Inventive

Couldn't agree more. That's not what I'm doing here though, I assure you I would. It's a meaningless sentiment from someone you don't know, but it's one I stand by anyway. Doubling down (and beyond) becomes tragic after a point, everyone can see what's going on but that's not my experience. I can't prove it to you, so it looks silly to you, but that's the risk you take when you spend time on the internet with people. Emotional and physical distance. I see the spirit of your comment, but equally that's a very different sort of anticheat. What would the equivalent of aimbotting be in this game? Working against the very nature of the system, adjusting it within your client before it sends data to the server, so something like rigging shiny rates? Something different altogether, like DDoSing PvP opponents? A better example would be something closer in real-life terms to handling stolen goods. Sure, you can face upwards of a decade in prison for it, but that ranges all the way down to community service. It's because at its nature a rather woolly rule that's based on history (of which I have none) and intent (that nobody can prove because there are no receipts for it). Wrong place, wrong time and you would be helping out at soup kitchens for a month rather than seeing actual time. I wasn't granted that luxury, or to even have the opportunity to discuss it. I don't feel any rage spiral about it, I have my position and my conscience is clear over what I've done. If anything, I understand more now that even free gestures come with weight to them, and I'll consider that more when checking someones' generosity. That's all I've taken from this.

Credit to you for owning up to it, glad you're still playing and enjoying the game. The fact you pointed out you gave them the details yourself, and weren't presented with a receipt that held you dead-to-rights, doesn't make that argument as strong as you might think. They assumed you bought that money, presumably as the seller had broken a bunch of rules. They had nothing more on you than that, the 'dead-to-rights' part came in when your honesty kicked in and admitted it. We've not met, you don't know anything about me but I'd like to kindly ask you to just pretend you do. If you did, you'd know that I'm a super-honest individual, and treat others with the kindness I didn't always get. That extends to supporting the folks that work hard on this game I happen to really enjoy (with RP even when I don't particularly need it) and to know what it feels like to be lied to. I don't want to extend that to others, it hurts. I'm not sure if it's the sum in particular that's causing the issue for you, but it's worth mentioning - if you play the game a certain way (as this particular player did) and you treat it as more of a stock market to speculate on rather than a game per se (leading credibility to the assumption that he was indeed selling coins for real-world money maybe) then $75m becomes very very little to you. That's a few major wins on the cosmetic market, or one really lucky breed. There were screenshots going around in this very forum, of folks asking for the money cap to be raised.

It's OK if we disagree. I don't think it is. The foundation of reinforcing this rule is making inferences without direct proof, and the idea of making leaps to conclusions is how these bans are handed out. I know that because that's what's happened to me. My comment on it in the original post potentially misled you, and I know from experience and my profession that the more you embellish a story with detail, the more there's a chance you're pushing for credibility out of guilt. In that case, as you believe there should be more than I'm letting on, here you go. There's nothing in our history to suggest I 'barely knew' this player, we play(ed) a lot on another game but his exploits (and experience in general) on this game in particular weren't known to me. He has never said that he was involved in RMT, I know he definitely wasn't on the game we played together. I had no reason to believe at this point, that someone I was relatively close with on a semi-regular basis, wasn't just giving me a gift to help me back into the game. It doesn't really matter so much in the context here, but to put it into perspective - we have been in a clan together on a different game for roughly eighteen months, doing some pretty high-level stuff and needing a vibe befitting pressured situations. If I had billions and he asked me for $75m, I would've given it to him. I think I would've given him more. (Edit reason was for a few grammatical flubs)

Folks, this isn't another 'woe is me, I was banned' post. I'm old enough and experienced enough to know that when someone makes their mind up about you, and the platform doesn't give you an opportunity to defend yourself, you move on and stop wasting everyones' time. Embarrassing yourself further by continuing to lie about it is just that, embarrassing. Indeed, I was given a large amount of money by an individual I met while playing another game. I don't know anything of his exploits here, or how he interacts with others but as soon as he mentioned he was well-off (multiple accounts, berry farming, knowledgeable in the cosmetic market and the history of it, allegedly maxed out balance) I thought I would shoot my shot and ask for cash. I asked for $150m, I got around half. It's all I did. Genuinely. It's a drop in the ocean for him, and a pretty game-changing amount for me that enabled me to build a relatively decent account. Greedy yes, suspicious-looking yes. I'll concede that. Truth be told, I get it. I totally get it. If RMT happened between that player and others, they dealt with say, 99 folks that day and gave them all substantial cash gifts for seemingly no reason and with no prior interaction on the site. I'm the hundredth that day, it doesn't matter if I asked for it or bought it from a third-party site. It doesn't matter if I'm their best friend, their son, their dad, their brother. The sample size, even if it's nowhere near 99, is too difficult to ignore. The fact there is no proof of wrongdoing on my part is by the by because PokeMMO as an entity knows it can't ever truly prove something like that. There are no receipts with the amount and my IGN on them because they don't exist (I did not buy that currency), but unless PokeMMO operated those accounts (whether in Discord or on marketplaces or wherever it goes down) to 'sting' others, they have to work on assumptions and trends. Which leads me to my point. My one mistake, as I've alluded to in the thread title, was having a friend that I didn't fully vet nor understand the scope of the 'work' they do in the game. The fact is, they may very well have been selling in-game coins for real-world money and I simply couldn't have known that. In turn, that radiates outwards though so at which point does it stop? Are players who have regular giveaways (such as gatsuwu) investigated for similar patterns? And does everyone I've ever given something to, get investigated as well? Everyone I've overpaid for something (inadvertently or not)? By the process of association, are the folks I got on well with in trouble now? Because honestly, that's pretty terrible. I lost my right to talk in the right channels, I was permanently banned and my appeal was rejected in short enough time to guess that it was either blanket-ignored or automated. I really want to have my account back and continue playing the game, it's fantastic but if I can't anymore, the least I can do is make one or two folks have a rethink on my way out.

RacheLucario in Ch1 wasn't able to say anything more other than there was a bug they've had to fix with it. Not really sure when it's going to be back, but I'm going to be pushing like a madman as there's something I'm really after on there.