An Update on Squelching and Credit Spam

[Gledriran]

I was sending messages to my friend what armor i was getting and he wasnt getting the messages so i accidently spammed it 4 times and now im squelched. anyway you can sort this

 

This also happened to me and I am curious how long I am squelched for.

[Icestar]

This also happened to me and I am curious how long I am squelched for.

 

There has been reports that this will last for 24 hours here on the forum. I can not confirm this is true but wait and it will get lifted eventually.

[asbalana]

Hey folks!

 

I am here today to pass on a fairly elaborate explanation around the credit spam that has been happening, and what we are doing, right from a member of our Security Team.

 

-eric

 

 

Excellent post, thanks for sharing.

[DarthMaulUK]

There has been reports that this will last for 24 hours here on the forum. I can not confirm this is true but wait and it will get lifted eventually.

 

Yes its 24 hours and you have to ride it out. The support team can't clear it either.

[ArthasDaracon]

This is quite frankly just another example of how terrible Bioware's GMs are in this game. There are multiple reports of people being Squelched for absolutely no reason, people who just log into game and get automatically squelched for 24 hours. It's just another example of Bioware's failure of relying on automated systems for all of their GM services. The Actual GM's don't appear to do much of anything at all anymore. They take weeks to respond to tickets only to tell you that "I'm sorry we cant do that" or "This is handled by an automated system and out of our control." People who actually get reported for Racial Slurs and Serious Harassment issues remain un-banned for months before action is taken, sometimes no action is even taken at all despite 20+ reports by multiple people.

 

Not only do the GM's not seem to actually do any real work anymore, but their automated systems are **** and don't function properly. The automated system to turn over guild leader is notoriously buggy and known to cycle through multiple inactive players before it actually gives it to an active one, the squelching system isn't any better. Not to mention there is really no reason for the Squelch to apply globally to ALL chats, I have multiple times had planned events for multiple people ruined because of a Squelch that doesn't even allow people to talk in group chat or guild chat...this is stupid, lazy and bioware and its GM's should be ashamed of their poor implementation of yet another attempt for them to push everything off onto automated systems.

[Soultranna]

This is quite frankly just another example of how terrible Bioware's GMs are in this game. There are multiple reports of people being Squelched for absolutely no reason, people who just log into game and get automatically squelched for 24 hours. It's just another example of Bioware's failure of relying on automated systems for all of their GM services. The Actual GM's don't appear to do much of anything at all anymore. They take weeks to respond to tickets only to tell you that "I'm sorry we cant do that" or "This is handled by an automated system and out of our control." People who actually get reported for Racial Slurs and Serious Harassment issues remain un-banned for months before action is taken, sometimes no action is even taken at all despite 20+ reports by multiple people.

 

Not only do the GM's not seem to actually do any real work anymore, but their automated systems are **** and don't function properly. The automated system to turn over guild leader is notoriously buggy and known to cycle through multiple inactive players before it actually gives it to an active one, the squelching system isn't any better. Not to mention there is really no reason for the Squelch to apply globally to ALL chats, I have multiple times had planned events for multiple people ruined because of a Squelch that doesn't even allow people to talk in group chat or guild chat...this is stupid, lazy and bioware and its GM's should be ashamed of their poor implementation of yet another attempt for them to push everything off onto automated systems.

 

The problem with automation is that when it's rolled out, it's often not quite tuned correctly. One character in the wrong place in a REGEX pattern, and you flag stuff you didn't mean to, et cetera. This means that there's a very good chance that honest activity might get flagged along with the dishonest.

 

The problem with a forum whinge like the above, is that it's much too general for any sort of datamining or other research to take place. Instead of simply saying how "this sucks" and "I hate automated squelch because it screws with my guild notifications" why don't you try two things:

 

1) OPEN A TICKET specifying exactly what it was you were sending (or trying to send) when you got squelched. If it's behavior consistent with a guild leader and not a gold farmer, then they can work on recoding the triggers so guild leaders won't get caught by the same trap.

 

2) USE THE TOOLS (both in game and out) to notify your guild members of upcoming events, rather than mass-messaging everyone in the guild. The MOTD comes to mind, or, if you've a guild site on Enjin, first make sure it's being updated and maintained, and then, advise your guild members to use it (nothing sucks worse than a 'work in progress' site, because it says to everyone that the guild lead doesn't give a crap about the site, and by extension, the guild it represents. So don't do that.) Most guild hosting has a calendar module for events, and a news module for putting out homepage bulletins. Use them.

