RMT- Auction House Manipulation

Luitan, Sortend, Havento, Aynehde, Ruskint, Vernaig, Keytomg, Hmento, Etiond, Cateyu, Tuenlor, Onilerk, Tuenlor, Fmesoug, Wemial, Powergs

manipulating prices on

Chivalrous Chains 200 to 70k in 4 days
Elemental Torque 200k to 100 k in 1 day
Siren's Hair 198k to 80k in 1 day
Damascene Cloth 130k-79k in a day
Unsho 9k to 320 k in 1 day
Woodsville Axe 120k to 320k in 1 day

Until things settle down, I'd be wary to buy any of the above. These appears to be the only items they are going after... but hard to say?

Has been reported to Special Task Force.

If you look at the items, it looks pretty clear cut to me. I'd definately recommend waiting on buying/selling where appropriate.

posted twice? whatever.

I posted it in the wrong forum, attempted to delete it twice from "Flame Core" simply didn't work?

yeah, cant delete threads, PM an admin or mod.

Price history and cross server graphs, please check it. They are there for a reason. No one to blame but yourself if you don't.

Paid 180k for a Chivalrous Chain for my other character (Miala) on 22nd May.I did notice the price had been going up and down a lot around that time.

^^ this

Why do you assume they are all RMTs? More than once I've bought all the astral rings on the AH and sold them for more a few days later. >_> Am I an RMT for using the AH to make money like that?

I wish i had the money to invest intelligently like that. I'd manipulate everything that could be. Where does SE say its not legal to do so?
They're only able to manipulate the market due to people paying those prices, no one is pointing a gun to they're heads and saying "Buy or die".

Why do I assume they are RMT, because they are all linked together amongst all of the above items, through buying and selling.

Because all of the accounts had no previous history, AT ALL, prior to one week ago. They just all popped in, started buying and selling, and that was that.

Because they are buying and selling to each other at obviously lower prices than what had been the norm. You don't just put a Chiv chain up 4 times for 70k to be bought 4 times by the exact same person.

Why would you sell something on AH for less than half of the price it was moments before, repeatedly, to the exact same person, each time, on multiple items? Chiv Chains were more than double that price only 24-48hrs ago. Yes, that can happen, but look at the transactions! This group of people is making it happen. With this and every other item mentioned, and probably more than that.

If you took a moment to look at those names, you'd see that they are ALL linked together through buying and selling at prices that 24-72hrs ago were significantly different.

It's obvious manipulation. They lower the price artificially this way, then buy them up low, then artificially raise the price by selling them to themselves. When people look at the price history, they'd see that the artificial price is where the price is.

Anyhow, I thought my fellow players on Gilgamesh might appreciate a heads up to avoid being caught in that cycle.

Your astral ring example is something different.

Everyone has bought an item at a low and sold it at a high, and vice versa.. it's supply and demand.

What you aren't doing is buying 6 astral rings, selling them to your 2nd character who sold 6 elemental torques to your 3rd character who sold 12 Chivalrous chains to your 4th character who used the money you paid yourself for the 6 astral rings to cycle it over again, but instead of selling things, to yourself, albiet through the different characters you have, at what was the normal price at the time, your selling it to yourself for half the price, making it appear that demand has dropped, and doing so often enough that it appears to be a trend.

People who have these items are prone to accept this trend, sell their own items at this false low, based on auction house previous sales, only to have them bought back up by you later, so you can sell all of your items back to yourself again, but this time at a price double the original value, along with the items you scored at the false decreased value, and make a substantial profit, based on what are incorrect norms. People will assume that the raised price, is the price, and buy your items at prices generated by a false demand.

I'm a lil sleepy, so that might not read clearly.. but it's not really that complicated an idea despite it.

It would be like a Shell Gasoline buying up their own gas to raise the price, by false demand, and expecting you to pay more for gas, because of a demand that isn't there.

Regardless, it's obviously a means to generate gil through less than honest means, and if you looked at those names, and their transactions, and the sudden changes of prices based on transactions SOLELY on the names i mentioned, you'd see that this is an issue.

This is something that I feel needs more attention / {Fast Cast} action by Square-Enix.

Those RMT's AH-manipulate the items too many days before somebody comes and ban them.

Just my two cents.

(Maneater is also another item not on your list highly manipulated)

I just went off the buy/sale lists of the people that were linked together through common transactions, they didn't lead to that one.. but I didn't dig into items other than what I was led to through clicking names.

Ya I went to Gilgamesh and said to myself WTH???

I can't believe that we true hardcore gamers can't stop this way of life....

Only the RMT will be held accountable for this sort of action, that's for sure!

Yes apparently

No, but it makes you look like a jerk and subjects you to accusations!

