Scamming Methods Exposed

[Migozzi]

Originally Posted by Pepper

Trade scam

Don't go private chat with someone who claims to want to provide you with either information or items, just read what people are telling you in main. Scammers will always want to keep your conversation secluded from others, keep that in mind.

How am I supposed to give free pixies to beginners then? :/


There are some scammers moving around PA TP novadays, I heard ppl speaking about being scammed by this guy and then I encoutered him myself. It was that pull money off in trade trick which is done very fast using some script maybe(?). Luckily i knew the scammers name and didnt fall for it.

Always double check before accepting the trade!

[Pepper]

I was told about what surely seems to be an obvious scam a few days ago by another player. But what I really can't figure out is how this scam possible would work...Perhaps you can enlighten me.

M.O:
A noob comes up to me and asks if I got 10 PED to spare...(not very uncommon so far). I naturally ask 'For what?'
He then explained that it wasn't for him, but that I was suppose to give the 10 PED to a second avatar, and she will then give the noob 5 PED's.

But all this falls on one simple fact: I would have to be an drawling idiot to give a 10 PED to a second avatar just so as the first would get half that sum.
The only thing I can think of would be that the first avatar, the noob, is in fact hoping for a smaller amount in the first moment, out of pity for being obviously scammed.

[Madhoax]

The last one is a pretty ridiculous scam...



Wonder who made that one up, and worse: who will fall for it...

[aia]

Originally Posted by Madhoax

The last one is a pretty ridiculous scam...



Wonder who made that one up, and worse: who will fall for it...

It's really a copy of a generic RL pyramide scheme. Example: There is a club, and to join it you have to pay 1000 USD. When you've joined the club, you can now let three members join under you, and from them you get 50% of the entry fee, and a nominal 50% you pay as "tax" to your recruiter. This means that you pay 1000, you get 1500 back (500 in profit!), and now when your'e done doing your work and got paid for it, even more money will come in worry-free if any of the new members recruits new people. It's a win-win situation ... hmm, waitda minute ... doesn't this mean that for each person winning there will need to be two people who pay? And doesn't this mean that people needed to keep this club prospering need to be 2^(levels of people)? Well yes porbably, but that's only numbers, this club isn't for the pessimists, it's a business opportunity who'll let everyone with some ambition win (uh?).

In RL many people fall for it because of the advertising and social engineering, but in PE a scheme like the above would be a parody noone with their mind awake should do nothing but laugh at. I once for fun at a place suggested a scheme like the mentioned as a joke. ("If you pay me 10 ped you can now start asking other people for PEDs" basically).

I'll add a typical PE scam scheme also, it's very silly but worth to be mentioned because some people do attempt it from time to time:
In middle of nowhere you meet someone wearing orange. He immediately invites to his hunting team and he asks you if you should hunt together. Catch is that team rules is "looter/leader takes all", and if asked he'll tell "he forgot his gun in storage". Very dumb scheme, but I've met two people trying it, probly hopig that you woun't check team rules before starting to hunt. It's usually done by same people who asks you for junk you've looted and wanting to pay less than TT for it/having it for free.

[BenAllenMilky]

Lol when I first started I got scammed by someone saying he would make me a suit for 18 ped. Just the material cost. Being me and stupid and a n00b I agreed handed it over. Then shortly afterwards he said oh no it was a near miss and if i could give him the same amount again in materials it woulod work so I did again. He said it failed so I had one last shot and guess what another fail. He then said all he could make was these basic clothes and said you can have them as compensation or I could go one last time for suit and me being greedy thought I gotta have another last throw of dice. I was promised all the way I would get it all back but just wasn't to be. I quit after this and came back to find he has left forever. I then in anger scammed a basic shirt by doing the clear before accept trick. Which I don't know who the person is as I ran away I do really regret it and now from time to time give free opalos out and free healings at NEAS I just hope my actions didn't make him quit the game for good.

It is really nice to see all these posts helping people out. Please DO NOT scam as you will end up regretting it later on and drive away all your fellow entropians.

Good Luck and keep the posts flying in to stop these thiefs!!

[PeteHines]

Originally Posted by KeynesAlley

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

No graduation unless you pay for it.


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

You can in fact start mentoring as soon as you get to level 1 in any profession i was still a disciple myself when i got my first disciple
*sry this has already been posted by Lars

[ANTSRINTHESUGAR]

one thing i have noticed and is really startn to tick me off,is how some ppl seems to be selln certain items between 2 avas thru the auction @high markup so they can sell again to some1 else for the new to high price.The big prob is some ppl believe the market value graph and start payn or askn that price.
Most of the time its not so bad, but when i spend weeks/months lookn for a rare item only to find it has jumped to 5 times the price in the 3 days before some1 comes up and tries to sell me for an outragous price,i can't help but wonder if this guy saw my ad last week and screwed with the prices hoping i would get desperate and pay .

i dunno if this belongs here but i consider any1 doing this to be a scammer.

[jambon]

just wanted to post this here warning people about a site that is being advertised ingame...

someone is advertising a hof finder at this url..

http://XXXXXXX.bravehost.com/

be advised that this program is nothing more than a key logger

[LeOoX]

Originally Posted by Superhal

The Psychology of Scamming

First of all, most scammers are not bad people. They are stupid people. They fell for a scam, and thus refuse to believe they are that stupid. Therefore, they try to catch somebody else with the same scam to make themselves feel less stupid.

If you have ever been the target of a scam attempt, often the scammer will screw up the trick and try for a do over. ("Oh wait wait wait!" or "Ha ha, you're too smart for that one eh?" being most common.)

There are actually very few true scammers. In reality, there are thousands of stupid people catching each other with the same tired tricks over and over again, thus, like a virus, expanding the number of scams being perpetuated. Imho, they are so stupid they can't even see the criminality of the act. There is only a little bit of vocabulary protecting them from being arrested for theft, which is the difference between an item and a virtual item. A virtual item can have value, and thus if it is stolen, you should be persecuted under the same laws that rule shoplifting or fraud. That the law only covers physical items is temporary and is bound to change, especially as virtual items start costing thousands of dollars.

So, the next time somebody tries to scam you, don't get mad. Feel sorry for the little bugger who wasn't sharp enough to figure out what happened to them first. I'm usually polite and say "Sorry you fell for that, but it won't work on me. Try somebody else." In general, this makes them feel 100X worse.

First of all scammers are smart ppl who try to scam idiots, the idiots are the ones that let them be scammed, The scammers are smart to be able to do that, I'm no scammer and I think that if ppl are such foolish that can be scammed, by trading ect.. that's their own fault, Scammers got nothing better to do, ITs what they can what they only can. lol

[McCormick]

Originally Posted by jambon

just wanted to post this here warning people about a site that is being advertised ingame...

someone is advertising a hof finder at this url..

http://hoffinder.bravehost.com/

be advised that this program is nothing more than a key logger

Good idea to post such a link (which isnt in use anyway)