Suspended for Fraud?

Hi guys... I got suspended from guild wars about 8 days ago... anyways... it said I got suspended for scamming. Well I contacted NC Soft and 5 days later... they told me why I got suspended. I will include the entire message about it. Basically they reviewed the game logs. I was bored that day and said WTS Frozen ecto thaws into real ecto... I was kidding anyways. I did not scam anyone trading them frozen ecto. Besides I did not have any frozen ecto in inventory. Anyways this is what they told me:

Hello,

After reviewing the incident and associated game logs it appears that you have violated the "Rules of Conduct" by attempting to sell Frozen Globs of Ectos as items that could be thawed and turned into real Ectos. This is known as defrauding and is a violation of the Rules of Conduct. Any violation of the Rules of Conduct will result in a mark placed on your account. Each mark will suspend your account for a given period of time. Subsequent marks against your account can cause longer suspensions. Account marks will expire after a period of time. Therefore, you can clear your account of marks, and remove the risk of lengthy suspensions, simply by observing the Rules of Conduct and the User Agreement.

For your convenience, more information regarding our "Rules of Conduct" and "Conduct Breaches & Outcomes" are available at the URLs listed below.

- Rules of Conduct: http://www.guildwars.com/support/leg...sofconduct.php

- Conduct Breaches & Outcomes: http://www.guildwars.com/support/leg...d_outcomes.php

Regards,
GM Lemoncobra
The Guild Wars Support Team

I thought you could only get suspended for fraud for actually scamming someone into something (in trade). I did not know you could get suspended for typing something that you did not mean true.

I replied back and told them I was kidding. Just for typing that and being bored that day... got me suspended for 15 days.

7 more days to go... why would this be considered scamming or fraud?

this is what happens when carebears are allowed to FREELY /report.

Ouch lol, maybe reported by someone who got scammed this way :P
Anyway, Nick needs bad drops and Canthan New Year isn't here yet so no real harm done

it would be nice to have a transaction query done and then have the person who /reported you equally banned as well.

Because it's a common scam that's been around since frozen ectos came into existence. And there's no way to tell if you were "just kidding" or not. (because it's so easy to say after the fact.)

You got suspended for the same reason that those who "WTB Runescape Accounts!" get suspended. You might not have scammed someone but you were trying.

So they nipped it in the bud. Suspended your account.

Really, how do you expect them to tell the difference between a scumbag scammer, and some poorly thought out joke? I'd rather they suspend all jokes than to let one scammer continue to fish for suckers.

Learn from your mistake. Don't scam and don't even joke scam.

yes there is a way. an infallible way...

Low level punishment for a low level offence. Somebody probably reported you based on your advert, support did minimum to confirm the report, job done. Support simply don't have the resource to do more, nor should they. Just a joke that backfired on you.

NCSoft is punishing intent rather than actual action now? I need to stop posting my WTS Tengu staff ads in trade then. New players occasionally offer to sell armor. Let's all start reporting them, guys.

If I were to go to L.A./Spamadan and sell ecto cheap, claiming they'd turn into frozen ecto....

Seems like game masters have no sense of humour or the support staff ...

I mean, you can't take something like that seriously.

You know what, it's great idea!

I will go to Spamadan now and write 'WTtrade my globes of epic plasm for ectos!'.

Let's see what happens.

Someone join me?

If anyone honestly fell for that trick, they deserve it. It is called the Stupid Tax.

Unjust ban.

A long time ago when I started playing GW, around the time Wintersday came around I started hearing about these little things called ecto's that were worth plenty of money. To my suprised I got frozen ecto's on my own and got all excited thinking I had to do was unfreeze them and get regular ecto's. I wasn't stupid, just didn't know much about the game. Now should I get ripped off of my very little wealth because I fell for something that I had no knowledge about?

The 'Stupid Tax' is bullshit. But I'm trying to reason with someone who thinks scaming gives you unjust bans so hey.

Yeah it sucks to get suspended for not scamming someone...

/sigh

Thing is, how does NCSoft know your not a Scammer?

Apparently, putting up "Selling Frozen Ecto! They thaw into Regular Ecto!" has been a scam for a decent amount of time no? You get people to buy your Frozen Ecto for slightly less then normal Ecto, and then they get screwed with a crappy purchase, because they are new to the game, or don't read forums, or only know Ecto is important, but don't know its only globs.

You were doing all the same things scammers would do to try and scam people, other then perhaps having the Frozen Ecto in your inventory, so what exactly makes you any different from them? I'm sure alot of scammers email back NCsoft Support and try to pull the "Aww man it was only a joke, I wasn't REALLY going to scam them!" approach.

I mean, if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck......

No doubt!

I mean, wtf, this guy got suspended when no trade even occurred? Just for saying something in chat (not even cursing or inflamatory)?

I can only imagine what would happen if these carebears started hanging out in GToB - you'd get literally 15 /reports per hour, per district...

How about all those jackasses who "WTB/S a life" in any major district... Time to ride the ban wagon, uber /report time!!!

Assume trade logs exist.
If: No trade with frozen ecto occurs from player advertising sale in chat,
Then: ?

1. Suspend! He's a scammer! Burn the witch!
2. No trade occurred. Issue a warning, or ignore report.

I could see like maybe a 24h warning ban or something...but 15 days. that's raw. real raw. especially if the account has never been flagged before.

Its pretty hard to tell just kidding from a scam that simply didn't produce a victim yet from reading logs. Cursing is a separate issue--you're comparing apples and oranges. Do you really think the carebears don't go to GToB? Why, because its the leet pvp hub? Its also where you get daily zaishen missions.

Guys what should I do? I told NCSOFT to review it. I DID NOT trade anyone frozen ectoplasm! I DID NOT SCAM ANYONE.

15 days is total harsh... Regina please reply to this thread.

I am a old player and love GW! However, I think this is too far.