Abuse of the Economy x10

Awoke this morning to 10 new messages in my email, an account closure for all my accounts I use to Multi-box, unfortunate.

I recently got into multiboxing about 2 weeks ago. Set up 9 new accounts and made 10 druids just to play around with and its a totally different gaming experience, I love it! Although getting all 10 of them closed because they believe I am selling them is a real bummer. I know people make these posts and are all "woe is me" and there is no way to prove that I am innocent as I'm just some guy online. Figured I would share my experience so here it is. I just submitted a ticket on my main telling them whats up so will report back on what happens.

Only thing I can think of is one night waiting on a friend of mine to do some profession stuff I put all my characters in bear form and spaced them out and was dancing with them, some people walked by and was like this is awesome and was joining in and having fun, but guess it just takes one person to report me because they are envious. Thought I was safe from any action because I am sure all that I am doing is legal. Using isboxer and Jamba, plus good bit other addons but none that automate anything.

We shall see what happens, take care friends and happy boxing!

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

Although getting all 10 of them closed because they believe I am selling them is a real bummer.

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First of all, "abuse of economy" has nothing to do with account selling, and second, Blizzard isn't going to pre-emptively ban you for something you haven't yet done. So, I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that Blizzard thinks you're selling your accounts, and has therefore banned you, unless I'm reading that statement incorrectly.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

Only thing I can think of is one night waiting on a friend of mine to do some profession stuff I put all my characters in bear form and spaced them out and was dancing with them, some people walked by and was like this is awesome and was joining in and having fun, but guess it just takes one person to report me because they are envious. Thought I was safe from any action because I am sure all that I am doing is legal. Using isboxer and Jamba, plus good bit other addons but none that automate anything.

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Again, nothing you describe here fits the bill of "abuse of economy." In addition to that, it most certainly takes more than one person to report you in order for anything to happen to your account, and even Blizzard has mentioned this on their own forum when replying to criticism of their report system.

Finally, "abuse of economy" has everything to do with—wait for it—the in-game economy, including gold management and auction house behavior. This also isn't an action that is tied to multiboxing specifically (no action is), as any player can abuse the economy and receive time off—you can Google this reason for account action and find no shortage of threads.

Account Action: Account Closure
Offense: Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy


This account was closed because it was involved, either directly or indirectly, with the unauthorized exchange of in-game property for "real-world" currency. This exchange detracts from the integrity of the World of Warcraft game environment.

This is straight from the email. Some guy was rambling off that I sell accounts and that is how I can afford them all whenever I was dancing with them. So I assumed that it had something to do with a player report and an automated closure process or just quick review. Im sure they get tons of reports a day and just figure close my account and if im guilty then i will accept it or if im innocent and fight back they would review it further. I use VPN at work as well as home so maybe the IP addressed looked fishy and they just assumed something bad was going on.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

Account Action: Account Closure
Offense: Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This account was closed because it was involved, either directly or indirectly, with the unauthorized exchange of in-game property for "real-world" currency. This exchange detracts from the integrity of the World of Warcraft game environment.

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Well, there's your reason right there... it states that you're involved, directly or indirectly, with selling gold or services for "real world" currency.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

Some guy was rambling off that I sell accounts and that is how I can afford them all whenever I was dancing with them. So I assumed that it had something to do with a player report and an automated closure process or just quick review. Im sure they get tons of reports a day and just figure close my account and if im guilty then i will accept it or if im innocent and fight back they would review it further.

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Blizzard wants people to pay their subscription fee because that's how they make money, and they're not banning people based on unsubstantiated claims made by someone who may have reported you in game. Have you ever reported a bot that was operating out in the game world, only to see that bot continue to operate for days or even weeks afterward? I think most players have experienced that, and that would indicate that it takes more than one player report, as well as Blizzard to come investigate the claim before any ban happens.

On the other hand, if you're sending large amounts of gold to people, including yourself, you could easily get your account flagged for that.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

I use VPN at work as well as home so maybe the IP addressed looked fishy and they just assumed something bad was going on.

