Blizzards Gold Buying Policy

[xhopefullookx]

Okay if this is in the wrong section, I apologize in adavcne please just move me =)

So I was recently perma-b@ from Blizz servers for buying gold THREE years ago (yes it took them three years to find out)

In that length of time haven't they become stricter on gold buying?

3 years ago I know it was frowned upon but was it perma-bannable on the first offense?

If anyone is familiar with older gold buying policies please let me know! I want to fight this so I don't need to buy new keys and re-start my characters, thanks!

[Shank099]

How do you know it was from you buying gold 3 year ago?

[Multitask]

you def didint get banned from gold you bought 3 yrs ago.

[Shank099]

you def didint get banned from gold you bought 3 yrs ago.

That's what i was thinking, they wouldn't bother looking at stuff years ago. And unless they stated it directly, I don't know why you would think that.

[burton992]

What did the email they send you actually say?
Becasue theres no way you were banned for buying gold 3 years ago.

[xhopefullookx]

***Notice of Account Closure***

Account Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This account was closed because one or more characters were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for "real-world" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.

Even if this behavior is the result of a third party accessing the account instead of the registered user (for example, a friend, family member, or leveling service) then the account can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment..

I only bought gold ONCE, noone else knows my account info as I don't pay very often, I maybe activate for 3 - 5 mos out of the year and have the account payment history to back it up.

i literally just topped up my account when I got this email 3 days later.

Honestly i have not bought gold since 2007

[---TreMolitE---]

Call them you can probably get it back.

[Unholyshaman]

I would recommend calling them. Sometimes Blizzard do accidentally ban the wrong accounts. If they say yes the ban was meant for you, ask them if they can double check or if they can some how show you proof that you participated in such activities. Half the time they won't be arsed to look it up again and will just unban you.

If they do say it was from you buying gold 3 years ago tell them that this used to be your brother's account and last year he moved overseas and gave it to you or something.

[Inquality]

'abuse of the games economy' has nothing to do with buying/selling gold otherwise it would say 'ban for online trading activities'.

Usually they've probably got a sneaking suspicions that you've been botting and you put up like 50 auctions or so and thus abuse of the game economy.

My advice is to contact them either by phone or email - doesn't matter and say you plan to go on holiday and put up all your auctions so no time is wasted.

[xhopefullookx]

'abuse of the games economy' has nothing to do with buying/selling gold otherwise it would say 'ban for online trading activities'.

Usually they've probably got a sneaking suspicions that you've been botting and you put up like 50 auctions or so and thus abuse of the game economy.

My advice is to contact them either by phone or email - doesn't matter and say you plan to go on holiday and put up all your auctions so no time is wasted.

It says right in the email I posted "Trading ingame items (gold or loot) for real world money"

so no it was def. for buying gold

[Unholyshaman]

I would recommend calling them. Sometimes Blizzard do accidentally ban the wrong accounts. If they say yes the ban was meant for you, ask them if they can double check or if they can some how show you proof that you participated in such activities. Half the time they won't be arsed to look it up again and will just unban you.

If they do say it was from you buying gold 3 years ago tell them that this used to be your brother's account and last year he moved overseas and gave it to you or something.

Have you tried the suggestions I made?

[apmad]

Just simply call them I mean yeah you will have to wait on the phone for an hour before you ever get to talk to anyone, but if you have the proof and records as you said you should def call them up.

"Usually they've probably got a sneaking suspicions that you've been botting and you put up like 50 auctions or so and thus abuse of the game economy."

This I think is the most logical explanation because I have in fact been banned for this. I put up like 70ish auctions at one time and blizz was like WTF ban, however i didnt call them it was for 24 hours so i waited it out didnt feel like messing with blizz. but again this would explain your predicament

[xhopefullookx]

Shaman,

So far yours seems most logical, will attempt tomorrow

[Sekan]

'abuse of the games economy' has nothing to do with buying/selling gold otherwise it would say 'ban for online trading activities'.

I know you might think that, but, when I have gotten accounts selling gold banned, they give the same generic email about abuse of the game's economy.

"Usually they've probably got a sneaking suspicions that you've been botting and you put up like 50 auctions or so and thus abuse of the game economy."

This I think is the most logical explanation because I have in fact been banned for this. I put up like 70ish auctions at one time and blizz was like WTF ban[/COLOR]

I have 400+ auctions going on my bank alt all the time, and I've never been banned for that. (I've had other accounts banned, every time after trading gold but only after trading gold, whether by face-2-face, guild bank deposit, mail, or poorly-disquised overpriced AH item methods). Maybe the difference is if you never traded on the AH before and then suddenly jumped to 70 auctions, but I still doubt that was the cause. I think there's something else going on.

For instance, I wonder if either or both of you ever traded large amounts of gold to someone, looking like gold sellers to a probably automated system. I've heard stories such as of someone who gave a guild several thousand gold to get a raid run, then got banned. However their system works, I suspect it is mostly (perhaps entirely?) automated, down to little details like that I've received ban emails sent at exactly, precisely the same time (like exactly 4:00pm on both), something a human wouldn't do but an automated system would do.

On the accounts I have gotten banned for trading gold, so far in each case it occurred one to several days afterward. I really doubt they ever ban 3 years later, again suggesting something done more recently was the cause.

Also, by the way, I've heard that Blizzard doesn't give permanent (as opposed to temporary) bans for buying gold or at least not on the first offense. They give permanent bans for selling gold or botting.

Were you botting?

[Rigamortis]

I had this happen to me as well once, i just called as other stated and asked if which character. once they told me the name i laughed as it wasnt one i had previously. They clicked wrong button somewhere. I was unbanned and given 60 day card activation code to use.