Scams in EVE Online: Difference between revisions

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==Big Schemes==

Some of Eve's richer players like to run banks, investment schemes or IPOs. Occasionally these are even legitimate! Generally, however, they are not -- remember that there's rarely a compelling reason for anyone else to make ISK for you, and that unlike in real life there are no significant consequences for fraud in New Eden.

Some of Eve's richer players like to run banks, investment schemes or IPOs. Occasionally these are even legitimate! Generally, however, they are not -- remember that there's rarely a compelling reason for anyone else to make ISK for you, and that unlike in real life there are no significant consequences for fraud in New Eden.

===Banks===

There are no in-game systems for administrating and controlling in-game banks. Even if banks in Eve are started with the best of intentions, that much ISK concentrated in one place is an irresistable temptation. Most banks in Eve have ended with someone walking off with the money. You can confidently expect that any banks which haven't died in this way yet will do at some point.

There are no in-game systems for administrating and controlling in-game banks. Even if banks in Eve are started with the best of intentions, that much ISK concentrated in one place is an irresistable temptation. Most banks in Eve have ended with someone walking off with the money. You can confidently expect that any banks which haven't died in this way yet will do at some point.

===[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme Ponzi scheme]===

Those running a Ponzi scheme pretend that the money they receive is invested, and the profits are distributed to the investors via dividends. Actually, however, the dividends paid to existing investors are being funded by the money from new investors, and the administrators are pocketing the rest. When they've reached an amount of ISK in the fund that they're happy with, they simply take the money and run.

In 2009 Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars in a real-life Ponzi scheme. If Madoff was an Eve character, his player would simply have transferred the ISK to an alt and biomassed him.

In 2009 Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars in a real-life Ponzi scheme. If Madoff was an Eve character, his player would simply have transferred the ISK to an alt and biomassed him.

===Corp theft===

Corporate (and alliance) theft is hard to avoid, because the person who intends to steal from you will wait as long as they need to in order to steal what they want. Corporate theft can work on many levels. As roles and trust grow, the opportunities to steal increase. It can't be emphasized enough that a person who's seriously looking to steal from the corporation will not show their intentions until things are too late.

You can guard against corp theft to some extent by never letting too much power and access to assets concentrate in one player's hands -- or, even more simply, by never having any valuable corporate assets in the first place! Making sure that all useful members of your corp have roles, too: a corp infiltrator with director-level access can instantly boot members with no roles, letting them, for example, kick all of a corp's combat-trained pilots and then slaughter the corp's miners . ~~. .~~

You can guard against corp theft to some extent by never letting too much power and access to assets concentrate in one player's hands -- or, even more simply, by never having any valuable corporate assets in the first place! Making sure that all useful members of your corp have roles, too: a corp infiltrator with director-level access can instantly boot members with no roles, letting them, for example, kick all of a corp's combat-trained pilots and then slaughter the corp's miners.

===Recruitment Scams===

Reputable corporations usually don't ask for any kind of fees for joining. However, a fake corp -- or a real corp that's not actually interested in recruiting -- can entice potential recruits into applying and then charge a fee for joining. As an extension/variation, recruits might also be offered help transporting their assets to their new home via carrier/jump freighter; the scammers can charge an additional fee for this, and then take the recruits' assets too!

This scam is a time-honoured tradition among members of Goonswarm and TEST Alliance, though in their case it's carried out by individual members rather than by the corp per se.

This scam is a time-honoured tradition among members of Goonswarm and TEST Alliance, though in their case it's carried out by individual members rather than by the corp per se.

===Lotteries===

It's ''very'' easy to fake a reputation and establish a lottery, so be cautious.

@@ Line 150: / Line 150: @@
 ==Big Schemes==
-Some of Eve's richer players like to run banks, investment schemes or IPOs. Occasionally these are even legitimate! Generally, however, they are not -- remember that there's rarely a compelling reason for anyone else to make ISK for you, and that unlike in real life there are no significant consequences for fraud in New Eden.
+Some of Eve's richer players like to run banks, investment schemes or IPOs. Occasionally these are even legitimate! Generally, however, they are not -- remember that there's rarely a compelling reason for anyone else to make ISK for you, and that unlike in real life there are no significant consequences for fraud in New Eden.<br>
+<br>
 ===Banks===
-There are no in-game systems for administrating and controlling in-game banks. Even if banks in Eve are started with the best of intentions, that much ISK concentrated in one place is an irresistable temptation. Most banks in Eve have ended with someone walking off with the money. You can confidently expect that any banks which haven't died in this way yet will do at some point.
+There are no in-game systems for administrating and controlling in-game banks. Even if banks in Eve are started with the best of intentions, that much ISK concentrated in one place is an irresistable temptation. Most banks in Eve have ended with someone walking off with the money. You can confidently expect that any banks which haven't died in this way yet will do at some point.<br>
+<br>
 ===[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme Ponzi scheme]===
 Those running a Ponzi scheme pretend that the money they receive is invested, and the profits are distributed to the investors via dividends. Actually, however, the dividends paid to existing investors are being funded by the money from new investors, and the administrators are pocketing the rest. When they've reached an amount of ISK in the fund that they're happy with, they simply take the money and run.
-In 2009 Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars in a real-life Ponzi scheme. If Madoff was an Eve character, his player would simply have transferred the ISK to an alt and biomassed him.
+In 2009 Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars in a real-life Ponzi scheme. If Madoff was an Eve character, his player would simply have transferred the ISK to an alt and biomassed him.<br>
+<br>
 ===Corp theft===
 Corporate (and alliance) theft is hard to avoid, because the person who intends to steal from you will wait as long as they need to in order to steal what they want. Corporate theft can work on many levels. As roles and trust grow, the opportunities to steal increase. It can't be emphasized enough that a person who's seriously looking to steal from the corporation will not show their intentions until things are too late.<br>
-You can guard against corp theft to some extent by never letting too much power and access to assets concentrate in one player's hands -- or, even more simply, by never having any valuable corporate assets in the first place! Making sure that all useful members of your corp have roles, too: a corp infiltrator with director-level access can instantly boot members with no roles, letting them, for example, kick all of a corp's combat-trained pilots and then slaughter the corp's miners . . .
+You can guard against corp theft to some extent by never letting too much power and access to assets concentrate in one player's hands -- or, even more simply, by never having any valuable corporate assets in the first place! Making sure that all useful members of your corp have roles, too: a corp infiltrator with director-level access can instantly boot members with no roles, letting them, for example, kick all of a corp's combat-trained pilots and then slaughter the corp's miners.<br>
+<br>
 ===Recruitment Scams===
 Reputable corporations usually don't ask for any kind of fees for joining. However, a fake corp -- or a real corp that's not actually interested in recruiting -- can entice potential recruits into applying and then charge a fee for joining. As an extension/variation, recruits might also be offered help transporting their assets to their new home via carrier/jump freighter; the scammers can charge an additional fee for this, and then take the recruits' assets too!
-This scam is a time-honoured tradition among members of Goonswarm and TEST Alliance, though in their case it's carried out by individual members rather than by the corp per se.
+This scam is a time-honoured tradition among members of Goonswarm and TEST Alliance, though in their case it's carried out by individual members rather than by the corp per se.<br>
+<br>
 ===Lotteries===
 It's ''very'' easy to fake a reputation and establish a lottery, so be cautious.