Banned for multiboxing-- finally overturned.

[Kayley]

Hello :D

So for the last 20 days i've been arguing with GM's via their online web ticket.
At first the reason for me being banned was real money trading. I've never sold gold, but I have been very generous. I make 2m a day comfortably so when it's a friends birthday I happily send a large amount as a gift.

I thought 'fair enough, it does seem a bit suss when someone (me) gives out 10m gold a month'-- so I explained this in the tickets and I was able to put a REAL LIFE name to each gold transfer as they were all my friends. Blizzard did another review... ban upheld. I argued for on/off for a week until they pretty much said "We won't be responding to any further queries regarding the ban".

Demanded to know the exact reason I was banned for as I proved them wrong with gold selling and another GM jumped in and said 'Third party software'. Third party software... well it's true I use Isboxer, so I launched into another defensive arguement pleading my case. 'Innerspace/Isboxer hasn't been officially endorsed but many blue posts give it the OK as long as you adhere to the ONE KEYPRESS - ONE ACTION rule'. Ignored and the GM who was managing my case would just autoclose it and merge it with my other ticket.

All 30 accounts were gone.. played since the vanilla..
I then thought I might aswell open a ticket on a second BNET that was auto-banned along with the rest (hadn't played on it in years, but it was banned). I combine my proof of NOT selling gold along with my innocent ISBOXER use. Thank fuck the GM managing this passed the ticket along to be reviewed.

8 FUCKING HOURS LATER I GET THE APOLOGY FOR BEING BANNED AND MY ACCOUNTS ALL REINSTATED HOLY SHIT IM HAPPY BUT SO FUCKING PISSED AT BLIZZARDS ORIGINAL SHITTY INVESTIGATIONS.

https://www.dual-boxing.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2037&stc=1

I will never know what triggered my accounts to be flagged.. but fuck.. what an adventure :|

[JohnGabriel]

Glad to hear your ban overturned. Looks like it was completely closed? Not like a year ban or anything but completely closed?

I would imagine if the ban was from trading gold maybe document in whispers right before you trade the gold so the GMs sure to see it.

Holy cow that's a lot of gold per day. Do you farm or is that just 30 doing orderhall missions? But holy cow that's a lot of gold.

[Missterious]

It's very encouraging to see that not all gaming companies' customer service people are fuckheads! You must have felt so awful during those two weeks!

I hope that whomever the Russians sell DBG to has some reasonable adults at the helm.

[Kayley]

Glad to hear your ban overturned. Looks like it was completely closed? Not like a year ban or anything but completely closed?

I would imagine if the ban was from trading gold maybe document in whispers right before you trade the gold so the GMs sure to see it.

Holy cow that's a lot of gold per day. Do you farm or is that just 30 doing orderhall missions? But holy cow that's a lot of gold.

Yeah straight up Ban. Like everything gone. Even accounts I hadn't played in a year were hit. Their initial reason as gold selling.. so I defended myself based on that.. then later they say 'oh it's third party software'.. I was fuming. Then when the GM refused to have it re-examined based on the new findings.. Ahhh I gave up. Thank goodness I decided (on a whim) to re-post my stuff on another bnet (that was banned too).

[omegared]

will they reimburse you for the 3 weeks you couldnt play?

[JohnGabriel]

Yeah straight up Ban. Like everything gone. Even accounts I hadn't played in a year were hit. Their initial reason as gold selling.. so I defended myself based on that.. then later they say 'oh it's third party software'.. I was fuming. Then when the GM refused to have it re-examined based on the new findings.. Ahhh I gave up. Thank goodness I decided (on a whim) to re-post my stuff on another bnet (that was banned too).

Unless they changed things again botters get short bans for first offense, then increasing from there if caught again. So to me doesn't seem like it was from third-party software but must have been from gold selling as their initial reason stated.

[WOWBOX40]

To me this just confirms that Blizzards methods of finding genuine cheaters are faulty... which it a major letdown.. and that they normally dont bother to do a more indepth analyze, once their initial "proper review / conclusion" (/bullshit! /caugh) has been made... this means your accounts are long gone. Its like they dont give a damn.


I also give people (strangers) gold every so often out of nowhere. I have plenty of gold. I have a personal rule that if i meet someone nice, i donate "200k to the first person of the day".

Ive traded 10s of millions of gold to friends over the years. But they are all on my battlenet friendslist aswell. Maybe that has "saved me".


It seems aswell that since you, once again, explained the goldtrading in details AND the fact that you used Isboxer...in your final ticket... show that they do infact not create "profiles or notes" on players. They seem totally clueless. We just closed 30 accounts, no big deal....clearly not a multiboxer....(are we really this stupid)... their system seem automated from the start.



