We have all seen it. If you have played for more then 2 minutes in any zone inhabited by more then one player in wow you have been barraged by gold sellers, power levelers, and honor point farmers. It's all super cheap, safe and confidential. If you believe that than I have some Ocean front property in North Dakota for you.

On the matter of it being safe I can say for verifiable fact that gold farmers are not safe. I have a real life friend who was falling behind his friends in levels due to work and real life considerations. He was sucked in and considered it fair play to use the leveling services to catch up with his friends. I mean they were offering 50% off and promise not to use any illegal 3rd party apps to level your character. Ignoring my warnings about the vices of illegal power leveling he kept me up to date on his progress. His toon was leveled from 60-70 in record time and he regained control of his account with out a hitch. Two weeks went by before I received a frantic call. "Dude... Blizz banned my account." Blizz banned his account and attempted to ban any account linked to his via credit card information. The ban is described as irreversibly permanent. He lost several high level characters. At least 2 level 70s and several others in their mid 40s and 50s and all the raid gear he had earned. The reason cited: Illegal 3rd Party Applications Detected! I happen to know that he plays with the same hardware as I do (nostromo n52) and the same mods and macros in game. He quickly came to the realization but it was too late. Lots of /played time down the drain.

Now that I have bored you to tears with my personal accounts of why not to use the services let me explain briefly how to solve this problem. I will put it in bold and make it blue to give it that authoritative blizzard feel.

Revert the free trial back to the way it used to be. When you buy the game you get 1 ... read that ... ONE free trial to give to a friend.

Right now anyone can register a burning crusade free trial. Simply reverting to the old ways. Will cause the trend were seeing to decrease rapidly. Because while its a great business decision to buy and sell some gold on a purchased account. Spamming once is not as effective.

If Blizzard is already hooked on the amazing returns they are seeing from their free trial program than a compromise can surely be reached. Do not allow free trials to chat in anything but /SAY. This allows basic communication. Do not allow trial accounts to use the AH, trade with players, join guilds, or anything else that has the remote possibility of fostering illegal money laundering or sleezy advertising.

Yes this is a crack down on players who are using their free trial account legitimately as well. But the decision must be made by Blizzard. Do they allow their current paying customer base's experience to degenerate into a purple haze of illegal activities advertised through their own game? Will Blizzard step up and revert to their previous trial system with a few alterations? Your users have spoken Blizzard the current situation is unacceptable.

Edit: Based on Comment feedback I agree it would also be acceptable for trial accounts to be able to speak in party and raid chat.

~Cerias Shadows