Blizzard fights scammers with TCG mount changes
by Robin Torres 
Jul 31st 2009 at 6:00PM
Blizzard has confirmed what we have speculated about: the change to make Upper Deck Trading Card Game mounts Bind-on-Use instead of BoP is specifically to combat scammers.
Currently, if you have a loot code, you redeem it and then "purchase" the mount from an NPC vendor. The mount immediately becomes soulbound. This two step process allows unscrupulous people to easily scam prospective mount buyers and subsequently hack their accounts. In patch 3.2, redeeming the code will automatically place the mount in your inventory, unsoulbound and available for legitimate in-game transactions.
Bornakk warns that if you have already redeemed a mount code, but have not purchased your mounts from the NPC, you will not be able to do so after 3.2. So it is important that you get your mounts before the patch is released, which could be as early as this Tuesday.
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Currently, if you have a loot code, you redeem it and then "purchase" the mount from an NPC vendor. The mount immediately becomes soulbound. This two step process allows unscrupulous people to easily scam prospective mount buyers and subsequently hack their accounts. In patch 3.2, redeeming the code will automatically place the mount in your inventory, unsoulbound and available for legitimate in-game transactions.
Bornakk warns that if you have already redeemed a mount code, but have not purchased your mounts from the NPC, you will not be able to do so after 3.2. So it is important that you get your mounts before the patch is released, which could be as early as this Tuesday.
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
purplezorlak Jul 31st 2009 6:19PM
No I'm no t going to say that stupid word.
So 200,000g, 15g each elemental... yeah I'll get my mount well into next century.
Seaborn Aug 1st 2009 11:51AM
I hope the prices stay real high on these. They need to be kept rare imo. People need to realize that WoW is a capitalist game and prices will never be too high.
If prices are too high no one would buy them. The prices will depend on the how much gold is spread on your server.
Supply and demand at its best.
Maybe your realm's Head Game Master will take Obama's plan and implement his policies. If this happens we will see drastic changes.
The first thing that would happen is the AH mechanics will change. If your toon has over 200k gold, the AH tax would be a lot higher.
Second. The GM will supply bandages for free to anyone that has less than 3k gold. If you are among the players that have more than 3k gold, you must buy bandages. The ones you buy are of great quality but are very expensive. After a little while the retail bandages wont be able to compete with the free ones and will go out of business, leaving only one option.
Third. Your GM will join trade chat channel. While in trade chat a conversation will erupt about some player that just ninja'd a BiS item. Accusations are flying back and forth. Your GM will step in a tell the ninja that he is the worst player on the server and that then confiscate all of the ninjas gold and items and give them player that actually won the roll but didn't get the item . After all is said and done he comes to find out that the ninja is not a ninja and is actually the one that won the roll for said item. The person that he gave all those items and gold to was the real ninja. To try and make up for his idiocy, he ports the two players to GM Island to sit a while over some Aerie Peak Pale Ale.
He informs then that its not his fault for what he did, it was the previous Head Game Master's policies tat led to the mistake.
Nopunin10did Jul 31st 2009 8:45PM
@Seaborn
Whether you agree with Obama's policies or not, your attempt to be funny shows a pretty bad understanding of politics. He's definitely a liberal, and he's definitely a democrat, but the man is not a communist. Lay off the non-sequitor political commentary before you start spouting meaningless rubbish next time.
Nopunin10did Jul 31st 2009 8:47PM
@Seaborn
However, I do agree that the Gates situation was pretty dang crazy.
Hoggersbud Jul 31st 2009 11:26PM
I think all the media hubbub about the Gates situation is the crazy thing.
If Obama wanted to comment on the police, there's a lot worse things going on. Just ask Alexandra Torrensvilas...too bad she isn't friends with the President.
FifthDream Jul 31st 2009 6:20PM
Well, "easily" depends on the gullibility of the player, not the method of getting the mount, doesn't it?
RogueJedi86 Jul 31st 2009 6:54PM
At least with this change, you can ask the seller to open the trade window and show the item as proof, like a regular transaction. Harder to scam via the dual-agreement trade window.
Arktic Jul 31st 2009 7:02PM
I'm meh on this, since I don't buy the cards, and will never be able to afford one of the mounts in-game. However, my very first thought when I heard of this was as follows: GoldSellerX wants $50 for 10,000g. PlayerX is willing to buy the gold. GoldSellerX sels a legit card to PlayerX for $50. PlayerX redeems the code and sells the mount to GoldSellerX for 10,000G. It's a perfectally "legal" and "legit" way of buying gold on wow. GoldSellerX now has a redeemed mount in their inventory that they need to deal with, maybe sell it to another player and recoup more gold for the next transaction? The cards will still be just a rare and hard to come by, so I don't see this happening too often, but it will provide an outlet for gold sellers.
