# Forum > World of Warcraft > World of Warcraft Guides > [How-To] Avoid getting banned for botting and buying or selling gold!

## moonk1n

While this little wall of text here won't guarantee you won't get banned ever, I've still decided to sum up everything I've learned in the past, from both others and my own experience and mistakes and put them all in here. While I'm sure there are many other tips that could've been added and of which I haven't thought yet (and btw, feel free to comment and post them!), following these little pieces of advice can save you from getting your account banned. One thing I'd like to add before reading this - if you truly care enough about your account and you're not willing to risk a chance of let's say 1% of getting banned or even receiving a warning on it, please don't take your chances with it. I've been there and it was horrible. Luckily with the help of Fisher I've managed to overturn that ban, but one thing I know for sure - I'll never ever risk my main account for anything. Best tip would be to save some cash and actually buy yourself a second account. Trust me, it's worth it and it will pay for itself sooner or later, in gold or actual cash.

*Avoid getting banned for buying gold*

Should you ever decide to buy or sell WoW gold, you should be aware of a few tips that could save them from getting banned, suspended or ending up with the in-game transaction reversed. However, I won't get into the details regarding any gold selling websites or any of the issues that can occur from buying gold from a specific website, but instead I will approach the subject from Blizzard's and the gaming community's points of view.

First of all, and maybe even the oldest trick in the book, is to use a VPN (Virtual private network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and assign yourself the IP of a completely different country than yours. The reason why this tip is one of the most common ones around is that shall you ever get caught by Blizzard purchasing or selling gold or any other items and end up getting banned, you can always submit a ticket (preferably one or two days after the incident), from your own home IP address and claim you have been hacked and the person who gained access to your account used it to buy or sell gold or items. Another useful tips who falls under the range of an alleged hack claim would be to disable (if it's enabled) your mobile authenticator, since even if an account is still hackable through authenticator, Blizzard will likely deny that and claim you've framed yourself for the account hack, so it's in your best interest to turn it off a few days or weeks before buying or selling gold.

Second of all, from my own experience, the safest way to buy or sell gold is via the in-game Auction House system. This means that if you want to buy gold, the gold seller will instruct you to post an item (preferably not some grey thing and rather some nice green/blue item that can be used for twinks or transmog) and they will buy it off you from the Auction House for the amount of gold you've settled, or otherwise if you're selling to them.

However, if you decide not to use the Auction House and instead go with the face-to-face trade, the chances of getting banned for buying or selling gold decrease dramatically when you're trading using a higher level character instead of a level 1, and even to another higher level character (for instance, trading from a level 90 character to a level 57 or even a level 90 one). If you can make sure you can accomplish this point, it would be great if you could even throw a few random items in that game trade window (if you decide to buy/sell gold using a face-to-face transaction via in-game trade) so it looks like you're actually buying or selling some items for actual in-game currency, which is perfectly legitimate. Also, you should discuss it with the gold seller/buyer to meet somewhere else rather than at the local capital city's bank where every level 15 scrub can point at who's buying gold and who's not. Pick up a different and remote location, outside the capital city or even inside, in some tavern.

*You should not discuss anything at all regarding buying or selling gold in game, especially with the guy you're buying or selling it to, unless he's really fluent in English and can play along as your friend or a legit WoW player who sold you some items!*

Third of all, you should try and avoid buying or selling large amounts of gold at one time and rather buy or sell less and more often.

Last but not least, even if I won't advertise any such websites involved in gold selling or buying, you should however make sure you're conducting the transaction with a highly legitimate website, one that preferably uses their own VPN in case they are Asian or in case their own IPs are being already tracked by Blizzard and a company whose employees are fluent in written English, just so you be sure they understand what you want and the way you want perfectly.

*Avoid getting banned for botting*

If you were to use any such botting or 3rd party softwares, the first and probably the most common advice would be to not get greedy about it, and rather see it as a long-term investment, meaning that you shouldn't bot 24/7 but instead take often and random breaks for it. One of the most important keys when it comes to WoW bots is to make your botting character look and behave as human as possible, both in-game and in real life.

