Avoiding gold-selling scams

by Elizabeth Harper Jul 16th 2007 at 7:15PM

Tobold has an interesting post up on getting scammed by businesses claiming to sell in-game gold or items. While, yes, it's easy enough for them to take your money and hand you some in-game cash, it's easier still for them to take your money and then not bother doing anything else. (And try to explain that to your credit card company when you dispute the charges...) And once you've lost real money to such a scammer, what's your next recourse? Well, a lot of people will call customer service and complain -- Sony cited frequent customer service calls as one of the reasons they legitimized the trading business with their Station Exchange. But Blizzard's not going to be able to do anything but snicker when you call and complain that a gold-seller took your money and ran, so, really, buying gold could just leave you with a hole in your real and virtual pocket. The only way to be 100% sure you get what you pay for is obvious: don't buy gold in the first place.

Tags: gold, gold sellers, gold selling, GoldSellers, GoldSelling, scam, scams, tobold, world of warcraft, WorldOfWarcraft, wow

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cheats, Economy

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

terry Jul 17th 2007 2:34AM

this is an issue I've been struggling with. I want to buy gold, but how can I be sure I won't get screwed? I*E is the "biggest" gold seller, so I can assume they won't screw me, but I'd prefer to go with someone who had better prices. Blizzard, please just let it be legal!

Kyr Jul 16th 2007 8:29PM

Amen!

Bullsmilk Jul 16th 2007 9:13PM

First of all I love this site and I'm a member of ICftB. But I find something kinda funny about this article. This line: don't buy gold in the first place. Some of the first adds you see on top of the page you can buy WoW gold from. Just an observation

Monistatus Jul 17th 2007 12:48AM

@2:

Yeah, I'm sure the irony of people posting articles about NOT buying gold where the site itself places GOLD BUYING ADS is not lost on a LOT of people.

Until wowinsider puts their money where their mouths are and refuses to allow Gold selling ads, articles like this mean NOTHING.

Of course, we all know that won't happen, seeing that this site is part of the weblogs, inc network, which is owned by TimeWarner.

It's all about the $$$. Integrity be damned.

Jeff Jul 17th 2007 1:26AM

@2,3
The ads are put here by google. They see a site for WoW fans, and what companies do you think want the banner space? Wowinsider is against these ads, but you need to tell them the site names to get them on the ad blacklist.

Back on topic, it's hilarious going to the CS forums and laughing at the people complaining to Blizzard that gold sellers ripped them off.

mk Jul 17th 2007 1:59AM

@3: You seem a little put out about Google Ads, who has been demonstratively agnostic about whose links they put in regarding WoW. But it sounds as though you are not aware that you (yes, you!) can actually do something about this. It may not seem like much, but a post has been already been made to address what you need to do:

http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/02/15/help-wow-insider-fight-gold-and-powerleveling-ads/

Now, if there was only a way to give that method a more prominent link on the main page...

mk Jul 17th 2007 2:00AM

Heh. And Jeff beats me to it.

Teehee Jul 17th 2007 2:43AM

Teehee...
You just need a reliable Gold Seller, and its no problem at all. I wont promote mine here, but the one i am using is very safe.
They usually deliver within 2 hours - 3 days, and if its not possible to send the cash you've ordered, you get your money back.

yotix Jul 17th 2007 4:02AM

So on one hand, you claim to be against gold buying ... yet you post guides on how to buy gold safely?

Please don't.

Gold buyers are cheaters and liars -- Anyone who scams them, and/or reports them to Blizzard, does a huge service for the community of HONEST players.

nav Jul 17th 2007 4:40AM

@9 Did you read the post? Particularly the last line?

yotix Jul 17th 2007 7:41AM

#10
"How not to get swindled buying Heroin: (... hints on who to buy from and where ...) ... oh, and by the way, don't buy Heroin" ...

"How not to get caught at doping in pro sports: (hints on avoiding blood tests); Oh and BTW you shouldn't dope" ...

--> In the USA, it is even illegal to tell young people "if you use Ecstasy, drink a lot" - the underlying argument being that this warning makes young people use E.

So it's just pure Republican logic: Telling people that gold buyers are frauds will make them buy gold ... :-))

TotalBiscuit Jul 17th 2007 8:29AM

@7 How about you play the game like everyone else and stop resorting to cheating?

You want something? Work for it! A person's powerlevel should not be determined by how much RL cash they're willing to spend. Sounds like Secondlife would be more your thing...

On the Google-ads issue, while it's difficult to filter all the goldselling ads, code was developed and distributed months ago to help do just that, if only people would both to use it.

WoW Radio is a similar sized site to WoWinsider and we could stand to benefit substantially from Googleads due to our traffic, but we decided not to take em for the sole reason that Goldselling ads would invariably creep in. It's all about having some integrity. You cannot expect to be taken seriously on these kind of issues if you're not 'putting your money where your mouth is' and using honest advertisers rather than the easy-way out that is Googleads. Sure, it's easy, and it gives you a nice wad of cash, but at the cost of your integrity. It could be worse of course, WoWinsider could be plastered with gold-selling banners put there by the companies themselves, but more can be done to kick these dishonest companies out for good. From one fansite to another, consider that there are much more honest and reputable companies vying for your advertising space, you just have to open your eyes and look for them.

