Curse

dr love · Dec 17, 2008, 10:06 AM // 10:06

Someone was buying a zaishen medallion for 200ecto in Kamadan. At that price you know something is going on. maybe a crazy scavenger hunt? any ideas?

phan · Dec 17, 2008, 10:13 AM // 10:13

Collectables ; people have played over 10k hours .. have mass gold or bought it on ebay well thats what they use it for i guess

Daenara · Dec 17, 2008, 10:14 AM // 10:14

It was either a scam, or sarcasm. If it's too good to be true...

zwei2stein · Dec 17, 2008, 10:21 AM // 10:21

There is this scam:

Person A: WTB (useless, but rare junk) for shitload of money
Person B: WTS (useless, but rare junk) for a bit less than shitload of money, usually in different disctricts / cities

Scammee surfing district looking for deals or to spamdvertise: If I am fast enough i can make nice profit by buying from B and delivering to A. Proceeds to buy from B, PMs to A, A replies that he already got just second ago from someone else.

A and B then share profit and Scamee usually does not even think he was scammed, he just thinks he was too late.

Lyynyyrd · Dec 17, 2008, 10:26 AM // 10:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by zwei2stein

There is this scam:

Person A: WTB (useless, but rare junk) for shitload of money
Person B: WTS (useless, but rare junk) for a but less than shitload of money, usually in different disctricts / cities

Scammee surfing district looking for deals or to spamdvertise: If I am fast enough i can make nice profit by buying from B and delivering to A. Proceeds to buy from B, PMs to A, A replies that he already got just second ago from someone else.

A and B then share profit and Scamee usually does not even think he was scammed, he just thinks he was too late.

I've made a boatload of money doing this (we call it shill bidding here at Guru), and it's REAL hard to do nowadays... Three years later, the Guild Wars community has finally come to understand it.

Fril Estelin · Dec 17, 2008, 10:37 AM // 10:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyynyyrd

I've made a boatload of money doing this (we call it shill bidding here at Guru), and it's REAL hard to do nowadays... Three years later, the Guild Wars community has finally come to understand it.

I wish Anet could do like eBay does for people like you, ban all your accounts permanently and refund the money from all your transactions. But well, it's just a game, except for nasty people.

And zwei2stein, you don't need 2 people, simply 2 accounts.

TideSwayer · Dec 17, 2008, 11:07 AM // 11:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by zwei2stein

There is this scam:

Person A: WTB (useless, but rare junk) for shitload of money
Person B: WTS (useless, but rare junk) for a bit less than shitload of money, usually in different disctricts / cities

Scammee surfing district looking for deals or to spamdvertise: If I am fast enough i can make nice profit by buying from B and delivering to A. Proceeds to buy from B, PMs to A, A replies that he already got just second ago from someone else.

A and B then share profit and Scamee usually does not even think he was scammed, he just thinks he was too late.

Is this a reportable offense? I mean, can I take screenshots, send it to PlayNC, and then they'll do something about it? I usually just call parties A and B out in global chat, in PM's, and whatever else (to make everyone aware of what's going on), but if I can actually get these bastards kicked out of the game for a while, then I'd love to.

I only ask because I've seen this a LOT over the years and still see it enough that I always wonder. The dumbest items used as the bait or a really insane WTB price is a dead giveaway (plus party A's ignorance of everyone else's "party B is selling it for less than you WTB. Either buy that or lower your price to it, scammer"). I've simply never known how much ANet is interested in policing this type of BS scam.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyynyyrd

I've made a boatload of money doing this (we call it shill bidding here at Guru), and it's REAL hard to do nowadays... Three years later, the Guild Wars community has finally come to understand it.

Quoted for evidence of admitting to engaging in shady behavior.

Chocobo1 · Dec 17, 2008, 11:29 AM // 11:29

Wow none of you pussys played D2 did you? You get your shit scammed and it's your own fault, there was no /report function, no lame verbal abuse report because someone called you trash for using echo mending it was just learn from your mistakes. Seriously, nothing is going to teach you better than the knowledge that no one is looking out for you but yourself.

Tough love <3.

makosi · Dec 17, 2008, 11:33 AM // 11:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by TideSwayer

Is this a reportable offense?

I'd say so. It's griefing and a deliberate attempt to defraud another player. There's no doubt about that, is there?

