Archive for July, 2009

July 30th 2009

INTERLUDE POST: THE CHINA DIARIES

Quick interlude post here, kids, just to reiterate what I said about a readers’ review section in WoW Gold Facts…

I am seriously considering adding a special page called "The China Diaries".

This page is for WoW Gold Facts readers who would like to talk about their bad experience with Chinese gold sellers. This is your chance to make like a mini-EGF and describe your ordeal in your own words. I know sometimes the comments box is not enough for really epic stories, and that’s why I created this page for those who have so much to say!

Just keep in mind the following before you submit your own review:

1. This page is all about the dangers of doing business with unscrupulous China-based/Chinese-owned gold sellers.

2. Be prepared to submit proof to back your statements (i.e. screenshots, emails from the seller, chat transcripts)

3. Keep it simple yet entertaining. Humor - with a heathy dose of sarcasm - is always appreciated. No vanilla reporting. Leave that to CNN.

4. Censor yourself. I use "(bleep)" and "@#$%". Even asterisks - "****" - will do.

Jack and company have started the ball rolling by slaughtering little Susie. Woot!

http://emo.huhiho.com

Go vent! This is your space! Hope I hear from more of you soon! Ya know what they say - the more, the merrier!

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July 30th 2009

UNWANTED SSEX: ANGRY WOW PLAYERS BLOW UP THE SUSAN EXPRESS (2/3)

Hey, Jack and company, thanks for making all that effort to get screenshots a la EGF. However, I had to edit them (read: cover up your personal details). You sent me images showing your contact details, your buddy’s mother’s PayPal email address, and everything I could use for identity theft (that is, if I were a crook).  Good job but next time, take out the ID details, okay?

Moving on…

Here are two of the images contributed by Jack et al:

SSEX Confirmation Page

Susan Express PayPal

So as Jack mentioned, no phone verification was made after the payment was received by Susan Express, which was foolish on the part of SSEX because the order details showed that the email address in the contact information was different from the PayPal email. Now such a discrepancy, in my experience, would trigger any gold seller’s Fraud department to ring up the customer. WHY THEY LET THIS SLIP IS BEYOND ME! Are they so desperate for a sale that they would just turn a blind eye and go process the order? Man, if that’s the case, then any 13-year old who knows his parent’s PayPal log-in would surely get away with murder ordering from SSEX. (Ugh, that sounded really bad..and dirty).

Oh, and check out their bizzaro delivery instructions:

From: susan

Subject: SSEX09XXXXXXXXXXXX

Dear XXXXXXX,

Thanks for purchasing gold on our website. Please follow the instructions as below:

1. Could you forward the paypal receipt(payment invoice email) to susan@susanexpress.com

2. Usually we prefer to use auction house for delivery.

Could you go put 2 bandages for 1060G a piece in Auction House? set "Buyout",48hours(very long). Like this:

bandage(any type) very long(48hrs) char name buyout 1060G

bandage(any type) very long(48hrs) char name buyout 1060G

Total auction amount: 2120G= 2*1060G (The extra gold is a 5% commission fee to AH.)

3. For safety issues, it’s better to use a low level characters without the letter (i) in it to put the bandage in AH.

After you done it, pls tell us what stuff and which char you put in AH by email. We will check it,and try our best to buy them out as soon as we can. Thanks.

4. We will make a phone confirmation with you, if you are our new customer . Thanks!

If you have any question and request, welcome to our livechat or MSN or email us anytime. o(∩_∩)o

Waiting for your early reply.

Sincerely,

Sales Department
SusanExpress.com/SusanExpress.net

Okay, this is retarded. First, they ask for your toon’s name in the order process, then they send this email telling you to use a low level character instead (sort of like your bank alt) to put up the auction at the AH. Why they don’t want the letter ‘I’ in a toon name beggars the imagination.

Now picture 2 bandages selling for 1060g in the AH. As I mentioned 10,000 times, that is akin to screaming to the entire realm that you’ve made arrangements with a gold seller. Can you be any more obvious?That’s about as subtle as a live sex show in the middle of Battery Park! I mean come on, who sells bandages for 1060g????

Oh yeah right, only those who’ve purchased gold from a Chinese gold seller and foolish enough to listen to their stupid trade instructions.

To be continued.

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July 30th 2009

UNWANTED SSEX: ANGRY WOW PLAYERS BLOW UP THE SUSAN EXPRESS (1/3)

Hello EGF

My guild and I decided to write to you after reading all the good stuff you write about gold sellers. We’re long-time readers and this is probably our way of giving back.

