AddOn Spotlight: SpamSentry
by Eliah Hecht 
May 2nd 2007 at 6:01PM
"www. Buy cheapest WoW gold
pwns4hire. We live to serve your every need!
com And we certainly don't ruin the game for everyone else who just wants to play without cheating."
Ah, gold spam. It's a bigger problem now than ever, and getting bigger every day. I feel like I get an average of one spam whisper per ten minutes when I play my level 70s, and about a mail a day or so. No, it doesn't really cost me anything, but it sure is annoying. Blizzard are allegedly working on some improvements to the situation for 2.1; one rumor says that trial accounts will no longer be able to whisper people who don't have them friended. I don't buy that, since Blizz have said several times that they want trial accounts to convey the full social nature of WoW, but we'll see.
At any rate, there's something you can do about the problem now: SpamSentry. It's a mod that automatically catches and hides spam whispers and emails, and provides a two-click solution for reporting them to GMs (which you should definitely do so they can catch the buggers). It almost makes getting spammed enjoyable, since it's so easy to report and hopefully hinder their foul goals. It plugs in to FuBar and Titan, which is always convenient, and in general is a pleasure to use. Recommended to all who get spammed (but isn't that everyone?).
Download SpamSentry at ui.worldofwar.net
Previously on the Spotlight
Don't know how to use AddOns?
Filed under: AddOns, Features, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
captintrips May 2nd 2007 6:11PM
Thanks! And you are right, I almost do hope they try and sell me some now.
adodickley May 2nd 2007 6:15PM
I've been using SpamBot for several weeks now, and I would say it catches about 90-95% of the tells I used to get for gold sales / power leveling. A few slip by, and every now and then someone asking/promoting a sale in Trade will get flagged, but it's easy to see they are an actual player and not Xyasdfhsd.
Very highly recommended.
Freak May 2nd 2007 6:25PM
I have been a UI mod freak for a long time, and can unequivocally say: Best. Mod. Evar.
Or at least, best mod since the one that took away that annoying non-stop LFG click just prior to the expansion release.
Ah, the memories.
Yippster May 2nd 2007 6:29PM
I have had this for a few weeks now, like #2, but unlike #2 it has had a 100% success rate, it has not yet one yet slip by, and it has also not erroniously blocked a whisper that shouldn't have been.
It gives me the option to view the message, to confirm it is indeed spam before sending, then, yes, reporting is as easy as clicking twice.
I usually just get an autoreply from a GM, which is fine, I prefer that to them opening a dialogue with me and then just sending me all these canned responses "We are aware of this issue and are working on a resolution, blah blah blah"
This mod rocks.
Ehrgeiz May 2nd 2007 6:29PM
You see this is nice but I find my /r WoW is neat! macro to be much more fun to spam them with over and over until they log out.
Catfoot May 2nd 2007 6:29PM
"I feel like I get an average of one spam whisper per ten minutes when I play my level 70s, and about a mail a day or so"
So what do you do that makes you get so much? I get maybe one whisper every 4-5 hours of gameplay and no mails. I bet it's that tip you gave the dancing girl in Goldshire.
Brandon May 2nd 2007 6:30PM
I'm not convinced this will be very effective and instead will just end up spamming the GM's with complaints (not that they don't deserve it (blizzard, not the GM's)).
Most of these gold selling accounts are temp accounts with randomly generated character names that get deleted or junked anyway. I'm not sure that this is more effective then Blizzard taking the time to work in a solution. It wouldn't be that hard...
Consider;
Just make characters who are under 5th level (or 10th) *AND* do not have a main over 30 be unable to use /tell or /whisper to anyone not on their friends list. Also, limit their friend list to 10 players.
This would discourage random accounts that get generated and send out spam at low level while also enabled mules to still use /tell or /whisper because mules will have a main over 30 on the account.
This isn't that complicated, or at least it doesn't need to be. The only argument against something like this that I've heard is if Blizzard is involved in selling the gold themselves, and personally I don't buy that (literally).
