Don't buy mogstation items from 3rd parties.

[Dustytome]

As per the recent announcement, be aware the only legitimate place to purchase the mogstation items and obtain gift codes is the mogstation itself. SE does not have any special wholesale deals with 3rd parties that allows them to not only sell items at low prices, but also profit off selling items for 50%+ off. They're going to start taking action now.

If you enter giveaways, pray the gift code was bought from the mogstation.

[Vahlnir]

I would think that this would be a matter of common sense but...obviously they need to warn certain people.

[Dustytome]

I would think that this would be a matter of common sense but...obviously they need to warn certain people.

Judging from past sale records available on at least one site, it's not. I will fully admit to being tempted myself months ago when the topic regarding using them popped up on reddit. Those are prices I would actually buy mogstation items (*cough* MARKETING!!!!) at, but I wasn't about to knowingly support fraud.

[BiffWellington]

I would think that this would be a matter of common sense but...obviously they need to warn certain people.

Different MMOs can often have very different rules regarding this sort of thing. In Everquest II, for example, you could buy pretty much anything from another player with cash. You could even buy someone's character! Or sell your own characters. It was all totally legal. I've never seen anything like that in any other MMO, although I do remember Diablo III (which I know is not an MMO, but still...) letting players buy and sell gear for real money. You try anything remotely similar in most games, though, and you will be banned.

With that in mind, I could easily imagine some other MMO entering into partnerships with third-party entities like that. Someone coming here from such an MMO might not be aware that SE doesn't do this.

My initial gut instinct is, yeah, of course that's not legitimate, but I can still imagine someone who does have some common sense falling for a scam like this, due to having a similar experience legitimately in some other game.

I appreciate Dustytome's warning, and think it is quite timely.

[CazzT]

I would think that this would be a matter of common sense but...obviously they need to warn certain people.

In the immortal words of Tataru... "Common sense isn't." (if she neve actually said that, it's something she would say)

[Gula]

I would think that this would be a matter of common sense but...obviously they need to warn certain people.

While not an mmo, imvu (ancient 3D chat platform) had absolutely ok RMT. They only cut it when introducing a way for users to make real money from imvu directly. But before that? Something like this wasn't even a concern. So no, not common sense, just how many people bothered to read all the legal documents before signing up.

[KageTokage]

It's unfortunate there isn't really any way for them to stop credit card chargeback fraud since it's also essential to the RMTers for creating their bot armies.

[Transient_Shadow]

It's unfortunate there isn't really any way for them to stop credit card chargeback fraud since it's also essential to the RMTers for creating their bot armies.

I always wondered how that stuff worked. It makes me sadder knowing now. Though if they take action I hope they don't go after people who honestly didn't know that they were gifted stuff bought in bad faith. I think one time I've been gifted an item a long time ago and now I worry weather or not it was bought legitimately.

[Dustytome]

Though if they take action I hope they don't go after people who honestly didn't know that they were gifted stuff bought in bad faith. I think one time I've been gifted an item a long time ago and now I worry weather or not it was bought legitimately.

Unfortunately they have no way to tell the difference and I'm sure most people would simply use that as an excuse if they themselves purchased an illegitimate item and got caught. They can either take no action, go pompei on offenders and hope it creates enough waves to halt the purchase of items or program around it to stop/minimize the issue.

One of the random ideas I had was to issue a unique random alphanumeric account id (ex: T3X42GP93) and use a direct gifting box you paste the id into when purchasing an item. That item will then go directly to the account. This means there's not a gift code that can float between a bunch of people so there's less to track. This also helps users that want to do giveaways avoid people creating multiple social accounts to enter by requiring the ID up front and voiding multiple entries for the same account id, benefiting both the company and the community. It would require a bit extra programming on the mogstation side for anything not account wide though as they'd need a queue for which character the person wants the item delivered to.

[thantaimetmoi]

Thanks for your info