Tips from Blizzard on Bot Detection

[christiantroy]

Company's Response
Company's Initial Response - Posted xx/xx/2013

An investigation into the allegations contained in the complaint of the customer has revealed the Account was found to be employing a third party program that modifies the actions of characters in-game. When the account was logged into the game server, Blizzard?s system detected a third party program that has been prohibited for use in conjunction with World of Warcraft by Blizzard. The use of these programs harms the game environment and gives the player unfair advantages over other players. According to the Battle.net Terms of Use Agreement which all subscribers agree to upon registering an account to play World of Warcraft, ?You agree that you will not, under any circumstances: (A.) or use cheats, bots, ?mods?, and/or Hacks, or any other third party software designed to modify the World of Warcraft experience.? For additional information on the Battle.net Terms of Use, please visit: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/wow_tou.html Under these circumstances, the account was terminated on xx/xx/xx. A notice of Account Closure detailing the Terms of Use violation was sent to the customer?s registered email address on that day. Any disputes or questions concerning this account action can only be addressed by Account Administration by submitting a Support Site ticket on your battle.net account. For additional questions on how Account Administration can assist you, visit http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/account-administration-overview for more information.

Initial Response Summary
The account was in violation of the Battle.net Terms of Use and the account remains closed. Please contact Account Administration for additional assistance.

Company's Final Response
Company's Final Response - Posted xx/xx/2013

We have reviewed the matter again and we have arrived at the same conclusion. According to Blizzard?s internal logs, the records show that an unauthorized third party program was detected when the account logged into the game server. Upon review of the IP logs for the account, Blizzard has discovered that the IP matches the customer?s normal play location. Additionally, several in-game tests were performed by Blizzard?s Account Administration team that showed that the character actions on the account were automated by a third party application. Account Administration has determined that the account shall remain closed on the basis that the account was not compromised and its subsequent use of the unauthorized program. This issue has been reviewed by several levels of our organization, and we consider the matter closed.

This is an official response from Blizzard received via BBB. It can give you some tips on how they detect bots.


http://d1303.hizliresim.com/17/h/l3687.jpg

 

[mazty]

Seems as though honorbuddy isnt designed to shut down on blizzards "tests". Probably not safe to bot AT ALL now.

 

[Goodkareem]

Not sure if this is faked or real but you are telling me they can detect honorbuddy now? Mother of god.

 

[Giwin]

Seems as though honorbuddy isnt designed to shut down on blizzards "tests". Probably not safe to bot AT ALL now.

it was never safe to bot, and we can only theorize what they do server side... although if you think if the bot not safe, please do not bot on your account.

 

[mazty]

I consider it safe when I have been consistently botting for years without a problem. And all of a sudden something like this happens? Wasnt 100 percent safe ever, was more safe previously than it is now.

 

[mazty]

I got perma ban and the appeal went through. I think I was down right caught, but since my IP's were switched due to lanning at friends house, they counted that as a compromised account. I think I might bot while tethering through my phone, and play in person on my at home network. Might protect me on future bans.

 

[realzz]

If they detect it when launching game doesnt mean u will get auto banned just because of that. They have to make sure that the third party software ure using is bot, so they will still fuck around with you teleporting you and stuff, if ure smart enough u will dodge ban.

 

[Inner-vision]

What about lazyraider, or tyreal, can I get banned for that if I play smart?

 

[jtmccarthy83]

What about lazyraider, or tyreal, can I get banned for that if I play smart?

Botting is botting.

There is no differentiation as to what you are using it for. So, to answer your question, yes. Myself, I only bot when I 'have' to. Have meaning all the tedious shit I don't want to do by hand. Questing isn't a big deal to me. I still enjoy it.

The point that it may be detectable, I say may because I myself have searched and wasn't able to find any complaints from the BBB for 2013 related to Blizzard, is a little concerning. But I understood the risks the first time I fired up the bot. I made my bed. If I have to, one day, I'll lay in it.

What I think, and I'm sure I can't be the only one, is even if they have a solid, 100% effective detection method, they won't auto-ban everyone that logs and a search turns up HB. There are still quite a few subs active, with recurring CC's and some with multiple, that are active HB users that I'm just not convinced they are willing to take that sort of loss. They are just like every other corporation. The dollar is the dollar. They get it where they can.

As for the OP, if someone can provide a link directly to this complaint, I think this may prove a little more credible.

 

[ironmike666]

monitor ur bot and dont bot 24/7

 

[jtmccarthy83]

This is an official response from Blizzard received via BBB. It can give you some tips on how they detect bots.