So it is either laziness or lack of imagination on how to resolve the problem. I can't imagine that they aren't aware of it.
Eliah Hecht May 2nd 2007 6:33PM
Brandon: I've directly asked GMs and they want us to go ahead and keep reporting gold sellers. Presumably this is useful to them in some way.
khaosworks May 2nd 2007 6:36PM
I also highly recommend this, although you have to keep an eye on it to make sure you don't accidentally report someone who just innocently used some of the key words in chat.
khaosworks May 2nd 2007 6:51PM
Just idly (not seriously) wondering what would happen if Blizzard actually gave gold (or rep) rewards for legitimate reports of gold spamming?
I'll probably be thinking more clearly once I have some coffee... :)
Dan Bradley May 2nd 2007 7:57PM
@7 - Part of the point is to spam Blizzard, to some extent. If they have some spend significant amounts of time addressing support tickets for spam, it will put a financial incentive on them to make it a priority. If it's as painful for Blizzard as it is for us, maybe we'll see some action sooner.
I also strongly endorse the add-on. It's caught 100% of the spam, no false positives. I have been gleefully reporting every spam I get (about one an hour), plus an email or two each day.
Big Dan May 2nd 2007 8:03PM
@ khaosworks
Awesome idea even 20S would do it for me.
Heck if they would just make the common UI with something like this.
If the code is there and enough people start using it they might could adapt it into the standard code or something.
OOOOhhhhhhooooohhhhh
Brainstorm:
if you legitimately report x number of spammers there is a special recipe or item they send you like the collectors edition pets or something to commemorate your service.
That would have me (a collector) just itching to report someone.
Yippster May 2nd 2007 8:57PM
@10, That is a pretty clever idea, but it would be too easily exploited.
Let's see I want that recipe that you can only get for reporting a spammer, what do I do? I go out and get a trial membership, give it to anyone, a WOW friend, or a real friend, as long as they are able to make a WOW character with it, and have them send me a phony gold buying whisper. Then I report them and get the phat loots.
I'm sure there would be some other problems with implementing this but this is the obvious one to me.
Nemir May 2nd 2007 10:12PM
This mod is totally awesome. I've been using it for about 3 weeks now and it has blocked *every* whisper I've received and I've reported them very happily. I've played WoW for just over 2 years now and have *never* talked to so many GMs before. They were all very friendly and courteous.
Not only is this mod incredibly convenient to use, but what is REALLY cool is when I'm reporting things like mail spam (which SpamSentry automatically adds a button for) it actually TELLS me if that gold spammer account has already been removed. So you can actually *see* that it's working just by using it. It's great. I've recommended this to everyone I know and even added it to my sig on the official WoW forums to spread the word!
Until Blizzard can come up with a solution of their own, this will be a permanent addition to my Add On collection!
Ugkul May 2nd 2007 10:44PM
Great mod. works well. Indispensable.
Bad Mojo May 2nd 2007 11:44PM
As good as this mod sounds, I encourage people to try "ShutUp". http://files.wowace.com/ShutUp/
It's a white-list application and it stops 100% of spam. Unless you know the person spamming you. :)
emphy May 3rd 2007 4:12AM
@14:
If it complains the gold spammer has already been removed, it's usually because the gold spammer already has removed his/her character :)
I'd consider not reporting such a character a bug, not a feature :)
Hone Melgren May 3rd 2007 4:13AM
Actually the one advantage of this mod is its zero setup. Put in Addons folder and go. No setup required 95% of the time (and easy setup when you do)
Burien May 3rd 2007 6:35AM
Thanks, been looking for something to block this. Its gotten worse i think since alot of the auction websites have been removing these guys from their sites. I used to get maybe 1 a day before, but now its at least one every hour or so. I think Blizzard should just allow people to response to whispers on trial accounts. So you couldnt whisper out unless your spoken to by said person.
Astros May 3rd 2007 8:30AM
Have the option to disable whispers from un-guillded people who are lvl 20 and below...
Problem solved.