[Aeni]

This is just speculation and probably a place for people to discuss on how RMT works, what can be done about them and if there's anyway to help SE fix this problem.

I think I kind of get the geist on how these RMT companies work. However, the design is built much the same way a cocaine empire is built. You have several different rings, but their connections always point to some central figure in the whole scheme of things.

Let's take a company like Zhang Hou Software Company, for example (This is fictional and by no means is the following a known fact, but merely my own speculation on how these RMT figures operate)

Zhang Hou will have several players on each server which will act like a bank. However, unlike the other RMT companies that strictly buy gils from other players and then in turn sell them to other players for a tidy profit, Zhang Hou will also employ their own farmers on select servers devoid of "competition" from strong organized linkshells when they set out to camp NMs for lucrative drops. These farmers will bolster their gil stock and make the company a tremendous force to reckon with in the field of RMT players.

First, it is determined that there will be 20 major accounts, of which gil will be funneled to in order to be distributed to various sub accounts from which gil is then dispersed in transactions with potential gil buyers. Each agent that is employed by the company will be in charge of maintaining several main characters on each account, from which they can rotate to camp NMs and go on BC runs (i.e., KS30) They will also run several separate "bank" accounts, from which "gil waiters" will operate from.

Every one of these bank accounts will feature "gil waiters." The company's gil policy on all servers maintain that the minimum amount of gil that can be purchased by a player is in an increment of 1 million. Thus, every gil waiter will have 8 million gil on hand, to coincide with the 8 deliver slots at the auction house (AH) Whenever a potential buyer makes a transaction of 1 million gil purchase, the gil waiter will zoom out of their mog house (MH) and to the AH where they will then send the gil to the player, using the name of the character given at the time of purchase over the company's online website. If ever the transaction is for 8 instances of 1 million gil each, the delivery is made, all 8 deliveries in 8 delivery slots, and the gil waiter is logged out there on the spot. The character is then deleted and another character is made, with a different name.

Above the gil waiters are "gil runners" which is an account of characters that hold larger increment of gils. Each of them are limited, to say, the next increment of gil (2 million on Zhang Hou's website) and a maximum of amount predetermined by Zhang Hou's managers. These are in charge of larger deliveries and running stock to the gil waiters, but also experience a short life span like gil waiters, where once they've exhausted their gil supply, will be deleted and reborn with a new identity.

Above these "gil runners" are the "gil bank." These hold larger stores of gil, and are in charge of restocking only gil runners. This makes backtracking from a gil waiter to the gil bank near impossible unless the gil runners run the risk of having a longer life span than the company is willing to allow. Should this be an issue, an immediate termination of a suspected gil runner would be orderd and losses would be considered minimal in order to protect the gil bank.

Even among gil banks, however, they too experience a similar end of their cycle. Every few months or so, many gil banks are purged in the system, to be replaced by newer gil banks. Gil, if possible, would be transferred using an anonymous short term handle or account from old gil bank to new gil bank, but usually once a gil bank has exhausted the store, the gil bank is terminated.

Gil banks are fed from mules of the company's farmers. Mules are on separate accounts from farmers. When a farmer receives an item of immeasurable value, it is then passed to the mule, to be sold in exchange for gil. The mule also handles gil buying transaction, from where the company may buy gil from other players. Gil is then accumulated until it reaches a "quota" no doubt making it easier for the managers at Zhang Hou to keep track of how much gil they are taking in. After, gil is dispersed from these mules to the Gil Bank. They also get terminated after the gil is transferred, to keep minimum back tracking that SE might do every once in a while, after reviewing their database activity logs.

The farmers themselves, the accounts in which they operate in, hold bare minimum. Devoid of most other items except the equipment the characters are clad in and just enough gil for travel and the like, they are the least likely to be targetted by SE, due to the fact that on the surface, they seem to be much like any other character, with the exception that they have hardly done any questing (outside of the ones that give the best rewards to be exchanged for gil) and may or may not even have earned access to other areas of Vana'Diel.

Whelp, this is my own speculation. Take this for what it is worth.

From this, however, SE only need to focus efforts on accounts with an unusual amount of activity. Anyway you cut, slice or decorate any speculation on how RMT works, you'll end up with the same thing. A string or series of flurries of activities from which it is easy to keep track of. A call to the GM from a player who thinks he may have seen a gil waiter is one thing, since a GM can't do any backtracking easily. But from a programmer's perspective, you can see the series of transactions of which a normal player, even the most hardcore of players, would not be able to maintain, at an exhaustive 18 to 24 hours every day.

[x1ang]

but despite the ability to track gil transfers between accounts/chars, etc. there is still no hard evidence that SE can get that the person received/paid money for gil - unless they get a record of who the companies deal with... plus SE has to be careful because of possible lawsuits, etc. >.>

[Blood Red Poet]

And that ends todays lession, How to build a Gil Seller business.

[eriiko]

Originally Posted by x1ang

but despite the ability to track gil transfers between accounts/chars, etc. there is still no hard evidence that SE can get that the person received/paid money for gil - unless they get a record of who the companies deal with... plus SE has to be careful because of possible lawsuits, etc. >.>

Lawsuits? SE can terminate any account, whenever they want, for any reason at all.
There are no lawsuits.

[Moaku Hyena]

Originally Posted by Blood Red Poet

And that ends todays lession, How to build a Gil Seller business.

Dangit, you got it first! =X