Question about the changes to Trade Forums

[popps]

It seems that no longer posts about selling UO accounts for UO gold will be accepted in the Trade Forums.

Since the transfer of UO accounts is allowed, and infact we even have an official transfer program available, I wonder why Stratics does no longer want to host accounts transfers posts on the Forums.

Was it not allowed, I would understand, but since it is allowed, and there is even an official transfer program to have 2 parties transfer an account from one to another, officially, I do not seem to understand the reasons for this particular change,

Or is it "just" about posts which target "sales" of UO accounts which will no longer be allowed, even for UO gold, but simple "transfers" of accounts posts will still be allowed ?

That is, the "transferring" is still allowed but it is the "sale" mentioning which is no longer possible to post about on Stratics' Trade Forums ?

Just wondering.

 

[Petra Fyde]

The trade forums were set up, originally, to trade items. Simple trades that involved people meeting in game and using the trade window to make an exchange.
Since then accounts have been bought and sold. The difference with these is, they can not be exchanged in game. Either the buyer has to part with the cash/gold and hope that the seller provides the account information, or the seller has to provide the account information and hope the buyer actually hands over the price. Plus the obvious security issues around multiple people knowing the access information for an account.

In accordance with our sitewide policy the selling of anything for cash is/was forbidden.
However, in increasing numbers the 'for gold' tag on a sale was proving to be cosmetic only and we received multiple complaints that people's gold bids were rejected. Also alarmingly on the increase were the account trades that were fraudulent.
Over the past weeks our attention has been drawn to:
Illicit cash sales where paypal payments were reversed.
Sales where the account details were not provided.
Sales where the account details provided were false.
Sales where the account details did not pertain to the account that had been offered.
Sales where the account was re-claimed from EA after the sale.
Sales where the account was not only re-claimed, but the buyer's information that had been entered into the account after the sale was used to hack other accounts.

In all these cases Stratics has been an unwilling partner and facilitator by allowing the sales on our network. We can not stop these things happening. We can not force people to use EA's transfer service to safeguard their purchases. But we can sure as hell stop helping the process.

So, we have decide to return the trade forums to their original function, that of trading in game items for gold.

 

[the 4th man]

I have never been for purchasing intangible items, especially across the internet. Even if another player agrees to meet you in game with say, 50 million, in gold.

Trade window pops open, now, you have to sit there and view 50 checks and look at all the zero's. All the while he/she/it, can pull a fast one on you.
Thumbs up to Stratics for making it that much harder for these people that rip players off, or that can't be bothered to get a real job.

 

[GarthGrey]

It was done to protect Siege accounts, at least this is my opinion, and I hope I'm still entitled to it ??

 

[Petra Fyde]

You'd be entitled to your opinion, however erroneous it might be

Try reading the Siege board for a few minutes, you might change your mind. I'm so unpopular there right now that I'm giving serious thought to leaving the shard and just playing my Europa chars.
This was done for the exact reasons I gave in my answer to popps. It was discussed at length with the entire uo.stratics staff before a decision was reached. Your choice whether you believe me or not, but most people know me as a truthful person.

 

[Tom_Builder]

Any protection we can get is always good, thanks Petra for explaining.

Tom

 

[Derium of ls]

I know this isn't possible for UO, so I'm not trying to ask for it. But I would love to see something like EVE online has, you can buy characters off people for ingame gold (ISK) and it's all done through the game, so scamming is not possible.

anywho, there is my random statement

 

[popps]

So, we have decide to return the trade forums to their original function, that of trading in game items for gold.

Thanks for the explaination, makes sense to me now.