Your in-game character should have a decent and level appropriate gear equipped even while leveling using a bot, because seeing a level 87 character trying to quest or grind mobs in level 59 gear seems weird enough to be deemed a bot by any pair of eyes. You should try and personalize your botting character as much as you can, meaning a nice transmog, a pretty decent title, and some less common riding mounts. A few achievements, especially the quest related ones would also decrease the risk of you getting banned for botting. Also, while this might be a pretty common sense advice, you should also be aware that having a normal looking name will also help you bot safely comparing to having some random name obtained by bashing your face into the keyboard or having a chimpanzee typing it for you.

Your real life botting routine should be exactly what it sounds - a real life routine, meaning as a normal human being, you shouldn't be online 18 hours a day, everyday, just mining ores and collecting herbs while ignoring everyone and taking scheduled trips to the mail and back, while allegedly urinating in a bottle near your computer, so basically somewhere along the lines of 6-8 hours of botting a day should be okay. Think of it that less is more. Even if Blizzard might not be watching you, other players may and they will most likely report you which can lead to your account getting banned.

Another very important tip about botting safely is to try and supervise it as much as you can. Use a second monitor or a laptop and try and look at it as much as you can make sure you're not being followed around by people, getting stuck or flying around with your AFK on. You should also alternate your profiles (preferably use customized ones over public ones), your farming spots and even your routine, meaning you shouldn't login and logout at the same hours every day, and rather do a few random logouts during your daily botting session as well as do a random quest or dungeon by yourself every now and then. You should also choose your farming spot carefully and not use your bot in crowded areas or during peak hours unless you can completely supervise it. You should pay attention to what people talk in the general area chat, as well as whispers or emotes you may receive and preferably reply to them. You should engage in random discussions in your guild or with friends every now and then while botting just to remind everyone you're not just sitting there in the dark for hours and not saying anything.

While I won't advertise any bots, it's recommended you use a highly safe bot with good support and regular updates (make sure you always check for updates of both WoW and the bot before running the automated software).

Since most of the times WoW botting and Auction House exploitation go hand in hand, again, you shouldn't get greedy when it comes to selling what you farm by botting. You should either look for a trustable buyer who will take the goods off your hands or sell them at the Auction House, little by little, without drawing attention on yourself and without destroying your servers' market. Also you should really act and behave like you've worked to gain the goods you're selling, meaning if everyone is selling a stack of ores for 100 gold, you shouldn't get gold horny and just sell it for 50 gold a stack. Of course, if your buyer is willing to buy more from you directly, you can make a decent discount to let's say 85-90 gold per stack.

Also, the VPN and the hack claim work just as well for any botting related bans. Just make sure not to mess up when you're logging on your own personal account (assuming you have a main account and a botting one) from the same botting VPN IP.

This is pretty much what I could come up with off the top of my head. If you guys would like to hop in and add more tips, feel free to do it!

Best wishes!

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## Tournique

If my main account was banned for selling gold, is it better to make a new account on a new battle net or should I keep my mew account on old battle net ? Does it increases chances to get monitored or something?

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## moonk1n

It depends really. If you are planning on selling gold again or committing any other activities which are against the Terms of Service, then most likely you might have to get a different account, but then again, they can still track you down, unless you use a different name / card / IP / etc. If you're planning on playing it legitimately, then you can just as well use the same account, this way all your mounts, achievements and titles will still be available on your new account. Also you can try on appealing that ban too.

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## Piet01

> It depends really. If you are planning on selling gold again or committing any other activities which are against the Terms of Service, then most likely you might have to get a different account, but then again, they can still track you down, unless you use a different name / card / IP / etc. If you're planning on playing it legitimately, then you can just as well use the same account, this way all your mounts, achievements and titles will still be available on your new account. Also you can try on appealing that ban too.


You are 100% safe if you use third part software/gold selling on your second account, even when under the same name.
Just make sure you first trade your gold in small chunks to your second account, while you trade it for a piece of cloth or w/e.
Then sell it to the person you need to.

