EVE New Citizens Q&A

You sound awfully mad. Why you so mad?

While on the topic of Courier scams, the "courier to a station you can't dock in" scam isn't the only scam possible. There are also high-volume high-collateral courier contracts with a very short completion time, and often a high reward. The idea for the scammers here is twofold: one, get the courier to cough up a large collateral for a package worth a few million ISK, typically POS modules or low value components for capitals/stations. Secondly, they ensure that the package must be carried by a ship with a large cargohold. This makes it a much easier target to suicide gank, thus ensuring the contract can never be completed.

If you ARE going to risk these kind of contracts, always use an alt character to accept the contract, preferably in a NPC corp, and then trade the package to your main for hauling. However, check out the route required, and be extra vigilant if it leads into a small pocket with only one entrance, or if the only route passes through an area off the major trade lanes. The scammers may/will be watching these locations and using Cargo Scanners to check the contents of any passing hauler/freighter, for one that matches their courier contents.

Personally, the closest I've come to someone trying to scam me was when I was a few days old and doing mine & return in a Navitas @ Duripant. This guy in an industrial comes along and kindly offers to haul my ore for me. I turned him down and he couldn't seem to understand why. I told him that it was because I preferred to do everything myself - but the fact of the matter was - that I didn't trust him - as I had been playing long enough to know that once my ore was in his ship ... it wasn't my ore any more ... I didn't tell him that - as information is power and I was better off pretending that I didn't know what he was up to - than getting in some pissing contest, with him evidencing pretend outrage that I question his motives ... I had better things to do. Of course ... he actually could have been someone just trying to help a new person out ... but ... no ... I'd have been a fool to trust him.


Another scam I saw some people laughing about in Amarr local (including the victim) was a contract for a rigged hulk - including all the fittings. The only problem was ... the only thing actually there ... was the fittings ... no actual Hulk.


Now ... as to the Goons. The thing to understand about the Goons is - they are members of a comedy web site who sometimes play games together. They were calling themselves Goons before EVE existed. That's just their nickname for people who frequent that site (Something Awful) and I had heard of it before I started playing EVE. I've not been there - but I understand that it IS posted on the Goons web site - that in order to join their in game organizations - you have to ALREADY be a member in good standing of the Something Awful web site and have a reference from someone who will vouch for you. Anyone else - is fair game. This is a video of one such "recruitment":

Goon recruitment policy enforced.

For the most part, they seem to be a bunch of guys who like to have fun ... just at other peoples expense. Thus, there is no point in trying to deal with them if you aren't already one of them ...

*shrug*




.

I am more than aware that society in general does not condone scamming and that it is illegal. However we allow idiots to dump coffee on thier laps and sue people for thier own stupidity. At least in Eve you just take your scalded balls and go sit in the station and cry. I personally feel that in the real world we protect the stupid masses too damn much and I for one enjoy the lack of protection in Eve. Oh and I have had corp mates and in game friends that fall prey to a scam that do your "lynching mob" concept and get even with the person that did the scam, so you can exact revenge in Eve.

This ones funny..

Personally I don't fall for scams and if youre someone who likes to buy the shinny stuff its best to know contracting prices and scams. I myself am fairly good at catching scams and have no problem blowing them up(calling out scam and details) whenever I see them in local. Some might ***** cause I go so hard and I might get blocked just like the scammer. But at least you've been informed whether you like it or not. Plus it protects newer players I guess. But I know they gotta learn too, one way or another.

I enjoy cramping a scammer bit especially then non botting ones. They're actually there to see you throw salt in their game..

Have to admit I've never fallen for a straight scam (I did lose some money in various investment schemes here and there, but it was a calculated risk, or so I was telling myself at the time).

Speaking of mistakes and not paying attention, I remember a corpmate buying a Badger off the market for 700 million ISK during a hectic redeployment... using the corporation wallet of course. Let's just say we were not happy with him.

Let me add a scam i've read about.

As some of you may or may not know, even if you can't rig a ship yourself,
you can still fly it with the benefits (and penalties) it gives.

For this to happen, you have to give your ship to somebody else to rig it ...
... and he should give you the ship back.

Basically, it works like ...

Victim: "Hi, i just want to inform you that ******** is a scammer."
Victim: "I gave her my ship to rig it for me, but she didn't give it back."


I laughed so hard about this ...
... don't make the same mistake. :)

The most i ever lost in a scam was 900 thousand isk so no big deal really. The only time scams effect me now is when i go in to jita and people are just spamming local with their unimaginative scams that only idiots fall for. All it does is creates lag and frustrates people that are actually playing the game.

I don't think Margin Trading skill was specifically meant for scammers as you seem to suggest. It is really usefull for real traders also.

If I expect to buy certain item 10 units per day and I make buy order for 100 items, I don't really need ISK at hand to cover all 100 items. If I check my wallet daily, it is enough to make sure I can cover one day forward + some extra just in case.

Or if I am buying 30 different items, each of which sells maybe once per week, I only need enough ISK to cover what I expect to be able to buy in near future, before I get more ISK to cover rest.

And in these cases it's also not a problem for seller if I do happen to run out of ISK, since in real trading there allmost allways is another buy order from another trader.

Funny thing about my experiences in EVE: I've never fallen prey to scams, mostly because they're generally obvious enough, to me at least, that I think nobody could ever fall for such a fail-scam.

I'm probably not one to fall for any ever, since I generally prefer to put effort into my progress, even if it's the generally-considered mind-numbing experiences of mining or missioning. It's just busy work- often relaxing after a day at real work which pays for my hobby.

So, ultimately, I guess I think, "Oh, hey, you're supposedly giving away money. Whatever. I'll keep doing things the way I know will work. You keep trying to trick people into paying you money for such a transparent ruse."

EDIT: One last thing, though, is the 'never trust anyone in EVE' ... In my case, I came into this game with a group of friends who are still in it, and we have been relying on eachother as a Corporation for the past three years. Speaking of that, you can sometimes trust those you fly with in a Corporation or Alliance. Just *shock* get to know them! Wow, you've never had to do that in another MMO, really, right? Game mechanics don't force you to socialize in other games. In this, if you don't actually socialize with people, get to trust them like you would people in real life, then you aren't probably going to get much of anywhere of importance. At the very least, have real-life friends join you in-game. Maybe if one of your group is a good judge of character (our leader's generally pretty good with it), they can lead things or interview people to join you, and make your circle of friends and confidants larger. Expand a strong, tight-knit Corporation. Become a force to be reckoned with. You won't have any reason to look at questionable deals that may be scams, then.

"You have no power over me."