Howdy folks. It looks like I got banned from the game, I received a "your account's been closed" message that referred to a hyperlink that no longer works.
Yesterday afternoon in Orgrimmar someone out of the blue opened trade with me and gave me (if memory serves) 55,555 gold, and then she did it again for the same amount. I said /thank and she didn't reply and just ran off. Apparently the game noticed that I suddenly had a lot more gold and banned me for RMT activity; the motivations of this player's "generosity" are unknown but it looks like a simple case of player griefing. I had a feeling this would come back to bite me.
Just to be clear, I've never engaged in any RMT activity in any game, or cheated in any way. I have a very low opinion of cheaters who pay-to-win by purchasing gold or items from third parties with real money; absolutely no respect at all for those who participate in such businesses; for those who encourage other players to cheat at games. (And in fact -- for those game publishers who spell out in their terms of service that every little thing in the game belongs to the publisher (gold, items, even characters) -- these businesses are stealing from these publishers, with the buyers of gold, etc. guilty of Receiving Stolen Property . . . a very serious real life problem.)
So may I please have my account turned back on? It's not a big deal if I lose my progress in the game, clearing my name is much more important (I'm in the game industry myself in a very peripheral way, I've helped playtest dozens of titles, and I'm a former employee of Steve Jackson Games from long ago.) Thank you for your time and help.