Lame scams still profitable in Guild Wars, over 1000 bans every week
Would you fall for this? (Please say 'no'...): A complete stranger approaches you on the sidewalk outside of your bank and shows you a rare coin he says is worth twenty thousand dollars. "I want to just give this coin to you," he says, "but I don't want anyone to know we did this... tax issues, you see." The stranger suggests putting it in your safe deposit box, but because he's so concerned about privacy, he wants access to your safe deposit box to be sure the rare coin gets there, with no one the wiser. The problem is that he can only get in there with your express permission...
We're guessing 99.99% of you would never get suckered by something asinine like this, but why then do people fall for the exact same thing in the virtual realm? Specifically, it seems that Guild Wars players regularly turn over their login info to account thieves in hopes of getting something for nothing, as mentioned by Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats. This ultimately leads to a continuous deluge of stolen accounts, tears, and rage.
Ravious points out what Gaile Gray, ArenaNet Support Liaison, had to say about this issue on the Guild Wars Wiki. Gray says, "The truth is, most accounts used to spam districts with RMT-style advertising are stolen from players... the RMTer steals both the main account and whatever secondary account or buddy key the player was selling. The RMTer then uses that buddy key or that secondary account to steal more accounts. It's a vicious cycle, but we're closing more than a thousand accounts a week and we are committed to continued vigilance against scammers and thieves."
While this issue is by no means limited to Guild Wars, does it astound you that gamers -- several years into the existence of MMOs and RMT -- still give up their account credentials so readily?
