Market Discussions

A friend of mine had loaned someone some ISK and this person refused to pay back. I called some friends, hired mercenaries and decided to force this person to either rage-quit the game or pay back the ISK, the interest and the war bill. We eventually succeeded.

This got me thinking about a possible business model. The debt collection agency would buy the debt for a fraction of it's value and collect it (by force if necessary). It won't work against permadocked traders, but if you can manage to track someones main you could make it very costly to refuse to pay.

I'm not sure if there is enough demand for this kind of service. What do you think?

Plus, someone will always try to scam ISK out by claiming an unaffiliated alt owes them money
And in Eve, it's pretty simple to make it believable also if willing to put some time in

If a group of PvPers has got to the stage where they can be effective at reclaiming debts, they have also got to the stage where they can do a great deal more interesting and/or profitable things.

Sounds like you had a stroke of luck and managed to find someone that you were able to target. It would be unlikely to happen enough to make it a viable business. Anyone you targeted could generally avoid you if they know what they are doing, and the majority of people defaulting on sizable uncollateralised loans do know what they are doing.

I mean if I were a scammer, I'd be doing so on an alt, not my main, making it impossible for you to touch the main. I'd then probably act like I was being severely wounded by your wardec and milk it out as long as I could to make sure you were as heavily invested as I could get you, then I'd just vanish. Or I'd join a large group with no background checks like BNI.

So the real questions you need to ask yourseelf would be:
1. How would you ensure you could get a firm hold of a real character rather than an alt crafted to look like one (which they will for loan scam)?
2. How would you identify when a collection is not going to be possible, so you can cut your losses?
3. How much would you be willing to invest into a given collection, vs how much can you guarantee a payout? You'd need to understand what your overall turnover could be based on realistic success vs failure projections.

One thing you could do is try it though. I'm sure there are people with uncollateralised loans being defaulted on that you could contact and would happily provide you with some information to track them down for a small sum. To them they would simply be reducing their loss by the amount you pay for buying out the default.

1. That would require some research. Part of it could be proven by having the client prove and API key proving the transaction and it's not an alt, but people with multiple accounts would still be able to fool me.
2. Some assets are visible (player-owned starbases, ships etc.) but anything in stations or corporation wallets/hangars and/or alt accounts would require some research/spying.
3. It has to be less than { collection fee * success rate % }. In my first case I went all in and got lucky. That's probably the best-case scenario.


Extortion is probably more profitable since it's easier to find someone who is wealthy enough to pay whilst being an easy target. High sec is full of industrial corps with meager defenses. I just don't see myself extorting players. When I wardec someone it's because that player either owes me money or pissed me off. Nevertheless, I have to admit extortion is a hell of a business model.

The time cost of pursuing this sort of project effectively will, in almost all cases, far outstrip the value of the debt. And in cases where the debt is sufficiently large to make the time expenditure worthwhile there is no way you will force a rage quit as the target can always buy himself a fresh clean character.

This.

A debt is only as real as the creditor's capability to enforce it. And where you have the capability to enforce a debt that a neutral omniscient observer would consider to be legitimate, you also have the capacity to enforce a debt that a neutral omniscient observer would not consider legitimate.

Now, about that quarter trillion the OP owes me...

Ha! your 'friend' should learn the first rule of EVE.