Clarification about Entropia banking operations

[Dan59]

Ma states that all trades can be considered as scam atempts.
So do not trade and do not use auction until this ofence will be cleared.

[KikiSand]

Originally Posted by Dan59

Ma states that all trades can be considered as scam atempts.
So do not trade and do not use auction until this ofence will be cleared.

Actually, they are talking about loans, not trades....

[Constantine]

Rather than run around like Chicken Little decrying that MA is being unnecessarily harsh about unauthorized loans, look at it from MA's view:

• An unsecured loan system is begging for complaints.
• When those complaints occur, the only authority anyone can turn to is MA.
• MA will tell them "Sorry, all trades are final."
• Injured party complains publically, may even take their marbles and leave.
• MA makes more money by having people stay, rather than when people take their PEDS and leave.

Worse, it essentially creates the exact problems that MA carefully worked to avoid with their banking system.

Does it stifle competition? Of course. But MA's position is not only understandable, but may save a lot of people a lot of hassle.

On a side note, their language about considering unlicensed loan services to be scammers was absolutely boneheaded, considering they knew who was involved (Marco even commented on their thread!).

[kira-red]

Originally Posted by KikiSand

Actually, they are talking about loans, not trades....

what dan is suggesting is that, by extention, any trade can be considered a scam attempt. this is because the trade system does not know what the intent of the parties are.

for example, if I loan my friend a blueprint or on occasion give him some resources, and he in turn does the same for me, these one sided "loans" cannot be distingished from any other trade. in theory, I risk lockdown of my account if some wiener at MA summarly decides that I'm in violation of their protectionist "banking laws".

I would expect, though, that MA will do nothing unless there is widespread advertising by someone offering loan services which directly compete with the "banks".

[psychnosiz]

Originally Posted by Bertha Bot

Therefore, any loan services offered outside the approved bank system

What Loan services ? These are (temporary) Trades - as explained in the following quote - ...

Originally Posted by Bertha Bot

If an item is exchanged between avatars, this transaction will be logged as a regular TRADE

... So it will be impossible to do ANY trade in the future which do not pass Banks or Auction ?


IMO they should lock all accounts from people who send in stupid support tickets. Which would be A LOT more efficient.

[Teilk]

Originally Posted by Constantine

Rather than run around like Chicken Little decrying that MA is being unnecessarily harsh about unauthorized loans, look at it from MA's view:

• An unsecured loan system is begging for complaints.
• When those complaints occur, the only authority anyone can turn to is MA.
• MA will tell them "Sorry, all trades are final."
• Injured party complains publically, may even take their marbles and leave.
• MA doesn't make money when people take their PEDS and leave.

Worse, it essentially creates the exact problems that MA carefully worked to avoid with their banking system.

Does it stifle competition? Of course. But MA's position is not only understandable, but may save a lot of people a lot of hassle.

On a side note, their language about considering unlicensed loan services to be scammers was absolutely boneheaded, considering they knew who was involved (Marco even commented on their thread!).

Actually, I ran my personal loan service for the better part of a year, made thousands of loans to hundreds of players, and never received a single complaint. Nor did MA. 75% of my business was repeat customers, and only 1 item was ever defaulted on, and the player in question never even bothered to contact me, despite repeated efforts on my part to contact him. I still held his item for a few weeks, in the event that he had personal problems that did not allow him to log onto EU.

I think that this is more of a case of MA buckling to pressure from the new bank owners. I know if I spent 50-100k USD on a virtual bank, and saw competition springing up without a similar "investment", it would at least get MA a nasty letter or two.

[kira-red]

Originally Posted by Constantine

Worse, it essentially creates the exact problems that MA carefully worked to avoid with their banking system.

these exact problems existed before the licences and will continue to exist going forward. the intent of the statement is fair warning that anyone they deem to be in competition with their licenced "banks" will be shutdown - to the extent of losing their account should they not comply.

Originally Posted by Constantine

On a side note, their language about considering unlicensed loan services to be scammers was absolutely boneheaded, considering they knew who was involved

in all fairness, unlicenced loan service can be possible scam attempts. this sort of thing has happened so many times, I'm amazed that people continue to discuss it. when you "loan" something to someone, you are giving it to them. you have no recourse should they not uphold whatever they agreed to. lend me your ML-45 for a couple of days is one of the all time favourites.

[Constantine]

Originally Posted by Teilk

Actually, I ran my personal loan service for the better part of a year, made thousands of loans to hundreds of players, and never received a single complaint. Nor did MA. 75% of my business was repeat customers, and only 1 item was ever defaulted on, and the player in question never even bothered to contact me, despite repeated efforts on my part to contact him. I still held his item for a few weeks, in the event that he had personal problems that did not allow him to log onto EU.

You're honest - but how long until someone who wasn't joined the scene?

I think MA realized that with banks being prominent, more people would jump on the bandwagon (as they did), and they decided to put their foot down now rather than have something blow up on them.

[Teilk]

Originally Posted by Constantine

You're honest - but how long until someone who wasn't joined the scene?

I think MA realized that with banks being prominent, more people would jump on the bandwagon (as they did), and they decided to put their foot down now rather than have something blow up on them.

You see, again, we hit on the whole research theme. I researched the hell out of the possible market before opening my loan service. It is next to impossible for an unknown or dishonst avatar to run this sort of business with any sort of success, (unless you just buy a bank I guess...).

[Trifle]

Ye I immediatly thought of you reading this Teilk. A shame all users who have great rep are now all of a sudden scammers