An economy hold freezes trade for suspected RMT

Accounts suspected of buying or selling gold for real money can now get a Temporary Economy Hold in World of Warcraft: Forever. Trade, mail, guild banks and the Auction House are then restricted. Blizzard announced the system on the forums.

Community manager Kaivax posted the announcement on 14 October at 01.58 Belgian time. Some players have already run into the hold, Kaivax writes. It can hit the account that sells gold as well as the account that receives it.

How the hold works

The hold should stop suspicious gold before it changes hands or reaches the economy. Meanwhile, Blizzard gets time to investigate the account more thoroughly. Blizzard describes the aim like this:

Our aim with this new system is to aggressively shut down the flow of suspicious gold before it has been transferred or put into circulation into the economy, while providing us the time needed to investigate more thoroughly.

The investigation has two outcomes. If the suspicion turns out to be false, the hold is lifted automatically. If the account was involved in Real Money Trade, or RMT, action against the account follows. Players who simply play the game will most likely never see the hold, according to Blizzard.

False positives

The system is new, and Blizzard expects false positives while it is being fine-tuned. A hold on its own leaves no permanent mark on an account, unless RMT is proven later:

This system is new. There may be false positives while things are fine tuned, but merely having a Temporary Economy Hold will leave no permanent strikes against your account unless also later proven to be RMT motivated.

How long an investigation takes, Blizzard does not say. If the system proves successful, it will come to every version of World of Warcraft.

Earlier, Blizzard closed over 2,100 accounts of gold buyers on the beta and announced a warning in the trade window.