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Yes, that would be a huge red flag, but using a VPN doesn't flag your account for "unauthorized exchange of in-game property for 'real-world' currency." It would, however, make it look like you're sharing your account with someone else, which is, of course, another actionable offense.

Well that sucks, I gather a lot and use jamba trade feature to get all the mats from my followers then put it in guild bank in which we make products out of then sell and put money back in guild bank. I can see how that would look like funneling gold but im not doing anything different than if we had 10 guild members who just loved gathering and giving mats to the guild.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

Well that sucks, I gather a lot and use jamba trade feature to get all the mats from my followers then put it in guild bank in which we make products out of then sell and put money back in guild bank. I can see how that would look like funneling gold but im not doing anything different than if we had 10 guild members who just loved gathering and giving mats to the guild.

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Well, if it's as innocent as you claim, then the appeal process should be super simple.

The Closure Emails are always generic and might have nothing directly to do with what you are being actioned for. This is to stop people working out specifically what they did wrong.

As MiRai said, use the appeal process. Remain calm with them. Explain your case and request that the action be reviewed.

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Originally Posted by Jabberie

The Closure Emails are always generic and might have nothing directly to do with what you are being actioned for. This is to stop people working out specifically what they did wrong.

As MiRai said, use the appeal process. Remain calm with them. Explain your case and request that the action be reviewed.

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Yeah that's what im doing, just awaiting a response from my tickets. Im very hopeful it will get fixed its just the wait is what sucks.

Update:

Got ticket responses from all different GMs most of them said they will further look into it but a few of them said straight out that the ban stays because of hacks or botting. Now that got me worried because I did no such thing, everything i have done would be stopped if i let go of the keyboard and mouse, i was very clear to stay within those rules. Also my main account apparently has not been banned, one of my boxes had two wow accounts made, one was a trial for some reason so thats why i had 10 ban emails.

Anyway all this has me very confused as i use no strange addons, only thing i can think of is the auto-trade for jamba? All my minions would trade into my main account so that might be why my main account was not closed? I will update once I get more information, I know I was not banned for multiboxing but something somewhere in my mix of stuff is throwing a flag for cheating.

How did you buy and fund the new accounts with gold or did you actually pay for them ?

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Originally Posted by Truelle

How did you buy and fund the new accounts with gold or did you actually pay for them ?

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Debit card, think one or two was from credit card. Yeah really sucks if I get banned for a technicality, I replied to the tickets that said it's final and asked them to please review further cuz it's worth the fight to me cuz I feel I did nothing wrong. Only thing I can fathom as botting or automation is the auto-trading which I figured is ok cuz it's kinda doing the same thing as dugi guide is when selling greys.

It's not the auto-trading. I've been sending materials and/or depositing into guild bank to sell from a dedicated banking alt for the last 10 years or so. Pretty sure most multiboxers do that, tradeskillmaster has the functionality as well. Its not for botting either. While we have no way to know for sure, botting gets a temporary ban and permanent ban is reserved for the abuse of the economy catchall.

I would look more at the VPN. If its public you're using a shared IP and somebody in the past could have sold gold or something using it.

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Originally Posted by JohnGabriel

It's not the auto-trading. I've been sending materials and/or depositing into guild bank to sell from a dedicated banking alt for the last 10 years or so. Pretty sure most multiboxers do that, tradeskillmaster has the functionality as well. Its not for botting either. While we have no way to know for sure, botting gets a temporary ban and permanent ban is reserved for the abuse of the economy catchall.

I would look more at the VPN. If its public you're using a shared IP and somebody in the past could have sold gold or something using it.

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That may be it because im running out of variables trying to track down how they assume im cheating, I use PIA and have it running just always and pay it no mind so i dont know when it changes IP addresses or not.

Here is a part of one of the emails:
"Thank you for your follow-up contact regarding the license WoW1 on this Blizzard account. This license was closed after one or more characters on the license were found to be using an unauthorized cheat program. These programs provide character benefits that are not achievable in the World of Warcraft through normal means.