We play Horde on the Mannoroth US realm and like everyone else, we get spammed to hell and back by this Susan Express gold seller. Every single day, we get the same old spam from these guys. After all that, we just thought that these guys must be dying of hunger or something because of how persistent they were.

Just for fun, we tried to order from them. My buddy ‘borrowed’ his mom’s paypal account so we can try an order, and by ‘borrowed’, I mean used without permission. We really didn’t think we could order because of the online verification stuff that we’re used to in online shopping, but our order got accepted immediately. No calls, no verification at all. My buddy’s mom found out and boy was she pissed. I don’t know about you, but I think that the lack of any security on susan express is dangerous. We’re warning everyone who even thinks of trying these guys out. Bet you don’t know swagvault owns susan express.

Their email also shows the stupid process of delivering the gold. Check out the attachments too.

More power!

Jack

Well, Jack, you beat me to the punch. I was supposed to review and skewer Susan Express forty ways till Sunday, but hey, don’t get me wrong, I am grateful….and impressed!  :D

So before I show you the dirt Jack sent me, let’s take a look at the official site of notorious in-game spammer Susan Express dot com:

(Click for a larger image)



SSEX . Acronym trying to capitalize on people’s baser instincts. Unsuccessfully at that. What’s with the sleazy goblin in the Santa suit? It reeks of dirty 70s porn. And his sack must contain kidnapped girlie gnomes. Frucking pervert.

"There is no best but better" - WHAT. THE. @#$%?????!!!!

So Swagvault owns Susan Express ? Hmm, interesting. Swagvault, whose Bizrate ratings are abysmal,  must indeed be desperate so as to resort to rabid spamming in the game AND accept orders without verifying if the use of the PayPal account was authorized. So sad!  /violin

Not!

I don’t feel sorry for spammers and scammers. Why the hell should I?  /spit

SusanExpress FAQ

4. Why does my order require phone verification?

We like to take all possible steps to protect our clients’ details as well as the integrity of SusanExpress. By speaking with our client’s on the phone, we not only make the transaction fast, easy and safe, but it also gives us a chance to strengthen our connection to our clients and answer any questions you might have.

Turns out this is complete BS, as Jack stated in his email. You’ll find out more pretty soon.

To be continued.

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July 29th 2009

REVIEW ACCOUNTS AND POWERLEVELING? Um…

Hey EGF, pls review accounts and powerleveling. Ty, Gnomekiller

(Love your nic, pal. You sure know how to get on my good side)

That’s the nth email I got from someone telling me to review stuff apart from WoW gold. Kiddies,  I’d love to but I can’t for the following reasons:

- buying a WoW account costs money. A cream-of-the-crop account with a bunch of 80s and epics will command no less than $500. A so-so one will set me back by $250. I don’t have that kind of money to burn.

- And even if I have that kind of money to burn, what on earth will I do with all those accounts?

- Powerleveling services require customers to surrender their log-in details. This scares the clown crap out of me. That’d be akin to sharing my Social and banking PINs with random strangers. I’ve heard of horror stories about players who lost all their epic stuff to powerleveling sites - or worse, got their accounts banned. I will die - literally die - if I lose my accounts.

So in a nutshell, my reluctance to review accounts and powerleveling stems from being a broke cheapskate and a scaredy-cat.

But if I win the lottery, I just might change my mind…..

If only I had time to buy a ticket.

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July 29th 2009

PAGING HAYDEN PANETTIERRE!!!

Reader Juniperberry sent me this:

(click for a larger image)



WTF???!!! Is that Hayden Panettierre???

"…as this bomb is about to be dropped to shatter WoW community!" — excuse me??? Screw you! I’m dropping the bomb on you SOBs!

Who’s responsible for this abomination???

Whois Record

Registrant:
ke zhou
Nan-Shan International Plaza 908
DaYaWan Bay Shi-Hua Middle Street
Huizhou, Guangdong 516081
China

Domain Name: SAVEWOWGOLD.COM
Created on: 04-Mar-09
Expires on: 04-Mar-10
Last Updated on: 17-Mar-09

Administrative Contact:
zhou, ke  
Nan-Shan International Plaza 908
DaYaWan Bay Shi-Hua Middle Street
Huizhou, Guangdong 516081
China
008613509081380      Fax –

Technical Contact:
zhou, ke  
Nan-Shan International Plaza 908
DaYaWan Bay Shi-Hua Middle Street
Huizhou, Guangdong 516081
China
008613509081380      Fax –

Domain servers in listed order:
NS17.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS18.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

Phtooey! Another Chinese seller with a knack for using Western celebrities’ mugs to make their site look desirable!

