Ban Theories and Ban Waves

[silverwolfnz]

Another factor may be Items Per Hour, especially if you're getting X amount of legendaries per hour/day

 

[Master_Cirroji]

i really believe that the MoP is taking up most of the blizzard staff.
WoW is most likely the most profitable game they have ever and will ever make.

dont be suprised if soon after launch if things go well for MoP that bans dont start coming back in weekly

- think of it like this. jay wilson isn't shit without WoW, its his baby, without it, he is nothing more than a corporate fatboy with alot of customer displeasing ideas.

so yes, im sure WoW gets alot more attention in details than D3,

 

[Dingdongbong]

Quite a lot of bans happening the past days and this thread seems to be inactive.

 

[critical88]

yes it is everyday ban in ASIA server

 

[Mr Ekko]

anyone still bot this to sell gold??

 

[darky13]

ofc

 

[Dragonboy]

Who's going to bot 24/7 through these (likely) next few days of bans?

 

[FrenchBot]

< This guy

 

[Cyonsiaros]

After much thought I decided to post the following discussion relevant bits.

So an interesting aspect of blizzards anti-hack division and warden programmers came out around 2005-2007 that blizzard was monitoring our process lists and the windows we were browsing. This was true and blizzard did exactly that. Shortly after there was a backlash from the community on the privacy front and since than it has been claimed by blizzard that they will not search outside of the process itself and its memory.

I believe - blizzard still regularly searches outside of the process itself as to detect third party programs. What I personally believe is sometimes a ban isn't delayed to throw people off of what flagged them - but instead I believe blizzard has identified cheaters through searching outside of the process and than putting the account under review until it can be flagged by legal means. Now this is hard to swallow because it literally means none of us are really safe at all.
I want people to understand blizzard has the software to read all your memory processes - the api - they can use RCP - They can view registry - They can see everything on your computer. It is important to note: Factually they CAN do this - the question is do they? I believe they still do. It's not whether they can; they have for other games - the question is whether they still use this underhanded method to catch cheaters.

Now the fact is they can do it; it is indisputable as they have before - The reality is they said they wouldn't do so anymore. But we don't really know what were doing - just that they've developed the software to do so in the past and have done so before. If they do indeed still check outside of process - while claiming not to - it would make sense to me to escalate the account after noting demonbuddy relevant registry/api/memory until a time where the cheating can be confirmed through more legal means.

I see some mods posting you shouldn't worry about your process list - and I think that is complete and utter bs - we know they can check this and have before - why would we assume they'll keep their word and not do so in present day? I played wow when the info first came out and was in an uproar with the rest of the community - I botted etal/d2jsp bots for 2 years - never banned - I run demonbuddy 24/7 and haven't been banned although I may have been detected.

What I believe:

1) a preliminary flag puts your account under review
2) once under review if nothing is found - they search out of process or leave the account to see if it is flagged again
3) If third party software is confirmed through searching outside of d3's memory - the account is than flagged for ban until a time where which they can say they detected through other - more legally aligned means.

There is also a smaller chance the initial flag is the out of process reading - also chances of random samples.

The reason why I would think all of the above - or warrant the idea reasonable is because of the language used in the eula/tos to describe these things.
For instance the eula states blizzard can search our hardrives; search our processes - do anything and everything - if they have reason to believe it will effect
either our safety - or the safety of others. This literature is present and validates any malicious searching. Blizzard has not updated the eula/tos to reflect that they
will not search outside of the Diablo 3 process itself - they have not committed to that idea. They have claimed they won't (years ago) - but this is not found in the documents
governing the game and developer - they are not bound to this - and they can check out of process without informing they are doing so - and waiting until other means can identify the account as cheating.

If you ever have some free time; read that license information - the ToS - the EULA - The language is pretty ridiculous and allows blizzard to do whatever they want - much like if a police officers life was threatened - or they
had the perception it was - they could act as to protect themselves from what could reasonably be a threat. Anyone account can be linked as a safety concern to themselves or others- even a false positive could be listed
as the reasoning for investigating - if it ever came to court for privacy reasons now or in the future.

I 100% believe they check otuside of the D3 process regardless of claims
I 100% believe they will not ban you on this alone
I 100% believe they will monitor you until it can be confirmed through other - more legally acceptable means
I 100% believe they will know you're cheating when they look at your account - lets hope they don't

 

[ElPaintero]

After much thought I decided to post the following discussion relevant bits.

So an interesting aspect of blizzards anti-hack division...

I 100% believe they check otuside of the D3 process regardless of claims
I 100% believe they will not ban you on this alone
I 100% believe they will monitor you until it can be confirmed through other - more legally acceptable means
I 100% believe they will know you're cheating when they look at your account - lets hope they don't

They don't care that much, and they aren't secretly monitoring your processes or anything else. Here is why.

Algorithms in place flag your account when suspicious behavior is detected. Account Administration periodically investigates flagged accounts. They are looking for evidence of cheating. Even though they don't need a reason to ban you (according to the TOS), as a matter of good practice, they DO make sure that you cheated. That's what they're looking for when they investigate your account by hand.

If they had programs that could see your processes, and they were okay with using them, as you say they do and are, Account Administration wouldn't bother to investigate your account by hand. The algorithm that detects suspicious behavior would ban you outright when it found Demonbuddy (as this certainly would constitute evidence of cheating) in the list of processes. It follows, then, that everyone that uses or has used DB would be banned already, automatically.