It appears they have a lot of customer support people:
Some are total noobs.
Some are very skilled.

If you meet the noob one and all they read is "this is the report that proves this guy is a cheater", they will follow that to a "T" and just ban you, and move on to the next ticket. Should you appeal it and meet another noob...or two..in a row... congrats, you have now zero more attempts to try overturn it and they dont want to talk to you ever again..

On the other hand, if you meet a skilled customer person, with some knowledge about multiboxing... they could "escalate" your ticket to be reviewed higher up in the system...BUT...even up there noobs do exists.. So you have to complain like mad and dont give up. Customer service.....can be good....usually bad.

[JohnGabriel]

A possible option, last month they made b.net balance giftable.
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/21707369/blizzard-balance-gifting-now-available

Buy tokens to get balance and send that to your friends. That should keep you completely off their radar.

[Asterix]

Hello :D

I thought 'fair enough, it does seem a bit suss when someone (me) gives out 10m gold a month'-- so I explained this in the tickets and I was able to put a REAL LIFE name to each gold transfer as they were all my friends. Blizzard did another review... ban upheld. I argued for on/off for a week until they pretty much said "We won't be responding to any further queries regarding the ban".



I'm glad that in the end you get your accounts back although a bad feeling remains.

Just one little thing about the gold-selling stuff:
If you would have sold it via ebay, you'd know the whole name + address of your customer.
Therefore knowing a persons name + address doesn't mean that it is a friend of yours.

[Kayley]

That is true about the name being available to me if I sold it. However the large sums were given to friends on my BTAG list (they were also real-ID friends for at least 2months+) or guildies.

Seriously. To anyone caught up in a ban like this? make sure you get the EXACT reason you were banned- don't trust the automated email. Do NOT waste the few tickets they let you defend yourself with.

I was also quite cross and demanded the lost time be reinstated.. which they did no problem.
What made me so angry was the GM that kept autoclosing/denying me a chance to defend myself was the one who responded when everything was unbanned.. I wanted to just say NURRRRR NURRR YOU STUPID F*&K.

Make sure whatever addon you are using to relay messages is working. Take the extra time when farming to make it OBVIOUS you are a person.
I'm the kinda nub that puts on Bob's burgers or something, feet up on table spamming 1-2-3 lol without paying much attention... look what happened :|

[WOWBOX40]

What do you propose to do in order to show that you are a person?

Ive been "semi away from the monitors farming" since around october last year.
I have not noticed any obvious "bot checks" so far. Nor have i been directly contacted by a GM.
Im usually sitting in my living room chair or lying in bed reading books or watching tv, while i casually press some buttons on my keyboard with a 10 meter extension cable.
I have my alarm clock on my phone set, so i go back and check my monitors around every 30 min or so.

If they are running some kind of "bot analyzer" of players they want to investigate, to maybe also pick up patterns in a players keypresses, which can be pretty unique, or so ive heard. Well, i guess my keypresses are what they are. Included normal breaks, due to finger / arm fatique. The toons also go pretty quickly afk when i take small breaks, go to bathroom etcetc

[JohnGabriel]

Make sure whatever addon you are using to relay messages is working. Take the extra time when farming to make it OBVIOUS you are a person.
I'm the kinda nub that puts on Bob's burgers or something, feet up on table spamming 1-2-3 lol without paying much attention... look what happened :|

Were you online when it happened?

[Kayley]

Were you online when it happened?

Yes. I wasn't even farming at the time- I was camping Time lost proto drake with my gf -- which spawned 20 minutes after I was banned (FUUUU).

[d0z3rr]

can u send me gold plzzz thx

[JohnGabriel]

can u send me gold plzzz thx

Probably joking, but it brings up another question. What happened to OP's friends that received the gold? Were they banned as well?

[papapacioli]

I'm going through the same thing right now. I've submitted 6 tickets since yesterday asking for an explanation other than other players reported me for cheating. So called 'reviews' have been done to come to the same conclusion. No further requests on this topic will not be reviewed. I have literally had 0 say in the matter other than the tickets I submitted. Never got a message in game from a GM. Just kicked and told I was suspended for 6 months.

What were the magic words that got you to get through and actually talk to someone?

And congrats on the justice.

[Fat Tire]

A possible option, last month they made b.net balance giftable.
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/21707369/blizzard-balance-gifting-now-available

Buy tokens to get balance and send that to your friends. That should keep you completely off their radar.

This needs to be the standard.

...some of this shit doesn't pass the smell test.

I used to "give gold to my friends" too along time ago. They were the best of friends, they gave me money in return. Such good friends.

