I've been banned two days ago, but not for the right reason.

[Juunbugs]

***Notice of Account Closure***

Account Name: *********

Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This account was closed because one or more characters were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for "real-world" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.

Even if this is the result of account sharing, the account owner can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment.

We've found the above behavior is many times directly related to groups responsible for compromising World of Warcraft accounts; we take these issues very seriously. To better understand our position against exploitative activity and the risks involved, please review this article: Impact of Buying Gold - Shop - World of Warcraft

The exploitative activity that took place on this account violates the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask you take a moment to review these terms at Blizzard Entertainment:Blizzard Legal Documentation. Note that additional Terms of Use violations may result in more severe actions against this account, up to and including permanent closure.

If you believe your account was compromised, please go to the following website https://us.battle.net/account/support/account-recovery.html. Our support staff will assist you as soon as possible. If you are unable to access your account due to the password being changed, please visit our Login Support site here: https://us.battle.net/account/support/password-reset.html

For any disputes of this action or further information on exploitive activity, please visit the Account Administration Overview and contact page here: How to Appeal Suspensions and Closures - Battle.net Support

Regards,

Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/

1)Were you using Honorbuddy, Gatherbuddy or both on the account?
Honorbuddy

2)Which version (and Beta or Release)?:
Latest

3)If so, when was the last time?:
About half a day before the ban

4)What profile were you using?:
Combatbot

5)What combat class were you using? if None Just put Default then the Classname:
TuanHa's free Hunter routine

6)What plugins are you using?:
Anti-Drown and food

7)How many hours per day did you bot for?:
About three hours of fishing and 10 hours of combatbot while I manually play

8)What honest percentage of time did you supervise your bot?
100% of the time while I play, 80% of the time while I fish

9)How many auctions per day did you have?:
I had about twenty auctions per day, but all manual.

10)Did you Use Any Other Bots, Hacks, or Mods?
No

11)Was your account involved in gold selling?
No

12)EU or US realm?
US

13)Is the banned account a Scroll of Resurrection or an actual paid account?
Paid Account

So I get that using Honorbuddy is out of Blizzard's TOS, so I wouldn't be surprised if I got banned or not, but the reason for my ban has raised many questions.
I sent a reply to Blizzard as to why they've banned me for the stated reason, but all I get is a reply that they've looked in to it again and will remain firm with their ban.

I've sent a follow up ticket just simply asking what the ban was for, in return they've cancelled the follow up ticket.

I'm not mad or complaining about getting banned, what my biggest concern is they've banned me for "Abuse of the Economy", which I have never done. I have never seeked nor have I ever solicited any in-game items for real world profit. Also, just asking Blizzard for evidence or proof of the event that has caused this banned, they completely ignore my question which I find unacceptable, It's as if they're the judge and I'm on trial, but they sentence me guilty without pulling out any evidence or facts which bothers me to no ends!

Can anyone provide some insight on what further action I should take? If I am to stay banned, so be it, but let it be known that I will not stand down if I feel that if I'm wrongfully banned.

Respectfully,
Juunbugs

 

[xps45r]

Hi Juunbugs -

Did you happen to transfer a substantial amount of gold across any other accounts that dont bear your name on the account? Did you buy an item with substantial cost?

Much of this abuse of economy is automatic. I would submit another ticket. Its perhaps, maybe a game master having a bad day decided to be a trick.

Good luck.

 

[Juunbugs]

Hi Juunbugs -

Did you happen to transfer a substantial amount of gold across any other accounts that dont bear your name on the account? Did you buy an item with substantial cost?

Much of this abuse of economy is automatic. I would submit another ticket. Its perhaps, maybe a game master having a bad day decided to be a trick.

Good luck.

xps45r,

The most I've traded was 1k to a guild mate because he wanted to buy Mists of Pandaria flying, then after WoD launch, I asked for the money back so I could fund my Garrison. I've accrued a good amount of money from questing throughout Draenor and disenchanting and AHing all the greens and blues I came across. The most I've ever botted was fishing or leveling a new alternate, but I've always monitored them most of the time. I run Combatbot a lot while I manually play, but the nature of the ban does not fit what I do so I am honestly very confused!

I'm going to submit a new ticket asking for evidence of my ban because I have no idea what I've been banned for. Would that be alright?

Respectfully,
Juunbugs

 

[leoff]

I would call them instead of just opening a ticket that can be down right closed.

