Scamming Methods Exposed

[howie tw]

I love this thread so glad to finally see one up. Awesome job, and also love all the other advices in here!!


howie

[KeynesAlley]

Here's one I've been hearing a lot about lately.

No graduation unless you pay for it.

People are becoming mentors to a large number of newbs and when each one is able to graduate, the mentor says it will cost anything from 100 ped to as high as 2,500 ped.

Some times the scam involves the person saying it's the fee imposed by MA and other times the mentors are completely honest and say it's their fee for being your mentor. Of course none of this is ever discussed when they try to get you to be a disciple, otherwise no one would do it.

This happened to me a few months ago, but MA released me from my mentor after I submitted a support ticket.

NOTE: Some mentors never release their disciples, no matter what. So their disciples will never be able to get disciples or use chips.

[LarsMac]

Originally Posted by KeynesAlley

Here's one I've been hearing a lot about lately.

No graduation unless you pay for it.

People are becoming mentors to a large number of newbs and when each one is able to graduate, the mentor says it will cost anything from 100 ped to as high as 2,500 ped.

Some times the scam involves the person saying it's the fee imposed by MA and other times the mentors are completely honest and say it's their fee for being your mentor. Of course none of this is ever discussed when they try to get you to be a disciple, otherwise no one would do it.

This happened to me a few months ago, but MA released me from my mentor after I submitted a support ticket.

NOTE: Some mentors never release their disciples, no matter what. So their disciples will never be able to get disciples or use chips.

That sucks.
If your mentor does this to you, you should get the conversation in a screen print, and open a support ticket.

And unless something has changed, you can have disciples while you are still one.

[danGer.aRen]

Originally Posted by Pepper

"The greatest achievement the devil ever did, was to convince people that he doesn't excist..."

I have to comment this Superhal.
What you're talking about are small time hustlers, and they are out there too - true. But there are undeniably very well organized scammers out there, and they are anything but stupid. The good scammer gains your trust, he plays on your own greed and vanity, he knows when to quit, and that a pawn sacrifice in fact leads to a bigger loot in the end. He makes you think you came up with the idea - he may even seem reluctant to the deal. The skilled scammer is very hard to spot at first glance - numerous people trough out history have found them self standing in total surprise with all their things gone, asking themselves: How did this happen? How could I be so stupid..?! The truth is that they weren't, it was just the scammer who was smarter.
A good scammer is like a fisherman - he throws out some bread to attract the fish, then he trows out the lure to see if any one nibbles the hook. Then he waits, because like any good fisherman he knows; it takes time to swallow the bait... And he never loose a fish because of impatience.

Please, don't kid yourself in thinking you will out smart any scammer you meet, because you won't.
And they are not worth pity. They will without hesitation rob you of everything you own. These guys are common thieves - nothing else.

If your not sure - don't make the deal.
If you suspect a scam, take screen shots and preferably one with the avatar scanned.
Always note avatar name, time and place if a scam occur. Press C and P on the keyboard and you get time and position visible in the chat.

Do what you can, and use your common sense - but don't let the devil convince you that he doesn't exist.

Did u ever read "Faust" and the devil s role? ^^

[aymthebest]

Here's another very dangerous one, when someone trades you showing you a BP with 0.01 TT, and tells you to view auction graph to see a high markup sale value, which actually applyes to the high quality rating BPs sold, not the 0.01 ones, and tells you he can sell it to you cheaper and you can resell it at auction ...

This may attract you but beware from BPs !

[KeynesAlley]

Originally Posted by LarsMac

That sucks.
If your mentor does this to you, you should get the conversation in a screen print, and open a support ticket.

And unless something has changed, you can have disciples while you are still one.

MA released me right away {next working day}, which shocked me.

I've always been told that disciples can't have disciples. This seems to be false as 2 people have now corrected this.

[Castronian]

Many Many thanx for those who created and posted on this thread...

I've never been scammed, but come close, it's the old double-check that saved me. Like ppl say, if it's to good to be true, or this guy's the best syndrome...

People have tried to scam me, they've said they can fix my gear to full tt using game glitches, the've said they could improve my armour, refire rate and even if I give them Ava username and pw they could up my HP's...
Once they even tried the ped to pec trade scam... I read this tread carefully and am a little wiser for it too...

One more thing... it's not just the scam, it's also the hurt, mistrust and paranoia that it gives to potentially good players.

Post on dudes...

[Redfrog]

I've just heard of another one. I can't say whether it's true or not but it goes like this:

One avatar starts shouting about how xxx has just scammed him out of a few low value items. One or two other players then feel sorry for the allegedly scammed player and donate a few items to them. Repeat as often as you can get away with it.

[Redfrog]

Originally Posted by LarsMac

Well, I ran into an avi at swamp camp once who said sorta the same thing. He had a very large global he wanted to extract, but he was fairly new and had no ammo.
I followed him out to the claim marker and and shot up the mobs while he extracted the oil. He even wore out his TT driller. I loaned him mine, and he finished the job, and offered me some of the find, which I turned down because I hit two small globals while protecting him.

So, this is not necessarily a scam.

No, not necessarily, I agree.

But:
offering to split a Hof in exchange for the loan of a gun;
no Hof in Hof list;
being more interested in mining when there's an alleged Hof to dig up;
wanting to borrow a gun but not wanting protection;

were what made me suspicious and then convinced me that it was an attempted scam. As I was wearing my Pixie at the time I assume that (s)he thought I was more of a n00b than I am

[GoNi]

OK some more.

1. The crafting armor scam:
Some scammers offer to craft armors (like ghost) if you give them some items, like Mindforce Implant Aa from TT. Ghost doesn´t need any items to be crafted! Take care!

2. beacon run scam
That is an evil one.
Scammer offers invitation to a beacon run.
Hunter chats the scammer and want to see the beacon.
OK scammer shows beacon in a trade window, so the hunter can check the location and beacon value.
As it seems alright, hunter joins the team (Looter takes all).
The scammer explains that he loots the Mobs on the way to the beacon and that should cover the cost of the beacon, but the loot out of the beacon will be divided through the number of team members.
Sounds not that bad so far and some hunters join in, beacon for nearly free, why not?
Now the scammer says he hasn´t the TP close to the beacon actually and the team will have to run from a more distant TP as the scammer got no TP chip.
Some will think damn waste of time, but the 32 PED beacon may it be worth!
OK team runs from the distance TP and kills some Mobs on the way using big guns and wearing big armors. The scammer wearing a shogun fires some few shots with opallo but loots all the dead mobs.
When the team approach the position of the beacon, the scammer tells the team he is so sorry but there is an IRL issue and he has to go AFK for some minutes.
Then he logs off and never been seen with all the loot he collectet on the way.
No beacon just waste of time and money and no loot at all!