Hayden-loving Cletus is livid and plans to contact the Hayden Panettierre fan club to report this atrocity.

Yeah, you do that, pal!

Kiddies, you know the drill — DO NOT BUY FROM THIS SITE!

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July 29th 2009

TOP 10 REASONS YOUR COMPUTER HAS MALWARE

Does your computer have LAMware, I mean, MALware? I know why! Here are the top 10 reasons:

1.  You play Evony.

2.  You play Evony.

3.  You play Evony.

4.  You play Evony.

5.  You play Evony.

6.  You play Evony.

7.  You play Evony.

8.  You play Evony.

9.  You play Evony.

10. You probably play Evony. At work.

(It’s 3:30 in the morning. Just trying to humor myself)

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July 28th 2009

EVONY AND IVORY PART 2: SHADES OF MURKY GRAY Plus Scoop!

My Evony post received one very interesting comment from a Bruce Everiss, a sefl-described veteran games industry marketer who’s also behind the site BruceOnGames.com .

"I have researched this and it is possible that Evony is malware: http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/16/is-evony-malware/"

Malware was the trigger word that hit me like a bolt of lightning and sent me clicking the link. Here are excerpts from Bruce’s article:

"When you play a browser based game a number of things are happening. The game itself is running in a big remote computer, all your machine is doing is displaying the game and recording your inputs. It is being what is called a thin client. However in order to be a thin client for a game your computer needs to have in it the client software. So when you play a browser game like Runescape or Habbo the first thing that happens is that this client software is loaded into your machine. This is very trusting of you because anything could be included with that client software. Obviously legitimate western games like Runescape and Habbo can be trusted. But what about games from Chinese gold farmers like Evony…

"There is this forum post from an Evony user: “Something happened this morning. Just when i logged in my account to play Evony, my Anti-Virus detected 4 trojans horse in explorer.exe. They came right when i entered my server. I am no expert about virus so I don<t know what happened there. Any help on the forum would be great as i do not want to join that server again until some admin tells me its clean. Took me 3 hours to clean my computer.”

And another one: “Hello, i would like to inform ye that your site is infested with Adaware. http://www.pctools.com/mrc/infection…e.Mostofate.E/ Every time i log onto evony this comes as part of it. I have tried it several times, deleting it THEN just opening up evony and presto its back on my Computer. Its the “monitors the users browsing activity.” that im not paticulary fond of !”

Now I am not saying that Evony has a trojan in its client software. This would take proper technical investigation. What I am saying is that the possibility of this being so is such that I would not let Evony anywhere near my computer. These people have already spammed the internet like crazy and stolen most of their game content, with behaviour like this I would not put anything past them."

Oh sweet Jesus, is there anything else we should know about WoWMine’s dynamic duo (who are probably on the Lam by now?)  With all the dirty details on those two circumnavigating the World Wide Web, I’d be shocked senseless if there are people still buying from their gold-selling sites!

Oh, Bruce, interesting comment you left on your own post, BTW. You said: "The Google ads for Evony on my site come from different urls. Each time I ban some urls the Evony people just come up with new ones. They are spamming the whole Google advertising system." My question is this: why is Google allowing this? Or is there some loophole in Google’s system that the Evony people discovered? Enlighten me here. Hope I - and my readers - hear from you again.

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July 28th 2009

READERS’ REVIEW CORNER: PULLING AN EGF

Hey, kiddies, I’m seriously thinking of putting up a Readers’ Review page here at WoW Gold Facts. Since a number of you have emailed me epic narrations of your buying experience - and plenty of them were downright hilarious - I figured why don’t I start inviting readers to send me their own reviews? As long as you show me…

- proof of your purchase (screenshots of your PayPal receipt and order confirmation emails, like what you see in my posts)

- transcripts of your chat with Live Help (if you don’t have screenshots of the Live Help window, then text version will do)

- email exchanges between you and the gold seller (if any)

…I’ll consider your submission for posting. Just keep in mind to back your experience with proof.

What say you? If you’re interested, send an email to wowgoldfacts@rocketmail.com.

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July 27th 2009

DUMB AND DUMBER: THE NEWSLETTER PARADE AND MORE

Speaking about Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne — I mean –the Lam brothers, here are more abominations from their camp, courtesy of their victim Cletus.

