Accounts Banned (Jun. 24)

[Draggy]

http://www.playonline.com/ff11eu/pol...ews13693.shtml

We would like to report the termination today of multiple accounts held by players involved in the usage of third-party tools or cheats, or engaged in RMT (Real Money Trading) activities.

Based on the results of our investigation, around 4,220 PlayOnline accounts were terminated while around 1,370 accounts were temporarily suspended.
Additionally, we have increased the number of mass bannings against certain PlayOnline violations in order to prevent illegal acts.

Details of the violations are as follows:

- Usage of tools that allow enhanced character movement.
Week of May 25, Approx. 180 cases
Week of June 1, Approx. 410 cases
Week of June 8, Approx. 350 cases
Week of June 15, Approx. 250 cases
Week of June 22, Approx. 150 cases

- Usage of tools that circumvent game mechanics with respect to the timing of ability use, etc. in certain areas or at points where Notorious Monsters appear.
June 24, Approx. 40 cases

- Using cheats to automatically repeat a particular action.
Week of May 25, Approx. 70 cases
Week of June 1, Approx. 200 cases
Week of June 8, Approx. 320 cases
Week of June 15, Approx. 230 cases

- Gil and item exchange for real world money.
Week of May 25, Approx. 160 cases
Week of June 15, Approx. 230 cases
Week of June 22, Approx. 700 cases

- Instances of areas or monster monopolization.
May 29, Approx. 290 cases
June 12, Approx. 500 cases
June 19, Approx. 280 cases

- Usage of synthesis and auction houses for RMT activities.
June 3, Approx. 280 cases
June 16, Approx. 280 cases
June 23, Approx. 650 cases

- Accounts from people that were previously confirmed to have RMT connections, or that had violated the user agreements but re-subscribed to PlayOnline.
June 24, Approx. 40 cases

The termination of these accounts has led to the removal of approximately 1.8 billion gil from circulation.

We would like to remind players that as well as adversely affecting game balance, the use of third-party tools or cheats can also have consequences that are not immediately obvious, such as introducing damaging viruses, and comprising the security of private account details. Usage of third-party tools will not be tolerated within FINAL FANTASY XI, and we will continue to severely penalize any players found to be in violation of the PlayOnline Member Agreement.

As we continue to ensure a fun and balanced environment for FINAL FANTASY XI, we hope that our players enjoy the game as it was intended and take care to avoid involvement in activities that violate the PlayOnline Member Agreement.

Thank you for your continued cooperation and understanding.

[arus2001]

The totally random number of cases between various dates always has me questioning the legitimacy of these reports. While discovering a concentrated batch might lead to a spike here and there, thinking RMT got over 4000 accounts (presumably the same people at least twice a month) to levels of workable monopolization out in the field and in crafting seems even more crazy. Hell, that's nearly 1% of their alleged 500k population.

[Gunitsoldier]

Moarrrr! I wanna see 50k khroma ores!

[Max™]

THEY GOT RYKO!

[cdgreg]

still some odi* /anons running around on Odin, no sleep more bans

[Bwelch]

Special Task Force Report (06/24/2008)

Today's report will outline our actions conducted from May 28, 2008 to June 24, 2008 in dealing with players violating the user agreement, as well as details on the activities, results, and goals of the Special Task Force.

Click here for details on the Special Task Force's activities in dealing with players violating the FINAL FANTASY XI user agreement.

Regarding Unauthorized Third-party Access

In order to decrease the damage caused by unauthorized access, security for all PlayOnline services has been strengthened. In the June 6th version update, the following features were added: Security Settings, which enable users to improve their PlayOnline password's security, and a software keyboard that is effective against a kind of spyware known as keyloggers. These measures were only introduced to the Windows version of PlayOnline.

However, to prevent unauthorized access before it can happen, users must understand it and take effective preventative measures.

In addition to the unauthorized access page which explains preventative measures against third-party access as well as support provided by Square Enix, the latest important information can be found in "Important Notices" under "Information." The information regarding unauthorized access will help you in protecting your account.

Click here for information on dealing with unauthorized access.
Click here for the latest important notice, "Vulnerability Issues Regarding Flash Player."

Special Task Force Activities and Future Plans

Since last month, the Special Task Force has been strengthening activities against violators of the user agreement involved in illegal fishing and enhanced character movement.
Players involved in illegal fishing use tools to move to locations that players cannot normally move to in order to avoid being attacked by monsters. However, by strengthening our actions against both groups of violators, it has become difficult for them to earn gil. As a result, the number of players who purchase a new account and create a new character so that they can continue their illegal activity after they've been banned has significantly decreased.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...hka/3402_6.jpg

The above graph represents the number of reports regarding illegal fishing and the number of accounts that have been banned due to such actions. As shown in the graph, the number of accounts banned and reports made from December to April remains mostly consistent, but the numbers for May are 40% lower than those for April. Because we have succeeded in decreasing the number of violators involved in illegal fishing through the strengthening of our activities starting last month, the number of reports regarding illegal fishing received from FINAL FANTASY XI users has also significantly decreased.

