Warning - fraudulent "Free" SMS pins/credits

[Azzer]

If you have been given "Free" pins to use for SMS, you will be locked pending an investigation in to an "equivalent removal" of items from your account relating to any purchases you made.

These pins were generated fraudulently.

If they were genuine, do you really think somebody would be spending £1.50 on premium rate SMS's, getting the pin, and giving the pin codes out to you for free, in bulk quantities? If somebody offers you unlimited free pin-codes for credits, then obviously something suspicious is happening. Don't be an idiot and accept it - report it to me.

There is still an ongoing investigation in to this issue with a certain mobile operator in Europe. I can trace every pin-code for every purchase and anyone abusing such things will be locked.

If you have been locked, then remember that when somebody says they can give you unlimited credits for free - especially when they don't even give you the credits but do it via SMS Pin codes and you must do it yourself - then use a bit of common sense.... and wait patiently until I sort every account out by removing game cash/troops/technologies to the equivalent of the purchases made and you will be unlocked afterwards.

If you want to purchase things - great But do so through legitimate means, otherwise you are stealing from me, stealing from Bushtarion, and having a negative effect on the entire game and future of the game. And I don't want anybody here pretending they thought this method was legitimate.

 

[f0xx]

Damn you man, you just locked half of my targets

 

[Souls]

Get smarter targets.

 

[Garrett]

We all quit. Hence no more 'smarter' targets.

On topic however, jeebus. How much time did it take to come up with this for something so small...

put that kid on the space program or something useful

 

[Benneh]

We all quit. Hence no more 'smarter' targets.

On topic however, jeebus. How much time did it take to come up with this for something so small...

put that kid on the space program or something useful

Actually, It was a belgian phone service, which allowed their customers to make as many 'premium' text messages as they'd like without having any credit on their mobile phone, therefore getting the free credits without paying. :/

 

[Azzer]

Actually, It was a belgian phone service, which allowed their customers to make as many 'premium' text messages as they'd like without having any credit on their mobile phone, therefore getting the free credits without paying. :/

I should point out the people that were doing it knew what they were doing and that they weren't meant to be doing it too - ie - it wasn't an accidental "oops I didn't realise these 300 credits were not paid for and were actually costing Azzer :O", but a "Hehehehee, free credits, don't tell anyone...." thing

But yes, sadly, it didn't take a genius to discover it, just an observant person and a screwed up mobile operator

 

[Hobbezak]

Actually, It was a belgian phone service, which allowed their customers to make as many 'premium' text messages as they'd like without having any credit on their mobile phone, therefore getting the free credits without paying. :/

I should point out the people that were doing it knew what they were doing and that they weren't meant to be doing it too - ie - it wasn't an accidental "oops I didn't realise these 300 credits were not paid for and were actually costing Azzer :O", but a "Hehehehee, free credits, don't tell anyone...." thing

But yes, sadly, it didn't take a genius to discover it, just an observant person and a screwed up mobile operator

This is complete bollocks. These people (sadly not I) had a mobile phone plan which allowed them to send texts for free, to anyone. Tell me how exactly would it sound wrong if you used these free texts to get credits over SMS? It sounds like someone saying "Hmm, let's try if that plan applies to these kinds of texts too", seeing it succeed, then guessing the mobile phone company allowing this and using it, as it's clearly part of your plan then.

How they were supposed to know that you would get charged for it, is beyond me. If someone with that plan texts me with a free text message, I don't get charged.

So in this light, I find it rather weak from your side to blame other people, basically calling them cheaters. I understand it's impossible for you to know all the loopholes of all the services in the world, but at the end of the day, it is your fault, not theirs. Also taking away the developments of certain players is pretty lame, especially since you could have taken the same worth in seeds of that player. But of course: your game, your rules.

 

[Twigley]

* The guy knew he was getting cheap creds and abusing it.
* He was locked.
* Most people will agree it was the right thing.


- Grey area -

* Did the people know that they where getting fraud creds ?

- Grey area -

Solve or prove the grey area and i agree with the action on those players.

 

[Azzer]

As Twigley said, the people purchasing the credits knew about it, and knew it was abuse. One of them had even reported it to me originally a while back, and I told him that it was abuse, that I was awaiting the SMS company to get back to me on a block to prevent it being allowed, and for him not to use it. So his response was to get the PIN codes and give people the PIN codes directly, rather than him cash the PIN codes in and give the credits - ie, a vague attempt to "thwart" me from seeing what was happening as I'd already acknowledge it as abuse.

As Twigley says - the only "grey" area might be on the people that received those credits, which is why what happened to them was they were given the option to pay (using actual money) for the goods they'd used, or have developments removed from their ID's to around the same value. They weren't banned, or deleted. Some chose to pay, in which case their ID's were left alone. Others chose not to, and so they had developments removed - which undoes any benefits they had from having game cash that they wouldn't have otherwise had (merely removing seeds/funds would not undo any benefits gained from having had that large amount of game cash to improve their ID's with and utilise in attacks/defenses/land steals/developments). Removing a development was a simple, effective solution. Although, I did see some IRC logs of certain individuals discussing this system and acknowledging that it was abuse, but that they would "claim otherwise if caught" (ie "We just say we knew nothing about it and nothing can go wrong... it's a win win situation!" kind of thing... life's not quite that easy guys).

Regardless, as this verges on discussion of individual cases of account locks, I'm going to lock this thread. It was for information for people who think credits fall from the heavens and nothing bad can ever happen by using them and claiming "Ignorance is bliss", rather than a place for people who received free credits to cry foul when they lost them again.