44 replies to this topic

[ThisYOUniverse]

So yesterday I recorded a video of 2 people doing a macro trade scam on the official forums so that others could be on the look out for them and not get scammed. My thread got several replies from people saying they had gotten scammed by the same people, same items, same day, everything. Someone even posted a link to another thread about these guys.

I clicked the link and was going to post the video I recorded in that thread as well, but the reply button was greyed out... "weird," I thought, "maybe I got logged out or something." I look up and I'm still logged in, I scroll down to the quick reply box and it's missing and replaced by this message:

Quote

Your account has been banned for Other
Learn more

I click the "Learn more" link and I see:

Quote

ACCOUNT BANNED
Origination:  Forums / Comments
Ban Type:  Other
Expires:  Tuesday, September 18, 2012 4:27:10 PM PDT (in 2 hours, 4 minutes)
Ban Reason:  Suspended from the Battle.Net forums for calling out other players.
In game violations should not be discussed on the forums but reported through the proper channels found here: us.battle.net/support/en/ticket/submit

By: YOUniverse#1838Forum > General Discussion
Thread Title:
Trade Scams
Reply #1
Timestamp:
Sep 17, 2012 3:47:56 PM
So I see someone selling a Leoric's Signet for 28m simultaneously in Trade and General chat. I undercut his already low price with a 25m offer and he says okay. I tell him that I have to wait because I just bought the gold and it's processing on the RMAH, add him to friends, and begin to investigate...

120 hours played on a level 4 wizard in act 1 normal. I watch him logout and login to new chats, join parties with 2 - 3 people, then back to menus. Over and over. This goes on for 1.5 hours. I figure that's long enough to "process" right? Download FRAPS and join his game.

You can see his Barb friend join and show me the ring that was supposed to be for sale, then you can see him swap it for the legacy version of Leoric's Signet.

Watch out for this stuff guys.

Scammers: us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Splintershot-1451
us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/IWasTheFirst-1402/

VIDEO:

That's right, in attempt of help people not get scammed, I get banned from the forums for "calling out other players." I was told to make a support ticket so I did and I got 3 different GM's:

Quote

Greetings,

Hey there, I am Game Master Bucradas, and I have come to you today to touch base with you on your petition regarding your forums suspension.

Sadly, Game Masters are unable to review appeals for forums suspensions or bans.

You will need to contact forum@blizzard.com to appeal this suspension moving forward.

Sincerely,

Game Master Bucradas
Customer Service
Blizzard Entertainment
www.blizzard.com/support

Quote

Salutations

Game Master Xygerbi here! I want to thank you for bringing this concern regarding a forum ban to my attention. I appreciate your patience while investigating your issue.

With regards to another player's behaviour, we do not disclose any of our actions taken on another account due to privacy and legal concerns. We would not disclose anything we do to your account to anyone else, and we would not disclose anything we do to another account to anyone else. If you have any concerns regarding the actions taken on your account, please contact wowreportedpost@blizzard.com as they will be the one to handle these issues as they have the tools and support to do so.

I thank you for your time and wish you a wonderful day.

Cheers,

Game Master Xygerbi
Customer Services

Quote

Greetings,

I am Game Master Vousalan.  Sorry to hear about your problems with the forums.

You have contact the Game Master Dept. While we have total domain over the game world, the out of game world is out of our grasp. The forums are governed by a different group. You can contact them by e-mail only. Their address is forum@blizzard.com

Best of luck!

If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to request additional assistance by clicking the "Need More Help" button. On the other hand if you are all set, just press message read.


Regards,

Game Master Vousalan,
Blizzard Entertainment

www.worldofwarcraft.com

Well, "Splitershot" is still on friends list and guess what? He was online 2 minutes before I started typing this thread, after maintenance and talking to 3 GM's.

This is just 1 case and I'm sure there are many, many more like it.

Update: It's been 2 weeks. I logged on today and got a message...



GG Blizzard. Good fucking game.

UPDATE2:
I opened a new ticket with that screenshot that I added to the OP. They sent me back a boiler plate response about an entirely different scam:

Quote

Greetings,

Thank you for reporting this incident, as we are committed to making our games and Battle.net as enjoyable as possible. We appreciate your feedback. I will forward your report about this hack to the appropriate people. While I cannot guarantee a response, I can assure you it will be read and addressed.

