WOW - Scammers to Get a Blizzard Smackdown : World of Warcraft General Discussions

Over on the European forums, Blizzard has updated their scamming policy to include harsher penalties for anyone attempting to scam players.

As a direct result of player feedback, we are introducing some changes to our scam policy. These changes will take effect with the introduction of patch 2.3. Below is a brief summary of the main changes to the policy:

Harsher punishment of scammers
Previously we have only sought to take action against players who were persistently scamming others. With the changes in our scam policy, players who choose to scam others out of items and gold can face action against their account, even for a first offense! As with any other policy violation, repeated offenses of the same nature will lead to harsher consequences for the offending account.

Investigations into item and gold loss
While previously we did not investigate or reimburse any item or gold loss incurred as a result of an in-game scam, we will now investigate fully all losses, and if we are able to verify your particular case, we will try to assist with the return of any lost items or gold. Please note that due to the large amount of variables involved in verifying in-game scams, reimbursement of items and gold is not guaranteed. Please be aware that while we will try to assist players whenever possible, each case is viewed on an individual basis - if it is deemed that a player is being overly careless with the security of their items and gold, then we may review our decision to assist with such cases for that player’s account.

The full policy can be found here.