Ban Banned Account Sales

They're scams any way you look at it.

It is (or used to be) against the rules to sell any account with a rare on it. And yet, so far, a blind eye has been cast on these banned accounts that, truthfully or not, claim to offer riches.

The most obvious scam, of course, is the, "I have 100m on the account - and no proof of it!". But, more importantly, the true wealthy banned accounts - like scottwilson's - are knowingly deceptive.

There's no way to unban a reputed RL gp seller - they're trophy bans. Jagex does not ban it's well-known players lightly, and when they do, they make no plans to reverse it. After the last-chance appeal has been made, an account should be considered non-marketable.

Scott, for example, is well aware that his account will never be unbanned - he would not give up 3b+ for 10m unless he were certain of that fact. He offers bidders hope by citing a one-time, short-lived bug - and yet, he's a staker who became rich by knowing every loophole, and every bug the moment it was discovered. If he saw the opportunity to get his items back (worth over 300 times the amount he is asking for the account), I doubt for a moment he would reason "well, I sold it, it's all theirs now."

Though that's only one example, I believe it highlights the fact that, banned or not, no account should be sold based on the items it contains. No one sells a banned account until they are CERTAIN there is no hope of reclaiming it; and in the highly unlikely instance of a bug, there is no such thing as honor. When something is sold far below the seller's appraisal of its worth, there's little to no hope that the sale will be honored.

In short: They are deceptive. They are scams. They should not be allowed.

 

I agree with you.

However, you can't rule out the possibility of a legit sale. Perhaps a mandatory long and tedious proofing process would disinterest most of the scammers.

As we all know- Scammers are just looking for the 'quickest buck' and hardly put any effort into scamming. If there was a mandatory proof process for the sale of banned accounts- then it would root out most, if not all of the bad seeds leaving the legit sales (few they may be) intact.

Though, I have no idea what this process would look like.. Something like: proof suggesting it is unbannable, proof of the items, etc.

 

I understand the desire of a seller to make money off an account they consider useless - and I have indeed seen people looking to buy such accounts.

I may find it stupid, but I suppose I cannot argue against sales that focus ONLY on stats. (After all, no account purchase can be termed "smart.") Given that stats are the only thing considered in the sale, the buyer knows exactly what he is bidding on.

However, when the sale is made based on items, fictive or not - as are most of these banned accounts - the account's value is greatly distorted. Not only may the items not exist, but the owner possess a vested interest in the account and will not make a fair sale. The more the account is worth, the more certain the owner will be that an appeal is not possible.

There are very few cases where the items can be proven to exist; all of which are among the well-known, wealthy players, whose case I have already discussed.