Unfortunately, we cannot restore any items, no matter the cause. I am sorry for any inconveniences that this has caused you, but the only way to replace them is to find or trade for new ones.

The 3rd-party program that was downloaded (intentionally or not), installed a small program that controlled your mouse and caused your character to drop items. This is the specific reason we encourage players to avoid any type of add-on or 3rd-party program for Diablo III.

More information on the dangers of Third party programs can be found here: <http://us.battle.net.../article/200531>

Information on Virus Detection and Firewall Software can be found here: <http://us.battle.net...ticle/antivirus>

Please remember that the security of the account you are using is crucial. We recommend following the <http://us.battle.net...urity/checklist> on our Account Security site at <http://us.battle.net/security/>.

Regards,

Game Master Gaerwein
Customer Service
Blizzard Entertainment

www.blizzard.com/support

Never said anything about downloading anything or dropping items. I even included the video in the ticket with the screenshot. Clearly they didn't watch it either.

I replied:

Quote

I never said anything about downloading any 3rd party programs. Did you watch the video?

Quote

Greetings,

Thanks for bringing your concern to me today.  I can see the importance of this issue and I want to make sure we get it fully resolved. I'm here to help in any way I can.

I can understand coming from World of Warcraft that a certain level of support is expected for issues of this nature so I wanted to explain a few things that I hope can clarify our position on such requests.

We have a few articles on our support site that go over how we address things like restorations, scams, or account compromises.

<<http://us.battle.net...ii-restorations>>

<<http://us.battle.net...iii-scam-policy>>

<<http://us.battle.net...blo-iii-account>>

These policies outline our support for Diablo III, but please feel free to review those and even comment on them to leave feedback if you would like to see any type of specific change.

Due to the way Diablo 3 is designed and the support model being different than World of Warcraft, a Game Master’s hands are very limited when it comes to affecting the game itself. While we can help in some ways what you are asking about is not a service we currently offer for Diablo 3.

Now as a player myself, I understand the desire to have things fixed when you find a issue that has affected you.   But overall, Diablo III is a different type of game and has different support needs.  Since Diablo III is an Action RPG game, the level of support provided is not the same as an MMO-RPG, such as World of Warcraft.  I know this may take some getting used to, but I hope that I’ve provided enough information to make the transition a bit easier.

If for any reason you find more is needed then what information contained within to resolve this fully then feel free to respond to this letter if ingame from the need more help option or otherwise from the support site under my support.

Regards,

Game Master Zaterinn

Am I reading this wrong, or did they just say they will do nothing?

Edited by ThisYOUniverse, 30 September 2012 - 07:24 PM.

[Zakaz]

You were told to create a support ticket to report the in-game violation concerning a trade scam. Have you even done that yet? I see no mention of it here, nor in the original post you made. Making posts on the forums, while informative, isn't the most effective way to reduce these problems.

Blizzard enforces their rules without exception most of the time, and for good reason. If they make an exception for you, why not for the next guy? Why not for everyone? This becomes an issue particularly with legitimate players being defamed by someone upset for any number of reasons, many of which may not be legitimate reasons to attempt to defame their name.

I'm all for letting people know about scams, but do it correctly when on the official forums to avoid problems like this. Even side forums like this have guidelines that could net you trouble if you violate them, so be aware of those, as well. In the end, make sure you are reporting through the proper channels first and foremost, since those are what result in action the fastest.

[Jimo]

yea its a scam , blizz should do somthing like LEORIC'S SINGET and LEORIC'S SINGET [Leg.] like you have in AH

[xajten]

There's first of all no such thing as trade scamming (us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-scam-policy), you are responsible for pressing the Accept button after you see what the other party is offering. If you don't double-check then that's on you.

You've therefore defamed the reputation of two players on the forums for something that isn't a policy violation, and they weren't even successful in their trickery either, so even if this was considered a scam, no violation took place, double fail. Reporting this to customer support is therefore moot.

Be glad that you had the good sense to double-check the item before accepting and then move on with your life.

[BigEd781]

xajten, on 19 September 2012 - 08:52 PM, said:

There's first of all no such thing as trade scamming (us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-scam-policy), you are responsible for pressing the Accept button after you see what the other party is offering. If you don't double-check then that's on you.

Haha, yeah, ok.  When they design a UI that makes it really easy to screw people over then yes, trade scamming exists.  Don't be silly.

[Kayzer]

Just post their names on Diablo Fansites like so, then people will stay clear of them. Doing it on the official forums is against the rules.