[JohnGabriel]

This needs to be the standard.

...some of this shit doesn't pass the smell test.

I used to "give gold to my friends" too along time ago. They were the best of friends, they gave me money in return. Such good friends.

The WoW token is set to become the next bitcoin.

[WOWBOX40]

It just dawned on me.. since last october, pretty hardcore stand still farming for hours almost daily.. not a single time have i been /w or directly contacted by a GM, nor teleported to a different location, to confirm im "here irl".

Granted, lots of other players do w me, but i dont have to respond, so 9/10 i never do.

Now i only quickly look at the small screens to see if one/some are either logged out, dead or have the "locked actionbars" (though this is very easy to spot right away, as my targetmacro wont target a new mob if the buttons are locked). So i dont bother so much to look for the very small "gm wants to talk to you prompt".

So i can conclude that GMs most likly use other means as "pri 1" in other to "verify" if illigal stuff going on, most likely some kind of analyze tool to register keypress patterns, which they will run for who know how long, in their investigation. Since they havent contacted me directly, ever. Also, reason because if they would contact me, i would then become aware that im being investigated.. which would be bad for their plans, i suppose.


There is a person on my server that is farming almost 24/7. He never respons to /w. I reported him around 2 weeks ago. Cant possibly be a single human being :p He is farming in a hidden phased area, so only a select few that happen to pass by by accident, can actually see him. He is still there. Annoying.. whatever software Blizzard is using, it should atleast account for the fact that players need to sleep sometimes etc.. Its possible to see the items he gets from drops via the guildpage news feed, it shows time stamps on each.

[Ritley]

They often do bot banning all at once in a massive wave. Just because he's safe right now doesn't mean they don't know or won't be banning him.

[WOWBOX40]

Ritley, i always assumed that this was software that played your character(s) while you were totally "afk", like those herb and mining bots.
I think it was back in january, i bought a ps4 bluetooth gamepad and a small "numpad keys only" keyboard, hoping i could use either while i was sitting in the living room pressing buttons. So i didnt have to carry the normal sized keyboard with me. I played with both for a couple hours, trying to fix them / change settings, but didnt figure it out. Sadly they both spammed keys like mad as soon as i pressed and holded down any button. So i ofcourse uninstalled them pronto. Would be a shame if i was suddenly banned "now" because of those few short hours way back. Im pretty sure they would be willing to overlook that though, in my eventual "complain". Time will tell i guess.

[ebony]

They often do bot banning all at once in a massive wave. Just because he's safe right now doesn't mean they don't know or won't be banning him.


normally they do this when they closing down gold selling, Maybe one your "friends" sold the gold to a 3rd party. Never trust in game friends with gold/items i got bitten a few times now!

[WOWBOX40]

Had a re-read on the Eula, was bored:



Consent to Monitor. WHILE RUNNING, THE PLATFORM (INCLUDING A GAME) MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER OR MOBILE DEVICE'S MEMORY FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING EITHER CONCURRENTLY WITH A GAME OR OUT OF PROCESS. AN "UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM" AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE PROHIBITED BY SECTION 1.C. ABOVE. IN THE EVENT THAT THE PLATFORM DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, (a) THE PLATFORM MAY COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE; AND/OR (b) BLIZZARD MAY EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER. Additionally, certain Games include a tool that will allow your computer system to forward information to Blizzard in the event that the Game crashes, including system and driver data, and by agreeing hereto you consent to Blizzard receiving and/or using this data.



The term “Platform,” as used in this Agreement, means and refers collectively, and at times individually, to (1) the Blizzard App Client software (formerly known as the “Battle.Net” Client), (2) the gaming services offered and administered by Blizzard in connection with the Blizzard App Client and the Games, (3) each of the Games (including any authorized mobile apps relating to the Games), (4) Blizzard’s Game-related websites and their associated forums, and (5) all features and components of each of them, whether installed or used on a computer or mobile device.



Eh... so if i use a laptop in bed, which has never had any games installed on it whatsoever.. its brand new, but i then go to the Blizzard official forums to read, they may be able to actually monitor my laptop? This laptop share a internet connection / router with the pcs i use to play wow on. Can they scan my laptop while i play wow on my main pcs? Even my cellphone? lol

What about other harddrives on my main pc?
Granted, i dont have any programs running from the other harddrives at all, its purely for storage, backups etc.





ok....MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER OR MOBILE DEVICE'S MEMORY FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING EITHER CONCURRENTLY WITH A GAME OR OUT OF PROCESS.

even "out of process"...so they can monitor 24/7 even if you dont play any blizzard game. Well, i do play some "other games" every now and then. Some of them are very hard and i dont have the time to finish them and also i wouldnt have the patience. So i guess any "trainers" i have used to finish those games, could be picked up by Blizzard haha. I assume they will know the difference though, software used for other games vs their games...hopefully.