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## MajebeniLukas

Before i start reading this wall of text,i used to buy game time and expansions only via some sellers on Ownedcore since 2010,however in march 2013 i was about to buy 2 month game time.
Trade supposed to be 50/50 on two of the sellers chars,however after the deal was done,couple of minutes later while i was afk i was ban hammered QQ
Anyway 1 month ago i just loged into account,made a ticket that i was "hacked" and belive me or not that actually worked lol,they unbanned me after 1 day.Not sure if GM was a retard or just felt sad thta moment for my old account which took me years of playing. Stay safe.

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## xjsnowx

Great guide. To be very safe id only bot 4-6 hours. As far as face to face gold most people are lv1's. I have them trade me items and I give them items as well as gold. Idk about the AH one cause unless the tmog looks amazing would'nt it be suspicious that an item going for 100g just sold for 10k+

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## SquiDrunkWar

I have actually bought items that were selling for 100g and relisted them for 10k and they sold instantly. I have been questioned by gm's about the whole AH way (they thought i was buying gold, i was some of the time but not most) and the main reason I got away from being banned every single time, so far, is saying' "I can't control what people are willing to pay for an item." or a slightly different variation of that line.

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## stevesgamebox

> I have actually bought items that were selling for 100g and relisted them for 10k and they sold instantly. I have been questioned by gm's about the whole AH way (they thought i was buying gold, i was some of the time but not most) and the main reason I got away from being banned every single time, so far, is saying' "I can't control what people are willing to pay for an item." or a slightly different variation of that line.


*This.* This is how a friend of mine does it everytime. He buys loads of gold and happily explains to GM his version of the "Sold Auctions" . Of course he does have lots of auctions up and running at a time.

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## Gabriel

how long after buying wow are you safe from getting banned? I bought 80k last week on a lvl 1 alt on a different realm to buy a challenge mode carry. All went well gold is gone (given to the carry guy). Has been a week since I bought the gold no ban/email yet from blizzard do you guys think I'm safe from getting a perm ban? Thanks

-Gabriel

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## moonk1n

> how long after buying wow are you safe from getting banned? I bought 80k last week on a lvl 1 alt on a different realm to buy a challenge mode carry. All went well gold is gone (given to the carry guy). Has been a week since I bought the gold no ban/email yet from blizzard do you guys think I'm safe from getting a perm ban? Thanks
> 
> -Gabriel


You should be fine now.

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## xjsnowx

> *This.* This is how a friend of mine does it everytime. He buys loads of gold and happily explains to GM his version of the "Sold Auctions" . Of course he does have lots of auctions up and running at a time.


Could you explain or link me to how the AH works? I kind of get it but most resellers want gold to be mailed or use the typical lv 1 f2f trade which I avoid at all costs. 

On a site note I can't even seem to even get buyers just resellers nowadays even though i sell at some very low prices. I also have no idea how safe in game mail is even for small amounts.

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## skythex

nice tips, especially for starters

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## Numinaful

I like this, I've been playing forever.. However, I am broke because when I quit ad gave my gold away

Is there a VPN guide that I can use to set this all up?? I've never done the VPN the but will want to when I purchase gold.

Thanks

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## TurtleOSP

Pretty good suggestions, but I would like to add on to be careful what gear you wear and mounts you use. While you do want to look like a real player, the last thing you want to do is draw attention to your bot. Riding Ashes of A'lar may make you seem slightly more realistic it's going to turn a lot of heads and even worse make some players jealous. Keep things simple. Use overused mounts and transmogs. S2 warlock is the best transmog I can recommend. It's super overused and very easy to get, yet looks like you put time in your character.

Same goes for your gear level. A lot of people hate bots, but don't want to take the time to put up full reports. Walking around in BiS gear isn't going to make them like you anymore and make them feel cheated. Keep simple and make your gear reflect the level of play the bot plays at, which is quite low.

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## DHShadowsong

> You are 100% safe if you use third part software/gold selling on your second account, even when under the same name.
> Just make sure you first trade your gold in small chunks to your second account, while you trade it for a piece of cloth or w/e.
> Then sell it to the person you need to.


Sorry for posting on an old topic but i have a question: How small is good for trading each time to secondary account? Like under 10k gold per time?

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## Killerblock

I would say it all depends on the gm who catches you

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## Killerblock

> Sorry for posting on an old topic but i have a question: How small is good for trading each time to secondary account? Like under 10k gold per time?


