily, etc.

GMs is all good but come on, it's not like we haven't advance with annoyance-ware solutions.

[Kamaru]

The spamming is really brining down the quality of the game. How are people new to Square going believe that you'll be productive at anything and deliver quality service when you allow rampant ToS violation to continue for HOURS?? It does not cost that much money to hire a monkey server admin that has multiple accounts open in the main cities where they can "investigate" (a.k.a. look at their monitor) and ban these people.

[Kamaru]

continued...

$8/hr * 24(hours) * 365(day) = ~70,000 a year to have a monkey sit and watch the screen (you could also outsource to lower your cost!). That is ~$6,000/month (rounded up so you can throw in some free bananas for the monkeys) or 500 subscription fees. I think there is about 50 server now? That's 5 subscriptions/per server to have someone take care of this crap 24/7. Also, I'd be very surprised if the RMT stuck around when their accounts get banned in 5 minutes. That means the cost will go down! Right now it's just open season. I'd like to believe that there is an "active" team to take care of the situation but this past weekend the same people were spamming in all 3 cities all weekend long on excalibur. It does not come down to anything less than being cheap and lazy on SE's part.


/rantoff

PS I love your game...this is issue is just ridiculous and doesn't make sense to me coming from an HR, customer service, and server administration background.

[Rautzen]

Greetings,

We would like to apologize for the inconveniences that RMT spam has been causing. We are diligently investigating any incoming reports or sightings of RMT shouts and banning them as soon as possible. In addition, we are working on speeding up the investigation flow.

We understand that the current RMT shout/spam reporting procedure can be improved so we are working our hardest to implement a system that is faster and easier to report/block violators. With that said, we sincerely appreciate the assistance from those of you who have been submitting reports as we work towards improving the system.

With the amount of time that I spend each day black listing and reporting the RMT bots can I just put down on my resume that I work for Square Enix & their Special Task Force?

[Welsper59]

snip

Does this also include the position hackers that are basically everywhere? I think those are just as much, if not more, of a priority, given that it'd be the source of the income they need to do transactions. Though in-your-face actions, like the spammers, can give the impression of it being more important. RMT are generally not as ignorant of themselves as people think. The accounts that are used for the bot gathering are often separate from the accounts that spam, as well as from the accounts that sell goods and accounts that hold funds.

[Ninjaii]

/rantsnip

PS I love your game...this is issue is just ridiculous and doesn't make sense to me coming from an HR, customer service, and server administration background.

lol u have that background and completely avoided the issue that these RMT are using stolen accounts and SE doesnt even know how they are getting stolen. RMT arent making new accounts and new characters to keep their /sh's going on servers that arent allowing new character creations...

[Ninjaii]

With the amount of time that I spend each day black listing and reporting the RMT bots can I just put down on my resume that I work for Square Enix & their Special Task Force?

Players are spending more time than GMs on the issue so why not?

[Kamaru]

lol u have that background and completely avoided the issue that these RMT are using stolen accounts and SE doesnt even know how they are getting stolen. RMT arent making new accounts and new characters to keep their /sh's going on servers that arent allowing new character creations...

Current list: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...06d0909189e479

Excalibur was open a few days ago but was recently closed off.

I'll tell you how most of the accounts are compromised.
First is database hacking. It's not very complicated if a website is not secured and they can harvest tons of data.

[Kamaru]

The second method is a little more creative.
Step 1: You visit a website or open an email attachment that contains code that installs a key logger on your computer. It doesn't have to be a porn site or some underground website that contain the code, it could be your grandma's cookie business website(but we'll come back this to in a min)
Step 2:All keys from your computer are logged and sent to a remote server for processing. The majority of the username/password processing is done via scripting so they will pull out your email, website, and program login credentials.
Step 3:Use your accounts to send out more "advertisements" via social media/email etc. If they see you logging in to manage a website they will take your credentials and inject code on your site so now grandma's site is infected as well.
And the process repeats via automation over and over while they harvest huge list.

[Kamaru]

THEN
They take the data and sell it, so most likely that's where RMT is getting their data. Though it's not impossible for them to be "hacking" SE's database, it's just A LOT less likely than the above. This isn't a SE problem, it's an end user problem.