FYI: Updated the Exchange rules with info on pricejacking

[siskataya]

Hey everyone,

Hope your day is rolling along and you are having an awesome weekend!

I just wanted to let you all know that the Exchange rules have been updated a bit to include information on pricejacking, and to let everyone know it is not allowed. I know that most of you Exchange regulars already know that using a mule to jack up auction prices is not allowed, but some people don't know this. I thought it would be good to mention it outright in the rules.

The section added reads like this:

Quote:

Pricejacking in auctions is NOT allowed

• Pricejacking is when a seller uses a secondary account (aka mule account) to place bids in his/her own auction to artificially raise the price of bids being offered for an item. This is a tactic used by shady sellers to get extra profit from an auction.
  
  For more clarification, here is an example of how pricejacking works:
  a) A seller makes an auction thread to sell an item worth 1 million gold. The seller starts the bidding at 1 million gold.
  b) Another user, not related to the seller, really wants to have the item, so he/she bids 1.1 million gold for the item.
  c) The seller then, on a secondary (or mule) account, "outbids" the user who offered 1.1 million gold by placing a bid of 1.2 million gold.
  d) The user who legitimately bid 1.1 million gold is now required to outbid the 1.2 million gold offered by the mule account in order to be the highest bidder and win the right to purchase the item.
  
  As you can see from this example, pricejacking is a form of artificially inflating the price of the bids so the seller can make a profit he/she might not otherwise have received had the mule account not made that bid. It is possible nobody would have outbid the user who offered 1.1 million gold.
  
  Pricejacking is considered to be a form of cheating, and should be reported.

Just wanted to let you know this inclusion was made. Hopefully it will help cut down on any instances of this activity.

Take care,
Sisky


Additional note: Since this is a very fast moving forum, I'll sticky this thread for a little while so people know about the rule change. It'll be removed once enough time has passed for people to have had a good opportunity to read it.

[omni tempore]

Got it. ouob

[L3_Swag]

k thx u

[j e l l y p o p l u v]

oh thanks for telling ;D

[chief im not alright]

ok surprised

[Im sorry T_T]

i thought it was already included since it's clearly defined in the tos under scamming

[tobi-chann]

3nodding

[superskiller]

Thanks for that!

[Humankoolaid]

how would u ever know if someones offer is a fake ?? smh so many fakes these days stressed

[Sweetielicous]

Wow thanks!

[xicyu2x]

OMG i cant believe someone would stoop so low and do that,if there are ppl out there and you know who it it gaia you should boot them out.Thankyou for letting us know smiles jezzah. smile

[Alice Allusion]

It's a shame some people feel the need to use a mule account to cheat so they'll make more profit..=_=' Anyways I hope they realize it's a bad idea and could get their account banned..

[Banicula]

Omg! I never had thought about the possibility of people doing such a thing :O yet the question remains, how are we to know who is using a mule to ai their prices? How can we detect mule accounts easily...:I

[User 19608664]

Yeah, now that this is being solved their mules are being dressed up and are playing zOMG and what not, like a real gaia account o u o Its hard to tell the difference D8

[Gemonade]

Thanks for informing.♥