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Acidictadpole
ADVANCED Combat and Engineering
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Posted - 2008.07.19 21:54:00 -
[1]
Hello! First off I'll introduce myself. I've been playing for almost two years now and I've done possibly everything someone can do in EVE-Online except pilot a capital ship (Just wait 2 months). I've sucked a lot of help out of these forums and I finally found something I might be able to give back. And thusly, I introduce:
Contract Scams: What to watch for. A guide to noticing when you're about to get screwed
There are two main scam types with contracts. And both can be foiled just by reading the contract completely instead of pouncing on it thinking you have a great deal. Once you notice these scams it seems tough to believe that people fall for them, but if nobody did I'm sure we would see less of them. Which is why I'm writing this. With education I believe that scamming will become less worth it since it takes time to advertise the object and get returns on it. The two main types of scams are the following (I've named them appropriately, but if the names don't make sense then the descriptions should correct any misunderstandings):
- The Description Scam
- The Missing Zero's Scam
The Description Scam
What is it? The description scam involves altering what the victim thinks he sees with the item. For example, advertising a 1mn Microwarpdrive I as a Microwarpdrive II would just involve adding a 'I' to the end of the link in local when the scammer advertises it. The buyer would see 1mn Microwarp Drive, notice the I's at the end (just noticing they're there is enough, even if there's only one) then look at the price and connect the amount which the module costs to a tech 2 variant and purchase it. Here are some examples I've picked up in the game not 20 minutes ago: (I've blacked out the scammer's names so they don't get hassled by new players simply because they're doing something unethical).
I caught this in one flying through jita local. It's advertised in local as 'Zor's Custom Navigation Hyper-link' but is just the normal Navigation link. Simplest way to catch this and most scams is to look at the 'offered item' area. Here you'll notice that the party advertised it in local as one thing, wrote the description in the contract to match what was advertised. But the item is not what was advertised.
How to avoid this scam
- Always look at the offered item description, make sure it matches what is advertised.
- Don't browse contracts without an item filter. If you put an item filer you're garanteed to get the item you want listed.
- If you like browsing contracts.. Be smart about it.
Another example: Omen's for 80 mill. They masqeurade as omen navy issues.
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Acidictadpole
ADVANCED Combat and Engineering
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Posted - 2008.07.19 21:54:00 -
[2]
Edited by: Acidictadpole on 19/07/2008 21:55:13 The Missing Zero's Scam
What is it? This is rather easy to catch and avoid, but while looking through contracts myself I often find one of these that I genuinely get interested in before I realise it's a scam. The picture I provide isn't a great example due to the lack of comparisons on how easily the text can get confused, but trust me they can confuse you.
Missing Zero Scam Here we have Want-to-Buy orders up on the market for 150,000 isk. That's about 2% of their actual cost in isk, but because of how the prices are formatted, they can often be confused for 150,000,000 isk, which is 50% above normal price. Thinking they get a good deal for selling theirs, someone would put this in and watch their balance change by less than a mill. Very very frustrating indeed.
How to avoid this scam
- Sort your contract searches by price, Want-To-Buy's will show up at the top of the contract list that way. And that way you can tell which are insanely low. It still takes a degree of perception though.
- Double check the price of something if you are satisfying a WTB order. It never hurts to wait and see. And due to the way the market works it's likely that you'll be able to put up a sell order for the same price and get a quick sale if you miss the WTB Contract.
- As a general rule, be weary of WTB orders in contracts. I don't think I've EVER seen a legit WTB contract.
That's all I have for now, but if people have other mentions of ways to scam people on contracts, reply to this thread or eve-mail this character ingame. Hopefully this will educate enough people that these people might unpopulate the contract windows with their attempts.
Sorry to ISD if the pictures cause a problem. I figured that this would be a lot easier than switching between windows to read the picture as I describe what's going on. If needed I will resize them or just switch to links (I would prefer to resize them, so if that's possible just send me dimensions).
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Acidictadpole
ADVANCED Combat and Engineering
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Posted - 2008.07.19 21:55:00 -
[3]
Reserved
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Creche
Gallente
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Posted - 2008.07.20 00:05:00 -
[4]
The very fact people fall for any of these scams is why they had to add 'Do not iron while wearing' warnings to shirts.
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Acidictadpole
ADVANCED Combat and Engineering
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Posted - 2008.07.20 02:13:00 -
[5]
I should say the same thing about malware and viruses that people get. I've known people who run downloaded files called cheeseburger.exe and then complain their computer has a virus.