Such benefits include character automation (also known as "botting"), increased speed, teleportation, running through walls or boundaries, and any other file modifications that alter the character appearance or spells. These types of programs offer an unfair advantage over other players and supersede the intended limits of the game."

Hopefully in the coming days they will open my accounts back up as i know this is in error, i have no fishy programs on my pc and it is strange that all my 9 boxes got banned all within the same minute but my main account was fine, they all use the same addons and launcher.

Also: main account is years old, 4 accounts are like 2 weeks old, and the last 5 are like 6 days old. Once i got the hand of boxing i bought the last 5 accounts and then 5 boosts for my first 5 so i can have 10 lvl 110 druids. I am doing ok for myself financially but that is still a kick in the gut. Feels bad man.

Out of curiosity, why the VPN? No need to answer if you'd rather not but just as someone above noted, when your connection address looks like someone else's or comes from an IP known to be associated with hackers/botters, you get potentially splattered. I'd also look through some of the previous (really long and tedious) threads about people being banned and learn how to appeal these as you only get a limited number of responses before they just perma-doghouse you, or so I've read.

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Originally Posted by Ughmahedhurtz

Out of curiosity, why the VPN? No need to answer if you'd rather not but just as someone above noted, when your connection address looks like someone else's or comes from an IP known to be associated with hackers/botters, you get potentially splattered. I'd also look through some of the previous (really long and tedious) threads about people being banned and learn how to appeal these as you only get a limited number of responses before they just perma-doghouse you, or so I've read.

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No reason really, just something that was good practice I was told. Im not gonna use it anymore since it causes this much trouble. I honestly thought this was gonna be a super simple process of just bunch of people reporting me and the autoban kicked in or something then the ban would be overturned. Still awaiting a response of their further review. Also if it was an IP thing wonder why my main didnt get canned, he was on the same computer and internet as the rest of them were.

Update:

Just received emails stating that my 7th, 4th, 3rd, and 10th box has been overturned as it was a false positive. Looking forward to the others coming back later today. Hopefully a few don't get handled by a GM who is against multiboxing.

Are they all on different Blizzard accounts or something? Rather odd that they are broken up like that otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Jabberie

Are they all on different Blizzard accounts or something? Rather odd that they are broken up like that otherwise.

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Yea I was unaware that you can have up to 8 wow accounts on one battle.net account when i started, so i used gmail alias feature so, email+wow2@gmail.com, email+wow3@gmail.com, and so forth and made 10 battle.net accounts. so all emails go to my main gmail account but i have 10 individual battle.net accounts one for each box.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

No reason really, just something that was good practice I was told.

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Good practice for what exactly? Surely this individual giving advice about VPN usage gave a reason for why you'd want to not only hide your actual IP when connecting to Blizzard's servers, but also have it change on a fairly regular basis?

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

Yea I was unaware that you can have up to 8 wow accounts on one battle.net account when i started, so i used gmail alias feature so, email+wow2@gmail.com, email+wow3@gmail.com, and so forth and made 10 battle.net accounts. so all emails go to my main gmail account but i have 10 individual battle.net accounts for each box.

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Blizzard will merge your accounts if you want them to.

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Originally Posted by MiRai

Good practice for what exactly? Surely this individual giving advice about VPN usage gave a reason for why you'd want to not only hide your actual IP when connecting to Blizzard's servers, but also have it change on a fairly regular basis?


Blizzard will merge your accounts if you want them to.

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I'm unsure, I have noticed it improve latency on a few occasions, i know that is typically not the case with VPNs but will definitely be turning it off for wow from now on, I can understand how it would cause issues for their logging purpose.

Once the dust settles from all this i will surely contact blizzard and get them to merge my accounts into two groups of 5, this surely will help smooth any issues in the future i hope.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

I'm unsure, I have noticed it improve latency on a few occasions

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Unless it was by happenstance routing around some sort of congested node, I can't imagine how a VPN could improve latency or throughput as it has the additional overhead of encrypting/decrypting everything that goes over it.

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Originally Posted by Ughmahedhurtz

Unless it was by happenstance routing around some sort of congested node, I can't imagine how a VPN could improve latency or throughput as it has the additional overhead of encrypting/decrypting everything that goes over it.

