Blizzard Confirms Suspensions in the Forever Beta RMT Crackdown — and Adds a Trade Warning
Three days after the Ziqo gold removal, Blizzard has done the thing its critics asked for: it has said out loud that accounts are being suspended, and that it will keep happening after launch. On October 1 at roughly 21:05 UTC, community manager Kaivax posted "Actions Taken Against Botting and RMT" on the US and EU forums. No names, no numbers — but for the first time, the penalty ladder is explicit and Blizzard says it is already being applied.
Original editorial illustration by RealmList, generated for this article. This is artwork, not game footage or official promotional material.
What the October 1 post actually says
The key sentence covers three groups at once:
"We have been continuously actioning accounts that were found to be botting to amass gold in the WoW: Forever Beta, as well as the accounts of those who were found to have purchased or knowingly received illicit gold."
And the penalty line is the one players will quote for the next month:
"Any account belonging to any player that is found to have participated in generating, selling, buying, or receiving illicit gold is subject to the gold being removed, account suspensions, or permanent account closures."
Compare that with September 28, when the first policy post warned that recipients who "knew or should-have-known" could face "account actions" without defining them. The new post spells the actions out and states they are already happening. It also widens the net one more notch: generating (botting), selling, buying, and receiving are all listed as participating.
What Blizzard still has not said: who was actioned, how many accounts were hit, or whether any streamer is among them.
A trade warning is coming
Blizzard also announced that the game will "soon" show a warning whenever you trade with someone you do not know:
"Be wary of accepting gold from unknown or suspicious sources. If the provider is engaged in Real Money Transactions, you could put your account at risk of closure."
The warning links to support article 379634, the long-standing "A Destructive Transaction" page, now tagged for the Forever beta. Its practical advice predates the beta but maps onto it directly:
- Do not accept gold by mail or a random trade unless you know the sender.
- Keep trade agreements in in-game chat, so there is a record.
- Only accept gold from the character you made the deal with — not their "friend" or their alt.
The article carves out the legitimate case explicitly: a payment from "a crafting or trade agreement made with that character through in-game chat" is fine. A tip for an enchant, or gold for a crafted item arranged in whispers, is not what this crackdown is after.
Two gaps players have already pointed out: the warning only fires on trades, not mail, and forum questions about where exactly the arranged-trade line sits went unanswered in the thread.
Who has been hit — reports, not confirmations
Blizzard named nobody, so everything below is community reporting and should be read that way:
| Who | Report | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Payo | An October 1 post by NoHitJerome on X (4,000+ views) said Payo was banned from the beta, citing his own recent X post and streams. The same post says he was "already back playing on a new beta account that he bought". A forum thread titled "Respect to Blizzard for Banning Payo" passed 90 replies. | Reported; Blizzard has said nothing, and WoWSoD Pro could not find Payo's original post |
| Supatease | A September 30 forum thread says he lost beta access after accepting 100 gold from a stranger. Replies disagree on whether it stuck — one poster says the ban was reversed within minutes. | Unconfirmed either way |
| Ziqo | Still streaming the beta. Blizzard removed about 520 gold from his mage on September 29 and did not ban him. | Confirmed by Ziqo himself |
The Payo case matters because the alleged trigger is not accepting a one-sided trade — it is a clip in which he says, "I never buy gold. Ever. I told my chat to do it for me." That is solicitation, the category the Kotaku write-up foregrounds: many community members are now calling for harsher punishment not just for buyers and sellers, but for streamers who solicit and accept viewer gold while using their notoriety to get ahead. Kotaku also notes Ziqo has recently partnered with Blizzard on official events, which is feeding the perception that high-profile accounts are being treated gently.
Where this leaves the beta
The Ziqo case established that the enforcement machinery works: gold came off a specific character within a day of a public accusation. The October 1 post establishes that the machinery runs without one — and that suspension and closure are on the menu, not just gold removal. What it has not established is a published standard for which tier a given case gets, or any accounting of volume.
For a tester, the operating rules are unchanged but now have a UI reminder coming: do not accept unsolicited gold, keep agreements in chat, and expect a warning popup on stranger trades. For everyone watching the Forever Open prize pool, the unresolved question is whether the next high-profile case produces a named consequence — or another silent gold sweep.
Sources and further reading
External references used to verify or expand this article.