Verification code for bots and RMT spam

[Ayasaki128]

I know everyone is tired about this and there are a lot of ideias about how to put a end in RMT, bots in Final Fantasy XIV.

Well... How about people can do something without a GM calling like report cheating or Special Task Force? For example: Send a verification code to a suspicious bot or RMT just clicking "send verification code" it's like send friend request or trade.

The verification code will work with some numbers and letters like:
You are unable to move or do some actions because Cloud Strife send a verification code to you, please type L4L4F3F3L to continue.

[Ayasaki128]

There are some things about this ideia to prevent the bad use:
1.Player who receive the verification code cant be attacked or receive any buff, debuff be attacked or receive cure.
2. There is a time limit of 10 minutes or more to answer verification code, but how about afk players? AFK status will deactivate time limit to prevent bad use in real players.
3. Verification code cant be used in duties.
4. Use of verification code to harm another players will receive a heavy punishment and should be reported via report harassment. Example: prevent player to attack hunts like Rank A or Rank S
5. You have 3 attempts to answer verification code, if you cant answer your account will be banned temporarily until a GM verify what's going on.

[Ayasaki128]

Good use of verification code:
1. Send player a /tell, if player is busy try contact him in Say, Yell, Shout mode
2. Player should warning other player about sending verification code before do it
3. Follow player for at least for 2 minutes.
4. if player received a /tell with RMT spam, he's allowed send verification code
5. Send him a informal verification code. Example: "Cecil, can you type P0T4T0 to verify if you are a bot or not, please?" wait at least 5 minutes for an answer

I dont know how GM investigate but if you receive a report due to bad verification code:
1. verify if player send /tell before
2. player who are mining, harvesting and killing things should answer /tell
3. players who are human and ignore /tell from players are unable to report
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Well... any ideias? if people make a good use about this tool, maybe it will help A LOT GM team and STF to banish RMT

PS: Sorry for the bad english.

[SirBrighton]

I honestly don't think SE is going to do anything about bots since they're generating revenue from them.
Think about how many bots there are farming dungeons, spiritbonding and spamming RMT messages, all worth an ARR account and monthly subscription.

Personally, I don't mind the spiritbonding bots, they do my dirty work for me and load up the market boards with lots of materia which drives the prices down.

[Bacent]

No matter what is suggested to keep RMTs at bay, they're just going to make a workaround to whatever is implemented. A lot of the accounts that RMTs use, are usually stolen accounts from people who go to shady sites to buy said gil, only for their account to be stolen in the long run.

(Also if you edit your first post, you bypass the 1000 character limit)

[Ayasaki128]

Personally, I don't mind the spiritbonding bots, they do my dirty work for me and load up the market boards with lots of materia which drives the prices down.

I sell materias and this "dirty job" affect me, and if there are bots doing spiritbonding they should be banned, no matter what if they pay subscription or not, crime is crime and they should pay for this!

A lot of the accounts that RMTs use, are usually stolen accounts from people who go to shady sites to buy said gil, only for their account to be stolen in the long run.

if they are hacked because they tried bought gil, it's not SE problem and these accounts should be banned too!
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it will be great if we have some power to take some actions against bots instead of only reporting. SE can try the verification code and see what will happen

[Bacent]

Well no duh the accounts should be banned, but it still won't stop the stupid players and just general idiots from buying gil. And remember, give too much power to players and they will abuse it (Vote kick system abuse out the arse already)


And remember, you're not the only person who sells materia

[Powe]

Well personally I like the idea, but will SE try something like this? Also there are actually ways a Bot can farm stuff and still show the AFK sign, so maybe improve that part

[Niet]

A bot would be able to solve that challenge really easily though. And if you put a CAPTCHA in there? It would be really trivial to have someone watching and just pop up a status window to request input of the code from the operator. Remember, most bots do not use the same game client that we do, they have their own client which lets them do things like drop underground or teleport around the map to each node for gathering. Also it doesn't hurt to think like a cheater once in a while

[Nyghtmarerobu]

While RMT can be a problem, you can never, ever stop them. You can add in all the counter measures you want, but you can not stop them, only control.