15 accounts banned + maybe interesting information

[HB4529U73]

I botted on 5 accounts on my laptop, played on my mainaccount meanwhile on another computer. all bots banned not the main acc. SO its clearly not IP. more like mac-adress

 

[Toney001]

I botted on 5 accounts on my laptop, played on my mainaccount meanwhile on another computer. all bots banned not the main acc. SO its clearly not IP. more like mac-adress

Maybe they didn't ban your main account because it wasn't actually botting?
Back when I started botting I only had 3 accounts, each running on a separate computer, and I've certainly seen them go all three at the same time more than once.

 

[Redberet9912]

a while back i had a friend who helped me stay undetected, before he left blizz for final fantasy. Basically he said if they get any suspicion (mainly player report) they'll watch your account for a bit.
They dont see "bot like behavior" (large ammount of cods/AH posts/mails was one thing he said, but im sure there are other factors that play in) withen 2-3 days, they'll leave you alone usually.
He also said aside from automated bans, they wont ban you without proof, so like if one acc gets banned, they'll look at other accs on your ip adress (which i think is only online ones they can see) and then they'll check to see if they can see bot like behavior going on at the current time.

Also, the reaction time with appealing a ban plays a role, if you get banned and appeal it within 5 mins and are like '"yeah i was chilling in uldum.." you're better off than waiting a few hours / days.

hope i helped a bit

 

[Redberet9912]

I think I remember some kind of lawsuit about this, where it was stated that blizzard is not allowed to scan your entire computer.
You've studied law or are you just saying stuff here?

correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe it was something along the lines of them being allowed to scan processes, cpu usage and whatnot, but not what's on the hard drive.

 

[buzzerbeater]

I think I remember some kind of lawsuit about this, where it was stated that blizzard is not allowed to scan your entire computer.
You've studied law or are you just saying stuff here?

In Germany iE is a law, that says, that a EULA or TOS or what so ever a software publisher throws at you, is only valid if you can read this whole thing BEFORE you buy it. So that isnt the case, so all this crap isnt valid for us.

And besides this, an AGB, EULA etc. does not stand above the law.

Btw for our fellow German people:

Zumindest bei kostenpflichtiger Software ist es in Deutschland so, dass eine EULA nur dann rechtsg?ltig ist, wenn sie vor dem Kauf vollst?ndig einsehbar ist, was wohl in den allerwenigsten F?llen zutrifft, da so viel Text einfach nicht auf die Packung passt.
Von daher ist es mir herzlich egal was da steht, die Hersteller schneiden sich damit nur ins eigene Fleisch wenn sie es ?bertreiben.

Therefore you could even challenge EVERY ban as being not valid, because of that law, at least in Germany and only in Theory, dont know how many "sub laws" are connected to this crap.

 

[reoxftw]

In Germany iE is a law, that says, that a EULA or TOS or what so ever a software publisher throws at you, is only valid if you can read this whole thing BEFORE you buy it. So that isnt the case, so all this crap isnt valid for us.

And besides this, an AGB, EULA etc. does not stand above the law.

Btw for our fellow German people:

Zumindest bei kostenpflichtiger Software ist es in Deutschland so, dass eine EULA nur dann rechtsg?ltig ist, wenn sie vor dem Kauf vollst?ndig einsehbar ist, was wohl in den allerwenigsten F?llen zutrifft, da so viel Text einfach nicht auf die Packung passt.
Von daher ist es mir herzlich egal was da steht, die Hersteller schneiden sich damit nur ins eigene Fleisch wenn sie es ?bertreiben.

Therefore you could even challenge EVERY ban as being not valid, because of that law, at least in Germany and only in Theory, dont know how many "sub laws" are connected to this crap.

You're forced to visit their web site, thus you're meant to read up their ToS and EULA. If you "activate" the game, you accepted the said and agree to be bound to it. If you didn't bother looking it up, its your fault. The "notices" (the small books in the cases of copies) also redirect you to the web sites for ToS and EULA.
They may not scan your HDD. They may however scan anything else they've written down in their legal documents (incl. ToS/EULA). The German law is not enforced due to Blizzard's HQ being in the US. They may add "We reserve the right to scan your HDD [...]" and you'll be prompted to accept it on your next login. If you click it (and 99% of the people do without reading), you've agreed to it, and there is nothing you can do about it (well, there is: canceling your account).
The German law (f.e.) has nothing to do with it at all, really. Even if the law stated that you may not scan your RAM, Blizzard could still do it due to its HQ sitting in the US plus the fact that you agreed on it in the first place.

