Investment - Bannable? - Blue Tracker

#1 - Jan. 17, 2013, 8:11 a.m.

Hello!

So first, I will state the question and then the situation. I do not want either my account nor my friend’s banned, so I figured I would ask on here and see if I could get an opinion or answer!

The question: Is the transfer of gold for the purpose of investment an offense? For clarification, is the transfer of money from one account to another, then the repayment on that investment back to the original account allowed?

The situation: I have been practicing and getting fairly good at investing in the Trading Post, making a sizable bit of money from my choices. I talk with my friends about it, talk about how I figure out which items to trade in, etc. One of my friends then asks if I would accept an investment from him, and then I could take a percentage of the profit I make from his investment. Sounds good to me! He earns money, I earn more money and gain more capital, happy times. But…neither of us want to be banned!

Hopefully this is fairly clear. I can clarify more if needed. Thank you!

#4 - Jan. 17, 2013, 10:41 a.m.

Players offering an “Investment service” or “a Gold Bank” or a “Sales Service” or other things of this nature are essentially offering systems that allow them to profit from players through non-game-based systems.

We’ve seen a lot of tickets from players who decline to use the Trading Post and instead use email to trade or buy items. This often turns bad. These players then ask Support to “right the wrong” when the trade or sale goes bad, and we’re simply not able to do that. (Action the scammer: Yes. But go onto accounts, pluck off items and return them to the other player: No.) Arrangements of this kind are called “Gentlemen’s Agreements” and they, like most guild politics, are things in which we do not intercede (except to take action on the account involved in provable instances of abuse).

So players “invest” with a player and find they do not get a return, or get a return less than they expected, or find the player disappears with all their hard-won gold. They come to us to say “Do something!” and we explain that this was a private arrangement and we cannot mediate such arrangements. (Even while, again, we’ll look into the matter and, to the best of our ability, close the accounts of anyone involved in scamming or stealing form other players.)

Bottom line: We’re not going to give you overt permission or approval to do this. We will not say “Your account will not be terminated if you do this.” Conversely, we will not summarily terminate your account if you do offer this service. But be aware: If you offer this service, you do so — and those who use the service do so — at your/their own risk.

Gosh, that all sounds so grouchy and I don’t mean it to be! I can see how the system could work for everyone concerned. I just want to make sure that folks know it can also go south at high velocity.