If people got educated into what they need to look out for (what I'm trying to do here) there'll be a lot less success in this area, forcing people to give it up for something more ... "legit".
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Xelios Xarxes
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Posted - 2008.07.20 03:42:00 -
[6]
This is useful information for those who don't know. I'd like to see you post more, and courier contract scams/traps in particular.
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Acidictadpole
ADVANCED Combat and Engineering
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Posted - 2008.07.20 04:21:00 -
[7]
Originally by: Xelios Xarxes This is useful information for those who don't know. I'd like to see you post more, and courier contract scams/traps in particular.
I'll gladly document it if you send me an example. I never actually look through the courier stuff. Just evemail me with a contract link example and I'll add it to the list :)
Don't get scammed |
adriaans
Amarr The Movement
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Posted - 2008.07.20 12:49:00 -
[8]
Originally by: Acidictadpole
Originally by: Xelios Xarxes This is useful information for those who don't know. I'd like to see you post more, and courier contract scams/traps in particular.
I'll gladly document it if you send me an example. I never actually look through the courier stuff. Just evemail me with a contract link example and I'll add it to the list :)
there are more contracts scams than you listed (including curior one).
The curior scam works as following: (at least the one i know of): someone places a curior contract with a very high reward and low timeframe (forcing people to do it quick) and a very high collateral (and also usually a high m3 amount so slow ships are needed). when contract has been accepted they have their suicide gang ready to suicide you as soon as you jump into xxx system (they make sure you HAVE to pass through there), they suicide you, keep your collateral (which will be quite a lot) and what they made as contract was just trash anyway so no loss if blown up. Worst is, you never know which one is legitimate or which one is a trap. I often set high m3 amount contracts with good reward (buy high collateral as my stuff is worth a lot) and I've seen trend of lesser and lesser people accepting them, probably thinking it's a trap (or maybe it's my low sec status scaring them)
other scams i've seen:
make it seem like you get a raven FOR a CNR while you actually trade a CNR vs a raven (very chance based as you'd need to have a CNR in that station already).
The wrong info on a more professional scale: they list the contract as a diff item, the contract DISPLAYS the item it lists, BUT you get a diff item than it said AND displayed. Ever seen the 'imperial issue omen' for example? well, it's normally a omen or a navy omen that has been assembled and RENAMED to that for then to be placed on contract for an incredible amount of isk. Some people SOMEHOW manage to get the 'show info' to even display that it is indeed named imperial issue for example (though i have no idea how, and may very well be an exploit and i've ONLY seen it 5 times from my 2 years of playing (and i brosw contracts almost all the time :P)).
i'm sure there is more, but i can't remmeber atm. Hope this is of some use
-sig-
Support the introduction of Blaze M crystals for Amarr!
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Gealbhan
Caldari Infernal Syndicate
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Posted - 2008.07.20 18:19:00 -
[9]
*looks at coffee cup* "Caution HOT Beverage"
Yup, Darwin is the man.
So if someone falls for this and whines about it in local we can link them to this thread? Excellent.
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Acidictadpole
ADVANCED Combat and Engineering
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Posted - 2008.07.20 19:35:00 -
[10]
Originally by: adriaans
there are more contracts scams than you listed (including curior one).
The curior scam works as following: ...
I will put in the courier scam sometime today as that is one that may not be as obvious as the rest. Thankyou for describing it to me.
Unfortunately with every contract I have seen, it has always shown the correct item time, but uses a more distraction approach to luring its victim. I remember in escrow they had that issue but I always see the exact item type I'm purchasing with the contract system in the offered item field. Writing different descriptions for the item is easy, but if you look at the offered item(s) area you should always get the right item.
Don't get scammed |
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Shanur
Minmatar Republic Military School
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Posted - 2008.07.21 08:39:00 -
[11]
A very popular variation to the courrier scam described by Adriaans is a lot more sneaky. It is much more a scam than a pirate ambush and therefore harder to detect. In this case, the scam doesn't require a predictable flight path, short timeframe or a vulnerable hauler. All it requires is that the destination base is one where the scammer can be pretty sure the victim will not have docking rights to. This will typically be an outpost in corporation controlled 0.0 sec space. Once the contract has been taken, all the scammer has to do is wait for the contract to expire without doing anything else and the collateral is his.
