Selling Gear on eBay

Even after the recent purge of agents which violated the TOS for purchased gear, I see a number of people selling these things on eBay.

Is there anything being done by NIA to have those sellers reported to maybe take down those items?

I get why it may be difficult to do so, but I also see how confusing this can be for new players trying to get ahead.

Although I understand the TOS it could use a tweak to clarify where items are not to be acquired from. I would suggest that under either section 5.3 or 5.4 you add an “(i.e., eBay, Amazon, etcetera ...)” to exemplify what kinds of places purchasing codes from breaks the TOS. Also maybe note that specifically the in-game stores are the only approved purchase locations. These would be simple messages that would keep you from having to put extra work into trying to ban illicit sales from other sites and keep users informed.

Comments

  • HavokTHavokT ✭✭✭

    There will always be people selling stuff or whole accounts now it is on E-bay and other major brands if those vanish they will still do it only deeper into the Internet.

    I don't like people using or selling these from these accounts. Lucky a recent banwave have resolved in a major part going away.

    The real problem is they just make new accounts.

  • edited August 2019

    Looks like there are still stores online going. A quick search revealed this.


  • MorganzaMorganza ✭✭✭✭✭

    eBay is letting people sell stolen game merchandise even after the owner complained?

    That's sleazy. Time to stop using eBay for anything.

  • @NianticBrian, I found an easy way to report to eBay by way of Twitter (@AskeBay) because their support system is really vague. I tried to report the one large seller just as a test to see what would happen but it may just take more people to submit complaints before they feel the need to do anything.

    Just a thought, but do you think it would be effective at all to set expiration dates on load-out codes or would that be more of a headache? If the contraband sellers only had 30 days to market their stuff, it might make it more difficult for them. Make an announcement that on November 1st all codes issues past 30 days, which aren't publicly available online already, will expire if not used. Then any new code expires after 30 days.

    -Sundermeyer

  • @Sundermeyer an expiration date on passcodes is an interesting idea, but I believe many eBay sellers are selling Google accounts (not Ingress passcodes). We'll keep reporting these sellers to eBay, thanks.

  • @NianticBrian, I did not realize that is what was happening. That would explain the wording of the listings from the one big seller on eBay.

    They are stating in each listing that they are not selling the items, those are still free. They say what you pay for is the time they used to collect those items and therefore you are buying a “service” and in turn get the items in exchange for the service fees.

    This argument might pass eBay’s scrutiny and the stuff stays online. The only way I could see to deal with this is to have a bot watching accounts, which is already being done, obviously from recent disclosures of account purges.

    I will still do what I can to help out.

  • Expiration on anomaly loadout codes does have one major issue. Some of us hold on to those codes so we can rearm agents in remote locations in an emergency.

  • starwortstarwort ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yeah. I have three loadout cards from the support packs purchased at previous anomalies. I might need them some day, and would not be massively pleased at Niantic suddenly force-expiring them.


  • first of all - it's not like i try to make a point for cheaters, however i should make a (couple of) statement.

    • the gear is not STOLEN. it may be acquired by cheating, or it may not, however - no one has LOST the gear. codes may be stolen, the gear - can not. the only way to "steal" the gear would be - take a legit players account, drop his gear (without his consent) and pick it up by other party (who then is the thief). please use correct terminology, it's quite a sensitive question.
    • if the gear is obtained legitimately, by which i mean - by physical player physically farming portals (not cheating by _any_ means), then it's his own choice what to do with said gear. sell, burn (for XM), use in game or just simply throw out. IIRC at the moment the game license forbids exchange of ingame goods and monetary values. however - let's assume i've farmed (painstakingly, by hand) a number of items, pass them to a friend, and my friend buys me a physical bottle of beer and/or chocolate bar. this may be questionable from the ethical PoV, but it should not be punished or even forbiden.
    • even without such exchange we do have our "farming" agents, who play for their faction by mainly farming. they may spend days farming specific gear and "feeding" others "spare" weapons. this may make hundreds of items per day. i've done more than 500 items per day myself, and it was far from "exhausting". and i know some

    i believe that the problem is not "exchange of ingame items" as such - the problem is illegal item _gathering_ - by means of automated actions, automated farming. this is the problem that essentially puts a strain to NIAs servers and undermines the "gathering" part of the game. after all - we like playing against human beeings, competition with the other faction (and within our, too) is fun. playing against the machine is much less fun.

