Has anyone ever seen this?

I recently witnessed a trading trick someone did on my friend, and i'd like to know if anyone else has any thoughts about this or if it happened to someone they know.

Basically, it revolved around a trade, which took place outside of L.A. The buyer wanted to buy a req.9 zodiac sword 15^50 or something, I don't exactly remember, and told my friend they wanted to see it outside. This was fairly common, so my friend did so and they went outside.

While outside, he equipped the item, and the mo/a or something looked at it. She began to run away from him, roughly right before she left the edge of the mini-map she stopped. Then, she told him: "Are you 100% sure that the item is authentic and that your not scamming me?" I need you to drop it really quickly so I can see if its real.

Then she made up a story about texture mods or something on guru influencing what other people see on their screens, and that the only way that he could prove the item was real was that if he dropped it. The gold letters and stats would prove its real, she claimed.

So my friend, like an idiot, thought (Hmm, well ok, she's far away, and if this will complete the sale for me, I see no reason not to do it. I've been selling this crap all day). He drops it, and then in a split-second the monk teleports directly next to him (obviously from recall) and quickly picks up the item and logs.

I'm not sure if this is a bannable offense, and even though I loathe scammers I have to give credit where credit is due, that this scam was pretty good. Your thoughts?

never heard or seen this before.....

but still the only question is why on earth would you actually drop something for someone.... it just doesnt make any sense.

The only similar scam is the one from thristy river where people said once the ghostly hero turned to lvl 255 you could make copies of your weapons.

Pretty common. Been on some threads here and there too.

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Common_scams

"Never, ever trust a player who asks you to drop your items on the ground, unless you are giving that item away."

texture mods are never universal. they only work for the player and nobody else.

edit: btw, wanting to see stuff outside of towns is not common. not with guildwiki around (pics are all there) and the trade window (stats are all there).

Every time someone falls for this stupid and easily-avoided scam, I lose hope in humanity a little bit more.

He got what he deserved.

this scam works exactly the same as the duplication scam, they go far away to get you to think your safe and ask you to drop the item and then recall wears off or they cancel shadowmeld and pick the dropped item.

=edit=
if they come up with the texture mod excuse, they only work one way only you can see them if you have them. if someone did try to affect the whole world with it anet would find out and ban them

No offense, but what your friend did was really really stupid. Why would you EVER DROP your item? On top of that didn't he notice that recall was being cast?...

I'm sorry for your friend's loss, but that could have been easily avoided. Most scams are pretty stupid. The only person that scammed me twice was the merchant. Sold a ecto and a black dye to him for nothing. That was back when they were 10k ea.

There was a thread about this the other day. Basically, your friend deserved it. If he's stupid enough to drop the item, then bad luck. There's never a reason to drop an item, ever. So too bad.

What a cretin! If he drops a weapon like that to show it off then he deserves to lose it. It's like those morons who keep dropping golds and greens in a mission to show off and stroke the old e-peen then have the audacity to moan because someone else is quicker with '; + Space' command.

I have an issue with people who say this guy deserved it...

the guy was just trying to sell his weapon...he wasn't trying to scam or dupe his item...so why does he deserve to get tricked by someone?

yes it's unfortunate he was stupid enough to fall for this...but by no means does that mean he deserved it.

People trying to dupe their items deserve to get scammed.

People trying to show off items by dropping them mid mission...deserve to have their item picked up by someone else for being an ass.

People trying to sell a weapon to someone only to get scammed by them for falling for a trick they don't know about DO NOT deserve to be scammed.

Don't be stupid and you won't lose your items.

Isn't it a lot easier and also a lot safer to just show the weapon in question in the trade panel? I'm pretty sure the stats and colour show up in there too! Surely if the idiot who scammed had enough money to buy a near perfect zodiac sword, or the time to get one to drop, then they've must've heard of the trade window.

This is an important distinction I wish more people knew.

Selling common sense.. yeah, try and scam that from me fools!

Kidding.

Seriously, tell you're friend to use they're head. This is the internet, Of course he didn't deserve it but he is responsible for it, People don't care about you and they will do whatever it takes to get what they want, be more aware.

I too have a problem with people saying this guy deserved being scammed.

Nobody deserves to be scammed with whatever methods used.

A 'stupid' scam (as some poster described) is no different from an 'innovative', 'creative' or 'smart' scam - it is still not an appropiate thing to do.

Of course he deserved to be scammed. Who in their right mind thinks that there is a reason to drop a weapon? Also, the monk was a MO/A, WHICH IS OBVIOUS. Stop sticking up for him. He was dumb. He got scammed. He deserved it.

Not saying he deserved it, but I'm hoping he does learn from his mistakes.

Whats the saying? "Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me."

Its a sucky thing to have happen. Just report the guy and learn from your mistake.

Some people lack good sense.

The least he could've done would've been to stay further away.

Otherwise, that was not at all a very smart thing to do.

I had a guy try to scam me like this the other day. I dropped an id kit instead and he teleported to me and picked it up then logged. About 10 minutes later he pm'd me cussing me out for tryign to scam him...

yeah my faith in humanity has been restored

Congratulations, you've just won Guild Wars.