#1 - Sept. 6, 2018, 12:48 a.m.
Apologies for the long post, did not expect it to be this long but there is a lot of incoherence vis-a-viz Blizzard's policies on COD scams.
This post is in part a rant, but is more intended to highlight an issue with Blizzard's policies against scammers, which I would like to have a rational discussion about. Very basically, anyone taking part in COD scams is freely to do so as Blizzard does NOT deem this to be a scam or punishable by any means (sound like a hyperbole I know, but I literally had 3 GMs confirm this).
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Backstory: So I was advertising in trade-chat to buy a specific [Material] which is in high demand and there is 1 person rushing me to process his COD transactions. I open up the mailbox and to my delight I have a bunch of mail of [Material] which I process to try and make the guy happy. After just 2 minutes I realized that the [Material] that I bought was actually another material which was dirt cheap - they have precisely the same icon which I was not aware off at the time.
Yes, I acknowledge that I am a moron for falling for this trick and I do claim responsibility for it. I decided to however file a ticket against this guy, afterall, scamming is a reportable offence and there is a ticket section for this.
Edit: Removed specifics for anyone who might try to pull this off.
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GM's Replies:
My first ticket was unsuccessful, the GM basically told me that no action will be taken as this is my responsibility and I should be more careful next time. I try to debate with the first GM and I get a second reply re-iterating what GM #1 said and saying that this is NOT a scam but a mistake on my part.
I felt like the reply that I got was to generic as it did not address any of my arguments which I made (listed below) so I made a 3rd reply, clearly re-iterating some of my points and asking for specific answers about their scam policies.
Ended up having a LONG chat in game with a 3rd GM (who was a delight to talk to). The 3rd GM told me that although he would like to help, there are policies in place (set long ago by management) that state that this situation is not a scam but simply my irresponsibility and that he would lose this job if he did not follow these policies, which I perfectly understand.
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My Arguments:
- How is this not a scam? Pretty sure most people would say that: exploiting the fact that a cheap and expensive item share the same icons, in your favor to trick people into over-paying is the pure definition of a textbook scam. Fact that this is a scam on its own should warrant some form of action.
- In ALL types of scams, the user is responsible - that doesn't make all scams unpunishable now does it? Why have a scam report section then if that is the stance that you are going to adopt?
- Hypothetically: if this is not scamming then I am free to pull this off myself and be treated equally to the scammer i.e. no action/bans/punishment? GMs would not answer this in-spite of asking 3+ times because the answer is YES; people are allowed to do this its just the GMs agree that this is indeed scamming but policies tell them that it's not and thus forbids them from using their judgement.
- You can use the responsibility excuse for other types of issues ex: account hacking. Blizzard does not go around telling hacked users: "We won't restore your account as it is your responsibility to secure your PC/password". - No, they restore their accounts in-spite of their mistake which they are indeed responsible for and even though the TOS clearly state that this is the user's responsibility.
I realize that this comes down to Blizzard's own discretion but what that is telling me is unequal treatment and they are ready to go the extra mile if they lose a customer (as is the case with hacked accounts).
- Blizzard do punish SOME forms of scams such as trust-trading to make a specific item. Why are victims of COD scammers not treated equally?
- Isn't all this gross-irresponsibility from Blizzards side? Not only has the scammer been incentivized to continue scamming (seeing that gained A LOT of gold by pulling this on me) but he is also FREE to continue doing so.
This is also what what turns victims into perpetrators themselves; in my extreme frustration, I legitimately thought about pulling this off myself just to make a point, which I won't do.
- In small part, I fell for this scam because Blizzard foolishly re-used an icon for such a precious material with another cheap material so I am NOT entirely to blame, although I do shoulder 90% of it but I am no WoW guru hence I did not know this. So me falling for this scam was in part, the design's team fault/'irresponsibility' (my opinion).
- This is Blizzard basically telling me that they value the scammer's experience much more than mine. I do not mind if the transaction is not reversed but AT LEAST I expect the scammer to be punished (3 day ban, scammed gold deleted, anything).
- Was also told that they do not take action against COD scammers so that victims would learn instead of falling for the same scam multiple times. I highly disagree! If that is indeed the case then you still should punish the scammer but not return the gold back...
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Conclusion:
The only answers that I got to these questions where "policies" and "your responsibility" which do not address any of the arguments that I made.
Overall, I am dissapointed that there are policies in place that go against safe-guarding the player's interest.
I do realize that there are gray-zones whereby action cannot be taken due to the situation being complex or delicate, but this is a textbook scam which was 100% intentional and I fail to see why absolutely no action is taken.
- Zejz