They dont care about 10k

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## moonk1n

> Sorry for posting on an old topic but i have a question: How small is good for trading each time to secondary account? Like under 10k gold per time?


It doesn't really matter as much, especially with the current amounts being legitimately traded in game and the ton of gold players have. I'd say keep it under 100k and don't round the amount (send 97.825 gold for instance instead of 90k or 100k at once).

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## Grimmgirl

im about to die of anxiety. i just bought 100k from a legendary seller on g2g. Immidiately i regret it cause i heard blizzard will find out easily if anyone bought gold.. I did face to face trade with items to a lvl 97 char...should i worry to much? i want to know others experiences lately...in legion. Im an idiot who cave in due to broke to buy mats for raid...and now im shaking and losing my breath  :Frown:

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## eXp0

> im about to die of anxiety. i just bought 100k from a legendary seller on g2g. Immidiately i regret it cause i heard blizzard will find out easily if anyone bought gold.. I did face to face trade with items to a lvl 97 char...should i worry to much? i want to know others experiences lately...in legion. Im an idiot who cave in due to broke to buy mats for raid...and now im shaking and losing my breath


Lol, an extreme reaction if you ask me.. but then who's asking me  :Big Grin: .

Don't worry about it, if I was you I'd go for an independent seller on OwnedCore rather than on sites like that. If you really worry like you say then get yourself a guild bank and they deposit the gold into there. The other method is when they buy items you post up on the AH but then you lose 5% of the gold to blizzard's AH tax. 100k isn't much anymore, last tip is always trade them back something in the trade window. Obviously never mention the words gold, sell, buy or anything remotely linked to buying gold when trading gold with others lol.

Bottom line: You'll be fine, reduce the stress next time by ensuring your seller is reputable and your trading method is safe.

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## Grimmgirl

Yeah...ill think better if i ever do it again...cause holy sheit...i love my account to much but i had to get gold quick so i caved in...i feel retarded for it though...

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## moonk1n

> im about to die of anxiety. i just bought 100k from a legendary seller on g2g. Immidiately i regret it cause i heard blizzard will find out easily if anyone bought gold.. I did face to face trade with items to a lvl 97 char...should i worry to much? i want to know others experiences lately...in legion. Im an idiot who cave in due to broke to buy mats for raid...and now im shaking and losing my breath


Don't worry. Tons of gold transactions are being made every single second since it's early into the expansion and people are buying gear, mats and what not for extreme amounts of gold, so you should be fine. Maybe they even paused the gold trade flagging system for the time being since I'm sure it brings up a lot of false positives.

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk

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## Confucius

> im about to die of anxiety. i just bought 100k from a legendary seller on g2g. Immidiately i regret it cause i heard blizzard will find out easily if anyone bought gold.. I did face to face trade with items to a lvl 97 char...should i worry to much? i want to know others experiences lately...in legion. Im an idiot who cave in due to broke to buy mats for raid...and now im shaking and losing my breath


If blizzard catches you buying gold all they will do is remove the gold, claiming it was stolen from another player.

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## cherry0706

> If blizzard catches you buying gold all they will do is remove the gold, claiming it was stolen from another player.


They took away the gold coz the gold was hacked or stolen what ever its f2f or through AH. And it also might get ban if you got catched.

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## ChrisLavonte

Can i transfer 1 mil gold from one wow account to another on same battle net or will I get auto flagged/banned?

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## Hwang Mi Hee

Great Post +rep

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## startbr

Great post!

By the way, I am thinking of selling a gold I have accumulated. But the question is, how safe is it to pass gold from a primary to a secondary bnet account (from where the gold will be sold)?
What I was thinking of doing was to pass the gold little by little (100k approximately? Maybe more?) And with some item to try to camouflage it. To sell I would use a notebook with VPN (maybe even with the phone's internet).

My fear is, transferring gold from the primary to the secondary using the same IP. If the secondary account is banned, do I run the risk of the primary account also being banned by the fact that I have transferred gold between them with the same IP?

What is recommended to do to mitigate this risk?

PS: I recently transferred an amount of gold equivalent to 4 tokens to a friend to buy shadowlands, because here in my region blizzard has disabled giving gifts through battle.net. Would that hinder me in the future?

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