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I agree, i understand how the VPN works and typically it would be worse but pinging google through cmd with it on and off and with it on was like 30ms better so wasnt gonna argue with it lol. Even in the best cases tho 30 better ping is not worth me getting locked out wow for a few days so this will no longer be a issue in the future.

Hi guys. I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I have similar problem. I have wow1,wow2 and wow3, and 24 hours ago my wow3 got banned. Reason stated Offense: Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs (Hacks). Now problem is i don't have any hacks. I recently started multiboxing, few days ago, and multibox like a caveman- windowed mode, adjecent wows, follow command, then hover mouse everywhere with sole purpose of gathering herbs. I did install hotkey net few days ago briefly, tried it, it worked, but i figured out i don't need it ( also not 100% sure of gray areas) . Only 3rd party program was TSM app, and fairly standard addons. So OP, you're not only one confused. I wrote 2 tickets, only got 2 generic responses saying they did everything right and just.

I did use server hops, recreating my hetero realm party on server which has more herbs. Was this possible ban reason?

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Originally Posted by Chargelot

Hi guys. I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I have similar problem. I have wow1,wow2 and wow3, and 24 hours ago my wow3 got banned. Reason stated Offense: Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs (Hacks). Now problem is i don't have any hacks. I recently started multiboxing, few days ago, and multibox like a caveman- windowed mode, adjecent wows, follow command, then hover mouse everywhere with sole purpose of gathering herbs. I did install hotkey net few days ago briefly, tried it, it worked, but i figured out i don't need it ( also not 100% sure of gray areas) . Only 3rd party program was TSM app, and fairly standard addons. So OP, you're not only one confused. I wrote 2 tickets, only got 2 generic responses saying they did everything right and just.

I did use server hops, recreating my hetero realm party on server which has more herbs. Was this possible ban reason?

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Hmmm i am unsure, throughout the day I have been getting emails slowly turning over all my accounts, i just have two more that is waiting for them to look at, they wouldn't tell me the exact reason for the ban but one of the emails the GM said something about proxies so im 98% sure that my VPN was the reason for the ban. They said it was a false positive and accident and gave me a few days game time for my troubles. So im sure my other two accounts will come around shortly.

As for your case tho it does seem odd that only one of your accounts got banned, if you were using everything together like regular multiboxing then I would assume any fishy app would have affected all clients. I personally use Isboxer and just add-ons, only other app is the TSM app. Autohotkey i have installed for work purpose but i don't ever recall it running while i play wow, i'm not sure how they would look at that one. Sorry i can't be more help mate.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

Hmmm i am unsure, throughout the day I have been getting emails slowly turning over all my accounts, i just have two more that is waiting for them to look at, they wouldn't tell me the exact reason for the ban but one of the emails the GM said something about proxies so im 98% sure that my VPN was the reason for the ban. They said it was a false positive and accident and gave me a few days game time for my troubles. So im sure my other two accounts will come around shortly.

As for your case tho it does seem odd that only one of your accounts got banned, if you were using everything together like regular multiboxing then I would assume any fishy app would have affected all clients. I personally use Isboxer and just add-ons, only other app is the TSM app. Autohotkey i have installed for work purpose but i don't ever recall it running while i play wow, i'm not sure how they would look at that one. Sorry i can't be more help mate.

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How many tickets did you fill, and were they generic at first from their part?

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Originally Posted by MiRai

Blizzard will merge your accounts if you want them to.

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I went through this last year. It's not quite a merge... they will move WoW accounts to another bnet account, but any unique mounts, pets, etc., on the bnet being departed -- are lost. I know, not relevant to this case of 9 new accounts, but I wanted to clarify how the accounts get joined.

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Originally Posted by Chargelot

How many tickets did you fill, and were they generic at first from their part?

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First ones were pretty generic, woke up one morning and 9 out of my 10 accounts were banned, all emails came between 4:32 and 4:33 am, so im like WTF right cuz i was sure to follow all the rules, first thought was bunch of people reported me cuz i was dancing in bear form with all 10 accounts at brewfest in org. I saw it as playful and many other were having fun but figured that some people might be envious or just hate multiboxers and reported me in spite, that still may be what brought attention to me in the first place. Sorry im rambling.

