fake address and banningFollow

Recently. SE decided to go through their Content IDs as you may know and banned a hell-of-a-lot of people originating from China, HK and Taiwan. Mainly due to fake addresses from what I had heard from my LS.

Not too sure how much of the RMT has been hit by this, but certainly, a few of my LS members (we are from HK, LS: KOEHK) recently got banned due to having a fake address and they are now trying to talk to SE having their accounts reactivated.

Just wanna put up a discussion of this. Any replies grateful.

If this is true, SE is run by the biggest group of idiots I've ever heard of (not putting it past them, though.)

There is nothing that states we have to disclose our TRUE address, is there? SE does not have a right to know where I live, as long as I pay them, and play by their in-game rules.

Plus, if people are going to scam you SE, and this is your best defense, HOW HARD is it to pick up a directory and pick a random "real" address? Matching CC billing addresses with the address on file is what you'd have to do, but then that only catches people w/ CC fraud.

How the hell does an address tell you if somebody is cheating? It doesn't. There's no cause/effect here.

that's the problem, smart guy. It won't get rid of gil-sellers. There's no cause and effect.

That's like. Thieves wear ski masks. Normal people wear ski masks. But THIEVES WEAR SKI MASKS omfg!. Arrest everybody who has a ski mask!

Circumstantial facts, no evidence.

Fake address = my problem.

No logic/rational thought processes = suppose to be your problem, but if SE is doing this, they're making it everybody's problem.

thats the thing ski.

Im not in the US. I live in England.

If it only gets rid of a couple of gilsellers it's worth it. Has paranoia run rampant around the world? SE isn't "big brother" crackin' down on ya like President Bush and his goon's. Someone suggested "use an address out of telephone book". Simple solution. They already have your credit card info. Another address. Another simple solution.

I believe the thread began because even if it got rid of like TWO gil sellers, it unintentionally banned a bunch of people that weren't gil-sellers. Since you brought in politics, I'll make a political analogy. If you stick everybody in poor neighborhoods in jail, you are bound to lock away a couple criminals. However, you'll end up locking away a lot of innocent people, too.

According to the OP, SE is banning innocent people for no logical reason. That's what is wrong w/ this.

I want to say something for the HK ppl who use "fake" addresses.

First, sorry for my bad english. I am a player from HK, many of my friends in shiva got banned at 31 Jan 2006 and i know why they got banned.

I dont know the situation about China and Taiwan players, what I say below just apply to Hong Kong players who got banned.

90% of HK players who got banned has played this game over 3 years, when they start this game, there are only JP versions available and US version was not released yet. That is to say, all thos ppl got banned were registered using JP version and which requires a JP address to register.

At the early time of this game, no one knows whether a "real" address is important or not and HK player has no knowledge about JP address.

At that time, there is a little game shop in HK that do parallel import goods from JP and who has a JP address and he helped a lot of ppl to buy FFXI JP version game disc from JP and provide his address for register at the price of the disc + HK$100 for the use of his address to register.

Since Shiva is one of the oldest server and more than 90% of HK ppl are in Shiva server. Most of them were using the address provided by that little shop. That is to say, that one address has MANY user registered by HK player. (because using his address was the only way to enter FFXI world at that time).

All those people were not related in real but in the view of SE, they are related because of the same address and there are some of them are RMT (they are personal, not group of gil farmer). they have high lv of crafting skills at a very early game days and they used to sell their spare gils for real money.

But the most important thing is that the owner of that shop is the biggest RMT and he post RMT posts in his shop's website (but he said that he registered using an address which is not the same as the address that provided to other HK players for $100).

In 31 Jan 2006, all ppl using that address provided by that shop was got banned which included some of my friends that their gil amount were never over 1m for 3 years. (they are true victims of 131 event).

after 131, that shop's owner denined that the reason of ban account was due to RMT post of that shop and says that the problem is due to the address of credit card on file and the register account was not same and tried to fool us.

I just want to say that RMT made many HK ppl who DO NOT and WERE NOT and NEVER will RMT got banned by SE.

Ironically that shop's owner's account is still alive in Shiva, his character name is Nanami. (because he used another address that is not same as the one provided to many HK ppl.)

Sorry for my bullsxit here.

I MISS ALL MY FRIENDS IN FF!!