  • @NianticBrian

    Found this one today.

    It is its own site.

    You might have a way to deal with it directly.

  • Technically, Niantic owns all of the in-game items.

    That's the truth of it. If Niantic's policy is that you are not to sell those items, they have a right to demand cease and desist. What confuses me is that they haven't already sent such a letter to eBay.

    The seller's claims that they are a service or you're buying a service wouldn't hold any water in court what so ever, the reality is people are illegally selling Niantic's digital items. Niantic could even file a claim against artwork copyright infringement as the items possess artwork made by their company, not to mention infringement on digital IP.

    Slap eBay with a few lawsuits, they'll actively **** those accounts instead.

  • NineBerryNineBerry ✭✭✭✭✭


    The sellers doesn't put any restriction on the location where the items can be delivered. How do you think items can be delivered without spoofing?

  • corowercorower ✭✭
    edited October 2019


    hmm, the same way, that keys for RRs get delivered? in theory it _is_ possible.

    you do not see my point if you ask this. my point is - selling/bying all by itself should not be a TOS breach. IF you have put your effort into gathering - you may exchange on your own terms. i repeat - IF you do NOT breach common sense rules (faking location, automated gathering, multiple accounts, etc) - you should not get punished for whatever player interactions there are. including item trade.


    simply put:

    • farming by automated means - IS cheating.
    • location spoofing (and delivery via it) - IS cheating.
    • multiple accounts per person - IS cheating.
    • selling items is NOT cheating.
    • buying items is NOT cheating.


  • NineBerryNineBerry ✭✭✭✭✭


    Buying items IS cheating if you cannot be at least 99% certain that no cheating was involved in obtaining them in the first place. And that means it certainly IS cheating if you buy items from a website. And it certainly IS cheating if you buy items from someone who offers more than a normal person can hack.

  • starwortstarwort ✭✭✭✭✭

    However, selling items is explicitly against the ToS (and therefore could be considered cheating).

    You agree not to do any of the following:


  • hey,

    why not just buy some items, find out where the account was created, look for other accounts in the same 100metre play area, block those accounts.

    blame it on "unforseen circumstances" if someone complains, and then investigate the accounts and free up if legit.

    seems to easy to me

  • But just to clarify : I get why the "2000x xmp8" type of ads there are against the TOS - they've obviously been botted, but we're not really saying that buying or selling a VRLO or character badge code (which have been obtained legally anyway), or a swag pack, is anything near a breach of TOS or cheating, are we...?

  • Qu4rdQu4rd ✭✭✭

    I reported to NIA about local online marketplaces that are selling spoofing tools but that too fell to deaf ears .

    I found accounts, items , gears, and third party tools publicly as well, heck even "auto catch pokemongo plus" are still widely available.

    However, I still have good faith that NIA won't let these sellers get away that easy, because these can be seen as lost revenue to the company for any games they had made.

  • corowercorower ✭✭
    edited October 2019

    when i extensively studied TOS (some 4 years ago) i do not remember that statement... OTOH - i'm old and sclerotic.

    also - does that cover "i've got some 400 spare xmps, want some beer - there and there" scenarios?

  • MorganzaMorganza ✭✭✭✭✭

    Easy. Seller gives buyer password to Google or Facebook account. Buyer adds account to burner phone. Legit account in right hand, purchased account in left hand, drop, pick up. No spoofing needed, no need to tell seller your physical location.


    That's how the PoGo sellers work, too -- trade from one hand to the other, possibly with a delay to build friendship .

  • NineBerryNineBerry ✭✭✭✭✭

    Multi-Accounting is cheating as well.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    but who is stupid enough to buy gear today? we all know every burster, capsule etc niantic can trace how it was obtained.. if from bots then u get only banned using bought items.. for me thats good because it is cheating so buying items from ebay u deserve to get banned.

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭

    The problem is the delay in time it takes for someone to manually run through the accounts/gear then get setup the ban wave. There is always that lag time between when Ingress discovers the bots to when the ban. Using a 2nd account on a 2nd physical device (or emulated one) is how most people are getting "away" with multi accounting these days. 2nd account can upgrade portals, or add mods that they desire. You can report them til you get tired of wasting your time reporting them. Most of the time, it doesn't do a thing unless you go thru a TR (which of course, no longer exists).

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