 

I work in a business where we have a lot of things to manage, with customer-facing services and high-value/sensitive data, and of course, the edict from On High is "less people doing simple repetitive crap, more automated simple repetitive crap." We have implemented auto-ticketing on a lot of stuff that Goes Wrong, and of course, this means a lot of tickets to cancel because they're redundant or false positives or whatever. We have had to refine the process to reduce the false positives, without letting any actual issues slip the net. This is the tricky balancing act one plays when dealing with automation. You'd rather it run amuck in a safe direction than an unsafe direction... because 'safe' is a lot easier to clean up afterwards (and less costly).

 

So yeah, I can see how this pisses people off. At the same time, screaming that "it's broken" isn't enough. You need to articulate what the symptoms of "broken" ARE, so that Bioware/EA's limited personnel actually have something to start looking into.

 

That's my 2 credits. Spend 'em wisely.

[EVO_D]

What is this "tell" feature? I am getting a lot of spam in my game mail each time I log in I have multiple messages waiting. How would I go about reporting this and is there anything being done about this method of spam?

[Bachannal]

Thanks to the Dev(s) for this post....glad to hear something like that from BW Austin.

[Andryah]

What is this "tell" feature? I am getting a lot of spam in my game mail each time I log in I have multiple messages waiting. How would I go about reporting this and is there anything being done about this method of spam?

 

The spammers have changed tactics and mostly they spam mail, from harvested lists these days. I believe what they are doing now is harvesting names off the GTN. I'm sure that is not the only harvest source but it appears to be the big one right now. Almost exclusively, my GTN alts are the only ones that ever get mail spam these days.... while other characters I play across a variety of content rarely if ever get mail spam. To eliminate this.. Bioware would have to hide character names in the listing table on the GTN. Then they would just harvest names some other way... so it's a never ending battle. You the player can mitigate this to a degree, by not listing items on the GTN except though a specific alt for that purpose. This way... only the alt gets pinged, and since you will have GTN listing mail anyway... it's just part of normal mail cleanup each day.

 

Bioware does crush these as they are reported, but you can never squelch this completely because it only takes them a few minutes to activate a new account and then start spamming again.

Edited August 22, 2015 by Andryah

[Rairyuken]

Hey folks!

 

I am here today to pass on a fairly elaborate explanation around the credit spam that has been happening, and what we are doing, right from a member of our Security Team.

 

-eric

 

 

I seem to have been blocked on chat for no reason... I hate spammers so I don't see how I could have been blocked saying " You are squelched" in red text, it started after I had a 50k ping lag. Can somebody enlighten me on why this happened to me ?

[BaronV]

Will be great if you can have a report and ignore feature, and also stop those annoying popups confirming receipt of spam reports.

 

Also introduce a system where if a large number of people report the same person for spam in a short period of time, they get blocked from posting on general chat, or using /say or /yell for a period of time.

eg: If 40 people report in 15 seconds you are blocked for 30 minutes.

[Max_Killjoy]

I seem to have been blocked on chat for no reason... I hate spammers so I don't see how I could have been blocked saying " You are squelched" in red text, it started after I had a 50k ping lag. Can somebody enlighten me on why this happened to me ?

 

Send a message to support.

 

It's possible that in the midst of that incident, several attempts were made to send the same chat message, and eventually the server received them all at once, interpreting that as spam.

[Blackbird]

Something that needs to happen is that we need a single "Report & Ignore" button.

As it is, we have to report, close the box, and then go back and ignore them.

 

Also, the menus change based on character proximity (which really makes no sense for chat functions) and we have to further navigate through sub-menus just to get there.

 

I mean, there's all kinds of different reporting options if a character is standing near you, but if they're harassing you from the other side of the fleet, all those options go away.

What's the point of that?

 

Also, let us ignore that character on ALL of our characters.

If I'm annoyed by that person on one character, odds are that I'm still gonna be annoyed by them on an alt.

 

TL;DR

- Make reporting & ignoring a single step process at all times and make our ignore list global to our entire Legacy.

 

Thank you for helping us help you help us all.

 

I would also ask for a single "report and ignore" button for the mail box. As it is now, I can choose to either report or ignore spam mail, as once I have done one, the mail is gone and I can no longer do the second option, at least until I receive a second mail from the same spammer. Of course, I can't always keep track of which names have already sent me spam mail, and the names are often similar, so it becomes more difficult to track which option I need to choose for each message. This may lead to me ignoring some spammers without having reported them first, and so they slip through the spam report process.

 

I feel I do everything I can to identify and report spam in this game, but it would be nice if you could make that process a little easier on us! As you said:

 

keep helping us help you.

 

I will continue to do so, but also ask the same in return.

[Icestar]

and also stop those annoying popups confirming receipt of spam reports.

 

It is a window confirming that the report has been sent, if that is not shown perhaps the players starts reporting the same thing many times instead.

