Blizzard: Temporary Economy Holds For RMT

Community manager Kaivax announced Temporary Economy Holds, a new restriction aimed at RMT. Some players have already started running into it.

What changes for players

• Accounts suspected of selling gold or receiving illicit gold get a Temporary Economy Hold. While it is in place, your use of trade, mail, guild banks and the Auction House is restricted.
• It holds the gold in place while Blizzard investigates. If the investigation finds nothing, the hold is lifted automatically and leaves no strike on the account. If RMT is confirmed, account action follows.
• Blizzard says the system is new and false positives may happen while it is fine-tuned. If you were playing normally and still got a hold, trade, mail, guild bank and Auction House use stays restricted until the investigation clears it.
• Declining gold from strangers is the safe move. The receiving side is also subject to the hold and to account action.
• If it proves successful, the same systems will be deployed to all versions of World of Warcraft.

Earlier RMT posts are also on our news page: Actions Taken Against Botting and RMT · Kaivax's September 28 reply

Full post

Hello!

Some players have started to encounter our latest weapon in our efforts against the Real Money Trade (RMT) aka gold buying. If your account is suspected of being involved in RMT, either the selling or receiving of illicit gains, you may find your account subject to a Temporary Economy Hold. You will have restricted use of trade, mail, guild banks and the Auction House while this economic hold is in place.

Our aim with this new system is to aggressively shut down the flow of suspicious gold before it has been transferred or put into circulation into the economy, while providing us the time needed to investigate more thoroughly.

If you are just playing the game normally, it is unlikely you will ever see this restriction applied to your account. If this restriction is applied to your account, it will be either automatically removed when the actions that triggered it have been investigated and found false, or you will receive account actions if found to have been involved in RMT.

This system is new. There may be false positives while things are fine tuned, but merely having a Temporary Economy Hold will leave no permanent strikes against your account unless also later proven to be RMT motivated.

Thank you for joining us! We remain committed to ensure that WoW Forever is not marred by the Real Money Trade, and all of these systems will also be deployed to all versions of World of Warcraft if proven successful.