Crime & Punishment

This one is becoming more and more common, so I thought it might be a good time to mention it here. Basically it is a stealth “beg” scam usually perpetrated by a new character posing as a new player asking for advice/assistance. The character will never actually come out and ask for anything tangible, instead feigning confusion, frustration, and seeming inability to take advice. These characters are usually “on the verge of quitting Eve” after several embarrassing losses which can be verified on their KB. The victims of this scam are often players who were once genuinely in similar straights and therefore able to empathize with the scammer’s purported difficulties.

The scam usually invokes two types of responses: Pity or disdain. When the character’s incessant moaning about how unfair/broken Eve is elicits abuse from the “bitter vet” types, this actually helps the scam as people jump to the defense of the “poor newbie” being abused. The more sympathy invoked, the more likely someone will send them ISK/ships/mods/skillbooks out of pity and to prove that “not everyone in Eve is mean”.

You are most likely to see this scam being perpetrated on the forums and chat channels, especially in the help channels. Usually scams are not tolerated in help channels, but as this scam is masked as nothing more than a newbie asking for help, it usually goes unchallenged. I have even witnessed channel moderators defend these scammers in the face of accusations of begging many times.

Detection:
This scam is extremely subtle and difficult to detect if run by someone skilled in human psychology. While there are many skeptical and jaded Eve players, there are also many “white knights” out there to prey upon with this technique. Human nature prompts many to assume the role of “good Samaritan” and rise to the aid of someone they perceive as helpless and under attack, especially if they were once victim to similar circumstances.

Persistence is probably the most reliable way to distinguish someone running this scam from a genuine newbie. Advice seems to roll of their backs like water off a duck, regardless of how many ways it is explained by any number of assistance givers. They seem incapable of wrapping their heads around the most basic of concepts. Always on the verge of quitting the game, they never seem to quit crying about their misfortunes. This is by design. Their goal is, like any scam, to separate the fools from their money, and as good advice is free, it will never remedy their woes.

Variations:

As mentioned previously, these scams are routinely found in local chat, NPC corp chat, help chat, and the forums. Similar to a “safari”, scammers utilizing this method can also be found moving from one newbie corporation to another, soliciting ships/mods/ISK/skillbooks from corpmates until people are tired of giving them free stuff, at which point they will move to the next corp, rinse and repeat. Unlike Safari, the victim is almost never aware that they were even victimized. Therefore, they do not go to the trouble of warning the scammer’s new CEO. As far as the victim is concerned, the scammer was simply another clueless newbie who, despite their best efforts and financial aid, was impossibly obtuse.

Notes:

This scam is similar in nature to crimes in the real world such as panhandlers with a sob story, certain types of welfare/disability fraud, and even robbers posing as drivers of stranded vehicles stuck on the side of the road waiting for a good Samaritan to rob. The insidious nature of this scam is that over time it erodes a community’s sense of trust and desire to help their fellow human beings in trouble. Over time, people become less willing to help those in need for fear of being the victim of this scam.

Example:

Paul Otichoda – Over the past several weeks, this character posing as new player has started several whine threads in General Discussion, Warfare and Tactics, Missions and Complexes, Eve New Citizens Q&A, etc. In these threads, you can find an endless stream of complaints. Rockets are worthless, blasters are OP, the tutorials suck, trading sucks, Ravens suck, ninja salvaging is unfair, exploration sites are impossible to find, and most importantly, how hard it is to make ISK. Multiple times, he declares that he is quitting or at least seriously considering it. Seemingly immune to advice, he keeps his threads bumped on a daily basis to ensure that they remain near the top of the forums until they are played out completely. But then he seems to slip up and indicate just how familiar with the subject of Eve online he really is. https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=3411035#post3411035 Does this thread sound like his newbie persona? And then there is this thread https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=266227&p=4 where he is called out for his scam and goes from daily bumps and responding to posts within a few minutes to completely silent for days. Lastly, check out his bio, which in this case echoes his "poor me" false identity portrayed in the forums.

