Item Stack Resale Exploit

[TX_Angel]

Well, reports are starting to come in from admitted exploiters stating that their alt accounts are banned and all their 'billions' are gone.

 

Seems like they're digging into the system and tracking people down.

 

Though, I do wonder how far they can track the credits. Through one or two transfers is easy enough, but some are talking about transferring through GTN through 8 accounts.

 

Yea, that is really the issue... the casual exploiters will be caught, the professionals will get away with it...

 

The 7 billion credit guy probably didn't cover his tracks enough, and that is a LOT of credits to show up at once. Frankly, sorting accounts by wealth probably shows a lot of low hanging fruit, which is why I expressed concern over my account, since I have over a billion credits (but gained honestly over years).

 

As a side note, it would be a fun fact to know how many accounts in the game are billionaires (the honest kind of course).

[lokimogor]

Yea, that is really the issue... the casual exploiters will be caught, the professionals will get away with it...

 

The 7 billion credit guy probably didn't cover his tracks enough, and that is a LOT of credits to show up at once. Frankly, sorting accounts by wealth probably shows a lot of low hanging fruit, which is why I expressed concern over my account, since I have over a billion credits (but gained honestly over years).

 

As a side note, it would be a fun fact to know how many accounts in the game are billionaires (the honest kind of course).

 

That would be a fun fact to know, I wouldn't be to worried since the easiest way to identify exploiters would be a trendline analysis of wealth growth

[DynamiCtagez]

When you are finished with all investigations, punishments, etc, could you update the information on how many accounts got permabanned and maybe how many exploited credits you were able to remove from banned accounts? Would be interesting.

[Cakellene]

If they attack it looking at "standard" account activity then they can actually handle it quite easily ( from an analytical stand point ).

The difficulty is in deciding to take the action because no doubt innocent people will get caught up but in saying that if you sold something that normally goes for 100K for 10 million then I don't think you should get the 10 million back, they should review it and give the chair back.

 

Price gouging is not against rules. If they sell something for 100x times normal value, no reason they shouldn't get it back.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Price gouging is not against rules. If they sell something for 100x times normal value, no reason they shouldn't get it back.

 

No it's not and thus they shouldn't be banned but if it was bought with cheated credits then the credits should be removed and the item returned.

 

If they took the attitude you've got they'll never fix the economy.

[Cakellene]

No it's not and thus they shouldn't be banned but if it was bought with cheated credits then the credits should be removed and the item returned.

 

If they took the attitude you've got they'll never fix the economy.

 

If they had my view, there wouldn't have been any punishments. And I don't see anything broken about economy that needs fixing.

[Transcendent]

one would assume they cancelled their auctions when the ban took effect.

 

No, BioWare don't cancel the auctions, however the seller does not receive any credits from those auctions (mailed credits / items are wiped clean - the mail is still sent though, which is a nice touch by BioWare )

[Khayleth]

The one thing I most want to know: How exactly did the exploiters figure it out? That's what I'm wondering. Did someone buy a stack by accident and only use part of it?

[EricMusco]

Hey folks,

 

One of the things we have seen a lot of questions and comments about is what we are doing about accounts which have actively participated in helping exploiters to launder their ill-gotten gains. We are actively investigating these accounts, and we are doing so just as vigorously as the exploiters themselves. In situations that we have found players not only exploited, but are then trying to hide their actions through laundering, we are increasing the severity of the action we take against them. You can see examples of the action we are taking in my previous post.

 

We can see that in many of these cases, accounts have not only intentionally laundered credits through their guilds and friends, but that they have sent credits and items randomly to other accounts in an attempt to throw off our data. If you received credits or items through trade or in-game mail, and you feel that they were sent to you from someone who likely exploited, leave the items/credits alone. Don’t try to return them or send them to other accounts.

 

Additionally, feel free to PM me your information:

• Character name and server

• What you received

 

For users that we can identify as being unintentional recipients, they will have the items/credits stripped, it is unlikely further action will be taken.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

Edited December 11, 2015 by EricMusco

[lokimogor]

Hey folks,

 

One of the thing we have seen a lot of questions and comments about is what we are doing about accounts which have actively participated in helping exploiters to launder their ill-gotten gains. We are actively investigating these accounts, and we are doing so just as vigorously as the exploiters themselves. In situations that we have found players not only exploited, but are then trying to hide their actions through laundering, we are increasing the severity of the action we take against them. You can see examples of the action we are taking in my previous post.

 

We can see that in many of these cases, accounts have not only intentionally laundered credits through their guilds and friends, but that they have sent credits and items randomly to other accounts in an attempt to throw off our data. If you received credits or items through trade or in-game mail, and you feel that they were sent to you from someone who likely exploited, leave the items/credits alone. Don’t try to return them or send them to other accounts.

 

Additionally, feel free to PM me your information:

• Character name and server

• What you received

 

For users that we can identify as being unintentional recipients, they will have the items/credits stripped, it is unlikely further action will be taken.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

Thanks for the post, and I imagine this step will take quite some time

[DarkSaberMaster]

For those of you that said Bioware won't permaban anybody to keep subscriber money, I'm glad to see y'all are dead wrong. Good show Bioware in vigorously hunting down these exploiters and giving the swift punishment they deserve.

[Neoforcer]

Bioware went soft on the first couple of big exploits after ravagers to curb the behavior in most of the population only the die hard exploiter continued. Now the gloves have come off and people are QQing it's BW fault buggy code only to find out they gave you a chance to stop you chose not to now it time to pay the piper. End of Story you should of learned with eh temple chair exploit that enough is enough....

[ZETA_SCORPII]

I'm against exploits, but it's damn funny to see the "Forum Saints" calling for blood again! You are the pathetic ones.