The reason on all of them was "Offense: Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy", now that can mean a variety of things but "This account was closed because it was involved, either directly or indirectly, with the unauthorized exchange of in-game property for "real-world" currency." was also included in the email so it seems at first thought they assumed i was either selling accounts or gold for irl money. Because all 10 of my accounts are on separate accounts (cuz i didnt know i could have more than one wow game on one account at the time) I had to send a ticket from each account so 9 in total. 6 of them came back saying they will look into my situation and 3 of them came back saying they stand with their decision and case closed. The 3 that said they were sticking to the ban i submitted another ticket saying, please look into it further as im 100% sure i did nothing wrong and my VPN may have thrown some flags. They responded with different GMs on the second ticket and sent it for review. Just now got the 8th one overturned a few min ago and down to just one more. I wish you best of luck and just dont be rude in the tickets, it seems some GMs are more quick to slam the ban hammer and some take more time and make sure things are correct. Just hope it wasn't some random command that went through one of your clients that they see as cheating.

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Originally Posted by Brandish

I went through this last year. It's not quite a merge... they will move WoW accounts to another bnet account, but any unique mounts, pets, etc., on the bnet being departed -- are lost. I know, not relevant to this case of 9 new accounts, but I wanted to clarify how the accounts get joined.

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Is it simple? Was thinking of calling them on the phone to do it sometime cuz it might get tricky with all my emails and what not, plus i can't put all 10 on one account so i will have to do 8/2 or 5/5 with them. Not really worried about the bind on account stuff as yeah they are all brand new and should be ok, i just better do it soon before i start getting things on them all lol.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

First ones were pretty generic, woke up one morning and 9 out of my 10 accounts were banned, all emails came between 4:32 and 4:33 am, so im like WTF right cuz i was sure to follow all the rules, first thought was bunch of people reported me cuz i was dancing in bear form with all 10 accounts at brewfest in org. I saw it as playful and many other were having fun but figured that some people might be envious or just hate multiboxers and reported me in spite, that still may be what brought attention to me in the first place. Sorry im rambling.

The reason on all of them was "Offense: Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy", now that can mean a variety of things but "This account was closed because it was involved, either directly or indirectly, with the unauthorized exchange of in-game property for "real-world" currency." was also included in the email so it seems at first thought they assumed i was either selling accounts or gold for irl money. Because all 10 of my accounts are on separate accounts (cuz i didnt know i could have more than one wow game on one account at the time) I had to send a ticket from each account so 9 in total. 6 of them came back saying they will look into my situation and 3 of them came back saying they stand with their decision and case closed. The 3 that said they were sticking to the ban i submitted another ticket saying, please look into it further as im 100% sure i did nothing wrong and my VPN may have thrown some flags. They responded with different GMs on the second ticket and sent it for review. Just now got the 8th one overturned a few min ago and down to just one more. I wish you best of luck and just dont be rude in the tickets, it seems some GMs are more quick to slam the ban hammer and some take more time and make sure things are correct. Just hope it wasn't some random command that went through one of your clients that they see as cheating.

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Thanks for lengthy reply. I don't know what to do. I tried to reason with them, told them everything, how i play, how i dont broadcast and do 1 click per char per action, all manual mouse movements, /follow for slaves. I can recover from current situation, but if I play why werent my other 2 accs banned card or push them forever, and they ban them too, its game over for me. :( . I was extremely surprised to see the ban message.

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Originally Posted by Chargelot

Thanks for lengthy reply. I don't know what to do. I tried to reason with them, told them everything, how i play, how i dont broadcast and do 1 click per char per action, all manual mouse movements, /follow for slaves. I can recover from current situation, but if I play why werent my other 2 accs banned card or push them forever, and they ban them too, its game over for me. :( . I was extremely surprised to see the ban message.