Arktic Jul 31st 2009 7:07PM
I should mention that most gold sellers probably acquire most their gold from hacking and aren't too concerned about finding a 'legit' way of doing things, but for those players that are looking to make real money, rather than waste gold on an in-game gold sink, this would be an option.
RogueJedi86 Jul 31st 2009 7:34PM
Why don't goldsellers/buyers skip the relative rarity and hassle of TCG mounts and just trade directly? Trading gold is perfectly legal too, as you know.
Balrickst Jul 31st 2009 8:05PM
I dont belive that gold sellers are just getting gold thru hacking. I mean even it was super easy to brute force into someone's account there is no way of knowing how much gold that person has it might be a 4 year old account that doesnt get played anymore or a gold mine. I mean it just doesnt make sense as much gold as gets sold in this game they would have to hack 1000's of account per day and just looking at the boards you can see that is not the case. I hate gold sellers as much as the next person but the idea that a bunch of guys getting paid 8 bucks a day in china are also Ultra Haxxorzers is just stupid.
Arktic Jul 31st 2009 9:17PM
Hacking, scamming... what ever you want to call the profit of gold in illreputable ways. My original point is still valid that this opes an avenue to by gold under two transactions, which both fall valid under Blizzards ToU, EULA, or whatever guidelines they have put down.
RogueJedi86 Aug 1st 2009 2:56PM
But Arktic, why would they go to the hassle of getting a rare TCG mount to trade gold, instead of just trading gold directly without the TCG mount? The TCG mounts are worth a lot, and these gold sellers would have to get a new one every time they make a gold sale(Blizz would see if the mount isn't traded over in exchange for the gold). That's a lot of real life money and extra in-game work just to try to cover their selling of gold. They can just open Trade window with the player and give them the gold and not worry about the hassle of getting rare TCG card mounts.
What do gold companies care if they get caught? If caught, Blizzard just bans a seller account(they'll make new accounts very quickly), and potentially bans the buyer(only problem there is loss of repeat business). Since Blizzard doesn't shut down gold sites anymore, these gold sites don't have to worry about any risk, since they'll just make new accounts to farm and sell gold as soon as they can. I doubt Blizzard would prevent known gold site IPs from buying new copies of WoW or the expansions, that'd just be foolish financially on their part.
Rich Jul 31st 2009 7:03PM
I've provided items for gold. But, I can defiantly see why people would be wary since they don't understand the process in how these items are obtained. There's never a reason would need a PW or account info to give these items. You only need the toon's name and server name.
Now - are just the mounts going BOE or are ALL of the TCG items going to be BOE? What about the UDE direct items, like the Ogre suit?
RogueJedi86 Jul 31st 2009 7:45PM
Just the mounts(not just the Spectral saber, all the TCG mounts). Maybe one day they'll make all the others BOE, though for now the scams are on the more sought after mounts. If people start scamming with the DISCO Ball or Weather Machine, maybe Blizz will make those BOE too.
Piraka Jul 31st 2009 7:30PM
Why do you guys keep posting this? This story has been on here twice before within the last 2 weeks.
Karilyn Jul 31st 2009 7:37PM
It was discovered on the PTR two weeks ago. Now it's been verified by a Blizzard employee as intended, and something that will go through to the live servers.
This may be a small news update, but it's still a relevant update. Something like this could have been a unintended bug, or Blizzard may have changed their minds before the patch went live.
Now we know for certain.
RogueJedi86 Jul 31st 2009 7:39PM
To make you ask questions.
But seriously, this is big news in preventing some notorious scams. It's good to keep people informed, since some people don't read WoW Insider daily.
Nathanyel Jul 31st 2009 7:36PM
I can't see how this would actually help against scammers. No informed player would expect to "buy" a spectral tiger for e.g. 5K ingame gold, no informed player would give out their account data.
The same people that fell for those scams before will fall for it again, because the scammers demand payment first, or "send" it inside a gift wrap, or whatever.
RogueJedi86 Jul 31st 2009 7:43PM
Not every player is informed, and this helps them out. Most players know how to operate a trade window. Now selling these mounts is just like selling any other item. You come to the buyer and open the trade window. They put up the mount, you put up the gold, you both hit trade. It's almost idiot proof. Plus one could also just sell these on the AH. Any idiot can use Trade or Auction House.