Remember: they don't need a reason to close your account.

 

[Cyonsiaros]

They don't care that much, and they aren't secretly monitoring your processes or anything else.

Historically blizzard is noted for having this functionality and using it - although I cannot confirm it's been used since 2005 - I believe it is. It was quite a media item when it was first revealed and by 2007 they had stated they would not datamine outside of processes.

Here's why it does fit: What you note is what the community see's as how people are banned - and for good reason
We won't know because it is noted that it may be illegal to do this - hence the court case in 2005
You will not be able to tell - as that would obliterate the entire purpose

"It is not if they have programs to do so"- there is plenty of information on warden and agent - There are court cases in relation to blizzard mining data through these programs.
They have the programs to do so - this is documented. It is said it is for user protection - i.e. searching computers for keyloggers that might steal accounts. Warden and Agent
are VERY real. What they did in 2005 is real. What they do now is unknown - Some information we have inferred about banned accounts is known.

You will need to be accurate at least if you want to say definitively this is or isn't what is done. As your facts are a little off I do not know how much credit is due to the source.
I do not believe your guess that blizzard does not datamine. I feel like you don't even know that they've been in the media for their data-mining spyware which is collected for
your security.

Remember: They do have programs which datamine your information - That's not a guess - That's the facts of the matter:
Remember: Their eula/tos allows for the datamining
Remember: They stated they will not do so for any reason other than security purposes

Lets seperate facts from fiction;
the software was already developed - I say it was probably developed to this day
they have used the software before - It is unknown if they do currently - I say they do

I 100% believe they sitll datamine when prompted with info - than they wait until it can be confirmed via other means - as should a problem ever occur - and court be warranted - They will need to note detection that is not related to what is discussed here - Because it would be a disaster and the community would lash out - just like in 2005 - because they told us they wouldn't do this.

Edit: again I believe theyhave updated through the years; their programs and have the capability of doing so today. They certainly did in 2005 - and their current day eula/tos has literature which protects its use in current day - should they be doing so

Update: I was recently informed by a community member that the laws of various countries may not be as lenient of that of the U.S. and what information blizzard can view varies by country - Rather based upon your global position and your countries laws or agreements with blizzard - Blizzard may not be allowed to datamine you at all regardless of the security based reasoning found in their Eula/TOS for the United States. This was very surprising to me.

 

[Gingerbread]

Historically blizzard is noted for having this functionality and using it - although I cannot confirm it's been used since 2005 - I believe it is. It was quite a media item when it was first revealed and by 2007 they had stated they would not datamine outside of processes

Which in a nutshell is why they won't use these methods to flag/ban people in 2012. If they got caught lying about stuff like account privacy 2 things would happen.

i) they'd get hit with a LOT of lawsuits
ii) the negative publicity this generates would cause them a HUGE drop in revenues

In short there is no way in hell they would risk it. Their games are a license to print monies, squashing a few botters by spying on all of their users isn't worth the cost. As much as they might like to ban all the botters, I get the impression that as 'legit botters' (people that buy accounts to bot with to farm gold/items) make them a bunch of money they are banning enough of them to be able to say "look we actively ban these cheaters - see" and no more than that.

 

[link]

things were more interesting when people were getting banned doing sarkoth a few months ago. the lack of bans now is giving me a false sense of security

 

[Erson]

Well they avoid to ban legit users( some of them play more then 20 hours a day), and Blizzard have some criterias to detect bots . I think 1 of them the amount of how much is sold on rMh auction, then they search for all accounts on same Ip or Mc adress or smth else and ban the whole bush, tha'ts why we dont see people whi got banned botting 24/7 on 1-2-3 bots. Conclusion is having more then 3 bots on 1 comp or Ip rising up risks .

 

[Dartchen]

Hmmm...things have been too quiet on the ban front actually. It feels like the calm before the storm. With the new patch being released I could see the storm hitting. Any thoughts to preemptive emails saying that you had been hacked? Would it improve the chances of getting the account back if they decide to go banhappy?

 

[Durrer]

I now have 2 bots on the same PC and same IP. If (when) they'll get banned, do the Blizzard put this IP on watch? After the ban will it be safe to start botting with the news accounts on the same IP/HWID?

 

[Pikablu]

I now have 2 bots on the same PC and same IP. If (when) they'll get banned, do the Blizzard put this IP on watch? After the ban will it be safe to start botting with the news accounts on the same IP/HWID?

No it will not be safe. You have to change your IP and MAC address. Your new accounts will not be banned straight away but your IP and MAC address will be flagged.

 

[Master_Cirroji]

No it will not be safe. You have to change your IP and MAC address. Your new accounts will not be banned straight away but your IP and MAC address will be flagged.

bull shit my friend. exactly where do you get your information that this will get you flagged?

assumptions are like assholes, everyone's got one, but nobody really wants to see it

 

[Master_Cirroji]

google chrome at work does not like the forums, almost ever one is a double post :\

 

[Pikablu]

bull shit my friend. exactly where do you get your information that this will get you flagged?

assumptions are like assholes, everyone's got one, but nobody really wants to see it

No offence but I botted at d2 when you were still wearing diapers.

Countless of my cdkeys were blocked cause of the same IP so I *assume* d3 is no different.

Also you can't use TOR for gaming or it will be really slow. Just use a ***.