their accounts and then communicate with other users via instant messaging such as AIM. Unfortunately, scammers prey on unwitting victims who turn over their accounts, as payment processor Paypal does not view AIM logs as "proof of delivery".

While there are other companies that wil

The MMO market has grown to unprecedented levels. With World of Warcraft dominating and bringing immense popularity to the previously modest market, more and more casual users are finding their way into the vast lands of Azeroth and other virtual lands.

Many gamers are finding themselves out of time and bored of their characters - they have leveled up their character to the max level, yet find themselves envying other classes or games. However, the amount of time and effort needed to level up a character from scratch is just too boring. So, they do what any person would do in real life, they trade.

Previously trading of virtual items and accounts has been going on primarily on EBay. Recently, however, EBay announced that they would be shutting down all virtual game auctions and suspending the user's EBay accounts, due to the fact that it was against the game maker's terms of service. So is trading accounts illegal? No, however it is against the game's rules to do so.

Although there are other places and forums where many users gather to trade accounts, these places are filled with scammers. On these forums, users typically post their accounts and then communicate with other users via instant messaging such as AIM. Unfortunately, scammers prey on unwitting victims who turn over their accounts, as payment processor Paypal does not view AIM logs as "proof of delivery".

While there are other companies that will

lves out of time and bored of their characters - they have leveled up their character to the max level, yet find themselves envying other classes or games. However, the amount of time and effort needed to level up a character from scratch is just too boring. So, they do what any person would do in real life, they trade.

Previously trading of virtual items and accounts has been going on primarily on EBay. Recently, however, EBay announced that they would be shutting down all virtual game auctions and suspending the user's EBay accounts, due to the fact that it was against the game maker's terms of service. So is trading accounts illegal? No, however it is against the game's rules to do so.

Although there are other places and forums where many users gather to trade accounts, these places are filled with scammers. On these forums, users typically post their accounts and then communicate with other users via instant messaging such as AIM. Unfortunately, scammers prey on unwitting victims who turn over their accounts, as payment processor Paypal does not view AIM logs as "proof of delivery".

While there are other companies that wil

d do in real life, they trade.

Previously trading of virtual items and accounts has been going on primarily on EBay. Recently, however, EBay announced that they would be shutting down all virtual game auctions and suspending the user's EBay accounts, due to the fact that it was against the game maker's terms of service. So is trading accounts illegal? No, however it is against the game's rules to do so.

Although there are other places and forums where many users gather to trade accounts, these places are filled with scammers. On these forums, users typically post their accounts and then communicate with other users via instant messaging such as AIM. Unfortunately, scammers prey on unwitting victims who turn over their accounts, as payment processor Paypal does not view AIM logs as "proof of delivery".

While there are other companies that wil

st the game maker's terms of service. So is trading accounts illegal? No, however it is against the game's rules to do so.

Although there are other places and forums where many users gather to trade accounts, these places are filled with scammers. On these forums, users typically post their accounts and then communicate with other users via instant messaging such as AIM. Unfortunately, scammers prey on unwitting victims who turn over their accounts, as payment processor Paypal does not view AIM logs as "proof of delivery".

While there are other companies that wil

their accounts and then communicate with other users via instant messaging such as AIM. Unfortunately, scammers prey on unwitting victims who turn over their accounts, as payment processor Paypal does not view AIM logs as "proof of delivery".

While there are other companies that will sell you gold or an account, or even purchase your items or accounts, the problem is that the premiums you will pay for doing so will most likely be too high - these companies typically buy your account and sell for 3-4 or even 5 times as much!

This leaves one final option - auction sites similar to EBay that do not impose such harsh rules on their customers. While currently there are a few auction sites catering to this, they are poorly run and filled with gold farmers spamming their wares.

There is yet hope though - one of the leading providers in virtual items may be launching a secure trading site akin to Ebay - they hope to provide a safe and secure environment to buy/sell/trade accounts that isn't filled with gold spammers.

Until then though, we can only wait and see how everything plays out.