And Knowing is Half the Battle: Scams

Friday, July 27, 2012

The Curious Case of the Accidental Scam

This morning I made a startling discovery. It is way easier to scam in Eve Online than I originally thought. In fact, scamming is so easy; you can do it accidentally. What to know more? Found out how by sending me 250 Million ISK in game! All ISK transfers should be made directly to Arydanika.

I’m just kidding. You don’t have to send me 250 Million ISK. Well, you can, but it would be out of the kindness/stupidity of your heart.

So, last night I logged on to my YouTube account to switch the two commercials[1] I did for Alliance Tournament X from private to public since the Tourney is over. As I logged on to my account I noticed I had a new comment and went to check it out. It read:

4 months and I still don't have a photo. I'm starting to think this is bullshit...
– MindVisionMachinima

The message was posted in the comment section of the Fits of Angel Commercial[2] I did a while back. It was a parody commercial based on the ASPCA commercial featuring the song “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. It was also the first Eve Online I made that wasn’t absolutely shit. In fact, it was so good the handsome and debonair CCP Manifest (aka Mr. Atlanta) linked the video via the Eve Online Twitter and Facebook account.

When I initially read the message; I just blew it off. Clearly the guy was an internet troll of sub par standard. I mean, the commercial is a parody and obviously a joke. No one would be dumb to send me 18 Million ISK for a picture of a sh… :christ: That’s when I realized I need to check my alt account.

You see, when I made the video I thought ahead. I knew how devious and conniving Eve Online players could be. I could just imaging some jerk in Jita spamming alink to the video on a character in a fake corporation gaffing people out of ISK[3]. Normally I wouldn’t care, but the commercial is on the Voices from the Void YouTube account and I don’t want the podcast associated with scamming[4].

In an effort to project my fellow players (and the imaginary integrity of my news/interview podcast about a video game) I took the liberty of creating the corporation Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ships [SPCS.] under my alt Ms Flinstone. This way I knew no one could scam with the corporation name used in the video. My plan was fool proof or so I thought.

There’s an old proverb that states, “A fool and his money are easily parted.” When I checked the corporation wallet for SPCS. there was approximately 100 Million ISK in the wallet. It’s not a lot by any means or stretch. However, for a scam I was trying to PREVENT FROM HAPPENING I think it’s freaking amazing.

It’s just another example of the fantastic and unexpected things that can happen in Eve Online. What other game could begin to scratch the surface of this kind of interaction and game play? What other game gives its players the tools and the freedom for these kinds of hyjinks; intentional or accidental? This is just another reason why I find so much enjoyment in being a part of Eve Online. With experiences like these, you can hardly refer to it as “playing.”

Also, I’m not giving those people their ISK back. I will send them a picture of a space ship though.

Footnotes
1. – Amok. Commercial & WGoE Commercial
Yes I know the font & ending effect are the same. They were created very far apart and I’m deeply in love with that font and effect.

2. – Fits of an Angel Commerical

3. - This fear was validated when Ackbarre from Goonswarm Federation popped in to the Amok. Mumble channel to complain the corp name was taken. H was pretty bummed when I told him I made the corporation and he couldn't scam from it.

4. – Which is why I very particular about not scamming at all. It’s not about E-Honor, but my podcast means a lot to me.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

I Ain’t Givin’ You No Tree-Fitty: Recruitment Scams and You

The universe has instructed me to write this blog post. No, I have not been drinking Tiger’s Blood with Charlie Sheen and getting messages from my god-like peers. However, the same themes keep crossing my path over and over again. I just figure it’s time to take the hint.

Over the past few weeks I’ve come across several instances of EVE Online players getting caught up in recruitment scams. These types of scams are not as widely recognized as the typical Jita Scam even though there are hordes of “I got scammed out of [instert ISK amount/Assets] by [Insert Corporation/Alliance Here].” A new twist in this trend is that this type of scam has now started to target entire corporations and alliances; not just individual pilots.

Recently one of my Voices from the Void listeners has the experience of being one of the unlucky few caught in a recruitment scam. This particular scam was ran by a member of Goonwaffe, the executor corporation of Goonswarm Federation [GSF]. They wrote in to VandV Podcast and shared their experience after we aired a news story about another GSF scam. Here is their experience in their own unedited words:

Greetings, I just wanted to share an unfortunate experience I recently had. The long and short of it is I was scammed out of a lot of ISK and several ships by an active member of GoonWaffe, who was openly claiming to recruit on GoonWaffe's behalf. His name was Hopeless Bromantic, and he promised to have my ships moved from high-sec to VFK-IV for me, free of charge. Not long after this was done, he revealed GoonWaffe's intentions in an mail, demanding 300M ISK for my ships back. This was done with the full knowledge of GoonWaffe. I hope people will be able to save themselves some ISK and avoid the thieves. I don't want to sound like a crybaby over this, I know I have no power, no recourse; I just want other players who might fall for this as I did to know and be proof against it. Lots of people say this is standard operating procedure for them, and that it was general knowledge, but what can you do when you're among the few who don't know it? I'm sorry if this is not the best place to send this, I'm just not sure how would be the best way to get the word out. Thanks for reading this!

The particular scam used above is not the “usual” recruitment scam that you hear about, but there are still many pilots that fall for this ploy. Usually what happens to most pilots is the same thing that almost happened to a friend of mine.

Just yesterday I received a conversation request from a long time in-game friend of mine. He explained that he had grown bored with his current path, but lucky for him he had an application in review with Goonwaffe. Needless to say my spidey senses went up instantly. I ask him if they asked him to pay ISK and he admitted they wanted a 500mil application fee. The next 30 minutes of the conversation was spent on me trying to convince him of the truth: He was being scammed.

Naturally he was reluctant to believe me and I understand. No one wants to believe that they could be the victim and fall into right in to the clutches of a scammer, but it happens. It happens a lot. Like I said before, there are hordes of threads from pilots that have fallen into the same trap and the trend shows no sign of ceasing.

In fact, the trend is growing. Entities such as GSF have become more brazen with their scams and have started to set their targets on entire alliances. A high profile case of this is the Pure Blind Freighter Massacre that Fuzzy Logec Alliance suffered early September 2011. The story was covered by several media sources including Interstellar Correspondents, EVENews24 here and here and you can see the battle report yourself on eve-kill.net.

Just to drive the point home, I’m going to include a few more links you should read. As you go through them you’ll notice that all of the links included are pilots outing corporations or alliances for recruitment and rental scams. You’ll also notice that these links cover a variety of corporations and alliances, but I do pick on GSF and Test Alliance Please Ignore [TEST] slightly. You’ll also notice that these links have a range of dates and personal experiences and scams used do vary.

And if 20 different examples of these recruitment/rental scams aren’t enough; there’s more. Entities like GSF and TEST have come out openly and said they do not recruit publicly. They also go on further that that recruitment is only open to those that are already members of their social groups and those recruits must be active members of the social groups for a minimum of three months. The only other way to join these organizations is to have a personal sponsor and anything else is a scam. Need to see it in print? Then check out this Goonwaffe public wiki article and this Dreddit public wiki article. It’s right there in print. Just to add a little cherry on top, you can hear TheMitanni, executor of GSF, say the same thing with your own ears in a Lost in EVE Podcast* recorded 09.09.11.

Don’t be Stupid.

*Special Thanks to Araziah for reminding me of this interview.