TB.

TB.

Attapooch Jul 17th 2007 9:32AM

It's ridiculously easy to earn gold in WOW, even in the now-dead old world.

I've got a 45 Rogue and not only do I already have my mount I've also got about 80 additional gold sitting on my banking alt.

If you're having a tough time getting gold, it's time to take a look at what you're doing wrong rather than time to think about how to cheat.

TotalBiscuit Jul 17th 2007 9:45AM

I'd agree with Attapooch. I made 400g in 2 hours yesterday simply farming primals. It's not difficult, just sit down with your favourite music (or WoW Radio podcast /shamelessplug) and grind it out. Sure, it's not the most fun you can have, but you'll be glad you did it. Gives you that warm fuzzy feeling of having a full coinpurse and having earned it honestly.

TB.

Mel Jul 17th 2007 9:59AM

You don't even have to grind, if that is too boring for you. I play the auctionhouse for an hour every day and have already earned an insane amount of gold with my lvl 48 toon (464 at the moment, to be exact). Not too difficult, it doesn't take too big a chunk our of your normal gameplay, and you (almost) cannot get ganked at the auction house. WIN! (Tip: auctioneer is your friend)

On the other hand, you need patience and brains, which most of the gold buyers don't have...

ben1778 Jul 17th 2007 10:36AM

You can make a ton of money on the AH immediately after each big patch that diables Auctioneer and WoWEcon. Auctioneer sometimes is slow to update their addon so its like a field day for those of us who play the AH regularly and actually already know the prices of thigns w/o Auctioneer.

So many people freak out when they lose their addons for pricing.

Paw Jul 17th 2007 11:06AM

I think that if you lost money to a gold scammer, then you got what was coming to you. Have a nice day.

And if you got burned by a scammer, you're likely also the type of a-hole who also likes running through the lowbie zones with your 70 premade ganking and griefing everyone 30+ levels below you because you're too chicken-****, or too lacking in any real ability to play the game, to head into the OUtlands where you belong. Oooo...such vigor!

Hopefully you will make the next banned list.

terry Jul 17th 2007 11:37AM

why does it have to be cheating to buy gold? I work all day and want to come home and have fun. Farming is not fun. I pay $15 bucks a month so I can play a fun game. If I can pay more to have more fun, why is that cheating? Yes I have the ability to do the work myself, but I would rather not. You can all cook your own food, is eating out cheating? You can all wash your own cars (if you have them), is paying someone else to do it cheating? doing your own landscaping, cleaning the house, growing vegitables. Why don't we stop all cheating? Because it makes life easier/more fun. Buying gold means I get to go to Kara more, get better gear faster, whatever it is I spend gold on. How does that hurt you?

TotalBiscuit Jul 17th 2007 1:22PM

"why does it have to be cheating to buy gold? I work all day and want to come home and have fun. Farming is not fun. I pay $15 bucks a month so I can play a fun game. If I can pay more to have more fun, why is that cheating? Yes I have the ability to do the work myself, but I would rather not. You can all cook your own food, is eating out cheating? You can all wash your own cars (if you have them), is paying someone else to do it cheating? doing your own landscaping, cleaning the house, growing vegitables. Why don't we stop all cheating? Because it makes life easier/more fun. Buying gold means I get to go to Kara more, get better gear faster, whatever it is I spend gold on. How does that hurt you?"

Well here's some faults in your argument. Gaming is supposed to be a level-playing field based on time invested and/or player-skill. Life isn't, k fine, big deal, but this is a virtual environment. For instance, I do not expect a rich Counterstrike player to have advantages over me simply because he has more money than I do. If he started every game with double armour, 300 health and the best weapons simply because he paid off some admin, would you ever argue that was fair? "But I don't want to spend the time to actually learn how to aim!". Tough.

Exactly the same principle. It's dishonest and dishonourable. Not only that, but by buying gold you're supporting sweat-shop style labour, feeding dishonest western corporations that profit off of someone else's work (Blizzard's code, Blizzard's game). Not ONLY that, but let's look at this from an economic perspective. Gold-farming causes more gold to enter the economy, more gold than would otherwise be there. More gold = less value for said gold = inflation. Inflation = higher costs, especially harmful for newer players. 'But you could go and farm it just like everyone else!' you say. Good luck with that with a million and one hunter bots hogging the spawns.

Not to mention the constant annoyance and spam from goldsellers.

A cheating culture is a dishonest culture. Such a spineless world that we live in.

TB.

terry Jul 17th 2007 2:32PM

explain how me buying the gold to get 5 primal mights so I can make a whitemend hood hurts you more than me spending hours farming the mats for it?

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