More actions
| Line 24: | Line 24: | ||
This is the simplest scam around where a player asks for ISK donations in popular channels (trade hub local, NPC corp chat, etc.), where they tell a story about how they lost their ship. | This is the simplest scam around where a player asks for ISK donations in popular channels (trade hub local, NPC corp chat, etc.), where they tell a story about how they lost their ship. | ||
====What you see==== | ====What you see==== | ||
The player, whom is sometimes an alt created for the occasion will plead for help in the local trade hub, sometimes apologizing for having to 'beg'. Where the character is created for this purpose there is sometimes a tendency to use a female avatar and name to exploit sexuality. The language used will be purposefully naive and constructed to express little knowledge of the cruel harsh aspects of the game. | The player, whom is sometimes an alt created for the occasion will plead for help in the local trade hub, sometimes apologizing for having to 'beg'. Where the character is created for this purpose there is sometimes a tendency to use a female avatar and name to exploit sexuality. The language used will be purposefully naive and constructed to express little knowledge of the cruel harsh aspects of the game. | ||
====How it works==== | ====How it works==== | ||
Sympathy for the unfortunate is the aspect of human nature that they are tapping into and hoping to trick the more altruistic players into donating funds, ships and equipment to help the new unfortunate victim of the harsh game mechanics. In its most basic aspects it is social engineering of the human trait to help others who are a victim of circumstance. Though it is of course possible that they're telling the truth (you could ask for the link to their combat log), if you observe the dialogue in the channel it will be too consistently touching the right buttons to be evident manipulation of sympathy responses.<br> | Sympathy for the unfortunate is the aspect of human nature that they are tapping into and hoping to trick the more altruistic players into donating funds, ships and equipment to help the new unfortunate victim of the harsh game mechanics. In its most basic aspects it is social engineering of the human trait to help others who are a victim of circumstance. Though it is of course possible that they're telling the truth (you could ask for the link to their combat log), if you observe the dialogue in the channel it will be too consistently touching the right buttons to be evident manipulation of sympathy responses.<br> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
===ISK doubling=== | ===ISK doubling=== | ||
This is one of the most common scams in Eve and is very popular in all the main trade hubs with frequent adverts spammed in local. The adverts will generally indicate that they are super rich players who want to give back to the game. | This is one of the most common scams in Eve and is very popular in all the main trade hubs with frequent adverts spammed in local. The adverts will generally indicate that they are super rich players who want to give back to the game. | ||
====What you see==== | ====What you see==== | ||
The scammer offers to double any ISK sent to them by another player. They often add an aura of legitimacy with alts or friends (cohorts) responding in local that they just had the large amount of ISK they sent, doubled back to them. They will also double back small amounts to some players in order to 'drum up business' by them also responding how they got their ISK doubled. | The scammer offers to double any ISK sent to them by another player. They often add an aura of legitimacy with alts or friends (cohorts) responding in local that they just had the large amount of ISK they sent, doubled back to them. They will also double back small amounts to some players in order to 'drum up business' by them also responding how they got their ISK doubled. | ||
====How it works==== | ====How it works==== | ||
Greed, is the mechanism that they are tapping into, that aspect of the human mind that is attracted to something for nothing. The scammer will respond by doubling your ISK when you make low amount 'testers', to lure you into sending larger amounts of ISK. When you make a sufficiently big enough transaction, they will take your ISK and not send any to you. When you ask for it they will even sometimes say that is not arrived to make the unwary send it again, though eventually they will block you. | Greed, is the mechanism that they are tapping into, that aspect of the human mind that is attracted to something for nothing. The scammer will respond by doubling your ISK when you make low amount 'testers', to lure you into sending larger amounts of ISK. When you make a sufficiently big enough transaction, they will take your ISK and not send any to you. When you ask for it they will even sometimes say that is not arrived to make the unwary send it again, though eventually they will block you. | ||
| Line 37: | Line 37: | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
===The Margin Trading Scam=== | ===The Margin Trading Scam=== | ||
''The Margin Trading Scam'' exploits the mechanic where a character with the Margin Trading skill can place buy orders and only place a portion of the ISK in escrow. If they then transfer all of their ISK away, the order will fail when someone tries to sell to it, essentially allowing them to make a "fake" buy order. It is also known as ''The Drunken Buy Order'' because it is often announced in local that a player must have been drunk when they placed a buy order. There are a couple of variations, but they both depend on margin buy orders failing and/or upon the victim not knowing the true value of the item they're trading. | ''The Margin Trading Scam'' exploits the mechanic where a character with the Margin Trading skill can place buy orders and only place a portion of the ISK in escrow. If they then transfer all of their ISK away, the order will fail when someone tries to sell to it, essentially allowing them to make a "fake" buy order. It is also known as ''The Drunken Buy Order'' because it is often announced in local that a player must have been drunk when they placed a buy order. There are a couple of variations, but they both depend on margin buy orders failing and/or upon the victim not knowing the true value of the item they're trading. | ||
====What you see==== | ====What you see==== | ||
The scammer announces in a chat channel (usually local) that a player must have been drunk when they put up their buy order and invites you to check it out with a link to the item being sold. Following the link, players will see a buy order offering a great deal more than the sell price of the item. If the player can act fast and deliver the items in the order before anyone else, they stand to multiply their ISK invested. | The scammer announces in a chat channel (usually local) that a player must have been drunk when they put up their buy order and invites you to check it out with a link to the item being sold. Following the link, players will see a buy order offering a great deal more than the sell price of the item. If the player can act fast and deliver the items in the order before anyone else, they stand to multiply their ISK invested. | ||
====How it works==== | ====How it works==== | ||
All numbers are examples. | All numbers are examples. | ||