Alrighty, since the forum doesn't appear to have any sort of report button (not that i can see. tired atm) and pm box doesn't eitheerr...
List the account names of goldspam you've recieved, for easy bannage by the lovely GM Team.
Who, maybe, might look at this post and do a mass ban, or better yet, look up the ip's and ban them.
And no, this isn't a thread to discuss goldspam. Just see if we can get a gm response

- bdfgrtsdfd
- fdsetrgvsd
- gfjhyjhtyu
Literally xD. Maybe blocking letter combos' would be a good plan =/
Comments
carrillo
gfjhyjhtyu
Sent me a PM on how to waste $19 on energy credits
Anything resembling a gold spamming PM gets auto filtered away.
Circumventing the filter is against the rules.
That's how they'll catch them.
We just need to keep reporting the who sent it and what the message is, so it can be filtered.
Roscuro@Roscuro987
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE (preferred DEAD)
A few simple spam-catching rules:
- Be suspicious of messages with links in them - and do not allow hyperlinks in messages, this leads to spammers pretending to be Cryptic and directing people to an identical STO site to grab login details.
- Be suspicious of any message with non-letters in it, like $ £ ^ % # etc. ($ and £ for obvious reasons)
- Be suspicious of messages that have letters in the middle of words, for example g0ld, 3n3rgy, s3ll
These simple rules should filter out most spam messages, but Remember, there are two kinds of spam: 'legitimate' gold sellers, who actually sell currency, and Phishing scams.
Of the two, Phishing scams are the most horrible. Sure, gold sellers may ruin the economy of a game, but phishing scams can cost people *real* money that they weren't willing to part with. These are the most insidious scams anyone could hope to battle against, as it preys on the ignorance and stupidity of users. People join up to play a game, and don't expect their wallet to be targeted by anyone but the developer. That is a dangerous, but all too common, mindset, and it's up to the developer to inform and educate the end user. Even if it's just in subtle ways.
I used to work on an IT Help desk. I still get family and friends calling me asking about emails that turn out to be phishing scams. Even people who've had the benifit of my Safe Security lectures still can't identify for themselves a scam (and I end up with lots of panicked phonecalls to see if the email they got was a scam or not, it usually is)
As a developer, in order to maintain a level of security, you must treat your customers as ignorant fools who can't tell a phishing scam from a real ticket reply. Real ticket replies should have atleast some kind of unique image, or big flashing lights or something saying "THIS IS LEGITIMATE" on it.
Obviously, the biggest target for these kind of scams is WoW, and Blizzard have done alot to foil phishing scammers (if not gold farmers). Blizzards in-game mails have the Blizzard Logo as a header, and it's a great visual indicator that you can trust that mail.
I also can't stress enough the disabling of hyperlinks in all messages except Official messages, and big warning saying "Cryptic will never ask you for your name and password in a support ticket" would help too.
Imho gold farmers and MMO companies are working together, or even better mmo companies own gold farmer companies.
sdgryhng
Margar
ritamichel Ignored
letitiatifdgdfg Ignored
Bryantgf Ignored
Hartzvfgf Ignored
fdgytgdfert Ignored
rdhgvdrte Ignored
Scotgdfg Ignored
fdsetrgvsd Ignored
All offered gold, either in game or via mail
Quoted for truth.
M.
Melissar
Margar
fdsetrgvsd
all three sent my mail about buying cheap stogold and e-credits.
Bottom left of each post, to the right of their online status, is a triangle, looks like a red/white yield sign. That's the report button for that specific post. Hopefully the mods will overlook your violation of naming names. You obviously aren't looking to stir up trouble for a legit player. For future reference, use the Report Post button or PM a mod with names used ingame, including their @name.
Cheap_STO_Energy Conover Mo, 02/01/2010 - 06:43
Cheap_STO_Energy carrillo Mo, 02/01/2010 - 09:35
Stogold Johnfdg Mo, 02/01/2010 - 11:40
Stogold carrillo Mo, 02/01/2010 - 11:40
Cheap_STO_Energy feryhrt Mo, 02/01/2010 - 14:47
Stogold carrillo Mo, 02/01/2010 - 14:48
dfehyty
I cant see they can justify selling credits, its so easy to make them in game, just selling batteries through the replicator has netted me a small fortune
Please just "Right Click - Report Spam"
You actually think a thread of names is going to of any use whatsoever....
I am not meaning to be rude, but this is pointless, I know your intentions are good. I am sure that a spam report will also mark the account the character is based in.
Oh, replicator give a lower rate of return than a shop.. just a tip :-)
I've got these spam as PM, and here you have no settings to ignore or report.
Kind of disappointed with Cryptic that there hasn't been anything put in to stop them.
But I am sure in a week or 2 they will help fix the problem!
Also as PM.
BAN PLS?
- Get a list of offenders
- Watch them for a few months recording what the do, how they get money, and EVERY ONE involved in the operation
- Ban them all at one time (Eve banned something like 10000 accounts in one night)
- Put in checks that search for similar behavior of what you learned of how they exploit the system and alert you.
The spammers (ISK spammers as they are called in the Eve universe) are very detrimental to both players AND the company. When Eve did the massive ban of 10000 accounts, (which is about 2% of their playerbase) they found that the server load went down 33%! That means that 2% of accounts were using up 33% of the resources! Why? Because the accounts stayed logged in 24/7 using macros in certain areas and bogged down those entire areas and the severs in general. (There is an hour long presentation on the whole dynamics of how these ppl hurt the game for EVERY ONE)
Anyways first and foremost, we need an easy way to report these guys so they can start making a list...
~David
Says he will power level 1 through 10 for me for only 9$
There is a way. Just hit report spam ingame. Either right click the name if you see them spamming, or hit report spam in the maibox. It reports them to a GM, and also puts that account on your ignore list.
Stogold Melissar Mon, 02/01/2010 - 11:53
Cheap_STO_Energy tgrthgfj Mon, 02/01/2010 - 09:02
Cheap_STO_Energy gfdrytrfg Sun, 01/31/2010 - 19:51
Cheap_STO_Energy gfhsdfer Sun, 01/31/2010 - 16:03
Cheap_STO_Energy gfthtffd Sun, 01/31/2010 - 16:02
Cheap_STO_Energy Kaminsk Sun, 01/31/2010 - 15:03
Hellon hhndfbfg Sun, 01/31/2010 - 12:20
Hellon dfhgjdsd Sun, 01/31/2010 - 09:49
Cheap_STO_Energy Burnsfsdf Sun, 01/31/2010 - 04:19
Cheap_STO_Energy weigert Sun, 01/31/2010 - 02:43
Cheap_STO_Energy Margar Sun, 01/31/2010 - 01:12
Cheap_STO_Energy carrillo Sun, 01/31/2010 - 00:10
Cheap_STO_Energy Patefhsf Sat, 01/30/2010 - 19:40
Shame no way to do that from your inbox on site
Wow I leveled from 1 thorugh 10 just reading that, saved myself $9!
Cheap_STO_Energy carrillo Sun, 01/31/2010 - 23:46
Cheap_STO_Energy mghdfgrsdss Sun, 01/31/2010 - 13:02
Cheap_STO_Energy hainesworth Sun, 01/31/2010 - 11:56
Incredible and saddening.
the email does have a reporting function, look at the bottom of your inbox