Wowminedoasiwant

"With us, you can do Things you wAnt to…" — Uh huh. Except convince you to hire an English instructor and set that skewed ‘A" right.

"Do as I want" — You don’t even give a flying fruck what your customers want.

"WoWmine team a mob of WOW maniacs" - Remove the acronym "WOW" and the description will be very apt.

Donald Trump package

The Donald Trump  Package??? Does it come with a toupée?

Apparently not. What you’ll get (if they have mercy on you)  instead are:

1. First Aid 375.
2. A level 60 mount + 225 riding skill+spare gold.
3. Two related professions leveled to 300 (Mining + Blacksmithing, Skinning + Leatherworking, Mining + Engineering, Mining + Jewelcrafting, Tailoring + Enchanting).
4. This bundled package takes 14 days to complete.

"They need 14 days to steal everything from your account?" laughed Remus. "Man, they’re slow."

"I thought they said they were fast," said Cletus through a mouthful of MY cookies. "Cheap, fast and American was how their Live Chat chick described their company."

"Cheap, fast and American?" I sputtered. "You mean like Pamela Anderson?"

More chuckles below…

This one’s from reader Paul:

From reader Paul

"Our market survey showed that you are the largest importer of wow gold." - They spent a helluva money on their market survey to discover that Paul is the "largest importer of wow gold" but they sure as hell could not determine his gender. Brilliant. Someone kill them please.

"love777" and "lily_luvya@hotmail.com" — This is one horny bitch.

And finally here’s another gem from reader Zayda-slash-Littlebark:

From Zayda

Blizzard is about to launch a "new mounts" and if you want more "mation", which I bet you don’t — and what the hell is "mation" anyway - I suggest you get on your mount and ride into the sunset to avoid this spamming SOB.

And finally here’s the spam I got over the weekend:

From Spammer Fragonard

Excuse me,  but I certainly don’t need instructions on how to give a "woooman the absolute most intense orgasm of her life". I’d expound on the subject but that would be bragging, wouldn’t it?

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July 26th 2009

EVONY AND IVORY: NUTHIN’ BLACK AND WHITE HERE

Just shades of gray and a sh*tload of scam from the Lam brothers once again.

Okay, now what the hell am I talking about here? Well, for starters, it’s rather old (but still interesting) news, something that I first discussed in my MySpace blog post dated July 15 . Then this evening WoW Gold Facts reader Cathryn Wheel emailed me urging me to write a WGF post about the Lam brothers’ latest scam, so the other readers (like you) will steer clear of their latest scam-o-rama project. Naturally, since I see myself as the unofficial town crier-slash-whistle-blower-slash-all-around-snitch-slash-protector-of-wow-gold-buyers, I caved in to her request.

So here’s a regurgitation of my MySpace post below. Read it and snicker.

Ah, the gems I unearth when I surf the net mindlessly…

Have you guys ever heard of Evony? Yes? No? Okay, in a nutshell, Evony is an online strategy game with a Medieval theme and which sees players working their asses off to build an empire. I’ve never played it, though I’ve seen its tacky banners ads showing buxom Medieval babes. What makes this C-grade game sink lower to D-depths is how its been marketed (can you spell SPAM), how it’s a sly rip-off of Sid Meier’s Civilization, and how it bamboozles its players to buy extras in the game - without minding them of the cost.

But the sour icing on this badly-baked cake is this piece of information, which I am quoting from the Guardian (Read the entire article here .):

"So if Evony is the world’s most despised game, who is behind it?

It turns out that the site’s backers are equally unpopular. Evony is the product of Universal Multiplayer Game Entertainment (UMGE), a developer linked to a Chinese gold-farming operation called WoWMine. That site has also come in for regular criticism, but the real kicker comes with the news that the company’s owners are being sued by Microsoft over allegations of click fraud."

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!

Holy moly, if I had a nickel everytime I came across news about the shady dealings of the Menendez, I mean, the Lam brothers, I’d be so rich I could retire early, forget my Hollywood dreams, marry my special girl, have 10 kids, form our own guild in WoW, and run heroics everyday.

That would be so awesome…

In a nutshell, kiddies — stay the hell away from this game. Don’t even click on their banner ads. Guys, I know the fun bags on those sexy ladies are so enticing but please, think with the right head this time and just avoid Evony like the Bubonic plague!

