Sadly, the real issue here is with the banks and the payment processors. It's very likely that they have metrics for larger marketplaces about being below a threshold for fraud. Online game stores like steam live, breathe and die by payment processing.
This was the reason why free trade was removed from RuneScape back in the day and it wasn't even a Jagex issue. People would go to 3rd party gold selling websites and then pay for gold with stolen credit cards. They could easily keep the money because the trade cannot be reversed without a moderator and what they were doing was against the rules so everyone would just get banned. The payment processors saw a bunch of fraud related to a game called RuneScape and told Jagex if they dont fix this then they will be blacklisted.
> This was the reason why free trade was removed from RuneScape back in the day and it wasn't even a Jagex issue. People would go to 3rd party gold selling websites and then pay for gold with stolen credit cards. They could easily keep the money because the trade cannot be reversed without a moderator and what they were doing was against the rules so everyone would just get banned.
Gold farmers were paying for bot memberships using stolen credit cards, which Jagex had to refund along with a chargeback fee.
The blackmail scenario you’re describing wouldn’t make any sense since all of these gold farmers used mule accounts to launder their gold before making the trades. The changes to the trade system were intended to interfere with this laundering so that farming would no longer be profitable.
It wasn't a blackmail scenario specifically Jagex got punished either way because the fraud was enabled by their platform. I don't have the time to check but I believe this was mentioned by the one of the Gower brothers in the runescape documentary. My broader point is that even if they cracked down on fraud which was absolutely not the fault of Jagex because of the poor security options at the time from Credit Card companies, they still had the issue of people buying gold from RunescapeGoldSeller.com and chargebacks
> in the runescape documentary
The RuneScape Documentary - 15 Years of Adventure
https://youtu.be/7RNK0YBdwko?si=sei69KmyL4hb_hj-&t=2944
Discussion begins at 49:04
> Sadly, the real issue here is with the banks and the payment processors
I disagree. The issue is these huge platforms can arbitrarily ban people and consumers have no recourse.
This sort of thing wasn't really possible before the internet age. We need new laws to deal with it.
Banks are nothing to do with this. You could have your Steam/Google/Apple/etc. account summarily executed for any reason; it doesn't have to be money-related.
> This sort of thing wasn't really possible before the internet age. We need new laws to deal with it.
Yes, it was and it always has been[1]
>I disagree. The issue is these huge platforms can arbitrarily ban people and consumers have no recourse
This is par for course with every single EULA ever. I will say in the case of Steam it's hard pressed to find your account completely disabled and unable to play the games you rightfully purchased. I think the worst-case scenario is that you will be banned from engaging with the steam online community which restricts your ability to play with other users on steam
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining
Redlining is not really the same as what we're talking about (but should also be illegal).
Redlining is the example that I am giving to show this has long been the behavior of businesses and unless its racist it's not illegal. Also read your EULAs