[Costello]

Of the 500 accounts that have been banned are subscribers and how many are accounts created to exploit?

 

What of the guilds that used the exploit to win conquest, and what of the guilds that lost out cause they didn't exploit?

 

Learning of this exploit and how long it has gone on for makes it seems this is far too little far too late.

[SirUrza]

what of the guilds that lost out cause they didn't exploit?

 

They should feel good in their decision to not exploit and move on.

 

Otherwise everyone who didn't exploit deserves a reward.

[Danery]

I am really concerned by the statement that they are going to strip credits from accounts that were not in any way involved simply because someone who exploited might have bought their stuff. That seems like punishing people who were not in any way involved for the actions of others.

 

I have no way of stopping an individual who exploited from buying my relics/barrels/CM items from the GTN but I could lose the money those items are worth because they did so? If that happens are the items they purchased going to be returned to us? Or are we going to be unfairly punished? I didnt even know there was an exploit until the day before the patch that fixed it (wouldnt have participated any way)

[RPHero]

I am really concerned by the statement that they are going to strip credits from accounts that were not in any way involved simply because someone who exploited might have bought their stuff. That seems like punishing people who were not in any way involved for the actions of others.

 

I have no way of stopping an individual who exploited from buying my relics/barrels/CM items from the GTN but I could lose the money those items are worth because they did so? If that happens are the items they purchased going to be returned to us? Or are we going to be unfairly punished? I didnt even know there was an exploit until the day before the patch that fixed it (wouldnt have participated any way)

 

I think if someone purchased an item that normaly goes for 2mil and you sold it for 150mil all those credits should be removed and the item returned to you to re sell at the correct market rate.

[Danery]

I think if someone purchased an item that normaly goes for 2mil and you sold it for 150mil all those credits should be removed and the item returned to you to re sell at the correct market rate.

 

Except that isnt what happened AT ALL, at least in my case. But thanks for assuming thats what I was doing

[Calinaph]

I think if someone purchased an item that normaly goes for 2mil and you sold it for 150mil all those credits should be removed and the item returned to you to re sell at the correct market rate.

 

neither here nor there, however, who decides what a "fair market rate" is? If I post something for 15m and you buy it (even by accident because you are too stupid to check the price or sort by unit price), that is the "fair market rate".

Edited December 12, 2015 by Calinaph

[lokimogor]

neither here nor there, however, who decides what a "fair market rate" is? If I post something for 15m and you buy it (even by accident because you are too stupid to check the price or sort by unit price), that is the "fair market rate".

 

Lets go with going market rate instead of fair as fair is a hugely variable terminology term.

[Deyjarl]

(more than 500 accounts have been permanently banned so far)[/i]

-eric

 

Not enough given posts like this on Reddit:

 

This account has been temporarily suspended and is not permitted to access the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ servers.

An email notification has been sent to the email address associated with this account with more information about what this means and what steps may be taken to resolve the issue.

Edit: I only exploited to gain some Influence - about 100 of each alliance crates, get some legacy weapons from the Gree. I got maybe 6000 BC sitting in a hold, 2000 gree artifacts, 2000 rakghoul token things. I had around a stack of 99 of each companion gifts. Some decoration stuff for a stronghold I never update.

I didn't sell anything on the Marketplace. All was for personal gain without effecting the economy.

Edit 2: I had previously exploited Ravagers.

 

 

They are bragging about the slap on the wrist on Reddit.

Edited December 12, 2015 by Deyjarl

[Alssaran]

I think if someone purchased an item that normaly goes for 2mil and you sold it for 150mil all those credits should be removed and the item returned to you to re sell at the correct market rate.

 

I think (s)he was more concerned with instances like this:

 

As I stated previously: I bought ten companion gifts on the AH (grade 6 Cultural Artifacts) for 60k a piece. A total of 600k for the ten stack. I applied that to my Juggernauts Lana. Now, I have no idea if those gifts were received by fraudulent activity.

 

There are ways this can be handled that won't upset me at all. You can leave it as it is and call it "minor damage". It was two influence levels, not that much of a deal. You can also return the credits in an in-game mail and say: "We removed the influence from your companion due to the involvement of fraudulent activities of third parties. Here is your amount of credits paid for the transaction.".

 

I don't mind those two things. I'm not at all worse off in both cases. What I don't want to happen is that they go: We removed the influence from your companion. But since the gifts were never legitimate you won't see your 600k again. I earned that money legitimately. I wouldn't have spend it if I knew the companion gifts were fraudulent goods.

[lokimogor]

Not enough given posts like this on Reddit:

 

Give it a few more days, like the man said its a work in progress

[Simmerr]

Hey folks,

 

One of the things we have seen a lot of questions and comments about is what we are doing about accounts which have actively participated in helping exploiters to launder their ill-gotten gains. We are actively investigating these accounts, and we are doing so just as vigorously as the exploiters themselves. In situations that we have found players not only exploited, but are then trying to hide their actions through laundering, we are increasing the severity of the action we take against them. You can see examples of the action we are taking in my previous post.

 

We can see that in many of these cases, accounts have not only intentionally laundered credits through their guilds and friends, but that they have sent credits and items randomly to other accounts in an attempt to throw off our data. If you received credits or items through trade or in-game mail, and you feel that they were sent to you from someone who likely exploited, leave the items/credits alone. Don’t try to return them or send them to other accounts.

 

Additionally, feel free to PM me your information:

• Character name and server

• What you received

 

For users that we can identify as being unintentional recipients, they will have the items/credits stripped, it is unlikely further action will be taken.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

Finally, some real end game progression I can take part in

[Deyjarl]

Give it a few more days, like the man said its a work in progress

 

That was someone already caught just getting a temp ban for all that.