Valid points about Blizzard not being idiots and the possibility of 'correlated accounts' also being banned.
However...
FACT: Blizzard can not see that you're running multiple copies of WoW or HB if they are running in separate VMWare machines that have different virtual drives, with different assigned MAC addresses on the NAT mapping, as long as you route each machine through a different V-P-N for a unique IP address.
All this can easily be done, it causes hardly any performance drop if you're willing to run with minimal graphics and low resolution and have enough RAM to assign 3 GB per virtual machine and still keep 5 to 7 GB for the main OS.
By doing this you will absolutely lower your risk of bans, its just a given because you've removed all these associative factors which are logged server-side.
You will still have a high risk of being banned as we all do all the time, luck plays a big part as always, and player reports will still be your worst enemy.
If one account is flagged for some reason, however, they will have to dig a little deeper to find links between accounts.
You're smart to think it through, but in the end its about risk tolerance and what your end goal is.
If you dont bother keeping payment info separate for each account, if you log into the accounts from other common computers (even once), if you run around as a large group and attract blanket player reports, if you send all mats to the same AH toon, if you have the same friends list, etc etc... these are all loggable and observable behaviours which can help Blizz put the puzzle pieces together.
It's hard to control them all and sometimes there's no point controlling some if you don't also control others.
I've been perma banned once on 3 accounts simultaneously. That was in the Glider times. My main was banned without ever being botted on because I dual-box-botted my way to 70 on 2 other accounts and did not bot smart and did not put in many of the safeguards discussed above. I tried harder than I care to admit to get my toons back, no luck after months of appeals.
I no longer have any emotional investment in the game whatsoever, on a single account basis. As a whole, I love botting and playing by hand and do both, and I have yet to bot on my new "main" and never will probably, but I am now aware of the risks due to prior experience and I'm ok with them.
All my bots run in VMWare, period. I don't care if it may or may not be considered overkill, for me it adds peace of mind, and it just plain makes sense.
I don't keep all my investments in one asset class, I don't wash all my clothes in hot water, I don't feed my fish the same food I feed my dogs, and I don't give Blizzard more ammunition than I have to within reasonable limits of my time and finances.
Great topic tho, I would be really interested in hearing how other similarly "paranoid botters* have their stuff set up and isolated, if at all.
mrfoot
EDIT: Dont bother with any safeguards if you plan to post screenshots including your name and level on this forum... The fact that natural selection has not already weeded you out is proof enough that nobody is taking you down, least of all Blizz.