This is where people start saying, "omg if u fall for that, u deserve to get scammzored." I agree that it is naive to fall for the trap but that doesn't mean it's acceptable behaviour on the scammer's behalf.

Faith in GW population -1.

TideSwayer · Dec 17, 2008, 11:36 AM // 11:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocobo1

Wow none of you pussys played D2 did you? You get your shit scammed and it's your own fault, there was no /report function, no lame verbal abuse report because someone called you trash for using echo mending it was just learn from your mistakes. Seriously, nothing is going to teach you better than the knowledge that no one is looking out for you but yourself.

Tough love <3.

Don't act like I'm stupid enough to fall for it (or any scam). I'm just looking out for the lesser-informed here, as that kind of thing can drive away newer players. I am very newbie-friendly, as I'd like to see this game survive for as long as possible and newer players certainly contribute to that.

The bottom line is, if ANet/PlayNC consider this bannable then I certainly see it enough in my daily travels that a few minutes to take a screenshot & send an email is perfectly worth it, in my book. If not, well it's still no trouble of mine to call these scammers out (in town) and make sure nobody actually gets scammed.

Chocobo1 · Dec 17, 2008, 11:38 AM // 11:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by makosi

I'd say so. It's griefing and a deliberate attempt to defraud another player. There's no doubt about that, is there?

This is where people start saying, "omg if u fall for that, u deserve to get scammzored." I agree that it is naive to fall for the trap but that doesn't mean it's acceptable behaviour on the scammer's behalf.

Faith in GW population -1.

It's pure stupidity. If you are going to buy an item and sell it two seconds later then yeah, you do deserve to get scammed. This is going to teach the guy who got scammed never to be that retarded again. Tbh it's win/win. I'd rather have smarter players in this game than tards running around in FoW armor and chaos gloves whining about getting scammed and cursed at.

Faith in GW population, never have and never will.

Chocobo1 · Dec 17, 2008, 11:41 AM // 11:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by TideSwayer

Don't act like I'm stupid enough to fall for it (or any scam). I'm just looking out for the lesser-informed here, as that kind of thing can drive away newer players. I am very newbie-friendly, as I'd like to see this game survive for as long as possible and newer players certainly contribute to that.

The bottom line is, if ANet/PlayNC consider this bannable then I certainly see it enough in my daily travels that a few minutes to take a screenshot & send an email is perfectly worth it, in my book. If not, well it's still no trouble of mine to call these scammers out (in town) and make sure nobody actually gets scammed.

When I was new 1 plat was a pretty amazing feat to get too. Granted with all the expansions now it's far easier, but scams are usually designed to get away with high end items / money, something newbies usually don't have. If a newbie did get scammed, it wouldn't be for very much and he could get off pretty lightly and learn not to be a dumbass.

Yeah, we all used to be noobie friendly. There comes a point where you realize all the advice in the world isn't going to change anything, they are going to be a dumbass until they learn to think for themselves and not fall for retarded crap. Too bad you generally have to make a mistake before you learn from it.

makosi · Dec 17, 2008, 11:45 AM // 11:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocobo1

It's pure stupidity. If you are going to buy an item and sell it two seconds later then yeah, you do deserve to get scammed. This is going to teach the guy who got scammed never to be that retarded again. Tbh it's win/win. I'd rather have smarter players in this game than tards running around in FoW armor and chaos gloves whining about getting scammed and cursed at.

Faith in GW population, never have and never will.

So you're supporting attemptive scamming on the grounds of educational development? Like I said, it is naive to fall for this stuff, but some people are educationally sub-normal (<---that's probably no PC) and some are just kids.

Down with the greedy.

Shasgaliel · Dec 17, 2008, 11:50 AM // 11:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocobo1

, you do deserve to get scammed.

Scammer deserves to get banned. If they are being retarded enough to scam they should get all their accounts perma banned. That will teach them a lesson. They will know that there is no justification for cheating other people for profit.

*Darcy* · Dec 17, 2008, 11:54 AM // 11:54

While I do not condone scamming, there is only so much that ArenaNet can do to protect players from their own stupidity.

Witness the abundance of real life scams, that suck in people constantly, all due to greed. Sometimes the lesson learned in a game, where it's only your ego that gets hurt, can be of great benefit in real life.