Don’t say you weren’t warned…

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July 23rd 2009

OH BOY….

The image below was sent by reader Trev.

LogIn Server Down

Yes, Trev, I know the feeling. Go break a few plates if it’ll make you feel better.

Be patient, people. And if you ordered gold, well, be gentle with the gold sellers okay?

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July 22nd 2009

INTERLUDE POST: LOG-IN ISSUES? ORDERED GOLD?

Hey, you guys having trouble logging in to WoW? Don’t panic. Nobody hacked your account. Blizz is having log-in issues and they’re working on it.

BTW, if you just ordered gold, please cut the gold seller some slack. Obviously, while this log-in thing is still waiting to be rectified, neither you or the seller can log in and do the trade. It’s no one’s fault. But I’m not saying let’s all go and blame Blizzard. These things happen. We’ll just have to be patient.

It’s midnight where I am now. Guess this is a higher being’s way of telling me to retire for the night and get some much-deserved sleep.

I ain’t getting any younger, ya know.

Night all.

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July 22nd 2009

GAMEMASTA.COM: I’M A HAPPY CAMPER Plus Send Benedict My Love (3/3)

Sorry I wasn’t able to post yesterday. Computer crashed. Remus was nice enough to let me borrow his laptop, on the condition that I return it sans Pepsi spills and cookie crumbs.

The guy is psychic…and down on his luck.

Butterfingers EGF DID  spilled his drink on the laptop, only this time it wasn’t a Pepsi. It was a can of Mountain Dew.

But hey, at least I skipped the cookies!

And his laptop is still okay. For now.

Anyhoo, this is the third and final installment to the Gamemasta.com review. I won’t waste time and just get straight to the point:

Gamemasta.com delivered the gold in less than 2 hours. Via mailbox. There was obviously no need to contact Live Help and ask where my gold was (in a weird way, I kinda miss following up!). This was a pretty uneventful order, and I could only wish that all customers would experience the same hassle-free shopping. Thanks a bunch to WGf reader Derek for recommending this site. I really enjoyed writing this review!

So let’s welcome the newest Honorable Mention Awarde — GAMEMASTA.COM !!!

Good job, guys.

Send Benedict my love.

Okay, fine, just say hi to him for me.

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July 21st 2009

GAMEMASTA.COM: THE STIFF MEETS THE SUAVE Plus Yup, I’m Buying (2/3)

Someone please pick up the chat!!!!

Hallelujah!

Gamemasta Chat-1

Chat interface and replies so eerily familiar.

Gamemasta Chat-2

Okay this is where I start acting like a jerk.

Gamemasta Chat-3

An ambiguously gay jerk at that.

Gamemasta Chat-4

Gamemasta Chat-5

Okay, I just gave myself the heebie-jeebies. But I’m impressed by how he tolerated me throughout the conversation. Brownie points for you, Benedict. You’re either a martyr or just used to getting hit on by the same sex.

Now to buy some gold…

To be continued.

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July 20th 2009

GAMEMASTA.COM: NEW NAME, SAME OLD SERVICE? (1/3)

Wow Gold Facts reader Derek emailed me:

http://gamemasta.com

I’ve used this site twice, and it’s worked fine both times, but I figure it’s always good to get the professional’s opinion.

The Lurktastic,

lazymangaka

Because you asked for it, Derek, here’s the first installment to my Gamemasta.com review!

I checked out the site and it didn’t take an investigation of CIA proportions to learn that Gamemasta.com used to be called Newbie.com.

That’s ’cause it says on their friggin’ home page.

(Click for a larger image)

They have over 15,000 satisfied customers. Wonder what their queue is like. I bet their delivery team is not allowed any bathroom breaks.

Their Frequently Asked Questions page is, uh, still in prerelease, which I think is a helluva long development cycle for an FAQ. Too bad, would have wanted to know more about them. Maybe their Testimonials section can give me an idea what they’re like?

Gamemasta Testimonials

Latest one is over a year old. Sigh.

How are the prices?

Gamemasta Prices

Not bad. This review will fit into my budget nicely. Now  I’d like to know how fast they deliver and if I will get it in the mail or face-to-face. Of course, as tradition dictates, I must chat with someone on Live Help.

GameMasta No reply

Unfortunately, no one is picking up. I thought they were fanatical with their customer service…

Okay, so we’re off to a not-exactly-fine start. I’ll get back to them in a few hours and hopefully I won’t be seeing that message  "All agents are currently busy. Please stand by" again.

To be continued.

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