Goldsellers

[Ulgart]

When i last played lotro, goldseller activities was starting to increase. Now we have goldsellers spamming the world chat 6-7 times in 15-20 seconds. It is really annoying, they completely ruin the conversations that are going on. And how do they get the stuf they are selling, hacking accounts? It is imposible to get it by simply playing the game, way too slow!!
There is an eficient way to get rid of them, type something like "spam alert" or something else when they appear in chat. It will be imposible to keep it up.

Are you with me on this one? Remember you will contribute in making the lotro community the best there is!

[nanuk09]

It is annoying yes, but technically it's not gold selling why can you idiot's see that?

It's people selling store items either with stolen credit cards or from from Russians with buying low selling high as I believe they can buy much cheaper TP than EU/NA.

If it's the latter then SSG won't stop it.

I always wonder why people with low IQ play this game *shrugs*

[Ulgart]

It is annoying yes, but technically it's not gold selling why can you idiot's see that?

It's people selling store items either with stolen credit cards or from from Russians with buying low selling high as I believe they can buy much cheaper TP than EU/NA.

If it's the latter then SSG won't stop it.

I always wonder why people with low IQ play this game *shrugs*

Jeeeezes, did you get up wit the wrong leg today?

[nanuk09]

Jeeeezes, did you get up wit the wrong leg today?

Not my fault if you can't read properly!

But anyway merry Christmas fellow lotro fan.

[Ulgart]

Not my fault if you can't read properly!

But anyway merry Christmas fellow lotro fan.

Oh isnt it now?? Lol! Merry christmas to you as well.

[Hallandil]

It is annoying yes, but technically it's not gold selling why can you idiot's see that?

It's people selling store items either with stolen credit cards or from from Russians with buying low selling high as I believe they can buy much cheaper TP than EU/NA.

If it's the latter then SSG won't stop it.

I always wonder why people with low IQ play this game *shrugs*

That is literally gold selling. "Gold Spamming" refers to advertising 3rd party websites that involve trading in-game currency for real world transactions.

Not his fault you're a smartass that's failing to "smart"

[nanuk09]

That is literally gold selling. "Gold Spamming" refers to advertising 3rd party websites that involve trading in-game currency for real world transactions.

Not his fault you're a smartass that's failing to "smart"

Hmm.. But the thing is they are not selling gold.

But nice try at a come back, but you failed, sorry.

[Ulgart]

Hmm.. But the thing is they are not selling gold.

But nice try at a come back, but you failed, sorry.

So our little "come back" didnt work, but who cares? And who cares if the term isnt "technically right" becasue its not actual gold? The point is that they cant get what they are selling legally.

[nanuk09]

So our little "come back" didnt work, but who cares? And who cares if the term isnt "technically right" becasue its not actual gold? The point is that they cant get what they are selling legally.

Lol at you using an alt account to post.


But yes I agree it should stop. On another note I never seen this spam before mordor came out...

If people did not give them money it would stop.

[Hallandil]

Lol at you using an alt account to post.


But yes I agree it should stop. On another note I never seen this spam before mordor came out...

If people did not give them money it would stop.

Wow you're a special kind of person aren't you? I aint no alt account.

And if you read the spam? They DO offer to sell gold, alongside the various items. There is spam offering to sell 1000 gold for 3.50.

Might want to come off that pedastal before you bang your head on the ceiling. Also getting the vibe that you're actually one of the spammers here to gloat through a stolen account.

[Christian.S]

Gold selling won't be going away anytime soon. I expect it to be a part of normal game play in the near future

I am in the process of creating an article to be published on this very subject. Admittedly it will take some time as the proofs will be a challenge to obtain.

In no way do I endorse gold selling and all related,however for the inquisitive,doing a keyword search query will show you the trail.

[Khiris-Alder]

We are harassed by goldselling announces on Sirannon; they are now changing of avatars many times each day and it is no longer possible to control it with the ignore list.
Does SSG has any interest in it? If no why don't you succeed to control it where your predecessors actually did?

[Beorthnoth]

It's reaching the point where I think SSG are going to have to bite the bullet, and give a few selected players on each server the ability to block gold selling accounts as a GM can. Clearly, they would need to monitor bans issued by those players to prevent abuse of the system, but the numbers are clearly uncontrollable by the GM staff available. Maybe start by asking players who had been on one of the old Player Councils?

[kickman77]

It's reaching the point where I think SSG are going to have to bite the bullet, and give a few selected players on each server the ability to block gold selling accounts as a GM can. Clearly, they would need to monitor bans issued by those players to prevent abuse of the system, but the numbers are clearly uncontrollable by the GM staff available. Maybe start by asking players who had been on one of the old Player Councils?

I would leave Lotro forever if that happened and this is from someone on the old player councils.

