By Dexerto | Created at 2026-09-30 20:23:15 | Updated at 2026-09-30 22:32:13
2 hours ago
A World of Warcraft: Forever fan built an IRS to audit suspicious gold after Blizzard’s promised crackdown stopped short of a ban.
Barely a week ago, Blizzard warned that gold buyers risked permanent bans, with senior game designer Josh Greenfield vowing to “very aggressively punish gold buyers.”
Then two level one characters handed streamer Ziqo 380 and 175 gold on stream, a haul that isn’t some small fry in a beta less than two weeks old, and Blizzard wiped his mage’s gold without touching his account, so players started doing the maths themselves.
WoW Forever IRS addon checks whether gold was farmed or bought
The day after Ziqo lost his gold, a viewer told him they had built an addon called IRS, short for Illicit Riches Scanner, and because it hasn’t been published yet, they sent the streamer a beta file directly.
Ziqo could barely believe it and told chat there was no shot anyone had made “a f**king add-on that compares their gold income to see if it looks sus,” then promised it would make sure “all gold that we receive in the future is fully natty, boys.”
The addon weighs the most gold a character has ever held against the income its statistics recorded, from looted coins and quest rewards to vendor and auction house sales, and flags whatever it can’t account for. It also tallies quests, kills, and profession levels as proof of real gameplay, and whenever someone opens a trade, it pops up a check comparing their offer with their recorded income.
Ziqo then turned it on the players around him. A level 12 mage came back fully explained at 39 silver, another character registered as a likely bank alt with 4,186 auctions posted or bought, and a third had too little history to judge.
His own character was a different story, though, since the panel flashed red and flagged 529 of its 538 peak gold as unexplained. “We’re failing the audit,” he admitted.
The IRS is far from airtight, however. Ziqo himself called it “hella bugged,” and a player on Reddit noted that it pulls from the achievements tab, which seemed to miss plenty of quest gold and auction house sales, although they still found it funny enough to call it a win.
Its arrival also reopened the debate over Ziqo’s punishment. On stream, he had remarked that the gold couldn’t have been earned naturally before accepting both trades, and on September 28, community manager Kaivax posted that recipients who “knew or should-have-known” gold was illegitimate could face account action too. Blizzard ultimately swept his mage down to nine silver, including gold he had farmed himself, while his other characters kept theirs.
It’s also not the first time Forever players have taken enforcement into their own hands, after one built a mod that hides Asmongold’s entire guild earlier this month.