tldr; Although this kind of "stealth beg" scam can be difficult to detect during what appears to be a spontaneous interaction, it is marked by three distinguishing factors:

1) The scammer is deliberately obtuse. No matter how much you try to help, he remains utterly impervious to advice, but good-natured.
2) Time doesn't help. Most players learn and progress with time and effort. Scammers remain seemingly frozen in time with little to no progress, such as weeks of complaining about how OP T2 weapons are, instead of just spending 4 days training for them.
3) Inconsistency. Keeping up this kind of act and not tipping their hand about their actual knowledge of the game is difficult. They will eventually slip up and reveal that they are not a newb at all if they keep up the scam for long enough without switching to a new alt.

Not a single red .10 ISK. But I am a bit irritated by how it undermines our community and encourages others to ignore newbies who genuinely need some help getting started. Also, I have wasted some of my time trying to help these scrubs, as have many others including CSM members and even devs.

The evidence is presented in the OP. Barring a confession, or an indefensible slip-up, "proof" is a luxury you can expect to never encounter in this kind of scam. However, going completely silent, after weeks of prolific posting, is the last nail in the coffin as far as I'm concerned. Asking him how much ISK he has received from other players puts him in an impossible situation. He has to either deny receiving anything, or play down how much he's received (at which point he is subject to being called out by the people he has duped) or he has to admit to the full extent of his haul, which of course destroys his credibility.

The silence on his part is deafening, and telling.

Edit: p.s., A conspiracy by definition involves more than one person. I never alleged a conspiracy.

Welp. I think you are confused about the definition of more than just conspiracy, namely the definition of evidence. Circumstantial evidence is still evidence, and although not as persuasive as direct evidence, it can still be used to support a theory. For example, if you are inside a building and someone walks into that building covered in water, shakes off a wet umbrella, and exclaims, "Wow it's raining hard out there!" that is all circumstantial evidence that it is raining outside. If you walk to the door, look outside, and see it is raining, that is direct evidence.

I will grant that the evidence I have presented is circumstantial. However, it was enough to convince me that a fraud has been perpetrated. If it's not enough to convince you, that's fine. For you, it does not constitute "proof". But it's still evidence, and for me, it's enough.

As for other situations, as I said, I have seen this sort of thing before in help chats, local, etc. The corp hopping moocher version is a well-known variation on begging. Do I have citations? No, but most people who have played Eve for a while have heard of beggers and serial corp moochers, or witnessed them in action personally.

Why do I care? I covered that already in the OP and a subsequent reply, and I am too lazy to repeat myself.

(cont.)

I hear you but I don't agree that you should come to a conclusion with out any direct evidence but you also said yours is a theory as well so that is moot.

I guess my only counterpoint not considering evidence is I just don't see your theory having any sort of a payout that would be worth the effort. I did not see anyone coming to his rescue or feeling sorry for him.

Another theory, he is just a troll and is laughing his ass off at our convo right now

Wall o' text strikes for +3 damage. Eyes scorched.

I have a simple test for situations like this.

I tell them to meet me in a low/nullsec system at the top asteroid belt for a secret mining op; if they show up, they are newb and after I shoot them I give them a few million iskies and send them on their way.....if they don't show up they are a horrible scammer and I gank them (if I can lure them out of station, of course.)

Either way it's fun.

It is these scammers that ruin the name of legit and honest ISK doublers such as Erotica1. It is these legit doublers who are really getting hurt by this scandalous activity. Please support their generosity and send them ISK so they can double it. I am sorry to hear about getting scammed, OP. Make sure you give your ISK to the right person.

When I last started a new toon I was saying 'OH MAN MY KESTREL IS SOOOOO EXPENSIVE - COST ME LIKE A MILLION WHOLE ISK TO FIT IT- HOPE I DONT LOSE IT.' in my newbie npc corp chat.


It worked great.

Gives me an idea..........