I guess gold farming with bots isn't enough for some people. No, they have to resort to scams and theft to more quickly line their coffers...
The other day my son strolled into my office and said that I need to log on WOW and check my mail. When I asked why, he said that Blizzard was running some promotion that was giving away gold but he couldn't get his to work.
I laughed and said, "That's a scam nub, Blizzard doesn't give away gold." He persisted, dragging up examples of when Blizzard does send you items in the mail like the Argent Dawn and as gifts from a quest. I asked if he'd done any new quests since he's level 70? When he replied no, I said, "Then it's a scam! And don't click anything on the email!!" I tried to explain that was the reason that Blizzard added code to prevent COD mail from being auto-opened, thereby exposing people to theft. But he wasn't buying that and walked away.
Later that day I logged on his account and sure enough he had two pieces of mail supposedly from Blizzard, saying that he could claim his gold prize by following the instructions. I checked the icons associated with the mail carefully and saw that they were the C.O.D. images for a Simple Sack of Flour. Further investigation revealed that they wanted 600 gold for said sack of flour. LOL A Scam!
My son is lucky that he only had 588 gold on that particular character which is why it didn't work. If they'd tried for a lesser amount he would be ass-out and pissed, because he's still saving for this, his third 70's, flying mount. I explained it to him and man he hated being wrong. LOL Especially since his sister remembered over hearing the conversation and said, "Ha, mommy was right, nub. You always think you know everything..." I quickly exited stage right and left them to their sibling debate.
It's too bad that cheating isn't enough for some people and that they will descend to theft. The average adult probably isn't being tricked by this scam. But younger players now are likely to have that much gold if they're midway into their run for 70. Gold is more accessible in TBC so more people are likely to have that much just sitting around. And if it's on an alt, they might breeze through their mail without paying too much attention until...ZAP, you're 600 gold poorer over a Simple Sack of Flour.
I'm glad your son avoided the scam. I guess I'm naive, but I don't understand people who scam others, either in real life or games like WoW. It really is a pity that Blizzard don't seem to be doing anything about it either. Not that I have any solutions to the problem.
Posted by: Stropp | March 22, 2007 at 07:18 AM
Reply to the COD with a COD for 5000g. I heard it worked for one guy and Blizz was cool with it :P
Posted by: s4dfish | March 22, 2007 at 11:05 AM
I received nearly the same in game mail! Only mine was for a 5 stack of copper ore. The mail said something to the effect of a rare vendor would be coming into Azeroth-no date listed or city of course- and that this token-the ore- was all I needed to claim my in game prize-no prize listed-. The COD was for 300g and I remember looking at the mail and thinking to myself "this is going to work on allot of players".
I'm glad your son didn't have 600g because I can only imagine how pissed off he would have become the moment the gig was up. Kudos to you on winning the argument with your daughter acting as proxy. :)
Posted by: wolfgangdoom | March 22, 2007 at 11:48 AM
doh, sorry for the double post. computer glitched
Posted by: wolfgangdoom | March 22, 2007 at 11:49 AM
I got almost the exact same in-game mail (don't recall what my "prize" was), and I'm sure we're not all on Kilrogg so "they" are obviously working the Scam across the realms. I like S4dfish's idea about responding with a COD of your own. I'm going to have to remember that one next time. I think I'll COD back a Runecloth Bag and say it's filled with the Nexus Crystals they said they'd buy from me >:)
Posted by: Capn John | March 22, 2007 at 03:56 PM
LOL @S4dfish and Capn, that is a great idea! I will do that next time. I didn't get the emails on my server. My son is on Illidan.
It's sad and funny, that WOW has been such a huge success that this kind of behavior is wide spread because RMT nets a return. I'm sure RMT happens in EQ2 but I don't hear about scams. I never played for long stretches of time so maybe I just didnt hear about them.
Posted by: Saylah | March 22, 2007 at 07:07 PM
That line your daughter said was probably the funniest thing I've ever heard a child say.
"Haha, mommy was right nub."
Posted by: Relmstein | March 27, 2007 at 04:15 PM