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I agree it is very odd that just one wow account of three on your bnet account was banned, hell when bans came on me i had one account with a starter account along with BFA account on one bnet account that i didnt even know i had and that was banned also, i never even played on the starter account.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

Is it simple? Was thinking of calling them on the phone to do it sometime cuz it might get tricky with all my emails and what not....

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My thoughts are that because your situation is intricate, that crafting a written ticket explaining your account layout, and your desired, resulting layout, might be the way to go.

It is a straightforward thing for them to do. If the opportunity presents itself on one of your existing tickets... maybe go into the issue there, saying how you thought you needed separate accounts and have since learned that you don't need them all separate, and the listing which two bnets you are keeping, along with which WoW accounts you want to end up on each.

Update:

Finally got all accounts back. They never told me what it was but im sure it had to do with using a VPN and my accounts being new, thats why my main was not affected.

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Originally Posted by Adexcidephanol

Update:

Finally got all accounts back. They never told me what it was but im sure it had to do with using a VPN and my accounts being new, thats why my main was not affected.

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I'm happy for you. Unfortunately my case got rejected 3 times in a row.

Good to hear, Adexcidephanol! Bummer that it happened, though.

Hello my fellow boxers, not trying to steal the thread but I too have this issue. I got a ban on 11 of my 14 accounts for the same reason abusing the economy. I was and I am still very confused on this matter. I have not receive or made any type of transaction on any of my accounts except buying licenses and time from Blizzard itself. I mean all my toons are sitting under 8k gold each I have not even purchase or sold anything in the A/H. At first I thought it was a ban due to reporting since I get the usual “ I will report you for botting, cheating” from my own faction. I went forward and submitted a ticket with my main account which I had since back in 09 and made it clear that I have not broken any rules as this game is a big stress relieve for me. Few hours later my main account which I submitted the ticket with was banned ������. I know for a fact I have not broken any rules as there are 0 transactions in all my accounts of any sort except related to Blizzard it self. After reading some posts a seen that VPN seems to come into the picture. I am serving in Korea and experience a lot of crashes when boxing the only thing that has helped this annoying issue is the VPN. I never had an issue until recently I strayed using VPN which has stopped all my boxing crashes.

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Originally Posted by Boxedonwow

After reading some posts a seen that VPN seems to come into the picture. I am serving in Korea and experience a lot of crashes when boxing the only thing that has helped this annoying issue is the VPN. I never had an issue until recently I strayed using VPN which has stopped all my boxing crashes.

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Just take a step back and consider what you look like for a second.

- 14 accounts;
- farming, most likely, like a bot;
- on god knows what IP address;

Explain your deployed and are using a vpn and cross your fingers.

I don’t even farm at all like 0 is just too tedious and boring for me I just do a lot of wpvp. I payed all my accounts through my card I never use or bought wow tokens. I did however explained that I used VPN since I am in Korea to help with the crashes. I set the VPN to LA since my server data center is there which allows me to play with out crashing.

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Originally Posted by Boxedonwow

I don’t even farm at all like 0 is just too tedious and boring for me I just do a lot of wpvp. I payed all my accounts through my card I never use or bought wow tokens. I did however explained that I used VPN since I am in Korea to help with the crashes. I set the VPN to LA since my server data center is there which allows me to play with out crashing.

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Then it's just a false positive due to the VPN then. Inform them that you were using a VPN and you should be fine.

I am on live chat with a GM right now. Well she unlocked one just 13 more to go ������������

On going update....10 year old main account re opened this is what Blizzard emailed me.

Greetings,

As part of our ongoing effort to combat exploitation and abusive behavior, Blizzard recently closed a World of Warcraft license on this Blizzard account.

After performing an additional review of the evidence considered in this action, we've determined that this closure was an error. We are reopening this license for play and hope you will accept our sincere apologies for the mistake.

It is our mission to make Blizzard a fun and safe environment for all players, and we are truly sorry that we affected your experience in this fashion. We are always refining our processes and we will learn from this experience as we continue in our ongoing efforts.

We look forward to your safe return to the game, and thank you for your patience and understanding.

Regards,

Customer Service