[JattaGin]

The spammers have changed tactics and mostly they spam mail, from harvested lists these days. I believe what they are doing now is harvesting names off the GTN. I'm sure that is not the only harvest source but it appears to be the big one right now. Almost exclusively, my GTN alts are the only ones that ever get mail spam these days....

 

Once again, a lot of wild guessing without the least kind of evidence from you except that your GTN alts receive spam.

 

From my 16 chars on The Progenitor, the two chars I use for selling on the GTN receive by far the LEAST amount of spam. Actually, one of them is the only one still spam-free. He was also my very first char ever, back in 12'2011. *fingerscrossed* The three chars who receive the most spam are the three ones I play the least and only keep on checking once in a while to have them logged in again. Their mailboxes get flooded (and not only because of the amount of days since last login). I therefore wonder where the goldies get their names from.

[Andryah]

Once again, a lot of wild guessing without the least kind of evidence from you except that your GTN alts receive spam.

 

From my 16 chars on The Progenitor, the two chars I use for selling on the GTN receive by far the LEAST amount of spam. Actually, one of them is the only one still spam-free. He was also my very first char ever, back in 12'2011. *fingerscrossed* The three chars who receive the most spam are the three ones I play the least and only keep on checking once in a while to have them logged in again. Their mailboxes get flooded (and not only because of the amount of days since last login). I therefore wonder where the goldies get their names from.

 

Your entitled to your opinion. But it does not make you correct. I simply have shared my personal findings from recent months. It's not guessing... but I also did not claim that this was the only approach they are using... so back up a bit with the rhetoric.

 

How much spam you receive and why... of course varies depending on the RMT spammer. That said.. step back and think about it for a minute JG. The most prolific source for character names to spam in the game is the GTN. Strongholds are also a prolific source as people are moving in and out of their strongholds often and it's an easy list to search and harvest from. The next most prolific source would be out on individual planets, where you are easy to spot and track via searching.

 

Personally, I run a dozen GTN alts across three servers. And those characters, even though they are logged on for the shortest times, once a day.... get the most spam in my experience. I do get some spam on new characters when they are leveling, and the occasional spam on one of my 60s. Yet given I play my non-GTN characters the most, they do not get the most spam by any means. It is the GTN alts that are getting dumped on... by as many as three different RMTs at a time. They ARE creating lists of character names and once they spam you.. you can expect a new spam 5-7 days later.... rinse and repeat.

 

IF you post on the GTN... expect to get mail spam. IF you log a character on, particularly into a stronghold or on the lower planets or on fleet... expect to get mail spam. Fleet, I don't know the current state of, as I rarely go there.

 

And no amount of auto-filters in the system will squelch mail spam completely. Why? Because if you actually take time to read the mail spam from time to time you will observe that they are adjusting and toying with their text to defeat auto-filters as well as using throw-a-way names. Personally, I have stopped reporting them as I simply assume someone else got to them first and sure enough I never see the same character name repeat in my mailbox. Besides which.. if Bioware bans an account... it does not stop the spam because they are clearly using lists of names they have harvested quietly form the servers and then using throw away accounts to send the actual spam on a recurring basis. I simply delete the email and move on with what I was doing.

 

I have no idea how successful they are at getting actual customers from mail spam.. but considering they continue to do it and continue to adapt.. they must be getting some sort of yield for their efforts.

Edited September 12, 2015 by Andryah

[mrsrachelm]

Great to be kept informed of this stuff. It sure creates a lot more trust between the community and the staff.

[AdrianDmitruk]

*snip about name list harvesting*

 

And no amount of auto-filters in the system will squelch mail spam completely. Why? Because if you actually take time to read the mail spam from time to time you will observe that they are adjusting and toying with their text to defeat auto-filters as well as using throw-a-way names. Personally, I have stopped reporting them as I simply assume someone else got to them first and sure enough I never see the same character name repeat in my mailbox. Besides which.. if Bioware bans an account... it does not stop the spam because they are clearly using lists of names they have harvested quietly form the servers and then using throw away accounts to send the actual spam on a recurring basis. I simply delete the email and move on with what I was doing.

 

I have no idea how successful they are at getting actual customers from mail spam.. but considering they continue to do it and continue to adapt.. they must be getting some sort of yield for their efforts.

 

And this is why we must be able to set our own damn mail filters, like we can for e-mail. It's one thing for spammers to adjust for something Bioware only thinks about once a month. It's quite another for spammers to have to deal with adaptive filters, with each player having a different filter, and the players can adjust theirs every time something slips through.

