Hello, my account Willy#1525 was found to be suspended today for 14 days due to what the email is saying: “acquired gold through illicit means” and I know this is a mistake. I acquire gold by running and attended mutliple GDKPs, which are not against TOS, as well as being an active player on Grobbulus server since it came out 3 years ago. I believe i am apart of a targeted mass report campaign for the GDKPs I run / attend. Not only did Blizzard ban me, but my account is silenced, which leads me to beleive this. I also have many valuable items and gold capped characters that I cherish fondly, and that I worked very hard for. This account was created years and years ago, and as you can see from my history I have never been banned for this. This is a mistake and I am asking for the actions to be reversed. Thank you
If you wish to appeal a suspension or ban, the only way to do that is through a ticket. Please be sure to read the following article and submit a ticket through the website.
Keep in mind, you don’t know where the gold in GDKP runs comes from, and frequent participation can rope you into some territory you don’t want to be in.
That is now how it works though. Blizzard does not suspend or ban based on just reports, although that can escalate an account for investigation. They suspend based on the account in question having game logs showing that they engaged in activities that violated the rules. Such as receiving stolen or purchased gold. If you mean you can’t post on most of the forums, that is because you need an active license in good standing to post. A suspension should remove posting ability on most forums. A suspension for trading in illicit gold would have nothing to do with chat reports for text in game.
You are correct that they are not illegal. However they are not supported, and as such, when someone brings purchased gold to the GDKP and you receive it, you’re going to get caught up in the investigation and related account actions.
Appeal the account action, and they will look at your specific situation. This is one of those suspensions that can easily be overturned if everything is on the up and up on your end.
You are not.
You need to open a Support ticket to appeal the decision. This is not a method of contacting Support for any kind of appeal.
I see your appeal, but I’m not hopeful this will be overturned, Naaru.
You need to be extremely careful who you accept gold from - as well as where excess funds may be going in relation to GDKP runs.
GDKP runs might not be against the rules but like others have said you never know where that gold comes from. Best to avoid them at all costs!
You’re not the first to come here with a suspension from illicit gold acquired through GDKP runs, and probably won’t be the last. You’ve followed the proper course by submitting an appeal. It’s all you can do.
I also got hit with a 14 days suspension, same reason. I also didn’t buy gold, tried appealing, they told me no.
You can keep appealing until such time as they tell you to stop.
Did you run in GDKP runs? If so that could be the reason for your problem. Never know how people in these runs got the gold they are using. If it came from hacked accounts this could blow up in your face.
Yes it will, This is another way to combat gold sellers. If guilds and community groups get to the point they will not take gold for boosts or do them in fear of getting suspended or banned. Guess what it will impact the gold sellers.
I believe this is only for unsupported transactions! If you sell something on the AH and they buy it with stolen gold I do not believe they will go after you.
Remember boosts are allowed but they are unsupported.
The real life equivalent is buying items from someone in a van in an alley. If you buy stolen items, it’s still illegal even if you didn’t “know” they were stolen. While in real life people don’t usually get arrested just for possessing stolen items, at the very least the stolen items are usually taken away.
But yes, taking stolen gold, and using it to buy “boosts” while the people receiving the gold “claim they don’t know the gold was stolen”…there is a term for this. Money laundering.
Not entirely true. The AH has been used since day 1 to move illicit bought gold. Seller tells you to post a trash item for a silly high price (gold value). Gold seller buys the grey item and the AH gives you the gold. That can still be traced and people who receive gold in that way, esp a pattern of it, have been suspended or banned before. Those who really did not intend to do it, have had it reversed, but that is not always easy.
Indeed. Sometimes people get what they ask for. An in-depth appeal/review look at their accounts, and it turns up all sorts of shady dealings. Blizzard has the tools to trace gold, quite a way if they need to.
Suspensions and bans are not happening to people who somehow got illicit gold once from a run or AH. There is a pattern of behavior that Blizzard is reviewing and verifying.
I get that but if your selling a item that is worth the price someone pays for it then you should be good. Not talking about selling a vender trash item for 500k. Talking about BOE epics that can go for a pretty decent price.
Eh, we have had some situations here where someone who heavily uses the AH has ended up the recipient of stolen gold enough times to get suspended. I would wager they were selling expensive current expansion items in high demand. People using stolen/bought gold were buying them to gear up/raid.
If an investigation reveals that they really were not involved in organized selling/receiving gold, they can get usually overturned, or turned into just a suspension. The AH does not protect people though, so don’t ever think that it will. Sometimes if something is too good to be true, or feels shady, it is best avoided.
Then how can someone sell something like that and remain safe? I know in previous xpacs I used to farm and sell a lot of herbs and gems on the AH. Heck in Burning crusade that is how I got a few epic flying mounts/training.
Pattern of behavior. Dealing with shady people on a regular basis.
I just cleaned out my reagant banks on all my alts and sold off all profession mats prior to Legion except for a couple Cataclysm and Pandaria mats used to make bags. I sold a HUGE amount of stuff with no issues. Of course, I just listed all of my stuff on the AH normally.
I also wasn’t listing things for extravagently high prices or anything, just the “regular” price range for those particular items. I just wanted to get rid of stuff I no longer needed as I had a bunch of alts with nearly full reagant tabs.
This
If someone is just doing normal stuff, and has no specific patterns of behavior interacting with shady accounts, then nothing happens. However, if patterns emerge that may flag the account. Blizzard does not reveal how all that security stuff works exactly.
Because the things people are doing to “earn” this gold is unsupported -plain and simple. It hasn’t outright been banned, but it is something that poses a level of risk to everyone who participates in that unsupported transaction. Just like multiboxing is allowed (when folks follow what rules have been laid down by Blizzard), it is also unsupported. So those who make a mistake that puts them on the wrong side of the rules - whether knowingly or unknowingly - they’re also held accountable.
People selling boosts like this, the game wasn’t made for that. In a perfect world, people would play the game themselves. Earn those rewards by actually doing the things themselves, etc. Too much currency and too little time, or people who just don’t want to waste their effort or whatever the reason they’re purchasing or selling boosts - it is all still an unsupported transaction and not one that Blizzard has sanctioned.
So with it being that way, people get scammed out of their gold every single day. People receive stolen or illegal gold, every single day. That level of risk exists on both side of the coin. It doesn’t matter how rules are being broken, but if they are? There is a level of punishment involved for it.
Running GDKPs are a risky business. It is not a necessary practice in order to play the game. It is wholly your choice to put yourself at risk no matter if you’re the booster or the boostee.
And just so I’m not nuked for being anti-boost - I’ve bought boots. I just am very careful about who I choose to do business with and am very aware of the risks I take if I try out someone new.
I freely admit to being anti-boosting. I just realize that there is no way to ban the practice without HUGE amounts of micromanaging and regulation of trades between players, that would make the game a much worse place. So I accept its existence as a “necessary evil”. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it or agree with the practice.
…if that’s the case, couldn’t someone troll another player by just buying a bunch of gold off websites and telling the gold sellers to mail the illicit gold to their victim?
(…this has actually happened in another game that I play…)