There are also a phletora of trust scams out there, where the scam doesn't so much hinge on misreading or falling into a trap, as they revolve around having to trust the scammer at some point with a lot of wealth (ISK, ships, modules) at which point the scammer usually reneges on the proposed deal. These tend to be more dynamic however as the more subtle ones(like the private auction scam and the Lofty) tend to lean very close to the grey area between intended game mechanics and undesired flaws. While they are always allowed within the rules, the mechanics they rely uppon can ocasionally be tweaked to completely nerf the scams. As such, it is a lot harder to point out all but the most blatant of these. The important tip here is to never ever trust your belongings to someone outside of the fully secured trade mechanics. If this is impossible(like with capital ship trades), hire the services of a 3rd party intermediary that both players trust (like Chribba).
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Acidictadpole
ADVANCED Combat and Engineering
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Posted - 2008.07.21 22:27:00 -
[12]
Originally by: Shanur The important tip here is to never ever trust your belongings to someone outside of the fully secured trade mechanics. If this is impossible(like with capital ship trades), hire the services of a 3rd party intermediary that both players trust (like Chribba).
Very good advice.
I would assume with regards to the first thing that courier contracts are picked up by those who have a destination in mind and have some extra cargo room they feel they would like to earn money on. Whereas nobody really has plans to go somewhere they can't dock. But I agree it should be something that people watch out for, since it could very well cheat you out of a lot of money.
Don't get scammed |
Jurgen Cartis
Caldari Interstellar Corporation of Exploration Nex Eternus
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Posted - 2008.07.22 04:47:00 -
[13]
Just count your zeros and don't turn off the confirmation window. Impulse buys will get you, and unlike McDonald's it won't be for 99 cents. Don't surf contracts drunk. Use that ignore list, you've got 80 slots, and you can get the guys who clog the top of the WTB list with WTB CNR 700k ISK.
General paranoia has served me well enough to avoid all but a 2 million Isk Kestrel BPC. That was an expensive frigate. I've seen people fall for the Missing Zero one though, betting the guy on the other end was happy that day though.
Another one to beware, though this is less common now (it was very common when contracts were new and unfamiliar) is someone posting a private WTB, requesting your item and its price in ISK. Again, the confirmation box (and a quick look at the contract, the money is the wrong color!) will set you straight here.
Be very careful of loan and freeform contracts though. -------------------- ICE Blueprint Sales FIRST!! -Yipsilanti Pfft. Never such a thing as a "last chance". ;) -Rauth |
Shanur
Minmatar Republic Military School
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Posted - 2008.07.22 08:32:00 -
[14]
Originally by: Jurgen Cartis Be very careful of loan and freeform contracts though.
More accurately: Freeform contracts are "gentleman's agreements" that simply register what the agreement was without enforcing ANYTHING other than the transfer of funds. The only legitimate use for these would be as a memory aid among friends/corpmates. Between 2 players that have no reason to act trustworthy to each other, they are meaningless and almost always nothing more than a vehicle for scammers as a result. Not to mention that most trades "offered" by them could, were they legitimate, be just as easily done trough item exchange contracts.
But hey! if you think that 100M for a very nice hyperlink to the description of a Raven Navy Issue is a good deal who am i to stop you? |
Dern Al'Malik
Minmatar Strix Armaments and Defence
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Posted - 2008.07.23 10:01:00 -
[15]
There's one more courier contract scam: Make a courier contract to a place that can't be reached and take the collateral. I don't remember the systems name, but there is at least one system that can't be reached by players but is still available as the destination of a courier contract
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Acidictadpole
ADVANCED Combat and Engineering
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Posted - 2008.07.23 12:14:00 -
[16]
Originally by: Dern Al'Malik There's one more courier contract scam: Make a courier contract to a place that can't be reached and take the collateral. I don't remember the systems name, but there is at least one system that can't be reached by players but is still available as the destination of a courier contract
I think that will kind of come under the same category as the system you can't dock in. It's just something to make sure that you can get to the system and dock there, before accepting the contract.
Don't get scammed |
Letouk Mernel
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Posted - 2008.07.23 14:16:00 -
[17]
One suggestion I have is:
If you're going to interact with contracts, turn off the cents amount from your wallet settings. This should make the "wrong number of 0's" type easier to spot.
You need the cents amount when trading minerals on the market, because 2.81 ISK and 2.96 ISK for Tritanium are two very different things, but the stuff in the Contracts window is typically multi-million ISK items, and the cents don't matter.
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