Something in my gut feels off with this so I need advice or help. Some druid randomly gave me 200k gold and said to stick something in trade. I was like ok whats going on well thanks. Well I went on about my night and later he PST me saying he thought I was someone else and ment to trade it to his friend. Seems very fishy to me. I dont want to get caught up in some BS gold scam or gold selling or some crap can someone please advise
If the gold was found to be illegitimately gained, then it will be removed from you, but if your account of what happened is true, then nothing more should happen to you. The person who did the trade with you would be the one in trouble. Blizzard follows the gold trail and removes the gold from the game if it is found to be falsely acquired. If you DID buy gold, then you have more important things to worry about. You would have given your credit card information to people who WILL use it for other nefarious deeds.
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i have never bought gold oh hell no i dont need to do that crap im just kinda freaked out by this at first i was like ok what kinda trade scam is this trying to steel from me like how u hear about people using weak auras to do stuff u know. I just figured it was beter safe then sorry to post about this cuz the uneasy feeling I got you know cover my butt. Im not rich by any means in wow and 200k isnt that much this toon has 900k and change now on it with that 200k and i have 1.77mil on this server so im not hurting but not rich
you’d think they’d know who their “friend” is.
…and it makes no sense that they’d ask their “friend” to trade a random item to make it appear like a legit trade.
feel free to open a ticket and report the situation if you’re uncomfortable.
if the account of the person who initiated the trade gets actioned, one would hope that blizzard also actions the accounts of anyone who was found to be on the receiving end of their trades…
Now post the sentence I stated right before the one you started with. If the OPs account is true, then they would not get in trouble. If it is false, then they would.
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that sentence is irrelevant… blizzard don’t contact people to ask for their version of events prior to actioning accounts.
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No, but they do investigate to see if action is necessary.
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investigating would only show that someone was on the receiving end of an apparently illicit trade.
…reporting it now, could save a lot of drama later on.
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I’m fairly certain they would look at all the logs around the trade, including chat logs between the 2.
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there was no prior chat, and based on everything i’ve garnered over the years, gold sellers keep their interactions with clients minimal, in an attempt to avoid detection.
i’m not sure what your goal is here.
if they have any concerns, they should open a ticket… regardless of how you feel.
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OK, what are you talking about? Yes, the OP should open a ticket, and not spend the gold. I never said they shouldn’t. Where you got that, I have no idea. I was telling the OP that IF their story is true, then they should have nothing to worry about, as Blizzard would investigate and be able to verify if it were or not. Please don’t try to put words in my mouth that I did not say.
you seemed to be attempting to discourage reporting, on the basis that “blizzard can see things”.
they can’t see what happens between people unless it’s happening via in game chat…
i’m not sure what you think there would be to see, other than a trade. 
Hey OP, what I’m writing here isn’t directed toward you or your situation. It’s just related to the convo that Jetsum and Nobully are having.
As for who would get in trouble, all Bliz can see is what happens in the game. From what’s been provided, two things have happened: a large sum of gold was traded, and there is some related chat claiming it was a mistake.
The issue here is that any in-game chat can be prearranged outside the game, meaning it was decided upon ahead of time to intentionally confound the investigation.
So in this case, with what is availavle to Bliz, no truth can be established. If the gold is from an illegitimate source, what was said in the chat really can’t be taken as truth, so there could very well be consequences for the gold recipient regardless of their situation.
If some random dude trades me 200k gold, I’m gonna say “thanks,” and go about my business. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and all that. And no, it’s inappropriate for me to then receive account action for taking the gold. I wouldn’t receive account action for taking the gold.
Neither you nor Jet have mentioned “foreknowledge,” which is the only important factor and the crux of the whole thing:
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If OP took 200k gold because it appeared out of thin air and was offered to him, then yes, they may get the gold removed if it is found that it came from nefarious sources, but no account action on the receiver’s end is warranted.
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If OP took 200k gold because they were involved in some shenanigans where they paid for the gold or were going to sell a grey item for that amount - or they simply knew the gold was bought/stolen - then yes, account action on the receiving end is warranted.
If dude comes up to me on the street and offers me $100, and I don’t know the dude, or know where he got it from, you’d best believe I am $100 richer on that day. Could the cops come take that $100? Sure! But if they had proof that I had no foreknowledge of where it came from, then I didn’t commit a crime.
However, if the cops have surveillance footage of me talking to the dude, then watching them knock over a liquor store or steal a purse and subsequently handing me $100, then yes, my “life account” should be actioned, and rightfully so. Same if the dude says, “this fell off the back of a truck,” or similar language.
I have been through this before in real life. Managing a business with a pawn-brokers license means I was in court half a dozen times over a decade to argue against receipt of stolen goods. Yes, we did the pawnbroker report, yes we gave up the merchandise, NO we didn’t have foreknowledge it was stolen.