Im starting to think i need create a big word file, where i document everything i have done so far and the stuff im doing next...just so i dont have to sit here for days to write a eventual complaint, should that day come (once a year i guess, that seem to be the time between each "bot ban wave").

[JohnGabriel]

If you never installed warden on your laptop they cant monitor your computer at all, no matter the forum you visit. How I read it, you'll need the platform running, ie the game open.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Had a re-read on the Eula, was bored:



Consent to Monitor. WHILE RUNNING, THE PLATFORM (INCLUDING A GAME) MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER OR MOBILE DEVICE'S MEMORY FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING EITHER CONCURRENTLY WITH A GAME OR OUT OF PROCESS. AN "UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM" AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE PROHIBITED BY SECTION 1.C. ABOVE. IN THE EVENT THAT THE PLATFORM DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, (a) THE PLATFORM MAY COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE; AND/OR (b) BLIZZARD MAY EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER. Additionally, certain Games include a tool that will allow your computer system to forward information to Blizzard in the event that the Game crashes, including system and driver data, and by agreeing hereto you consent to Blizzard receiving and/or using this data.



The term “Platform,” as used in this Agreement, means and refers collectively, and at times individually, to (1) the Blizzard App Client software (formerly known as the “Battle.Net” Client), (2) the gaming services offered and administered by Blizzard in connection with the Blizzard App Client and the Games, (3) each of the Games (including any authorized mobile apps relating to the Games), (4) Blizzard’s Game-related websites and their associated forums, and (5) all features and components of each of them, whether installed or used on a computer or mobile device.



Eh... so if i use a laptop in bed, which has never had any games installed on it whatsoever.. its brand new, but i then go to the Blizzard official forums to read, they may be able to actually monitor my laptop? This laptop share a internet connection / router with the pcs i use to play wow on. Can they scan my laptop while i play wow on my main pcs? Even my cellphone? lol

What about other harddrives on my main pc?
Granted, i dont have any programs running from the other harddrives at all, its purely for storage, backups etc.





ok....MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER OR MOBILE DEVICE'S MEMORY FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING EITHER CONCURRENTLY WITH A GAME OR OUT OF PROCESS.

even "out of process"...so they can monitor 24/7 even if you dont play any blizzard game. Well, i do play some "other games" every now and then. Some of them are very hard and i dont have the time to finish them and also i wouldnt have the patience. So i guess any "trainers" i have used to finish those games, could be picked up by Blizzard haha. I assume they will know the difference though, software used for other games vs their games...hopefully.

Im starting to think i need create a big word file, where i document everything i have done so far and the stuff im doing next...just so i dont have to sit here for days to write a eventual complaint, should that day come (once a year i guess, that seem to be the time between each "bot ban wave").
This is pretty much black helicopter conspiracy theory. I have no idea what else can be said about it as it's been beaten to death across pretty much every forum with a WoW section. I'd suggest creating another thread to discuss Blizzard mind control policies as this thread is beginning to develop more rabbit holes than I can keep track of.

[Kayley]

Probably joking, but it brings up another question. What happened to OP's friends that received the gold? Were they banned as well?

Nothing at all. I do mean it when I say I've been guilded with the same group/family/friends for years-- no gold was taken away; their accounts are fine.


I'm going through the same thing right now. I've submitted 6 tickets since yesterday asking for an explanation other than other players reported me for cheating. So called 'reviews' have been done to come to the same conclusion. No further requests on this topic will not be reviewed. I have literally had 0 say in the matter other than the tickets I submitted. Never got a message in game from a GM. Just kicked and told I was suspended for 6 months.

What were the magic words that got you to get through and actually talk to someone?

And congrats on the justice.

As I mentioned you need to find out EXACTLY what they are banning you for -because you only get a few ticket responses before they auto-ignore.
The GM's managing the case won't tell you unless you ask.


This needs to be the standard.

...some of this shit doesn't pass the smell test.

I used to "give gold to my friends" too along time ago. They were the best of friends, they gave me money in return. Such good friends.

lol, dork. These guys have been my online buddies since forever, so, no selling.


normally they do this when they closing down gold selling, Maybe one your "friends" sold the gold to a 3rd party. Never trust in game friends with gold/items i got bitten a few times now!

Fair point. However the gold was mostly by friends so that they could buy the 2m spider mount.

I know i'm 2 months late to my own thread.
They did a banwave on the 10th of july and I was left alone. I really have no idea why they pinged me the first time.