I do think that if CC fraud is a big issue with buying/selling virtual crap, then it needs to be made more public (daily announcements and whatnot) in games that exclude it. IMO.
Agreed. This thread is the first I have heard about RMT as fraught with CC fraud. Why is it so hard for SOE to explicitly warn its customers about XYZ and ABC RMT firms? If these companies are operating in jurisdictions beyond SOE's reach then they are operating in jurisdictions from which they cannot fight back with defamation lawsuits, etc.
That said, not all RMT firms are crooks. The few times I have RMTed in the last few years I have never been defrauded (Paypal always) and was treated with superior customer respect. In fact, I am hard-pressed to come up with an example of better customer service.
Personal disclaimer: I am no longer affiliated with SOE. I've got no eggs in any basket related to SOE, LiveGamer, EQ2, Station Exchange, or any of that. I've got no reason to trash them, and I've got no reason to defend them.
I am going to jump in on a quick one here since I spent a good chunk of the most recent years of my professional life dealing with the subject of what I'll kindly call "institutional farmers" at all levels of the conflict, across both EQ and EQ2:
There are definitely institutional RMT companies that treat customers well. That said, what he describes is absolutely happening. It's something that's really picked up a lot over the past year.
Another thing that's picked up lately is where they ask for your uname/password and "they'll do the delivery for you to make it more convenient" and offer to kick in an extra 10% coin. Then they either strip the account or use you as a mule for passing a bunch of gold to other people.
Why not just say which companies are doing it? Couple reasons. First, there are lists of hundreds of disposable urls. Many of these "networks" are 20 reskins of the same site. eq2plat4cheap.com might be the "bad guy" one day, and it would be eq2pimpmyberserker.com the next. Looking at the eq2 spam filter's captured data is an education in itself.
Second, getting to even that unreliable level of identification is
highly unlikely.
At the time of finding out about the issue, on the vendor's end, what they get is a notification that a given charge(s) was charged back by Visa/MC. It would be on the vendor to call the customer and ask why they did that. No problem, we're still in the realm of doable. Here's where it gets better:
It would then be on the customer to A) be aware of what happened to them and B) respond truthfully ("Well, three months ago, I bought plat from eq2xyzplat.com, and now all these charges I never made showed up!")
Right.I imagine the conversation as going slightly differently: "Why did you just charge me for opening 50 accounts?! <pause> Of
course I've never bought coin! How dare you!"
(hint: because the institutionals made their 200 daily spam accounts today with your CC - Tangentially, this is why spammers keep showing up every day, despite there being hundreds of accts banned for it
daily. Your Credit Rating At Work.)
We now return you to the un-derailed conversation, already in progress.
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