Well well Afterglo, your quite amusing. I'll keep dancing this jig with you as long as you keep me entertained. From what Colinlovesyou posted above sounds like a good chunk of gilsellers got wiped. I don't like the fact that he/she also posted that 90% of HK players are on Shiva (More gilsellers ahhhh!!!). Sucks for the good folks who lost their accounts, but if it makes my gaming experience more enjoyable because I have less gilsellers to compete against, I'll take it. They got swindled by some ******* and should take revenge. Sometimes people have to take justice into there own hands, and bring the punishment around full circle.
I do see the "gray areas" in life, but avoid them as much as possible. Mistakes happen all the time, and when it comes to big business and government stepping on folks, its a part of everyday life. Deal with it. I spent four years in the Marine Corp, and realized that when the government or big business wants to fook with your life, their is little you can do about it. These people run the world. You or anyone else b!tching about it will do no good. When the Government/Big business steps into the fiery black and gray areas, they can get away with it. When the little guy does, whether knowingly or not, we often get burned. In this case these folks didn't know they were folks dealing with the shady likes of gilsellers, and the business guy (Nanami) didn't get banned. Proves my point.

lootnplunder AKA phioness.

You look like you camp a lot of NMs. Your a gil seller.

You should get banned.

Afterglo obviously you don't know how the world works. I served my time honorably in Marine Corp, and met some good people, and those who abused their rank.

I actually was punished in the Corp, when i told one my Sergeants to "F**k off". He was abusing his power, and I didn't put up with it. I made a fool out of one of my Gunnery Sergeants when he though he could blame a whole platoon for his mistakes... what did i get ... demoted. I had an officer abuse his power and not allow a witness to testify on my behalf, and my 1st Sergeant had to pull me aside because I was about to hit him.

It's called "Playing the game" in life. I had to take a step back and realize that ... If someone with more power than you does something unethical, or wrong, and you get in their way or tell them different, you will most likely loose (every now and then the little guy's win one). They have more experience and knowledge on how to manipulate the system of rules and laws set up to protect people. You play your cards as best you can and move up the ladder. You learn how the system works, and use it to knock the "bad leaders" out of business if you can. You look at the bad folks, who abuse their power, and learn from their mistakes.
You become a respectable leader who promotes good morale. I had the respect of my fellow Marines. Why? Because I didn't abuse my power, and had a good balance of autocratic and democratic leadership skills. I promoted good morale, and didn't discriminate against those with different values, ethnic backgrounds, religions, and opinions. They knew i didn't put up with anybody's **** because they knew my background of fighting the system, and respected me even more for it.
How dare you insult my military service. Your doing so show's me you have not learned how to play the game in life, and have no respect for those who have served their country honorably. I hope your not a leader in life. You don't understand the game of life's laws, rules, and regulations enough to be a good leader, or even a good citizen.
You can ***** about what SE did all you want... and look what it gets you... nothing. More people seem happy about what SE has done than upset. 300 billion gil + RMT accounts deleted sounds good to me.

You sir just got ******* OWNED!

Ok.. now listen to the real true story of my friends being banned due to fake addresses. He lived in Hong Kong, just a uni student wanting to play FFXI for fun.

First things first:

During October 2005, SE in Japan started having billing problems. SE Bank Accounts were not receiving money from the Credit Card Holders, but the Credit Card Company were told that the money had actually been transferred. So? What was the root of the problem? The billing address.

So what? Billing Address problem...

Ok, many Asians, comprising of mainly Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese people played FFXI since the PS2 release, ie: the JP version of FFXI. Now, they had a problem of filling proper addresses as they were playing in China/HK/Taiwan but registering as being in Japan. However, in order to play the game, it had to be imported from Japan, and "Shop A" was a key importer

A company called "Shop A" (literally, it was known as that) is highly reknown Hong Kong firm for RMT of many many MMORPGs.

Now, how does "Shop A" goes into the puzzle of the problem?

"Shop A" had connections to Japanese real residences, (ie: friends may be living in Japan). So when the customers bought FFXI, they paid 2 amounts; 1) the box with the CDs and Content IDs, and 2) the service charge for registering "your" game into a real residence in Japan. The Service was simple, "Shop A" would create a new account, register the Content IDs in the customers name, Credit Card(yes, you would of had to give your Credit Card details temporarily to "Shop A"). The charge would of been around $50-70 AUD.

After all these months/years, while going through the address records. You would of found one particular address would of had over 100 accounts registered in its name. So hence in one clean swipe of checking records of addresses containing more than say 10 accounts, would of been banned straight away, no questions asked.

So I hope my story gives people the rightful clear picture of what has happened. Many gil-sellers and innocent casual and/or full-time "legit" players have been deleted. Hence this was a double edged sword after all.

Though the result of this movement has brought overall prices down, killed a portion of RMT, it costed friends and innocent players. At least 2 of my LS mates have been banned, thought I live in Australia, I dont exactly contact with them often, but they were of more experience than me and helped me particularly in missions, quests and advice in the game.

Was these actions by SE worth it? Up to you, I'm not complaining, I am just stating a fact. Just what would happen if a few of your friends suddenly were deleted overnight without being warned or notified of. My mates continue to plead to SE about re-opening their accounts, but the situation looks grim at the moment.

/bow, thank you for listening.