[BigAinCA]

well, I will have to agree it is a scam. I would never complete a trade without first inspecting the item I was buying to ensure it is what it is supposed to be.

[RiddleEleven37]

xajten, on 19 September 2012 - 08:52 PM, said:

There's first of all no such thing as trade scamming (us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-scam-policy), you are responsible for pressing the Accept button after you see what the other party is offering. If you don't double-check then that's on you.

You've therefore defamed the reputation of two players on the forums for something that isn't a policy violation, and they weren't even successful in their trickery either, so even if this was considered a scam, no violation took place, double fail. Reporting this to customer support is therefore moot.

Be glad that you had the good sense to double-check the item before accepting and then move on with your life.

The ignorance you portray in this gave me a chuckle. If you think that the program used to quickly swap an item is the only scam out there then I assume you have not heard of the other scams going around such as the stack one in which the quantity of the item being bought reflects incorrect numbers in the trade screen.

There is a reason Blizzard is resorting to just telling people to avoid private trades and to use the AH. They are not doing anything about it and their actions lean to the opinion they do not care. All it would take would be a simple trade delay when an item is swapped to avoid things like this.

Edited by RiddleEleven37, 19 September 2012 - 09:24 PM.

[maka]

xajten, on 19 September 2012 - 08:52 PM, said:

There's first of all no such thing as trade scamming (us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-scam-policy), you are responsible for pressing the Accept button after you see what the other party is offering. If you don't double-check then that's on you.

You've therefore defamed the reputation of two players on the forums for something that isn't a policy violation, and they weren't even successful in their trickery either, so even if this was considered a scam, no violation took place, double fail. Reporting this to customer support is therefore moot.

Be glad that you had the good sense to double-check the item before accepting and then move on with your life.

Sorry about being blunt, but that's the kind of shitty attitude that got us (mankind) into the shitty place we are in today. I hope you're never in a position of real power.

[xajten]

maka, on 19 September 2012 - 10:20 PM, said:

Sorry about being blunt, but that's the kind of shitty attitude that got us (mankind) into the shitty place we are in today. I hope you're never in a position of real power.

I merely paraphrased the scam policy and forum code of conduct to offer some factual information about the specific situation the OP mentioned, offering none of my own personal opinion. Thank you however for personal attacks and for your own participation in that "shitty attitude" to help us further on our way toward that "shitty place" we're in.

[Avlli]

Could you give a link to topic @battle.net forum ?

[Bananaramaaah]

short answer to thread-title: no they dont..... it breaks games and blizzard punishes cheaters/bugabusers/scammers/hackers hard. it's been like that for a lot of years and their games get flooded with these people (because so many people play them...).

[Zakaz]

xajten, on 19 September 2012 - 10:37 PM, said:

maka, on 19 September 2012 - 10:20 PM, said:

Sorry about being blunt, but that's the kind of shitty attitude that got us (mankind) into the shitty place we are in today. I hope you're never in a position of real power.

I merely paraphrased the scam policy and forum code of conduct to offer some factual information about the specific situation the OP mentioned, offering none of my own personal opinion. Thank you however for personal attacks and for your own participation in that "shitty attitude" to help us further on our way toward that "shitty place" we're in.

Says the guy injecting rhetoric like "fail" and "move on with your life" as if those are mature, "paraphrased" bits completely necessary to your message.

Your attitude is shit. Begone.

[ThisYOUniverse]

Zakaz, on 19 September 2012 - 08:19 PM, said:

You were told to create a support ticket to report the in-game violation concerning a trade scam. Have you even done that yet? I see no mention of it here, nor in the original post you made. Making posts on the forums, while informative, isn't the most effective way to reduce these problems.

Blizzard enforces their rules without exception most of the time, and for good reason. If they make an exception for you, why not for the next guy? Why not for everyone? This becomes an issue particularly with legitimate players being defamed by someone upset for any number of reasons, many of which may not be legitimate reasons to attempt to defame their name.

I'm all for letting people know about scams, but do it correctly when on the official forums to avoid problems like this. Even side forums like this have guidelines that could net you trouble if you violate them, so be aware of those, as well. In the end, make sure you are reporting through the proper channels first and foremost, since those are what result in action the fastest.

I reported them twice. The first response about them is the 2nd blizzard reply. I replied to the last message that they were both currently online scamming people and to please investigate. They replied:

Quote

Greetings Robert!