Almost got me.....

After further review....I'll debunk this.

see http://www.thebuddyforum.com/demonbuddy-forum/demonbuddy-ban-reports/101804-my-time-bbb-blizzard-2.html

Now I read this OP again...and again...and again. I googled "blizzard response bbb 2013" 4th result is the above linked post in the DB forums.

Some slight variations between the two.

1. The link provided for the TOU is for the WoW TOU not for the BNET TOU as the response indicates. The linked post contains the correct link.
2. Some lines have been removed. "Diablo III" has been replaced with "World of Warcraft"
3. The Initial Response Summary and Company's Final Response are word-for-word identical to the above linked post.
4. The dates are changed. Why take out the month and day anyway?

This is not real. It's definitely faked and in all honesty the OP should probably be disciplined in some way, shape or form for this nonsense.

Just another attempt for someone to stir up paranoia........

 

[Giwin]

I also thought this was fake as it was just a few days ago on the other post, and there's only 1 ^^ wasn't 100% sure though but I think he just forgot to add the source link.

 

[christiantroy]

Almost got me.....

After further review....I'll debunk this.

see http://www.thebuddyforum.com/demonbuddy-forum/demonbuddy-ban-reports/101804-my-time-bbb-blizzard-2.html

Now I read this OP again...and again...and again. I googled "blizzard response bbb 2013" 4th result is the above linked post in the DB forums.

Some slight variations between the two.

1. The link provided for the TOU is for the WoW TOU not for the BNET TOU as the response indicates. The linked post contains the correct link.
2. Some lines have been removed. "Diablo III" has been replaced with "World of Warcraft"
3. The Initial Response Summary and Company's Final Response are word-for-word identical to the above linked post.
4. The dates are changed. Why take out the month and day anyway?

This is not real. It's definitely faked and in all honesty the OP should probably be disciplined in some way, shape or form for this nonsense.

Just another attempt for someone to stir up paranoia........

BBB refers to Better Business Bureau. Check it out United States and Canada BBB Consumer and Business Reviews, Reports, Ratings, Complaints and Accredited Business Listings

Also here is the screenshot.

 

[Kronz]

Seeing how in the case with Diablo they were getting the game to crash in order to collect the info they needed through automated error reports, I thought this would help.

This little guide shows how to disable any unwanted programs from running at all through the Windows GPEDIT.MSC tool.

http://www.technipages.com/prevent-users-from-running-certain-programs.html

Additionally, adding a Firewall rule to keep WOWError.exe and WOWError-64.exe from sending anything out would also help in the event that someone clicks the "Send" instead of "Cancel" button or something.

 

[Kidkaddy]

I am not very technically inclined so would someone be so kind to point me in the direction of how to set up a firewall rule to keep WOWError.exe and WOWError-64.exe from sending anything out?

Also I read the guide on how to disable any unwanted programs from running at all through the Windows GPEDIT.MSC tool it was informative and I did not know about that.
The question I now have is what programs shall I tell it to block?

 

[LowKey]

So the response claims that they detected the program when the client connected. And HB doesn't attach to WoW until *after* the client connects to their servers, no?

So, if it was a bot, it doesn't sound like HB. Or am I misunderstanding how HB works?

 

[Giwin]

If this is the case that they crash the game on purpose to trigger the sending of a report, then this is client side detection of the demonbuddy client.

Someone should notify the HB devs.

 

[Dabowski]

So this article is suggesting using a relogger is a bad idea?

 

[botorific]

Gotta think those error reports generated have been looked into by some one at some point. Devs or paranoid users or both. Hopefully there are no clueless souls who actually click the send button.

Personally, whenever this happens I feel like it's the virtual equivalent of the "middle finger". A little something from blizzard to us for using the bot.

 

[Dark57]

Not sure if this is faked or real but you are telling me they can detect honorbuddy now? Mother of god.

Yeah they can detect it. That's why bots are no longer part of WoW. We are now back in the golden ages of playing the game without bots, gold selling, chinese spammers and they even separated the servers so that the little annoying trolls and little children can have their own server. It's mother fucking World of Utopia now.

All that your message said OP, was that they "tested" your toon while you were afk and noticed that they found a way to break the bot's actions. Or you got stuck, etc. Either way, "tests" doesn't mean they did anything but view your character in GM mode, watch you derp in to a corner or something and then do a very inefficient unstuck maneuver that is pretty obvious if someone is watching.