bought gold, got warned by Blizzard... any tips so this doesn't happen again?

[sp0rff]

Bought 50K from someone on PA and a few hours later, Blizz sent me an email. I'd like to buy gold again in the future and do you guys have any tips for me so I don't get in trouble again (aside from don't buy gold)?

[Miksu]

If they use ingame mail to transfer you the gold, blizzard will probably notice. I suggest using guild bank to transfer the moneys.

[sp0rff]

It was face to face transfer.

The gold seller's toon was a Level 1 unguilded character so that might have contributed to the detection.

[Miksu]

Did the seller whisper you anything about the gold? Because if he did then that could be it :S

E: Also it is adviced to trade few items to the seller if you are doing f2f.

[sp0rff]

No, he didn't say anything. I was in Stormwind, he invited me to a party, he traded 50K gold (I didn't trade anything in return), and left.

Later that day, I got an email from Blizzard. I thought at first it was a scam email but I Googled it and Blizzard has been sending the exact same email since like 2011. This was my 2nd time buying gold on this account in a span of about 6 weeks. 30K the first time (last month) and 50K the second time.

I need about 20-25K more next month and I don't want to get my account in trouble but at the same time I need the gold lol! I'm too lazy to level up my garrison and do missions and what not and would just rather pay for gold.

[Cecu]

As Miksu gave you the tip - prepare and trade something in return.

It is obvious that Blizzard do not monitor manually every gold f2f trade with 7-8 million active accounts. But they do flag suspicious trades like the above, you described.

Just act with common sense, like trading something "valuable" for these 50k next time. Anything, which could have nice price on theory, but is dirty cheap nowadays:

- Random level green items (some are very expensive due to skin for transmog)
- The same apply random low-level blue weapon / armor - with the Heirlooms, most of them are going for less than 100g
- Any Battle Pet, caged or Bind on Use.
- Foods, Pots, trade materials etc.

But NOT gray items - they are still useless, beside their vendor cost!

Using one or mix of the above could bug the flag system pretty much! With this tactics, I have yet to get banned on my 6x gold-selling mule accounts! And most of them have sold f2f more than 500k in a year span.

Good luck next time!

P.S. Usually the seller should briefly inform you the above, but most of them seems to not care for their customers at all.

[rdruid69]

Do not use AH. Blizz is tracking AH now and I get banned for using AH to move gold from H to A... I wasn't even selling but I guess is karma or something lol

[xcureanddisease]

Dont worry about the email.. It was an automated message. You aren't in trouble. You set off a red flag by just accepting 50k like that. Next time take it in increments of 1,333 gold each trade.

[sp0rff]

- Random level green items (some are very expensive due to skin for transmog)
- The same apply random low-level blue weapon / armor - with the Heirlooms, most of them are going for less than 100g
- Any Battle Pet, caged or Bind on Use.
- Foods, Pots, trade materials etc.

Nice, thanks! Next time I'll go with a bunch of random gear to trade with.

[sp0rff]

Next time take it in increments of 1,333 gold each trade.

Is this really effective? 50K in increments of 1K each would take a long time. Would 10K each time trip the system? And do I have to wait a few mins in between each trade?

Seems like the above + trading random gear for "xmog purposes" would be best...

[Cecu]

Is this really effective? 50K in increments of 1K each would take a long time. Would 10K each time trip the system? And do I have to wait a few mins in between each trade?

Seems like the above + trading random gear for "xmog purposes" would be best...

The real flag is trading gold for nothing. As long as you trade for some stuff, both of you are not flagged.

The only exception is, when you buy from "shady" dealer, who had obtained the gold from high-risk source - like scamming, account hacking or fraud, etc. This gold sometimes have GM, following in short distance.

I have seen several gold buyers, complained about gold, removed from them, after they bought from such dealers.

[Stevy]

bad seller prolly botted & stolen gold

[Dartexx]

bad seller prolly botted & stolen gold

there isnt anything wrong with botted gold, they used to be only deleting the duped/scammed/stolen gold, but last two months or so it isnt the case any more. so ye, as suggested above - stick to guild bank trades or at least put some items in trade if its face to face.

[Honor777]

Best thing to do is find a good reliable gold seller (I found two) One of them actually trades me on a max lv. As others have said just trade something that is not trash/vendor junk and try to keep it under 50k when dealigngwith a lv 1

[DarkheartMMO]

Have to ask...are you sure the email was legit and not just a phishing scam?