This is Game Master Thrysurr, reporting for duty! I apologize about being unable to speak to you directly regarding this. I know conversations are better than a lengthy message but at times that is not always possible. However I understand that you wish to report the actions of another player.

I know how upsetting being thrust into situations like this can be. :\ I want you to know that I will personally look into this and make sure that the incident you reported is handled according to our policies, which may or may not involve a visit from the Draconid Enforcer Beat-down Squad™. Of course, due to privacy concerns, we will not be able to notify you of our findings; however, you may rest assured that any and all policy violations found will be actioned accordingly!

We have a new way to report other players that you may find to be breaking our policies to assist with speeding up the process! You can right click a player’s name in chat or by right clicking their portrait and choose the “Report Player” option. We have added several new options here to assist with gathering data the moment you report an incident to us. “Report Name” also includes offensive guild and arena team names. Give this a shot next time! You can find a short walkthrough of how to do this by going to the Support interface (the same window you submitted this ticket from) and clicking on “Report Player”.

In the meantime, I highly advise placing the offending party on ignore to prevent further undesirable contact!

If this player is attempting to bypass the ignore feature or another player has threatened to harm themselves or others, please do NOT use the "Report Player" feature and instead, open a ticket.

Thank you again for contacting us today!


Regards,

Game Master Thrysurr
Blizzard Entertainment
www.blizzard.com/support

Report a player is a joke. I reported them already and multiple times since. Guess what? Still online and that doesn't help protect people. It only protects the people running the scams and Blizzard P.R.

xajten, on 19 September 2012 - 08:52 PM, said:

There's first of all no such thing as trade scamming (us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-scam-policy), you are responsible for pressing the Accept button after you see what the other party is offering. If you don't double-check then that's on you.

You've therefore defamed the reputation of two players on the forums for something that isn't a policy violation, and they weren't even successful in their trickery either, so even if this was considered a scam, no violation took place, double fail. Reporting this to customer support is therefore moot.

Be glad that you had the good sense to double-check the item before accepting and then move on with your life.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is someone doing the scams. Splitershot is still online joining parties with people in act 1 normal. He messaged me that he saw my video so yeah. He either saw it here or on the bnet forums and reported me.

Avlli, on 19 September 2012 - 10:38 PM, said:

Could you give a link to topic @battle.net forum ?

They deleted the thread and banned my forum account for 24 hours. It doesn't exist.

[ThisYOUniverse]

Updated OP. GG Blizzard, GG.

[Bogok]

Good post +1
I also got hacked some months ago and i got a message saying: "We can't give you your gold or items back unless you can buy it from the vendor. But don't be mad <3"
Seriously? Buy gold back from vendor? telling me not to be mad?... Damn trolls.
BUT i love the game

[Nuvian]

You shouldn't have gotten banned, but you should have been warned, a public forum is not the place to " call out" someone, many will do it just to ruin someones reputation.

[ThisYOUniverse]

How much reputation does a level 4 caught on video trade scamming have?

[Nuvian]

ThisYOUniverse, on 28 September 2012 - 09:50 PM, said:

How much reputation does a level 4 caught on video trade scamming have?

Your ban was standard procedure, you violated a rule,you got banned, how they handle the info you posted has nothing to do with the fact that you broke a rule.

It sucks, but they cant really let the forum be flooded with topics like that, in most cases its just word vs word.

Moving this to the general discussion section.

[wwepatriot]

Nuvian, on 28 September 2012 - 09:55 PM, said:

ThisYOUniverse, on 28 September 2012 - 09:50 PM, said:

How much reputation does a level 4 caught on video trade scamming have?

Your ban was standard procedure, you violated a rule,you got banned, how they handle the info you posted has nothing to do with the fact that you broke a rule.

It sucks, but they cant really let the forum be flooded with topics like that, in most cases its just word vs word.

Moving this to the general discussion section.

No they let it be flooded with topics no one wants to see because its all related to Barbs and WW.

Is Blizzard protecting Scammers?

maybe.

I can tell you first hand in World of Warcraft back some time back their was some Gold Farmers/Sellers, Scammers, I have seen some of them go on for over a year, if they were ever banned, I dunno.

Look at Diablo II hardly anyone was banned in that game.

As you see in the chat in the OP, In game reporting does nothing.........It dont. It really dont.

Edited by wwepatriot, 29 September 2012 - 12:14 AM.