We are continuing to investigate and deal with users based on reports provided by players. Reports regarding hunters (*1) are still the second most numerous following illegal fishing, and we plan to strengthen our actions against them as well.
Besides strengthening our actions against violators, the Special Task Force is also introducing effective systematic countermeasures with the help of the FINAL FANTASY XI development team.
Because the countermeasures introduced in the March 11th version update were so effective, we introduced countermeasures in the June 10th version update that changed the requirements for accepting a quest offer for quests that were being used to make gil illegally, and we added job level restrictions to logging in certain areas.

The Special Task Force is continuing to research into whether there are new methods of illegal gil acquisition being used for RMT(*2).
The reports provided by FINAL FANTASY XI players are valuable in the Special Task Force's activities. If you find a player who may be involved in RMT, please let us know with the "Report to Special Task Force" mail form at the end of this report.

*1. Hunters
Characters who kill Notorious Monsters, clear quests, and obtain items over and over again with the sole purpose of gathering gil, which is then handed off to RMT groups.

*2. RMT
"Real Money Trading." Selling game data for real money.

[Athruis]

Anybody else notice all the dates on the chart are 2008?

zomg they fucked up again, inc emergency maintenace!!

[Not Kuno]

Anybody else notice all the dates on the chart are 2008?

zomg they fucked up again, inc emergency maintenace!!

They're from the future, obviously.

[Max™]

PIME TARADOX!

SNAAAKKKEEE!

[bercus]

German graph wrong too, but not the JP one.
http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...400/3400_6.jpg
What does that tell us?

[Xanthe]

German graph wrong too, but not the JP one.
What does that tell us?

1. The translators got a little copy/paste happy.
2. They should have hired Elmer.

[The Blackrose]

One of these days, SE should just come out and endorse Firefox/NoScript.

Also, is this the first time they have brought up the Flash exploit in a news release?

[Lexa]

I think they mentioned the Flash exploit some time back, urging everyone to update their shit...? Either that, or someone in my ls was being extremely articulate when they wrote the post on our forums. <.>

I don't see it as far-fetched for RMT to have 4000 accounts, considering the sickening amount of them out there, spread across all the servers. Not to mention, they're getting better and better at hiding. The other day, I was in Mount Zhaylom exping, and on our way to camp we passed a party of people, half of whom were dead. We started raising them since they looked legit, no names like HFJKGSHSGF, linkshells, until we checked them and found that they were missing a bunch of gear that wasn't immediately visible, and were horribly gimp otherwise (68BLM in NQ lvl10 MP+2 earrings... onyx, I think? etc), all had the same title, all were rank5 Bastok, etc.

[Ryko]

THEY GOT RYKO!

That guy always says he got banned, wolf crying bastard.

[VZX]

German graph wrong too, but not the JP one.
http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...400/3400_6.jpg
What does that tell us?

People start giving up reporting to STF ?

[arus2001]

Well, I would think there some obvious tracking mechanisms. Any character that hits 60+ in less than 3 days from account creation, then like 70+ in a craft in the same span should flag something for investigation. Even with RMT zombie level tactics, they still need time to recoup hunters/farmers and to gather materials for their crafters. Ideally, a new character should be caught within 2 weeks, then subsequent associations through trades/sales/MHing looked into. Such would lead to the cluster bustings I alluded to, but if you're zealous on those, previously established sources to get these guys up and running again should be caught and gone soon, too.

Some would say this fuels incentive for account theft, but even this should point SE toward them as people call in for freezes and rollbacks.

The cynic in me just see its more as SE throwing something we want to see at us and some will take it as gospel even though it's not all we need. How about that Dynamis price adjustment? Are all the gilsinks like AH high AH taxes still required? I'd like 50k Khroma Ore like another posted noted, but I'm not looking forward to the day where a stack of silk thread AHs for like 700g or something. Deflation isn't equal, but I'd still say it's happening. Saying 1.8 billion was just erased won't exactly inspire people to spend readily, either.

[Midnightjade]

still some odi* /anons running around on Odin, no sleep more bans

Yes, Midchangmao is currently standing right in front of me in Rolanberry, with a (presumably stolen) osode in bazaar for 3 million. So that's one they missed for sure.

[ziegh]

They certainly don't even care to mask themselves anymore
http://www.ffxiah.com/player.php?id=1262818

[Olo401]

I logged in this morning and saw the ram- clones sitting in Batallia next to me.. and the mining bots are still running around Mt. Zhayolm. As far as I'm concerned, SE hasn't done shit.

Edit: lulz @ that find ziegh..

[Lordender]

The totally random number of cases between various dates always has me questioning the legitimacy of these reports. While discovering a concentrated batch might lead to a spike here and there, thinking RMT got over 4000 accounts (presumably the same people at least twice a month) to levels of workable monopolization out in the field and in crafting seems even more crazy. Hell, that's nearly 1% of their alleged 500k population.

I always believed STF inflated their numbers a little bit per report just because its a good business move and there is always way too many posts after the bannings saying "so and so is still there" which in most cases are obivious rmt doing obivious rmt related things.

I remember reporting the same three rmt groups around 30times each to the STF for a corse of nearly 2 months and nothing happened to them.