Chocobo1 · Dec 17, 2008, 11:55 AM // 11:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by makosi

So you're supporting attemptive scamming on the grounds of educational development? Like I said, it is naive to fall for this stuff, but some people are educationally sub-normal (<---that's probably no PC) and some are just kids.

Down with the greedy.

And so we now must cater to the retards of the world? Why not reward people smart enough not to fall for this shit? The reward is they get to keep there own cash because they aren't stupid enough to fall for this.

If you get scammed once, you won't be scammed again. Experience is the best teacher. I don't support scamming, I find it horrible that someone can do that to another player, but I also don't support hand feeding all the nabs. I know that anyone who has ever been scammed will always be better off in the long run, and generally become a far better player. The quitters and the people who fall for it numbers of times really shouldn't interact with anyone because they obviously just can't survive on there own.

Down with the failures.

Quote:

While I do not condone scamming, there is only so much that ArenaNet can do to protect players from their own stupidity.

Witness the abundance of real life scams, that suck in people constantly, all due to greed. Sometimes the lesson learned in a game, where it's only your ego that gets hurt, can be of great benefit in real life.

This is possibly the greatest post in this thread. This is exactly what I mean.

Fril Estelin · Dec 17, 2008, 12:40 PM // 12:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darcy

While I do not condone scamming, there is only so much that ArenaNet can do to protect players from their own stupidity.

Witness the abundance of real life scams, that suck in people constantly, all due to greed. Sometimes the lesson learned in a game, where it's only your ego that gets hurt, can be of great benefit in real life.

While you're right on the first statement (but it'd be difficult to define "stupid"), you're not on the second one (abundance of RL scams). People are not "that" stupid, as email scam/phishing can proove, in a sense. The only reason why email scam are rentable for the scammer is that there was (it's no longer the case as scam detectors are good now) a 0.001% chance that someone will click on the link out of the millions emails sent, so it's something around 1000 people scammed depending on the techniques. 0.001% was a conservative estimate and it's not a lot.

And I completely agree on your last statement, the online world can bring the worse and the best from people, showing things we wouldn't see otherwise. Unfortunately, the web-net-z has made social experiences very bad IMHO, to the point that it becomes impossible to agree on what is fair (there's been dozens of discussions on the topic on Guru) because a lot of people disagree on what is fun.

OT, I guess it's difficult for NCsoft support to ban without thorough investigation, but I'm sure the guys will be banned if proof is given and the 2 accounts can be linked. I prefer to use a different approach: first "play" with the 2 accounts, talk to get an idea of what's going on; then suggest that they trade together, and every quickly copy this sentence on public chat. After a few minutes, I either repeat it with a different tone or the guys left. Social awareness works even better than game support, it's what some call "social security"

.

To those that think that it's normal in games because it exists in life, firstly it's punishable by law in most countries (although more difficult to prove than online), secondly the "digital world" is not RL and it'd be ridiculous to make it the same (so then it's a fight of words and opinions between advocators of various theories). I'm not even discussing the "educational" excuse as it's utterly ridiculous (of course, being a lecturer I'm biaised

).

Akane · Dec 17, 2008, 12:48 PM // 12:48

you hit the nail on the head. i noticed there was a person trying to sell one as well, in the same town even. i hope nobody bought it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by zwei2stein

There is this scam:

Person A: WTB (useless, but rare junk) for shitload of money
Person B: WTS (useless, but rare junk) for a bit less than shitload of money, usually in different disctricts / cities

Scammee surfing district looking for deals or to spamdvertise: If I am fast enough i can make nice profit by buying from B and delivering to A. Proceeds to buy from B, PMs to A, A replies that he already got just second ago from someone else.

A and B then share profit and Scamee usually does not even think he was scammed, he just thinks he was too late.

Ultima pyromancer · Dec 17, 2008, 12:55 PM // 12:55

Whats the difference between this and power selling?

I dont agree with this but i also dont think its a bannable offense. Ive been scammed out of a lot of money paying for runners that leave etc. Ive reported some too, with screenshots but nothing is done about it, so i highly doubt anything will come of this

makosi · Dec 17, 2008, 01:20 PM // 13:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ultima pyromancer

Whats the difference between this and power selling?

Deception.

Power trading, in a pure sense, doesn't involve any sort of trickery or lies but maybe a bit of haggling at most. There's a thin line in power trading that one can cross to become a genuine buyer/seller or a deciever.