 

[buzzerbeater]

You're forced to visit their web site, thus you're meant to read up their ToS and EULA. If you "activate" the game, you accepted the said and agree to be bound to it. If you didn't bother looking it up, its your fault. The "notices" (the small books in the cases of copies) also redirect you to the web sites for ToS and EULA.

Doesnt matter, the FULL Eula needs to be available before you BUY it to be valid.

The little notices or what so ever doesnt help.

" The German law is not enforced due to Blizzard's HQ being in the US."

doesnt matter too, because there is a activision blizzard deutschland gmbh so the german law is enforced too.

 

[greaterdeath]

I think I remember some kind of lawsuit about this, where it was stated that blizzard is not allowed to scan your entire computer.

I've searched online for this info and never found anything, tho I've heard it referred to many times on this forum. Does anyone have a link to any real info about this lawsuit and the outcome?

 

[Macatho]

Its absolutely clear now that they ban by IP, and if they receive appeal, then they perform deeper check which account was doing what, everyone who is denying that is a fool. Its also obvious that they target exclusively farmers, BG and questing are safe as ever. The question is what do they are checking after someone appeal, do they have automatic script for that, or they are manually peering through some basic statistics like hours online, charcters activity etc (the fact that they let go questing account suggests former, i doubty that they would willingly let go someone who was botting even without 72h suspension). Second important question is if they are mainly banning by script, or by player reports, or both equal.

Since I've botted with 40+ accounts for the last year, I can tell you for a fact that they do NOT ban by IP adress by default.

Its actually much more of a gamble, they seem to have a very shitty procedure and the competence level between GMs vary so much is frightening, some GMs understanding the game mechanics and bot mechanics very well whilst others have no clue.

1. I've lost maybe 40 accounts to bans last year.
2. I lost 5 accounts to this new screening.
3. I've NEVER been IP-adress banned. There are always bots left alive when I get a banhammer on some bots.
4. Funny thing, once a over zealous GM actually DOMAIN BANNED ME, YES that is fucking correct, he domain banned my ass. I had 20 accounts registered under the @[insertmydomainhere].com (20 different BNET accounts) and the mtrfkr banned them all. Even accounts that I had not even played much on and never botted on. However ofc they were easily gotten back since they had nothing on me.
5. I've never been MAC adress banned or other type of system-uniqueness detection banned.

My thoughts:
It's so random with the GMs and how good they are, thus getting your account back might be easy for some and hard for others. When I get a ban hammer its all about luck really and if the GM is in a good mood or if hes over crowded with work etc etc...
The email everyone is getting that is saying "abuse gold bla bla", that is an automatic message sent by their detection software, I know this for a fact because I lost 20 leveling accounts (vanilla accs) because I tried doing 1-60 leveling with really small profiles (i.e the grind loop was really small) and they all got hit by the same message (gold abuse economy bla bla) and each of those characters had less than 50G. I later spoke to the GM and got most of those accounts unlocked because he said that I accidentally hit a automatic bot detection software which automatically banned me from the game. Ofc I had to do one ticket at a time which was a hassle.

But this still stands:
If you cant afford to lose the account, dont bot on it.
Botting is a risk, and no one should tell you otherwise.

 

[Thang781]

macatho, while i agree with you on almost every point, since i experienced the same, i would like to add the IP ban thingy. you're right by saying they don't ip ban by default, but they seem like to be allowed or to be able to do ip ban now. i have a lot of reports where ppl losing all online bots at once. in my case they even banned a leveling account, which was not abusing the economy and got unbanned after i wrote a ticket. if they would check out every single account before banning, they wouldn't ban the one leveling account in the first place or wouldn't unbann him afterwards. this just makes no sense. the only thing that makes sense to me is, the GM just ip ban me and accidently catches my leveling account which was on the same ip.

But this still stands:​

If you cant afford to lose the account, dont bot on it.
Botting is a risk, and no one should tell you otherwise.

and plz ppl. u need to stop posting this. we all know it and it's not about crying because we lost accounts or blaming hb for the bans. we're all sitting in the same boat and just try to find out if there is something new and if the banning methods have changed.

