Temporary Economy Holds: Blizzard's new weapon against gold buying

Blizzard keeps fighting real money trading (RMT), or gold buying, in WoW: Forever. Their newest weapon: the Temporary Economy Hold.

How it works

• If your account is suspected of RMT, buying or selling gold, it can get a Temporary Economy Hold.
• During the hold you can't use trade, mail, the guild bank or the auction house.
• The goal: stop suspicious gold before it spreads through the economy, and give Blizzard time to investigate properly.

What happens next

• Was it a false alarm? Then the hold is lifted automatically after the investigation.
• Was it really RMT? Then the account gets the usual action.
• A hold on its own leaves no permanent mark on your account, unless RMT is proven later.

Good to know

• If you just play normally, you will most likely never see this.
• The system is new, so Blizzard warns there may be some false positives while they fine tune it.
• If it works well, it will come to every version of World of Warcraft.

What this means for Legends of Azeroth

Our rule stays simple: we never buy gold. Giving gold to a guildie, paying for a craft or tipping a Mage for a portal is normal play. More about the fight against gold buying: https://legendsofazeroth.com/news/over-2-100-gold-buying-accounts-banned-on-the-wow-forever-beta

Source: Blizzard (Community Manager Kaivax) on the official forums at https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/2381433