Did the scam occur because the kid mis-read the isk amount in the trade window, or was it the trade window bug/trick (if that even still works)? If the latter, then the kid should be reimbursed and the scammer punished. Abuse of a faulty interface is not a legitimate scam imo.

The kid left and his name got lost in the help scroll. He is one case and I feel bad about that, but giving him isk wont fix what is a problem.

PLEX is not like other in game items, it needs different management tools is all. An auction where ftp players can bid a certain amount of ISK for a block of gametime. They would put the ISK in escrow, and if someone wanted to buy ISK they could look at the market and accept one of the bids, probably the highest.

Bids more than 5 or 10% below the mean would not even have to show up. And that market window should be different from the regular market window to emphasize the fact that you are dealing with real money on a secure account page.

Whatever they decide to do there's no good reason for this sort of thing to continue.

For me no, But for others yes. They could not trade it for ISK on market when it would be removed, for as much ISK as the player is willing to pay for it, that's important, And players could not loot it, nor steal it.
It should stay as game item. Important game item.

Hay guys, I just started today, what's with this scam going on? Don't want to get ripped off so early in my career.

I personally do not care for the practice of buying in game currency, but for those who want to participate it should be an option.

Jita contracts you see spammed in local are the best and reliable.

There's also doubling your isk, but those are a bit riskier.

His Mommy and Daddy bought it...anyone willing to be so careless with money obviously either has a lot of it or it wasn't theirs hat was lost.

I'm all for helping new players, but seriously...if he knows enough about EVE to know to buy PLEX and that he can sell it for ISK then he knows it has in game value and therefore should know not to just give it away.

In fact, I don't even think I buy this story. I think the kid was joking. There's noway in hell someone could be that stupid...


...and holy crap....Solstice Project has a conscience???

Starting to make me rethink my Atheism there....

Thanks! Off to Jita to double my ISK.

Look, I'm sorry you feel bad, I sympathize with the victim in the same manner I sympathize with a noob that gets his first battleship blown up on accident or whatever, but your whole way of thinking about this is incorrect.

As soon as you redeem PLEX it is exactly like every other in game item. It is able to be sold, bought, traded, contracted, scammed, exploded, dropped, ect. Maybe that should be made more clear when you are purchasing plex if it isn't already(I haven't bought plex with dollars in awhile).

The system for a plex auction you are describing is EXACTLY what the market does already with the exception of it being "different" than the regular market window. 5 - 10 percent below top price obviously shows up, but you can sort by price so that isn't an issue.

You're right in that there isn't any good reason for this sort of thing to continue. That reason being people should be intelligent/diligent enough to not get scammed. It's not like anyone forced him to not take the time to understand what it was that he was doing. He didn't get tripped, slip, then fall onto the accept button. It's very much his own fault.

If I misread a contract and give someone a billion isk for one tritanium, should that be dealt with by CCP. You'll say no of course not, but plex is different. Well what if I bought a bunch of plex, sold that plex for isk, then gave a billion isk for a tritanium piece? According to your thinking should I not get my money I spent on the plex back??

Hopefully you see how your logic unravels?

EVE is the only MMO worth playing for more than a few weeks due to the fact that there are pretty real consequences to your actions. Sometimes people get taken advantage of, there's nothing to be done about it without ruining what EVE is. If you still feel that something needs to be done, then I suggest you do something about it, instead of asking CCP to change the game to your way of thinking without consideration to other people's thoughts.

That is a well presented argument. And I agree with the idea that Eve should be a place that has real consequences for not being intelligent and diligent. I like the fact that it is unforgiving.

But the first rule of Eve is don't fly what you cant afford to lose. The problem with PLEX is that it forces inexperienced pilots to handle an in-game item that

a: they cannot afford to loose and

b: are not experienced enough to make intelligent and diligent decisions about.

This kid and many more like him will not send CCP any more money. That will cause the price of PLEX to go up. I'm surprised more of the ftp guys aren't up in arms about this. The only players who benefit from PLEX being an in-game item are scammers. They don't create content and they don't make Eve dark and gritty; they sit in station and screw up local. The game will be better without them.

It really comes down to what Epeen said, the PLEX program is taking money away from CCP in the form of lost deposits. Simple as that.

Anyways...
I have a some choice property I'm trying to sell, I've got a few interested folks from mentioning it in the help channel; figured I'd throw it out here as well.

Scamming is allowed in this game and it hasn't hindered its growth.

Simple fix:

WARNING: PLEX can be scammed, stolen, or destroyed the same as every other in-game item. CCP advises that you take the time to understand how the market works prior to redeeming and selling PLEX.

I like this idea.
Add it into the plex info description and thus you make it better.
Much like the safety button.

Should they do it for all items too?

Simple fix:

WARNING: PLEX can be scammed, stolen, or destroyed the same as every other in-game item. CCP advises that you take the time to understand how the market works prior to redeeming and selling PLEX.

CCP allows all scamming minus character bazaar. They don't care if your a new player, if its done in public or private. Expensive lesson in scams.

There is no scientific proof on whether it does or not.

Statistically, chances are people have quit because they have been scammed, though.

Or am I missing something important about the difference between an ETC and a plex?

Also the difference between plex and other scams is that PLEX uses real monies, where as the other items are pixels.

I do think PLEX should remain ingame as a method of changing RL money for ISK, but I feel that the predation on the young is detrimental to EVE as a game an institution and CCP as a company.

Much as greifing in newbie systems is prohibited I feel that such rules should expand to scamming of PLEX.