There will be abuse no matter what. They can barely moderate their chat as it is, imagine if we had abbusive customers / players controlling it. The best bet as mentioned above is to stop store items from being sold for gold and than if they want to make money, sell them for direct cash as well in the lotro market and make those account bound unable to be sold. That way people have 2 options to purchase LP or cash and if you want to gift the item, use cash and give away the code. Also update the EULA to prohibit the sale of any type of codes (vip any lotro market code) bannable to both parties in game and than actually follow up and BAN the players breaking the rules not just give them a warning (as from what I am seeing in world chat people are actually buying from those sites and lotro simply gives them a "Please do not do that it is against the rules warning" (again do not know if true have just seen multiple people claiming this).

Taking these 2 steps will stop the gold sellers / spammers but....... SSG / Daybreak has proven they want quick $$$$$$$ and frankly I personally think they do not care. Just my opinions

[Gandie2]

I don't think the answer can come from the player base. Though I like to think I do my part.

I always 'right click on the offending msg in the chat window and chose 'chat' then 'report harassment'. This makes a simple report to the GM for action, and puts them on ignore.
I also then - send my own msg out warning people against using these services and informing people they can achieve the same thing buying TP with $$$ and then buying items from the store and selling them in game using mithril coins to send the bound store bought items.

I actual think I cut into the spammers and scammers business this way. Be nice if it was enough to put them out of business. But don't think it will.

I would like to see SSG take a more proactive approach. Use programming to auto mute these people until a GM can review and either lift the mute or perma ban.

I was thinking it should be easy to write a program that watches for certain key phases and words all these spammers use. But possible an easier and more reliable way would be to just go by the number of harassment reports. A toon gets 10 harassment reports in a min the program could mute that accounts ability to post in globble channels. The mute would last till a GM could review the case and either lift the mute or ban the account.

The only reason it is worth these peoples effort to make a new email, make a new account, level a new toon to 7 or what ever level we need be to use global chat is that they often can spend hours spamming chat. If every time they made a new account it was muted after 2 spams I believe they would stop making new accounts.

[DreamCreeper]

The people complaining about the gold spammers are more annoying than the spammers. I play on Landy, and it takes about one minute a week in total to deal with the spammers if I am trying for any reason to pay attention to chat. For awhile it was the fashion for people to post the numbers of their report tickets, as if the spammers (or anyone else) remotely care. If you are one of the people that did that, please don't reproduce.

For awhile we had a guy who was known for posting his kin recruitment in color text, and people would just completely lose their sh!t. I am at a loss as to how these people deal with any real issues in their lives.

[maartena]

The only way to stop gold seller spam is to attach a monetary value to global chat channels.

VIP: You get access to /world and other global chat channels as part of your subscription.
Premium: Spend money on anything just once, and you get /world and other global chat channels.
100% Free: Sorry, tough luck. Join a kin. Or.... BUY global chat channel access with a one-time $1 purchase.

Gold spammers can make unlimited email addresses.
And with those, Gold spammers can make unlimited accounts.
And to top it off, they can utilize a pool of VPN IP addresses SO big, its going to be impossible to ban them all.

But what they CANNOT do.... is generate credit cards that can ACTUALLY be charged $1 for /world chat access. They spam once, account gets banned AND the credit card they made the $1 purchase with.

Gold spammers will exhaust the accounts they have left quickly, and that's the end of that.....

[TearMaker]

The only way to stop gold seller spam is to attach a monetary value to global chat channels.


But what they CANNOT do.... is generate credit cards that can ACTUALLY be charged $1 for /world chat access. They spam once, account gets banned AND the credit card they made the $1 purchase with.

It's an interesting Idea that I don't think they would ever go for. They won't alienate a part of the community when this causes little impact on them.

What they really need to do is devalue all currency again apart from bound to account barter tokens. That way there is no real value to gold, you cannot trade store items except between your own account and this leaves you with the net result of zero gold/store item sellers.

Again they won't because it doesn't suit them to do anything. They aren't going to jeopardise their lootbox income.
A game with goldsellers perceives to be very popular and attracts investment from companies looking to invest in a game house.

[Obion]

I've all but given up on World and Trade channels. Put them in a separate tab so I don't have to see the constant barrage of these advertisements.
Really hope they go away soon.

[maartena]

I've all but given up on World and Trade channels. Put them in a separate tab so I don't have to see the constant barrage of these advertisements.
Really hope they go away soon.

This is what I do. I barely ever go to /world anymore.... if it isn't Gold selling spam, someone has spawned a political conversation and mud is being slung in all directions.... and the maturity level of /world users seems to be.... well, completely lacking from time to time. People even create accounts JUST to troll.

[yawumpus]

This is what I do. I barely ever go to /world anymore.... if it isn't Gold selling spam, someone has spawned a political conversation and mud is being slung in all directions.... and the maturity level of /world users seems to be.... well, completely lacking from time to time. People even create accounts JUST to troll.

I popped in on a different computer over the holidays and noticed that the goldspammers were selling gold close enough to the price you would expect for black steel keys (+2 mithril coins). No idea if the keys changed in price or SSG finally has the option to finish off the goldspammers (there can't be many fools willing to pay the spammers' price).