Trade-Scammers active, be careful

Hi guys,

Please be careful. Currently on Northisle there's a group of scammers active.

They look for people with outstanding trade orders, add as friend > send an exact REVERSE trade order.
When you're not paying attention you can press accept and lose a valuable goods, exactly the one you're trying to procure.

The following people have been adding me and a few friends over the last hour, then trying to send fake trades.

[Edit BB_Aza: no names please. Contact support if you wish to help us get rid of these players]

There are more of them out there - please be careful, report your possible scammers here.

i have seen people trying to get added on friends lists and then trying to sneak in trades - especially when you post a trade which will gt a big response. I have heared of people ending up paying 100 gold for a stack of somehting instead of 10 or 1 by this tactic

Ofc some say it is completely legit and caveat emptor even to the point of calling people that fall for it stupid.

I agree this is scamming in the traditional meaning of the word and takes advantage of the less than ideal tradesystem.

What wuld be interesting to know is, does bluebyte consider this to be exploiting as well or do they see this as a case of caveat emptor. Mailing support etc is only usefull if actions will be taken.

I know i reported at least 1 person for this scam, ut you never get the feedback about specific actions taken and removed 3 others from friends lists that tried this trick. I also wont accept new people to list unless i actively trade with em, but havent gone as far as removing all people after completing a trade with em yet.

It gets to be a whole different ballgame if you are in a 100 person guild and a guildmate sneaks in the trades- which is equally likely with so many members

This is the human factor that comes along with the fact, that you are playing with humans. Every game, where you can interact with other player's and trade or something similar with em, there's a chance for scammers to take an advantage.
Never heard someone get banned, becouse others were not paying attention. I know that's not always fair, but that's how it works in most of games.
I have payid my price ( got scammed ) long time ago, in Ultima Online and there i learned important lesson. Never trust other players, unless you know him IRL and call him your friend. Kids and idiots, with 0 feelings and understanding, crawl in every online game and try to take an advantage of normal players.

There's nothing wrong with the trade system, when it come's to scamming. You can't change items from trade window in middle of negotiation, you can't hide items in trade window or anything like that. Don't just click buttons randomly. Double check always before doing bigger trades.
Im sorry, that you got scammed, but i hope you learned the lesson from it. Don't trust anything, that comes from internet.

I agree I too nearly fell for that and thought maybe the sender got it wrong. Now that I read this I know to be more aware. Not much BB can do about it. It is up to us to be aware and not fall into those traps

still leaves the question, is there a point reporting these incidents?

It is obviously not ok to post the names here- judging by the edit- although outside of these forums some lists already circulate

But do we take the effort to report without getting the standard reply of thatnk you, we will investigate and we cant report back oon ndividual actions and see the report disappearing in the infamous round archive or will they actually be investigated and the real (serial) scammer be dealt with

the easiest answer is to just pay attention when your accepting things.

I don't agree with the scamming and someone trying 'sneak one in there' but at the end of the day, your responsible for your own actions, people don't need to hold your hand and point out wrong deals - you should be able to do that yourself... this is true of real life as well as game life.

if someone deliberately passes a fast one like that IRL, they are prosecuted and punished so your analogy doesnt completely apply. It is easy to point to the victim and say: You did it yourself, you are responsible or worse, you provoked it so nothing wrong happened.

Bottom line is simple: If scammers feel they can get away with it because all look the other way and tell the victims that it is their own fault or stupidity, people will walk away from the game for that fact and the game will be less because of it.

To be honest, i don;t want to play a game where i have to scrutinize every interaction with other players for possible scams. It isnt really an enjoyable experience and sure isn;t one i associate with playing a game.

