RMT Enforcement - Something Interesting is happeneing

[Kosmos992k]

I generally watch the RMT action reports that SE published more or less once a week. Over time you get a feel for the pattern of banning RMT accounts.

Well, something has disrupted that pattern, and things are looking quite different right now.

IIRC the quick reporting option was added to the game with 3.4.

In the weeks running up to that we were seeing an average of 1050 accounts perma-banned for RMT advertising each week, and an average of 6120 accounts perma-banned for RMT/Illicit activity.

So there was a ratio of 1:6 between accounts banned for RMT Spamming and accounts banned for some other type of RMT or illicit activity.

After 3.4 was delivered along with the quick reporting option for RMT spam.

Since then, the average number of accounts per week being banned for RMT advertising has grown to 1575 a week, and the average number of accounts banned for RMT/Illicit activity has shot up to an average (over 7 weeks) of 15,195 accounts perma-banned for something other than RMT advertising. That ratio has grown to a 1:10 on average, and 1:28 in the most recent weekly report.

In fact, just after 3.4 arrived the numbers looked similar to the pre patch, but they have increased steadily over the last 5 weeks going from

9.059 -> 14,567 -> 19,980 -> 23,299 -> 28,080 (reported today)

In the 7 weeks since 3.4 was made live SE's RMT enforcement has resulted in 116,377 permanent account bans. Add in the bans from the start of September and you have approximately 150,000 permanent account bannings as a result of SE's enforcement efforts.

But, most interesting to me is the way that the number of accounts banned for something other than advertising has shot up, and is increasing week on week. 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 - widening the net so to speak.

Last night, I was in Uld'ah, and there were a couple of RMT accounts spamming '/say' messages around the retainer summoning bells and market boards I reported them, and I am sure others did too, by the time I logged off - a short while later - the spambots were silent again. So it seems others were reporting too.

It feels like the enhanced reporting capability has made it easier for SE to enforce their anti-RMT policy and forced some tactic changes on the part of the RMT organizations.

What do you think?

[TaranTatsuuchi]

I think it's interesting.

[Heliantheae]

I love these numbers. And it was an interesting read.

[Reptiletc]

There's only a handful of people in the dev team, but there are millions of us. Utilizing the community was the best decision they have made yet when it comes to combating a community issue.

[SenorPatty]

Well it shows that two things:

1) The RMT report function is working better than expected.

2) The sheer amount of accounts shown after the implementation of the RMT report function is quite frankly disheartening. It shows that even with this, there are still people out there poisoining the game's economy by essentially telling gold selling companies "we're here and we still want to use your services".

At this point, if these numbers do not shrink within the next couple of months, SE will be continuing a war of attrition that has the enemy not lacking in tenacity at all.

[mandodo69]

All I know is I have seen NO RMT on Cactuar in at least 2 months or so. No tells, shouts, say, nothin'. Even the city states are quiet. I was actually able, after 3 years, to turn on the "tells" sound. As far as bots, I have seen none for a while. The only ones I ever saw were these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVs...ESOyZ&index=19 and no, I have no clue why youtube let me keep in Pink Floyd song lol.

[Welsper59]

It feels like the enhanced reporting capability has made it easier for SE to enforce their anti-RMT policy and forced some tactic changes on the part of the RMT organizations.

What do you think?

It's possible, since something similar happened during XI's prime days. SE made some (temporarily) effective moves to combat certain types of RMT, the bans were abundant for a short while after. These things tend to lose their fire though sooner or later. Expect a decrease in effective bans, especially when RMT inevitably finds a way to circumvent SE's countermeasures.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the increased number is just attributed to more activity than before, rather than SE having done something internally to detect. Given RMT's history from my experience, their increased activity would attribute to preparations to increase the amount of gil they sell for cheaper prices. Possibly a winter sale promotion.

[myahele]

There's only a handful of people in the dev team, but there are millions of us. Utilizing the community was the best decision they have made yet when it comes to combating a community issue.

Last I heard it was only 3 people tasked with RMT investigation and banning

[Kosmos992k]

It's possible, since something similar happened during XI's prime days. SE made some (temporarily) effective moves to combat certain types of RMT, the bans were abundant for a short while after. These things tend to lose their fire though sooner or later. Expect a decrease in effective bans, especially when RMT inevitably finds a way to circumvent SE's countermeasures.

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.

[LaylaTsarra]

I haven't had to clear my blacklist in weeks. I rarely get a tell spam now from RMT. I do see shouts in the cities but I quickly report those too when I see them. It's certainly having an impact on my server from what I can see.