Black market platinum?

[Queen_FoxFire]

My friend recently noticed that his platinum had been reduced down to -990 platinum (when at the beginning of the night he had 10 plat, meaning 1000 was taken from him). The last time this happened, he had bought black market plat and had it taken away (he owns up to this). However that was 3 years ago. After contacting DE he has been told another black market seller was caught and the plat was found on his account, but he had no contact with the person selling the illegal platinum. He has also been informed that he is apparently now at -8000 after he bought 1000 plat off of the regular war frame market to make up for what was lost. has anybody else encountered this or have any advice on how to proceed? Because at this point he's ready to stop playing altogether after this, which I know hurts because this was one of his favorite games. 

[krc473]

2 minutes ago, Queen_FoxFire said:

He has also been informed that he is apparently now at -8000 after he bought 1000 plat off of the regular war frame market to make up for what was lost.

First, you cannot trade for platinum when you are negative. You get locked out of the account and have to buy it off DE. So, it seems unlikely that he got any from a proper trader. Sounds like he is probably just lying and quite possibly purchased more illegal plat.

4 minutes ago, Queen_FoxFire said:

Because at this point he's ready to stop playing altogether after this, which I know hurts because this was one of his favorite games. 

This is an odd statement. I don’t know that anyone can call a game their favourite when they refuse to support the developers and instead buy illegal platinum. 

[HansLuft778]

I can't really read out of your text what you friend did to this point so:

The warframe support is the way to go. https://digitalextremes.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

If your friends Platinum balance is <0, he has to buy the minus-amount legally, thats how DE handles the situation.

[(PSN)northern_rebal]

If DE gave him a reason why they did it, I'd tend to believe them. They have no reason to just pick him at random.  Just like in real life, once a thief always considered a thief.

[(PSN)Viveeeh]

That's quite an odd story, I agree with @krc473, he probably purchased more than that 1k plat illegally, and it was taken away in two steps. Your friend has nothing to be angry about btw, I'm sure he was fully aware buying cheap plat from questionable places is not allowed. He did something bad, it only bit him in the backside when he didn't expect to be caught anymore.

Spoiler alert: this topic is going to be closed by a mod, who'll advise you to tell your friend to resolve this matter personally with DE support.

[(PSN)northern_rebal]

How does someone get fake platinum anyways?  Did someone hack the game?   The last I checked, platinum was somewhere around 5 cents each.  Seems like it would be more trouble, and not a whole lot cheaper to buy fake than it would real.

[(PSN)Viveeeh]

3 minutes ago, (PS4)northern_rebal said:

How does someone get fake platinum anyways?  Did someone hack the game?   The last I checked, platinum was somewhere around 5 cents each.  Seems like it would be more trouble, and not a whole lot cheaper to buy fake than it would real.

I have no idea how to do it, but it does exist. I ran into one website once via a Google ad. They sold cheap currency for several games and platforms. Reported them for support, they thanked me, said they take these violations very seriously. Can't remember how much cheaper it was, but even if I get 100 fake plats for the price of 1 real plat, it's not worth it.

[Firetempest]

42 minutes ago, (PS4)northern_rebal said:

How does someone get fake platinum anyways?  Did someone hack the game?   The last I checked, platinum was somewhere around 5 cents each.  Seems like it would be more trouble, and not a whole lot cheaper to buy fake than it would real.

Usually by credit card fraud. The real owners of cards locking their cards and demanding a charge back. Then DE has to go and delete that account and the bad plat amounts that account had traded away for other goods while operating. In trades, bad people usually get away, but the intermediate people who took that bad plat gets punished. But that's usually for trades, its a lot easier for DE to catch bad plat sold to fools willing to pay someone with a throw away account.

[KIREEK]

1 hour ago, (PS4)northern_rebal said:

How does someone get fake platinum anyways?  Did someone hack the game?   The last I checked, platinum was somewhere around 5 cents each.  Seems like it would be more trouble, and not a whole lot cheaper to buy fake than it would real.

It's not that it's fake or real, it's the trade that's involved in or the aquisition method that defines it.

• The platinum may belong to a compromised account that has the owner seeking support for help, support may be undoing trades that were done by outsiders
• You may also have platinum that was purchased via a VPN or another person in another region, exploiting the situation and getting it for cheaper
• Another is purchased platinum that is then sold somewhere and then handed to the player via a single trade, such trades aren't allowed.

These 3 examples are not related to chargebacks, all the platinum was purchased, but the trade may decide if it's kept or not.

It is common for black market dealers to advertise the plat as "self farmed" or "legitimaly obtained", but once you aquire it via an unallowed trade, DE can remove it at will.

As for OP, have your friend ask support to remove cosmetics to bring the value down or better yet, tell him to quit, might be better for him and other players

Edited April 2, 2020 by KIREEK