 

One thing I've noticed is that spammers only occasionally seem to change their messages, as in only as frequently as Bioware adjusts whatever it is doing from their end. For example, I noticed that I literally could have blocked ALL spam that came from a certain site, if only I had the capability to block any mail, tells, or chat from any character with a name that ended in the -asd suffix, for several months, because that site always used character names that ended that way. But I couldn't do that, so I continued to receive the spam, regardless of how much I reported that.

 

It'd also provide a new metric point for Bioware, as to which filters are the most effective, and give players a much greater feeling that they are contributing to combating the spam issue than reporting and hoping Bioware acts on the report next quarter does.

[Syntar-Oben]

Hi,

 

Nice to see that Bioware is battling this. I have one question though. How do these spammers obtain all the character names of people to send their spam mails to in the first place? Do they just sit on the fleet watching people run by and writing down they names.. Or do they just take names off the who-list? It's really annoying to login in the morning and find spam mail in my inbox across multiple characters.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Syntar-Oben

[Storm-Cutter]

can you not click another player and examine their legacy- which shows a family tree with all their alts on if they've bothered to put it together. I expect the spammers just screen-shots that to harvest names.

 

If that aspect of legacy isn't important to you, it might be advisable to dismantle it - It has no mechanical bearing on gameplay after all - just people's perception of their legacy. - You could screen-shot it / print it at home for reference if you still needed it.

[Heat-Wave]

Nice to see that Bioware is battling this.

 

Ha! You must be joking...

 

They did a one time event and posted about it, then forgot about it and moved on.

 

The volume in fleet chat, in game mail, etc. hasn't reduced in the slightest. Bioware has made no attempt to stop this whatsoever, other than paying extreme lip service to it then ignoring it.

[Knorlac]

Ha! You must be joking...

 

They did a one time event and posted about it, then forgot about it and moved on.

 

The volume in fleet chat, in game mail, etc. hasn't reduced in the slightest. Bioware has made no attempt to stop this whatsoever, other than paying extreme lip service to it then ignoring it.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say they're not doing something behind the scenes, but they're sure bad at communicating it to the players.

 

I think I mentioned this in a similar thread already, but I really like how FFXIV is handling this with regular updates like this one:

 

RMT and other illicit activities upset the balance of the game and, as such, are prohibited under the Terms of Service.

 

Because we have confirmed the existence of players who are engaging in these illicit activities, we have taken the actions listed below.

 

Time Period: Sep. 10, 2015 to Sep. 16, 2015

 

・Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT advertising: 978

・Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 3903

・Action Details: Permanent ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

 

・Accounts receiving disciplinary action for participation in RMT/illegal activity: 170

・Action Details: Temporary ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

 

Players who discover any confirmed cheats should, under no circumstances, exploit or disseminate such information. Instead, we ask that players file a report by using the in-game command [system Menu] -> [support Desk] -> [Contact Us] -> [Report Cheating].

 

We will continue to take stringent disciplinary action against any accounts with confirmed involvement in RMT/illicit activity; players should take care to steer clear of any activity that violates the Terms of Service.

 

They also encourage you to send a detailed report regarding RTM with server information, character name and the chat message in question. After you report someone in this way it takes a maximum of one hour and you receive an automated message telling you that you can now remove the seller from your ignore list because he has been dealt with.

[RowanThursday]

What about an option in settings to make it so that a character can only receive mail from NPCs- whether player NPCs, Customer service "droids", or the GTN, and alts on the same legacy, but not other players?

 

Add another option to restrict "tell" to group members and people on your friends list only, and you'd be able to be more or less spam-proofed.

 

We already have auto-decline for random guild invites, group invites, and other player-generated spam- what would be the downside of simply implementing something like this for mail as well?

Edited September 18, 2015 by RowanThursday

[Mubrak]

They did a one time event and posted about it, then forgot about it and moved on.

 

The volume in fleet chat, in game mail, etc. hasn't reduced in the slightest. Bioware has made no attempt to stop this whatsoever, other than paying extreme lip service to it then ignoring it.

 

Actually they made it worse. Now the goldsellers are in bitter competition and changed from a mild annoyance on fleet to a pest that affects the mailbox of most of our chars. That reporting them fills up our tickets doesn't help either.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Mubrak

[wookiegal]

I was sent this link as a response to my customer support ticket about being squelched on starter planets. This started after the 8/31 patch. Every single recruiter in my guild has this issue. As soon as a link is posted on a starter planet, the player is squelched. This is not from repeated messages. This is not from spamming over and over. This is a direct result of the link. We even did a test in linking something that wasn't the guild and the player was also squelched.

So while I can appreciate the efforts being made by Bioware to solve the issue with credit sellers they are making it incredibly difficult for guilds to recruit new players. The responses from customer service are laughable at best. It would be nice to talk to someone in customer service that knows what they're talking about.