5 fresh accounts banned within 8 hours.

[border248]

Hey guys,

This was my first attempt at botting so I have a feeling I did something obviously wrong for them to be banned this fast and I wanted to see what you guys thought.

I purchased 5 standard World of Warcraft game boxes at my local Gamestop and put in the keys to make each account(they don't call them battle chests anymore) each account had a different real name. I made one account after the other 1, RAFed 2, 2 RAFed 3, etc. I logged them all on the same server and once they were all RAFed I just logged off and decided I would set up the actual botting software later. Bots 1 and 2 were both sharing their own IP and 3 and 4 had their own IP as well bot 5 was on an IP by its self.

I logged on the next morning and all 5 accounts were banned. I looked at the ban emails for each account and they were all sent at the same time with each account being banned 8 hours after it was created. The ban said it was for "exploitation of the economy" I looked it up and apparently you can be banned for "exploitation of economy" if they suspect you have bought some sort of leveling service.

Keep in mind I had never even played on the accounts or even used the botting software. I just logged on to the same server, RAFed the accounts one by one and then logged off. The next morning they were banned.

Any ideas guys?

 

[wtfmofo]

Were you using a public VPN? I think blizzard bans based on known VPN's

 

[border248]

Were you using a public VPN? I think blizzard bans based on known VPN's

No I was using a paid VPN

Strongvpn.com with the 30$ for 3 months open lite package.

 

[wtfmofo]

Not sure but maybe that VPN is flagged by blizzard. Thats the only logical explanation.

Appeal obviously. You should get them back as you didnt even bot.

 

[border248]

Not sure but maybe that VPN is flagged by blizzard. Thats the only logical explanation.

Appeal obviously. You should get them back as you didnt even bot.

Ive had two friends use this vpn service with good results but it could be something there, I'm just not sure. One friend did have something similar happen where two of his accounts that were RAFed got banned very fast like mine but the others did not so we just figured it was fluke but the only thing I can think of is that have a huge chain of 5 RAFs within a couple of mins of each other triggers some sort of flag

 

[wtfmofo]

I RAF at least 50 accounts a month. Its not that.

 

[border248]

I RAF at least 50 accounts a month. Its not that.

Interesting.. So you have never had an account be banned within 8 hours of being made? Just to be clear I don't think the act of RAFing them together might have caused a flag but the having account 1 RAF account two, then two RAF 3 and so on till a chain of 5 might be suspicious. Especially considering the accounts have different names on them so they aren't owned by the same person?

Next time i was going to try doing them in pairs of twos a couple hours apparent.

 

[wtfmofo]

No, Ive never lost accounts that fast. I even use only 1 email account and RAF 5 of them on the same battlenet. All 5 are linked to each other.

 

[border248]

No, Ive never lost accounts that fast. I even use only 1 email account and RAF 5 of them on the same battlenet. All 5 are linked to each other.

That could be it right there. My accounts could be automatically flagged when I raf them all together in a short amount of time and they are all own be different people 3 of which have different IPs.

I didnt even know you could use 1 battle.net login and send 5 RAFs to the same email. I'm assuming you use 1 IP for 5 bots then? Also I'm guessing when one catches a ban they all do?

 

[wtfmofo]

That could be it right there. My accounts could be automatically flagged when I raf them all together in a short amount of time and they are all own be different people 3 of which have different IPs.

I didnt even know you could use 1 battle.net login and send 5 RAFs to the same email. I'm assuming you use 1 IP for 5 bots then? Also I'm guessing when one catches a ban they all do?

Usually they all get banned. Sometimes its weird I get get hit 4/5. And yes same IP.

 

[Aion]

Its only 2 options here or maybe some mix of them:

Using blacklisted IP, this is common nowadays.

Using flagged computer system/wow installation.

I guess you are running them all from the same computer, no VMs, and same shared wow-install? If so, that is da sh*t!

 

[pimpampum]

No I was using a paid VPN

I had a similar experience as yours, only it took them longer to ban my accounts. 1 month or so, if I remember correctly.

The vpn provider I used was HMA, you can google it if you want more info.

What I actually think that happens, is that blizzard actually knows the Ip ranges of most vpn services (obviously 99% of the free ones, and 90% of the paid ones) and , whenever they feel like it, periodically, they ban all accounts using those Ip's. Yeah, appealing should lift any suspension, but they will be flagged for posterior investigation. They even told me, if I keep using VPN's the bans would keep happening.

If you could find a VPN that could provide a Whitelist (as in never previously used) and dedicated (as in only you can use it) IP , it would make things better in this regard. But, if the new IP belongs to a known IP range....you will get banned again with no diference.

Plus, a whitelist and dedicated VPN will cost a lot more than common services, and you will never have the complete safety of the VPN being true about it. At least , I wouldn't know how to check if a given IP has been previously used or is shared by several devices, other than look for info on that Ip suspicious behaviour on server blacklists, and that will not be 100% sure either.

Let me know if you find a decent enough provider. Always looking to improve.

 

[Macatho]

That could be it right there. My accounts could be automatically flagged when I raf them all together in a short amount of time and they are all own be different people 3 of which have different IPs.

I didnt even know you could use 1 battle.net login and send 5 RAFs to the same email. I'm assuming you use 1 IP for 5 bots then? Also I'm guessing when one catches a ban they all do?

Its not that either. Ive done it both ways. Never gotten hit that fast.

 

[Macatho]

I had a similar experience as yours, only it took them longer to ban my accounts. 1 month or so, if I remember correctly.

The vpn provider I used was HMA, you can google it if you want more info.

What I actually think that happens, is that blizzard actually knows the Ip ranges of most vpn services (obviously 99% of the free ones, and 90% of the paid ones) and , whenever they feel like it, periodically, they ban all accounts using those Ip's. Yeah, appealing should lift any suspension, but they will be flagged for posterior investigation. They even told me, if I keep using VPN's the bans would keep happening.

If you could find a VPN that could provide a Whitelist (as in never previously used) and dedicated (as in only you can use it) IP , it would make things better in this regard. But, if the new IP belongs to a known IP range....you will get banned again with no diference.

Plus, a whitelist and dedicated VPN will cost a lot more than common services, and you will never have the complete safety of the VPN being true about it. At least , I wouldn't know how to check if a given IP has been previously used or is shared by several devices, other than look for info on that Ip suspicious behaviour on server blacklists, and that will not be 100% sure either.

Let me know if you find a decent enough provider. Always looking to improve.

I dont think there are any "white lists". IP-adresses are allocated by IANA (https://www.iana.org/numbers). I think its well known which IP-adresses are owned by datacentres such as VPS/VPN services.

 

[pimpampum]

I dont think there are any "white lists". IP-adresses are allocated by IANA (https://www.iana.org/numbers). I think its well known which IP-adresses are owned by datacentres such as VPS/VPN services.

I'm not an expert in this field, but apparently there are. I've been told the providers are allotted X IP ranges , but they offer a portion of them to the public. A few ranges are kept by the vpn provider to be sold this way, therefore making it far more difficult to know them and blacklist them. Of course, they are far more expensive.

Again, that's what I was told by someone who claimed to be an expert on this stuff. It makes sense to me though.