Nor am I yours. You are including “information/proof” that wasn’t stated here. You have assumed with certainty that the OP was involved in a gold-selling transaction. That’s fair conjecture, but it’s 100% conjecture, as we should be taking what the OP said at face value.
Proceeding to argue the point based on pure conjecture is what escapes me. Jet has addressed the issue without conjecture; solely based on the information provided.
As the facts are stated:
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If OP was involved in shenanigans, they’ll get actioned. Seems like a far stretch to believe they were involved, though; why the heck would one come here after the fact and bring this up, then?
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If OP wasn’t involved in shenanigans, then they can keep the 200k and move on with their gaming life. If the 200k is “legal,” then so be it. If the 200k isn’t “legal” then it will be removed. There’s no need to worry on the part of the OP, either way.
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Further, if the OP truly isn’t involved, then there’s no chat, no proof, nothing to back up the fact that he received 200k “illegal” gold. No one is going to get an account action for receiving items sight unseen with no prior contact with the offering party. Will they get the gold removed? Possibly. That’s the end of the worry (“Does the gold stay or go?”)
No one has said this except you. If OP wants to report, then report. If they want to just move on, then they should just move on. It’s really up to them, and…
And as such, we should be giving the benefit of the doubt to players. That benefit is, “OP, you’ve done nothing wrong, go ahead and report if you are nervous, but don’t worry about receiving account action. You may lose the gold, though, if it was found to come from an illegal source.”
and you seem to be assuming that blizzard have “proof” that someone didn’t engage in a gold purchase (assuming that’s what the trader was doing)
…so if blizzard were to look into the accounts which had gold traded to them, all they’d see is the names of the gold recipients.
you know real world analogies don’t work well here.
in the real world, a person gets to plead their case in court.
in WoW, they get an account action, and the logs do the speaking… which is why i suggested to open a ticket.
if it was just some random person trading gold, hooray for the op’s windfall.
if not, it’s protection for them, and the account doing the trading gets actioned.
win/win.
Eh, I disagree. If used properly, they can be a big help, as everyone understands things like driving and basketball, while the inner workings of the report and penalty system may be confusing to many.
This is why I frequently use driving and sports as analogies, to quite a positive community response. As long as I continue to receive a largely positive response, I’ll continue using them, because it means people understand the points I am trying to make.
You’re right about the court thing, but I hadn’t discussed arguing one’s case yet (except for my personal anecdote about court.) I was talking about the moment where one either did - or didn’t - commit a crime, which is what the OP’s issue is. They are worried about whether they did - or didn’t - commit a crime.
Based on their OP, they didn’t.
So… we are in agreement, assuming of course that “protection” is an optional, personal choice:
If that is how the system worked, everytime illegitimate gold/goods were received, no action would be taken against the recipient because there was no in-game proof that it was illegitimate. There can’t be a benefit of the doubt in these situations unfortunately.
That said, proactively self reporting could result in leeway. But I wouldn’t phrase it as a definite to the someone looking for advice.
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If someone traded me 200k gold I would have closed the window, that’s just me I’m an honest person. I would have also explained I don’t know them and how they were mistaken.
“Never look a gift horse in the mouth”
I am leery of “gift horses” and I will look all up in that mouth. If this was a gold seller trading gold then it looks like you accepted the trade for the gold. Posting here doesn’t absolve you of being involved because you accepted the trade.
If they contacted you to get the gold back why didn’t you give it back to them instead of posting here? Greedy is greedy which can lead to consequences for those types of actions.
Just going to step in and say that speculating on how an investigation would play out only seems to be confusing the matter. I’m not going to go into our investigation processes, that’s not something we generally discuss here.
What I will say is that if a player opens a trade window, places in gold, and the trade is approved then the gold now belongs to the person they traded it to. The person they traded it to is under no obligation to return the gold if the trade was a mistake, but may return it if they wish to do so.
A Game Master would not get involved in an accidental trade like this unless there was a previously established agreement. Example:
“Hey I’m trading you 20 gold for XYZ”
[trades 200gold]
A Game Master may get involved in this case since there was a preset trade agreement to enforce.
That doesn’t sound like it was the case here, so I wouldn’t be worried about getting caught up in a gold scam (being reported for not giving the gold back).
If you are concerned that the person may have been a gold seller, you are welcome to create a ticket for the Game Masters.
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OP Put in a ticket, copy/paste what you’ve posted here in the ticket. The ticket should be under Cheating and just tell them everything that has happened and ask them to deal with the Gold situation with this player. Ask them to pull all the logs to.
If it’s scam or Gold seller, Blizzard will deal with it.
That being said I can understand your nervousness, I’d be a little freaked out if someone just came and opened up trade and put 200k to my character; to.
Because he’s nervous of getting involved in something shady from a Gold Seller or account thief. That’s why man. /seriously