Forgive some of us if we aren't exactly trusting of what people have to say about themselves in light of being banned. We've all seen the "Even Mother Teresa looked up to my impeccable qualities" argument before, and half the time it's from people guilty as sin.
There are two sides to every story, and because EA has a policy of not discussing things in public it's impossible to get the other half of the details. I'm not saying that in your case that you are lying, but even the most vehement of arguments is still only one side's version of the events, and as such we have to take it with a grain of salt.
As for what you have stated about your specific plight, I've always been surprised that people don't think more carefully about where gold sellers get their stock. The fact is that dupers/scripters can't realize their goal of real cash until they sell their gold for dollars. They don't care if they sell it directly to the average player, or at a discount to a legitimate gold seller. And since dupers can make as much profit as they desire, it's likely that a large amount of gold on the selling market has some connection to an illegitimate source.
All it takes is one careless or uncaring person in the gold supply chain and suddenly the average player has tainted gold. To borrow a popular phrase: when you trade with someone, you've traded with all the people they've ever traded with. A little bit of vigilance goes a long way.
A little bit of vigilance goes a long way
but short of stopping all selling and purchasing in game what are we normal players to do?
we have no idea what has been duped and what hasnt.
heck, for all i know there is some duper that rides the short bus and he duped a bag full of Night's Kiss's and Bonecrushers.
and you dont have to believe me.
heck, i dont believe myself half as much as i should and shoudnt half as much as i do...... the simple fact of the matter is we have no way to verify the stuff we are buying is legitimate.
and people are being banned for owning these items.
and not 15 of them.
not 10 of them.
they are being caught with 1 or 2 every day items and they are getting banned for it.
again i will say what i said before.
i hold my primary account up on a pedistal and i am in FEAR of what might be on it, because i have 7 developed characters on allmost every north american shard (and a few asian shards) and every one of them is fully outfitted with artys and awsome suits. all of which i purchased from venders with gold i purchased from merchants.
so realistically my account had hundreds of artifacts on it.
hundreds of millions of gold in the banks of all my characters.
and ive worked DAMN hard to make this account what it is!
and now i have to fear loosing it all because i purchased a Berserkers Maul on Napa for 750k 6 months ago????!!!????!!!!????
like really.
there is no justice here.
TELL ME if there is bad items in my collection, take it away and burn it.
but to ban peoples accounts for this is just unreal.
you dont have to believe Tina, heck, ive never trusted those granny types.
shifty eyed they are!
but the thought of what they are doing scares me.
put simply, im considering taking all my gold and all my items on my primary account and trashing it all.
that is the only way i can be sure!
seriouslly.
do i risk my castle and all my developed characters for one check on my blacksmith on Arirang that i havnt logged onto in 2 years?
3am.
just finished a good harrower fight on sonoma.
died 20 times.
but had a hoot.
its time for bed.
but i think we all need to find out what is going on from EA and they need to take a long look at what they are doing.
i believe Tina.
i belive her because i know her.
salt of the earth she is.
and why on earth she hangs around with a loud mouth opinionated person like me is beyond me.
she is my brain to mouth filter, hahahhahaha
anyways.
i think we have talked this to death.
there is nothing we can do except make our dissapointment made known to EA.
im sure from all the posts they will see this.
hopefully one of them will take the time to maybe look at what they did, just to make sure.
i know if im working on the ambulance and someone says to me "ya know... my chest reallllllllllllly hurts"
im not just gonna look at them and think, pusha, sac up, we all have pain.
no. im gonna slap on the stickies and check out the old ticker.
THEN im gonna say "pusha, sac up, we all have pain!"