 

[Eisenberg]

As iv said, its all a misunderstaing with my statement about "ip bans". I did'nt mean that they just automatically ban everything which is not on unique IP. All that im saing is that starting from last week, when they ban one account for whatever reason, they also check of there are other accounts logged on same IP, and ban them without any check, probably because they are assuming (quit right in nearly all cases) that if one account is botting, 10 others logged in the same time on same IP are also bots, all owned by same person. Furthermore, i think that they check not only IP, but also hardware ID, and maybe battlenet webiste logins IP, its the only explanation of cases when someone gets hit on accounts which are on separate VPNs.

 

[Macatho]

Well its quite obvious, if they can go as faar as doing a domain ban, they surely can do IP bans. Its all about how zelous the GM is. However automatic detection software does NOT ban by IP, but a bored GM might.

Its quite obvious that they couldnt have automatic software doing IP Bans because a lot of people might be plaing on LANs with one IP to internet or like internet cafes etc...Where there are a ton of legit players playing the game and only a few people botting...

 

[Eisenberg]

Macatho, but what is probability that someone in internet caffe, shool or whatever is botting ? I think that very low, because in such places ppl are PLAYING this game. Therefore if they catch bot and see other accounts logged on same IP, they will ban them all because in like 99% cases that's caught goldfarm. And even in some rare cases they ban few ppl unjustly, they are just reviving appeal and gave account back. That is, unless they are also checking hardware ID (they scan it for sure, its even mentioned in eula), in such case they can distinct multiboxing bots from LAN with 100% rate of sucess.

 

[Non Quixote]

Even if the law stated that you may not scan your RAM, Blizzard could still do it due to its HQ sitting in the US plus the fact that you agreed on it in the first place.

Yeah, no. If you sign a contract with me that has a clause in it that says that I may legally kill you if you fail to live up to the contract, I'm still going to prison if I excercise the option and kill you. A contract can include any silliness that you want to put into it, but it cannot supercede the law of the state/country in which you play.

 

[Non Quixote]

I've searched online for this info and never found anything, tho I've heard it referred to many times on this forum. Does anyone have a link to any real info about this lawsuit and the outcome?

I don't remember any lawsuits regarding Blizzard and Warden. I do remember the massive outcry from not only the player base but from Web and software watchdog groups once spyware (Warden, although no one knew its name back then) was observed checking through every bit of memory that was in use and every window that was open on your computer. That was back late in 2005. Once the stink got strong enough Blizzard scaled back Warden so that it would scan only the memory that was actively being used by WoW.

 

[Macatho]

Yeah, no. If you sign a contract with me that has a clause in it that says that I may legally kill you if you fail to live up to the contract, I'm still going to prison if I excercise the option and kill you. A contract can include any silliness that you want to put into it, but it cannot supercede the law of the state/country in which you play.

Indeed, however no court would ever pay any attention to your request if you dont have the bling. And 99,99% of WoW players dont have the bling. Sadly.

 

[Cenderone]

This IP banning is scaring me.. Can someone explain this a bit more to me? Im botting an alt account right now.. I have a main account that I never bot on. I also have 2 brothers. One is in Iraq the other at college. They both played at my house within the last year. Does this mean if my botter gets banned, then my brothers, and my main will get banned? I dont care about losing my bot, but I do care about them and my main. Answers?

 

[Thang781]

cenderone, our theory is if a GM catch you botting and your brothers happen to be online at that same time in your house with the same ip, it's likely they will get banned, too. but they can write a ticket and if they are legit players, they will get their accounts back. if they are offline at that time, they should be fine.

edit: but plz remember this is just our theory, since a lot of us got banned by the same pattern. there is no prove tho, since we don't work for blizzard.

 

[Cenderone]

if i quit botting now, how long will it be till i know im safe from being banned? approximatley? Also, im 78 atm and I was planning on stopping botting after I hit 85. Im usings kicks 68-80 atm. what are my chances of getting banned in that short time? should i just let it finish?

 

[Thang781]

leveling is quite safe. i can tell because my last DK, which was leveling 24/7 and get full s11 for weeks straight was banned, too, when they banned my farmbots. but after a ticket they unbanned him. so i think leveling is safe. noone can tell you how long to wait tho. i have some bots running right now for testings.