I finally did it... disabled tells with busy status. RMT unbearably bad.

[OlyverW]

I ran an experiment yesterday I stayed logged in when I went to sleep and after 6.5 hours I got almost 30 tells. I went to work and came back and after 19 hours I had 114 tells. (I also had the same bot friend request me 4 times in that period and they would rescind it after some time and rerequest)

[Kyousha]

"Existence is reasonable. Let's make things better." What does that even mean??

Lol. Most/a lot of RMTs' first language isn't English. Although they're trying to entice you with the phrase, "Let's make things better (buy my gil)," all it's really doing is making everyone roll their eyes.

I have not had a account even deleted on my black list in a month.. It is like SE gave up on our server.

Square Enix doesn't delete characters with suspicious activity--they suspend them, in which case they won't show up as [DELETED] on your black list. If a player's name says [DELETED], then the player, themselves, deleted the character.

We all can give SE sugestions on how to deal with RMT and improve our spam experience, or SE could just instantly ban anyone who sends 100 tells to ppl at the same time... ...block tells and not being able to talk to our friends, it's SE's job.

Square Enix will never simply outright ban anyone for sending /tells to 100 people at the same time. Why? Because players' accounts get hacked. There have been many people who have had RMTs hack their account, log into their characters and start /shouting in zones. Other players report them and Square Enix suspends their account for RMT activity, even though the owners of the said accounts are innocent. I remember seeing several instances of these affected players post on these forums, complaining that they've tried to contact Square Enix about it, but their accounts were either never restored, or it took 6 months to do so. That's why they simply won't immediately ban anyone by using a filtration system that red-flags players who spam /tells in this way.

When you report someone for suspicious activity, Square Enix ACTUALLY investigates the issue. Don't tell me they don't, because they've posted on the forums several times explaining this. It's a lengthy process =P It's rare that a bot/RMT will be banned as quickly as anyone would like. Simply report the bot/RMT, and forget about it; you did your job, now let Square Enix do theirs and go about your daily life.

[Aivi_lo]

By the time my l Igging in had completed yesterday (ps3 so a bit slower) I had 3 rmt . I don't know why SE don't automatically block if a person gets blacklisted by 30 people in the space of 10 mins.

[tocsin]

I usually leave myself afk when I go to work, and after 9 hours usually I have about 250 tells in my chat.

I don't blacklist, I just ignore them.

its really not that hard. turn off the tell sound, place tells in a different chat, and ask players to send mog mail. then, every 4 hours or so check the log for any important tells.

alternatively, I heard that weird hunt program that people have been complaining about also has a tell filter for RMT. I don't use it myself, but it could be a viable thing for SE to *coughstealcough* integrate into its own systems.

and if you aren't on pc... pc master race.

[Luvbunny]

This issue is getting out of hand... I wonder why this has never been an issue in Japan server at all....It's weird.

[SCUBA_Instr]

Hi OlyverW, thanks for taking time to do this.

...19 hours...114 tells.

On Coeurl server 144 RMT/Day per player, and
about 5 malicious friend requests per day per player.

I'm reluctant to try this on Adamantoise, where we have it much worse.
RMT comes in bursts of 3 messages from 3 different spambots.
About 20 seconds later, some single spams arrive.
Looking at, and refreshing the Player Search reveals RMT character
(Level 1 GLD with nonsense names) changes every 2 seconds, as their
spam software constantly changes out characters. This constant character
changing runs continuous 24/7, it never stops.
[Keyword: Code Injection]

Over the last two months, the longest stretch without getting spammed is
averages about 7 minutes. The shortest time between spams is non-stop
saturation spamming lasting 2-3 minutes at a time.

Off hand, I would guess that if I ran your experiment I'd probably receive
about 100 per hour, each from different spambots.

Spambot software detects whether the
busy flag is up, and as soon as I take it down (to join party, etc.) a
spam flood hits. They're detecting logins again, soon as I log in,
in as little as 9 seconds, they hit hard with consecutive spams
from 3 different RMT bots.

Types of spams encountered on Adamantoise:

Normal RMT spamming - Self explanatory

Login Spamming - Spambot software detects logins and sends RMT flood
within seconds of character appearance.

Inability to Blacklist Spamming - Spambot software detects when
retainer is summoned or any other action that disables use of the blist macro,
and sends spam.

Punitive Spamming - Spambot software detects "pre-blacklisting,"* This is
where I take a look at newly created spambots listed on player search,
and blacklist them before they hit me. Spambot software detects this and
activates at least 3 other spambots to dole out punishment.

Revenge Spamming - Spambot owner doles out punishment for any defensive action taken by his victim.

Saturation Spamming - Continuous spams, each from a different spambot,
only stopped by the busy flag.

* Over a 6 week period, I experimented with looking at the player search,
and "pre-blacklisting" Lvl-1 GLD's with nonsense names before they hit me.
Each time I did this * 100% of the time, I got hit by multiple newly activated
spambots. [Keyword: Server-side code injection] Spambot software detects
pre-blacklisting and doles out punishment accordingly.

[Santherelle]

Dang Scuba. That is scary.

[Sandoria]

I think a good deal of this would be fixed with an account wide Blist. The RMT would have to buy new copies of the game to continuously send tells and that kind of money investment would likely get them to stop.

[Mirakumi]

I REALLY wish there was a click to blacklist. First of all some of these gilsellers have the most complicated names ever, and trying to type these names is like grinding nails against a chalkboard on a laptop. Especially since when I'm running through Limsa, ALWAYS its Limsa, I feel like they have a magical campfire they set up at limsa and wait for people.

I get friend invited. No, no friends for you.
Be my buddy? No! No friends for you!
Be my pal? $%$#%, where is his name, I can't click to ignore. Let me type this name up.
-You cannot get this add this name while busy. /NO I don't want to be friends.
- Tries to type enter name again, friend invite pops again.
MFer / busy status.

Hate Limsa.

[Mirakumi]

On another note, would like to see someone disable all chat but tells get a screenshot in to see how many tells you get in a span of 5 minutes.