 

[christiantroy]

so you got banned only for using a combat routine?

 

[Juunbugs]

To all concerned,

My third appeal ticket has again been cancelled, all I asked was for evidence of my ban. It was just cancelled, I might end up calling to correct this because I was not involved in any real world trading whatsoever.

Does anyone have advice on how I should approach this situation? What words to say, what topics to avoid?

Respectfully,
Juunbugs

 

[Juunbugs]

so you got banned only for using a combat routine?

christiantroy,

I, as of right now, honestly have no clue what I've been banned for, from the looks of what this website says, "Abuse of the Economy" is blizzard's catch-all ban which basically means they have a hunch that I'm up to no good, but can't prove it.

The thing is, I fish bot with AutoAngler2 for a few hours to try and get Nat Pagle, I use TuanHA's free combat routine. I don't sell in-game gold. I don't buy in-game gold. I don't do anything that involves the "Abuse of the Economy" ban which is why I'm fighting this ban really hard. They have no evidence to show me, they've cancelled three of my tickets without explaining what I've done. If they were to give me solid proof of what I've been doing wrong, then I would let this go, but they haven't in any way.

I want to press harder on this matter, but I don't know how to invoke them to at least give me facts, exhibits, logs, or evidence of my actions. So, any help would be great!

Respectfully,
Juunbugs

 

[Tarathiel2]

You can't. It's their company policy to never give out evidence as it can be used to avoid future bans. Definitely try calling them though, you may get lucky. Just act completely clueless, you don't understand why you were banned for playing the game, you have no idea what a bot is, etc.

 

[Juunbugs]

You can't. It's their company policy to never give out evidence as it can be used to avoid future bans. Definitely try calling them though, you may get lucky. Just act completely clueless, you don't understand why you were banned for playing the game, you have no idea what a bot is, etc.

Tarathiel2,

Thanks I'll take that in to account, but do you know if that it says anywhere in their EULA or Terms of Use that they can refuse the right to divulge information to its end users? I'm reading through them and I don't specifically see anything that states that. Even if it's in the company's best interest to keep the information to themselves, if it's not in the EULA or ToU then it's just an abuse of power on their part.

Also, in no offense to you or anyone else who might use the phrase "get lucky", I don't want it to depend on luck. It should be a fair trial thick and through and not dependent on the Customer Rep's mood, the GM's mood, lack of evidence, etc. I know what we're doing is in deep violation of Blizzard's Terms of Use, but without proper evidence, Blizzard should have no right to ban based on suspicion alone. I mean, in their EULA, ToU, they state that they are at anytime allowed to collect information from our computers with regards to anything pertaining to Blizzard that does not hold Personally Identifiable Information, which includes and is not limited to the scanning of our RAM in search of third party software. If they were going to bring someone down, they'd have all the evidence they need. With this collective information, and as I've stated before, this is what bothers me. The nature of my ban has absolutely no connection to how I bot or play the game which is why I'm defending my position on this so passionately.

Respectfully,
Juunbugs

 

[Botuser2014]

If I had to guess it was the 3+ hours of straight fishing. Blizzard realizes that we can fish in our garrison without being seen, and probably have put up measures to counter this - like a certain amount of fish attained per hour.

Just be careful for fishing that long. I usually fish no longer than 40 minutes at a time, per day just to be safe.

@ OP - Can you get the ban lowered to a 72 hour suspension?

 

[Juunbugs]

If I had to guess it was the 3+ hours of straight fishing. Blizzard realizes that we can fish in our garrison without being seen, and probably have put up measures to counter this - like a certain amount of fish attained per hour.

Just be careful for fishing that long. I usually fish no longer than 40 minutes at a time, per day just to be safe.

@ OP - Can you get the ban lowered to a 72 hour suspension?

Botuser2014,

The thing is, I don't fish in my Garrison, I fish in spots all around Draenor because I don't have a level 3 fishing hut yet, so I find it useless fishing in my garrison if I can't get enormous fish, you're right, the lengthy amount of fishing is something to worry about and honestly this post would be different if it were "Use of a third party program" that I was banned for instead of "Abuse of the economy". If it were the former and not the latter, I would just post here saying okay, GG, I've been caught.