Oh.....my......god
Why didn't i think of this!?
Iam going to be richhhhhhh!

MAN I didn't know woodsville axe went that high! /runs to AH and sells it :)

But I'm curious why would items that drop in price be considered RMT >.>

Well soon as the bonanza items are distributed, items will drop like a fat kid eats cake!

RMT buy up all the stock of a particular item and sell it to themselves at a cheap price to clear all normal price history. Then they wait for people to sell said item at the manipulated cheap price until they buy a lot. Then they resell these cheap items to themselves at an inflated price to clear the cheap price history to sell the items they bought for the low price at a large profit.

It might be RMT doing this or regular players. Either way auction house manipulation is against the tos.

Does any one have log on to their charc on next day and find armors that are missing?

2 of my armor has been missing which is Scorpion Harness n Chilvours chain, also gil went all way to 0 which isnt right at all.

Anyone have this problem before?

so can someon do this to items I need like um a cerb mantle +1 or o0o I know ppc or something worth a ***?

lol. Stop giving out your user login information to people and get the security token. End of problem.

If it isnt RMT it is a hardcore guy with 8+ accounts and 4 comps all running at the same time with bots.

Was pretty sure I just replied and stated that was NOT the same thing. Buying one item one day, and selling it back another day and making a profit isn't suspicious or wrong. That isn't what those accounts are doing. We are talking about the difference between a transaction between different unrelated people versus a transaction creating false low prices and high prices by a group of people.

If you took a moment to look at the items and people in question, you would see that this is suspicious activity that doesn't follow normal trends. Items don't normally drop 100k in price out of the blue from sales between the same two to three people.

Some of these you'd look at, and see people selling their legitimate stuff at the "norm" price... like Siren's Hair going from 70k to 198k back to 70k all in the same day, and the 70k people are the SAME people buy/selling this item.

Anyhow.. it's a word of warning and concern, because people use AH history to help determine what a normal price is to buy/sell items, and the history is being made false, the end result is players lose money and manipulators get it.

someone paid 550k for a Brown Belt, thats just heart breaking.

I think I paid about that much for mine :(
I have been trying to get the items to quest it but am 0/6 on Deadly Dodo so far.

Now it's Eris Earrings it was 40k before the following.

Jun. 4, 2009 Cateyu Wemial 220,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Keyuto Luitan 220,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Havento Hmeuto 218,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Sortend Fmesovg 217,680
Jun. 4, 2009 Aynehide Tuenlor 210,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Aynehide Tuenlor 210,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Powergs Onilerk 200,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Powergs Onilerk 200,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Vernaig Keytomg 220,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Vernaig Keytomg 220,000

And Suiton:Ni and I'm sure others... anyhow.. I'm beating a dead horse now, so I'm going to hush. I would just encourage everyone on gilgamesh to just be aware of item values, and not be fooled into selling things below their true value or purchasing things above them.

Another example with Suiton:Ni

Jun. 4, 2009 Powergs Miladney 320,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Xtoems Ruskint 320,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Etiond Onliers 317,800
Jun. 4, 2009 Cateyu Wemial 300,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Keyuto Luitan 313,200
Jun. 4, 2009 Havento Hmeuto 310,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Sortend Fmesovg 317,700
Jun. 4, 2009 Aynehide Tuenlor 310,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Powergs Onilerk 300,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Vernaig Keytomg 300,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Charcoal Xtoems 40,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Takilla Xtoems 38,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Shab Xtoems 38,000
Jun. 4, 2009 Daidaidai Iketi 36,000
Jun. 3, 2009 Aurela Asyana 37,000
Jun. 1, 2009 Kidekjokie Youmu 38,000
Jun. 1, 2009 Orima Poche 40,000
May. 31, 2009 Charcoal Geburand 38,000
May. 31, 2009 Eldir Pledge 38,000
May. 30, 2009 Keizoku Michukki 38,100
May. 29, 2009 Yuty Setna 40,000
May. 29, 2009 Kidekjokie Muchio 38,000
May. 29, 2009 Jeacobe Hakua 38,000
May. 28, 2009 Jieafejia Tenran 38,000
May. 27, 2009 Shab Saseru 38,000

GUYS, I'VE FOUND SOME SORT OF RMT SCANDAL ACTIVITY.
PEOPLE ARE SELLING STUFF.
ON THE AUCTION HOUSE.

I knew it!

I remember at one point in the higher RMT activity times, the RSE belts (70ish?) and Pent rope were both targets for this sort of activity, and would frequently cross each other in price, and I would just switch back and forth between them and make money off the ah every couple of days while I slept.

If you can't beat them, profit off their hard work.

Edit: Meanwhile I have a ton of Jester's +1, and the AH keeps falling on those... I'm gonna sit on them... hehe.