Somebody trades you a few hundred gold on a level 1 character you've never met. In the beta, with no economy to speak of and nothing to lose, taking it costs you nothing.
Blizzard posted on Sunday to say otherwise.
Real money transactions (RMT) are not acceptable in World of Warcraft, and we're taking steps to address RMT in the WoW: Forever Beta, and of course, when WoW: Forever goes live and beyond.
It's important to know that while we have always actioned RMT seller's accounts as quickly as possible, we will increasingly take action against buyers' accounts. That means that we will remove the illicit gold from the recipient, and/or take further actions, which can include closing accounts.
We're once again asking all players to be very cautious when it comes to accepting gifts from strangers or other one-sided transactions. If it becomes apparent that a recipient knew or should-have-known that gold wasn't from a legitimate source, they may be subject to account actions as well.
The half that's new is about buyers
Blizzard has always banned the people selling gold. That part isn't a change and never was much of a deterrent, because a seller's account is a cost of doing business.
Going after the buyer is the change. Two things happen: the gold comes back off your character, and the account may follow.
"Should have known" is the line to read twice
That phrase is doing the heavy lifting. You don't have to have paid anyone. If a stranger hands you gold and a reasonable person would have wondered where it came from, that's the threshold Blizzard has set for itself.
Which makes a gift from an account you don't recognise a thing you decline, not a thing you accept and forget about. The same goes for any trade where only one side gives anything.
It landed in a thread arguing about gold moving around the beta ahead of a tournament, which is worth knowing as context. The policy is written for live as much as for the test.
Decline the trade
If you're in the beta, this is a small change to your behaviour and a large change to your downside. Don't accept gold from people you don't know. Don't take the one-sided trade even as a joke. If someone drops gold on you unasked, you now have a reason to hand it straight back.
Beta progress gets wiped. An account action doesn't.
Quoted in full from Kaivax's post in "Gold buying rules" on the WoW forums, 28 September.