Four days ago i received a 14 days ban for gold buying even tho i never received any gold from anyone in the game, foolish me thought that PvPing the bot farmers in Silithus was gonna be a fun idea.
I’ve been trying to reach customer support from blizzard but i’m stuck with automatic responses, i’ve have done at least 8 Tickets but they seem to not read anything about my case and i’m not sure what should i do.
Of course i’ve never bought gold or anything that has to do with real money and it makes me mad as hell since i spent a lot of hours farming in Silithus for buying consumables on my alts. The only explanation i can get is that i received reports from bots because i’ve been PvPing the hell out of them in the Elemental Air farming spot in Silithus.
Since two weeks i’ve been playing a lot and farming a lot in Silithus, i used to do the typical Sandworm Meat + Herbalism route there but since some weeks prices are going down, so had to find something new.
I found out that there was a Elemental Air spot in Silithus so i thought myself hell yeah, why not?
Since i started doing it, i’ve encountered all the time at least 4-6 different Hunters/Mage 24 hours, which i presume are bots because they don’t have any reaction time.
Easy task i thought, i can clear PvP these dudes and then tag the mobs for it, easy. From time to time engaging to real PvP was really fun as well but i’ve encountered mostly just bots not reacting to anything so yeah, free kills free items why not?.
I’m really dissappointed about the customer service since no one has even read my tickets and they keep saying that it is already a final decision even though I’ve never received any evidence or real reason.
It’s just so unfair to receive such a thing without making anything for it, makes me wonder why i pay this game and spend so many hours if the company doesn’t even takes care of us.
Ps: i made this post in Reddit and someone recommended me to do it here. Link to Reddit
You did not get banned for reporting or “messing” with farming bots. Though, if you did harass players for example chat it could qualify for a social infraction.
Nowhere in your penalty does it mention “Penalty for reporting and/or messing with bots” so it throws almost the entire post out of the window. Such conspiracy theories are what distracts from the real reason:
Generally if they have compelling evidence they will keep you banned with the upheld template.
It is a real reason, one that you disagree with. But real nonetheless.
This means you did receive gold, in either a trade, mail or other way that is deemed suspicious. A blizzardian may take a look at it but its not guaranteed.
If let’s say you collected tainted gold from your mail recently it qualifies as RMT.
Edit: You opted to delete your reddit thread instead of editing there that you’ve received illegal gold. Therefore it is likely that it will continue to add to the pile of desinformation going around, sadly enough.
What you say or think someone else is not a factor on your own account issue. They’re not going to take what someone say at face value because they said so. The appeals team only goes by their internal logs and don’t give that out as that isn’t useful and make issues worse as the bot makers will want that info.
Even then, the parts I’ve bold, is them saying they have proof on their end and is 100% sure on their call on this. Posting here won’t affect their outcome, nor make it change.
Your ban has nothing to do with “getting reported by bots”. Nothing at all.
Your penalty is in the Anti-cheat category. Specifically for being the recipient of illicit gold. Either directly from a gold seller, or indirectly through someone else. Never take gold for anything from someone you don’t know, esp on low level alts.
Anti-cheat penalties are NOT triggered by reports. They are triggered by Blizzard’s anti-cheat software flagging your account.
Reports for cheating help the Hacks team research new botting methods, exploits, etc. Once those examples are researched and they know how to detect them, they program the Anti-Cheat software to flag the known cheating signatures. Just like antivirus software gets updated to detect new variants of malware and viruses.
While false positives DO happen, they are not common. That is what appeals are for though.
Again, nobody can get you penalized in the Anti-cheat category with JUST a report. Anti-cheat is handled by Blizzard’s anti cheat software.
I don’t know where the rumors came from about “bots” reporting you and causing a penalty, but it literally does not work that way. I suspect bot makers and cheat makers don’t want to admit that Blizzard’s anti cheat software actually does get updated and catch people.
You were given a reason. Your license received illicit gold that came directly from a gold seller, or indirectly from a gold seller. They trace the illicit gold and all the accounts involved get penalized. The gold sellers or repeat gold buyers get perma banned. Yours is a first time penalty and may have been a trade transaction where you got a large amount of gold from a level 1/10. Often used to move and launder gold.
You will not ever get the “evidence”. Blizzard does not share how their Anti-Cheat methods work and how they detect things - or when. Bot makers in particular would LOVE that kind of info to fine tune their botting software to evade detection. It is always a cat and mouse game. Blizz detects them, bans them, and they update and run until caught again.
Edit
The responses in Reddit demonstrate why Reddit is not a great place to go for information. The amount of mistaken assumptions, bad advice, etc is just … impressive. The GOOD advice you got was to post here. The CS forum is an Information Desk to help folks navigate the Support system, explain policies, and explain account services. There are no GMs here, but the Blues can explain your options and the policy you were penalized under.
Bonus, you get to learn that the anti-cheat system is NOT triggered by reports, it is triggered by Blizzard’s anti-cheat software flagging the account.