How to Catch the Uber Super Duper WHEN?

[Nails Warstein]

I know for a fact that during my investigation into who dupes and those who purposely buy in bulk to resell dupes

.... that all these individuals open up newbie accounts under new IP addresses using different named credit cards, then they move all the dupes into houses owned by these accounts, and then close down their accounts therefore protecting their investment until after the bannings.

What can EA do about them? How do they know who they are, or where their duped items are hidden? How does one protect themselves for owning rare items that are now duped? How do you tell someone who owns 2 to 3 rare items of the same kind from those who own 50 of the same kind without banning both? Will banning them stop them from reopening new accounts later under new credit cards and IP addresses?

Will I be banned for duping this post in two different forums? I hope not. I think I'll go loco

 

[Sarphus]

How many identities can a duper assume?

What if EA forced all accounts to be bound to a credit card, which ultimately ties the account to a social security number?

People would be required to have a valid credit presence to play, but is that a bad thing? I don't think it is, but maybe I'm just neive as to how easy it is for a cheater to assume multiple identities. All I know is that you only get one SS# (I think)

Maybe a hybrid solution is the answer. A block of shards could be identified as the "valid credit only" shards. After a deadline, players wouldn't be able to char xfer from a valid credit only shard to a shard that allows trial accounts to play.

Sorry, I'm kinda stream of consciousness posting, but I think the solution to duping will ultimately lie in reducing a duper's ability to make money doing it. What's the point of having 5 million ornies if you can't make money from them?

 

[^Wolfie^]

Personally, I don't think you should have any business posting about duping when you SUPPORT duping by buying BULK cbd's you KNOW are duped.

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=90485

 

[Halister Marner]

Considering the dupers have been sloppy enough to flood the market and stock their vendors with tons of duped items in plain view, I highly doubt they posses the acumen to circumvent everything that EA logs and can detect, especially since EA has direct server access and can program any sort of detection methods they want.

 

[Sarphus]

Considering the dupers have been sloppy enough to flood the market and stock their vendors with tons of duped items in plain view, I highly doubt they posses the acumen to circumvent everything that EA logs and can detect, especially since EA has direct server access and can program any sort of detection methods they want.

Well that's the problem. They aren't duping blatantly because they are dumb. They are duping blatantly because they have always gotten away with it. They have found holes in the current setup that allow them to use UO as a source of income and I kinda doubt that a lot of them even play UO. They don't care if their accounts get banned, because they made their money.

What needs to happen is for a restriction to be placed on the cheaters so they can't just open new accounts and start back up again.

 

[Kaj]

Not that I like it, but I've worked for other MMORPGs and have a thorough understanding of how the internet (can) work, and people can work around any restriction EA would be able to throw up. Unless EA would be ready to sacrifice a lot of players and a lot of fun aspects of the game.
The best thing is to do active scans of high risk items and general increases of item amounts. If you delete most of their stash it will get frustrating after a while and you'll get rid of the majority.