Yes, people need to pay attention to their actions but that doesnt make the initial transaction less of a scam

The only question remaining for me to be answered is : Will BlueByte act against scammers if enough proof of structural abuse is being presented (through repeated reports and support tickets from various players) or is this considered to be a "player business"

And i am not propagating trowing the book at every single wrong transaction and labeling people that make a mistake as scammers. I do however see the need to adress abuse of the system by some people (who obviously can;t function in a game without cheating)

The question is, is scamming allowed in TSO.
If it isn't, then these guys who are scamming can be banned.
If it is, then everybody should look twice before accepting a trade.

I know it is allowed to scam in EVE online, and if you get scammed there, it is your own fault.

ill give a tip !!!! the only thing that you will lose is time when you make a mistake in a trade, because in time you will produce that goods back and if you dont have time please dont play this game because its a time based game.

love you all dont hate each other life is too short to hate each other we will all die in time so be good to your grandpa and grandma zzzzz.. .z . ..z zz z ... .. . . huh oh o ye where was i o yea dont stress for game

The easiets fix would be for BB to fix all of the trade prices to what They think is worth the value of each item. That way trade would be fair for everyone. I still have to laugh at people trying to sell 50 marble for 300+ stones when the provisions house does that for 250 stones.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GTaDave

The easiets fix would be for BB to fix all of the trade prices to what They think is worth the value of each item. That way trade would be fair for everyone. I still have to laugh at people trying to sell 50 marble for 300+ stones when the provisions house does that for 250 stones.

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That BB "fix" the price of what I work for???
no thanx

ps:
I'll give you 300 stone for 50 marble any time, all the time.

I doubt that TSO will investigate these, since there is nothing in the code of conduct about not making "unfair" trades. It's obvious that anyone trying to sell a cannon for 50 gold is also trying it on - nobody who understands what a cannon does in TSO is going to buy it - but that doesn't make the offer to trade at that price unlawful. When people send reversed trades they're certainly trying to catch you out but I'm sure they would argue that if your original offer was a fair one you'll have no problem trading it back with other players. If you were trying your own unbalanced trade then you're only reaping what you sowed. You just have to be careful and remember to look at each trade offer carefully.

On the 300 stone for 50 marble trade, I agree with the previous poster. When I run short of marble for replacing mines and my provision house is tied up for 8 hours making stacks of irmas its a handy way of grabbing that needed marble fast and I don't mind paying a 20% 'fee' to get it. When I'm not trading other commodities and have a good stock I often put up a 300/50 offer just to undercut anyone who I think is 'profiteering' by offering less favourable exchange rates - but that doesn't mean anyone who trades for more is banworthy. Everyone wants to find a trade that they consider profitable and where you personally draw the line between healthy profit and ripping people off is an individual thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Serhat

ill give a tip !!!! the only thing that you will lose is time when you make a mistake in a trade, because in time you will produce that goods back and if you dont have time please dont play this game because its a time based game.

love you all dont hate each other life is too short to hate each other we will all die in time so be good to your grandpa and grandma zzzzz.. .z . ..z zz z ... .. . . huh oh o ye where was i o yea dont stress for game

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Not only time, also pleasure/enjoyment- which should be the first consideration in playing a game

anyway there is some clarity on this matter now:

[16:16] [HELP] BB_ravel: we don't interefere with scams. you should all be careful when you accept a trade

I just did a 400/400 straight trade for hardwood planks-marble -- I started with 700 HP+ HP AND 200+ MARBLE - After a trade I now have 85HP AND 350 MARBLE
so I've lost 700 hardwood planks for 100 marble??? - is this a bug? any mods/devs??

did you have a building in building queue that needed more than 200 marble to start construction? If so the game would take the raw materials from your storehouse almost as soon as you accepted the trade and start building

no, nothing building at that time....

BB should investigate this becuase i also have ended up in a trap but i read it first ;)

I cant remember name but or well......

-Legion

Quote:

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Originally Posted by iLegion

BB should investigate this becuase i also have ended up in a trap but i read it first ;)

I cant remember name but or well......

-Legion

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They have already given us their stance on the situation.

Quote:

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BB_ravel: we don't interefere with scams. you should all be careful when you accept a trade

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