RMT Enforcement - Something Interesting is happeneing

[AlexanderThorolund]

I noticed this too, i too thought it was interesting to see a decline in people participating. It means players are understanding it's wrong and the bans are working. Progress on the problem.

[Kosmos992k]

Oct 12 4665
Oct 19 9059 (+4394)
Oct 26 14567 (+5508)
Nov 2 19980 (+5413)
Nov 9 23299 (+3319)
Nov 16 28080 (+4781)

Those differences between each week are close to the numbers we'd typically expect for single week bans.

I am hoping the numbers are the real numbers and not an error. Such an error existing for so long would be difficult to explain away and look very poor. That said, I think SE is sophisticate enough to realize that an intentional policy of inflating numbers like that would ultimately backfire on them.

BTW, I think that the total number of accounts that have received permanent bans for RMT advertising or illicit activity may be pushing a million accounts since ARR launched. I have a excel worksheet somewhere with most of the 1st 3 years RMT action summarized I'll find it and update it and repost once it's done.

Someone in another topic mentioned whether RMTs were using compromised accounts. Given the number of bans involved I have to conclude that the vast majority of RMT accounts are not compromised players, but either trials or paid accounts. Trial accounts come with limitations that prevent RMT from fully exploiting them, so I have to presume a lot of these are paid accounts.

One thing that might work in our favor is that any bots that are banned are a major set back to the RMT because of the obstacles in the way of getting bots all the way to Heavensward areas. So if any RMT manage to bot in Heavensward, they are definitely not please when those bots are banned.

I noticed this too, i too thought it was interesting to see a decline in people participating. It means players are understanding it's wrong and the bans are working. Progress on the problem.

I hope you are correct. If not, I think the next step needs to be some consequence to players beyond a suspension. Something that can galvanize the community against people who use the services provided by RMT.

[Niwashi]

Since we are seeing that increase in bans not in the advertising category, it seems that SE may have become better at tracing bots, or that the enhanced reporting has uncovered many more RMT accounts that could then be traced to others

I'd always been under the impression that the RMT companies already kept their advertising bots and gil gathering/selling bots completely separated, so that nothing could be traced from one group to the other. Either I was wrong about that, or else SE changed more than just the reporting feature we can see from our end. (I suspect the later.)

[Kosmos992k]

I'd always been under the impression that the RMT companies already kept their advertising bots and gil gathering/selling bots completely separated, so that nothing could be traced from one group to the other. Either I was wrong about that, or else SE changed more than just the reporting feature we can see from our end. (I suspect the later.)

I agree. I also wonder how easily the RMT can fully separate/hide their spam bot accounts. If they are running them from separate game accounts on the same clients or even the same subnet as they also run other accounts, then it may be possible to collect meta data on the client system, VPN, ISP, etc... that could be used to search for other accounts. Also, I am certain though that SE should by now have been able to establish certain behavioral traits that bots and other types of account share, to allow them to more swiftly locate and trace RMT.

To be honest, chasing down RMTs for a living actually carrie3s a certain appeal for this gamer. I spend so long looking at huge data sets trying to find patterns or anomolies while 'mining' information from the data, tracing RMTs would be right up my ally.

[HaelseMikiro]

My running totals so far on accounts banned, starting from the beginning of 2.0 until 16 Nov 2016

·Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT advertising: 133123
·Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 560373 (94985 in the last 5 weeks alone)

[Zhao]

One thing I know for sure, in Malboro at least, I have not seen a single /tell or /shout. /says are still present however.
Curiously, I have noticed a potential pattern with these advertisements in /say from many hours doing homework while logged in to chat with friends or waiting on a timer. Every so often, the character advertising in /say will rotate out with another one. I do not know the timing/duration, or even if this amount of time is consistent for that matter, but it sure feels pretty consistent. Despite being probably obvious, anyone care to confirm/actually time them?

[LineageRazor]

Curiously, I have noticed a potential pattern with these advertisements

While I have no idea whether it's true or not, here's a theory: RMT, now aware of the reporting function, now fields saybots in pairs. One of the bots does its /say spam while the other bot stays silent and listens. As soon as the active saybot becomes silent, the other bot knows that it has been silenced by player reports. When that happens, the silent bot starts speaking while the RMT computers retire the now-useless silenced bot and load a new bot into the game to take its place. The new bot stays silent and listens to the new active bot until IT becomes silenced, and so on and so forth.

This could explain why the text and timing remains the same while the actual bots speaking periodically change.

[Niwashi]

One thing I know for sure, in Malboro at least, I have not seen a single /tell or /shout. /says are still present however.

Same on Coeurl. I'm pretty sure that's because the new reporting/silencing feature is preventing individual spam bots from lasting very long. With a new, faster rate at which the RMT companies would need to keep replacing them, purchased accounts are no longer financially viable for spam. They've relegated the in-game advertising aspect to just their free-trial accounts, where they can afford to keep replacing them faster. Free trial accounts have access to /say, but not /tell or /shout.

Every so often, the character advertising in /say will rotate out with another one. I do not know the timing/duration, or even if this amount of time is consistent for that matter, but it sure feels pretty consistent. Despite being probably obvious, anyone care to confirm/actually time them?

That would fit the expected pattern. With the bots being silenced faster due to reporting, the RMT companies, wanting their spam to continue, would have to keep replacing them faster. I haven't timed how long individual ones last, though. Maybe I will this weekend if I don't get too busy.

[Zeonsilt]

Everyday i report from 5-7 to 15+ bots.
It's good to know that those reports are working.
p.s. Didn't received any /tell from bots on Cerberus too, after they implemented new report function.

[Welsper59]

Short of masking their names on tell, say or shout, I'm not sure what they can do to circumvent the quick reporting of the RMT spam accounts. They might further distance the spam accounts from the rest of their accounts, but if this is a war of attrition SE has shown that they continue to track RMT accounts effectively. Sometimes more effectively than others. Even using a VPN to mask your IP address there are still ways to identify accounts running on the same client (for example), which I am sure can be used to effectively trace accounts. Not to mention a wealth of behavioral information SE has collected that better enable them to trace RMT activity.

If people continue to report bots as well as the spammers - even though it takes a bit more effort to report 'bots, even a small % increase in bot reports would result in far more of the farming/crafting bots and other accounts being traced and eliminated.

Sometimes, it's not even a matter of finding a complex way around. Simple brute force can be enough to get by. RMT have already been doing that approach, by increasing the amount of bots on the servers they can do that with (advertising or otherwise). That decrease in bans for the future I mentioned was mostly referring to GMs/STF just becoming either demoralized or just unable to keep up. I mean, it's usually bots we're dealing with when it comes to RMT, not real people actively at their computers remaking characters (maybe even the accounts). Machines don't get tired of doing the same thing over and over.

Again, this is just from first-hand experience with companies like Blizzard and SE (during the XI era) and their approach to, along with results of, their efforts to combat RMT.