EA SPORTS released an open letter to gamers warning about the dangers of cheating and educating players about the impact that cheating has on the game for everyone else that plays by the rules.

They are particularly focused on coin selling and in particular the bots that coin sellers use in order to cheat the transfer market.

Coin buyers and promoters will receive a warning e-mail and an in game message for their first offence followed up by having their FUT Club reset and FIFA Points returned if they continue. Do it a third time and they’ll receive a permanent online ban for FIFA. Coin sellers are deemed the worst of the bunch. If you’re caught selling coins you’ll receive a permanent online ban from all EA games.

So why do people do it?

People buy coins because it’s considerably cheaper to amass top players and teams by buying coins than it is to go down the legit FIFA Points route and trading your way from a bronze squad to IF Ronaldo might take you until FIFA 16.

People sell coins because they make a lot of money from doing very little work. Promoting coin sellers is an extremely lucrative business too. We regularly receive emails asking us to advertise sellers and have even taken some up on it in the past.

And you’ll struggle to find a FIFA video on YouTube that doesn’t promote someone selling coins. The bigger YouTubers get paid handsomely while there are “you scratch my back” arrangements with others. Coin sellers “sponsor” the YouTuber with coins to make better videos and in return the YouTuber will send people to them to buy more coins.

Coin selling has always been against EA’s policies but up until now the gaming giant’s let it slide allowing a whole industry to build up over time. By taking action now there’s going to be an awful lot of people that have built up a tidy living off the back of coin selling that are suddenly going to get it taken away.

Will bots still exist? Yes, of course they will. If the industry had been nipped in the bud a lot earlier then maybe EA would have stood a chance but there’s too much money being made for them to just disappear. People will always find new ways to cheat the system. Multiple accounts, less frequent automation etc.

I’ve no doubt that coins will still be out there for those that want to buy them but buyers beware, there’ll be a lot more scammers out there than there are already (and that’s saying something!) And don’t expect to find a sympathetic ear if you do get scammed trying to buy coins.

Even though the problem isn’t going to go away, the good news is the fact that the algorithms are going to have to be made more “humanlike” should mean they don’t impact the market meaning more affordable players for everyone. And that can only be a good thing!

Do you buy, sell coins or promote coin selling? Get in touch and let us know how this is going to affect you.