To answer your question, no I haven't been able to get it down to a 72 hours suspension. It's still an ongoing battle. I've submitted two tickets, one was marked as resolved and the other they keep cancelling and I keep reopening it. The quickest go around I had between them was forty minutes after I've reopened it, they've cancelled it. I'm currently overseas in an area that restricts P2P connections, so I use a Private VPN to mask my connection and browse freely. I've tried calling their number via Skype, but it their automated machine keeps telling me to submit a ticket.

Respectfully,
Juunbugs

 

[Lemmi]

do you have other accs that bot more heavily? did you use any vpn services or anything of the sort?

 

[Botuser2014]

Botuser2014,

The thing is, I don't fish in my Garrison, I fish in spots all around Draenor because I don't have a level 3 fishing hut yet, so I find it useless fishing in my garrison if I can't get enormous fish, you're right, the lengthy amount of fishing is something to worry about and honestly this post would be different if it were "Use of a third party program" that I was banned for instead of "Abuse of the economy". If it were the former and not the latter, I would just post here saying okay, GG, I've been caught.

To answer your question, no I haven't been able to get it down to a 72 hours suspension. It's still an ongoing battle. I've submitted two tickets, one was marked as resolved and the other they keep cancelling and I keep reopening it. The quickest go around I had between them was forty minutes after I've reopened it, they've cancelled it. I'm currently overseas in an area that restricts P2P connections, so I use a Private VPN to mask my connection and browse freely. I've tried calling their number via Skype, but it their automated machine keeps telling me to submit a ticket.

Respectfully,
Juunbugs

I would call them, and deny EVERYTHING. You don't even know what a bot is... that's your defense.

 

[sGkz]

Hello, Im interested to know the next, keep posting, have a good day.

 

[mrlahey]

For the record, Blizz can and will ban for any reason they see fit, it's expressly in their ToS. If, for example, you're a fan of let's say Bob Dylan, and your name is BobDylanFan or something, and a GM sees your name and he doesn't like Bob Dylan, he is within his rights to terminate your account. Hell, they could legally terminate every WoW account in the world for the lolz all at once and no one could do anything about it.

My first ban was back in January, and no matter what I said or did, it remained a permanent ban. Calling, professionally written tickets, submission of proof via stream VoD's, they didn't care about any of that, they just gave me the cold shoulder and reiterated they can terminate your account for any reason they see fit.

 

[Aion]

First of all, he is not banned for 3rd party, so there is NO reason to deny anything he is not accused for, isnt it?

Then, by calling or using Live chat option is good reason, and use some social engineering at least to know what he was accused for, because the Abuse of Economy is always harder ban to fight!

It is either flooding the AH with tons of common stuff and/or trading large amounts of gold, which would trigger the automatic ban.

The only way they send you Abuse of Economy by mistake, is when they do apply manual ban, but from the mail I read is as automatic one.

Good luck with them!

 

[Malice211]

you are currently banned for Abuse for the economy...you open a ticket and complain...next they come back with "you were closed for exploitive activity/use of 3rd party software" which was the underlying cause of your economy ban because you used the program to screw with the economy by getting something for nothing...or they reopen your account right away without issue...depends ENTIRLY on the GM who is reviewing the case...how they feel at the time...how deep they dig into your activity...the logs they look at (important one)...maybe they were in a good mood all morning and unbanning accounts left right and center and someone ate the last jelly donut on them and now they are pissed so they take it out on you...I have lost a few dozen accounts over the years...had accounts closed that did very little in the game and didn't get them back and others that I blatantly botted the hell out of all the time and were reopened with an apology right away...there is no rhyme or reason to it...as to getting "Proof" from Blizzard...yes you are entitled to it...and as soon as you get a lawyer and have them go to work on Blizz you will probably get some detailed logs, after a few months, showing everything you did...if you want to go through that expense...not really worth it...just my opinion on it all thought...

 

[ryftobuddy]

Section 6 of the TOS:

"BLIZZARD MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, OR DELETE ANY BNET ACCOUNT OR WORLD OF WARCRAFT ACCOUNT AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON OR FOR NO REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU."

Yes, it's within their rights to ban you with no evidence, no they won't tell you why, they don't even need to tell you that they did it. If I worked for Blizz and you came at me demanding proof, I'd laugh in your face.

Who cares if they chose the wrong reason to ban you. You know you were doing something wrong, they know you were doing something wrong. If they don't reinstate you after calling, try again in a year. The less tickets you send in, the more likely you are to be reinstated down the road.

And getting reinstated is luck based. You may not like that, but it's pretty much a fact.