Scamming Methods Exposed

didn't read the last decade of pages posted here, so it might have already been mentioned - right now deeds are bugged. Estate deeds show only the map and very generic info. They do show location and map, but that's completely useless since many estates, such as the apartment complexes and malls, have multiple floors... so it's hard to tell which estate is really what from the deed. Therefore, there's a wide amount of scam potential there - I don't know if anyone's using that scam potential, but I suspect some are, which is why there's deeds on the auction now. Don't buy unless you are absolutely postive you know what you are buying... Otherwise you may be buying a small mall shop on the top floor instead of a large one next to the televator on the first floor... may be buying a small apartment on a floor way up high instead of a shop or booth in the basment, etc.

At this time, if anyone is buying, I'd say buy in p2p trades only, and make sure that you only pay at the estate terminal, and only pay one small amount at first, which is equal to what you'd pay for the cheapest estate in that city, then get the deed, claim the place, and then pay the rest.

mastermesh said:

At this time, if anyone is buying, I'd say buy in p2p trades only, and make sure that you only pay at the estate terminal, and only pay one small amount at first, which is equal to what you'd pay for the cheapest estate in that city, then get the deed, claim the place, and then pay the rest.

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This however causes a scam potential the other way around. Just dont buy untill next uppdate when they are in all certainty going to fix it.

armors can be upgraded so you should change that ^^ atleast tier upgrading...

Taleb said:

armors can be upgraded so you should change that ^^ atleast tier upgrading...

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I would advice beginners to stay away from tier upgrading, at least until they know how tiering system works, and they are enough experience so they know who to trust and/or who the professionals are.

Even if tier upgrading itself isn't a scam, it has the same grab-and-run potential as, for instance, coloring. Compare with handing over expensive clothes+black paint to someone with level 0 coloring wearing the default underwear.

Also, the 5% gain in protection probably isn't worth the risk for scamming, for fresh beginners. Sure, once they know how tiering works, who to trust (ie Star, Akoz, Avery, ...) or they decide to try tiering for fun sure, go ahead; but as I said for a fresh beginner tiering is a too big scam risk compared to the gain.

Just a small note

New forum member and EU player here but I thought I might add one note on a subject I've noticed multiple times. A few people have mentioned items not showing up in their inventory after a trade until they logged out and back in again. I had that happen twice already and both times it was because the item had (for some reason) been placed very low in its inventory tab and I had to scroll down to find it. And since the inventory is condensed when you log back in again it seems a logical explanation.

I apologize if this isn't really something that this thread is supposed to cover but it seems like if it could clear up a few misunderstandings it might be worth nothing.

And thanks for the great thread.

KingMob said:

I had to scroll down to find it.

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In the inventory, go to the tab where the item is supposed to be, then click the boxes icon, and if the hand next to it is blue, click it too. No relogging required. Also, if your inventory condenses, that is a bug, inventory is supposed to stay the same unless you reorder it yourself.

another scam method, happened to me yesterday :

I globaled on a trox, and received a friend invit, I accepted it (maybe an old friend or so)

20 min later this guy inviting me in a party hunt, he wasnt hunting and put the loot rules on (share on order), I disbanded the team before killing the first monster.

So new people take care of the loot rules when you are hunting with unknown people

some noob fapers invite a new players to team with free healing with random loot rules) so healing "for free" is not always "for free" ) but it is just visible after killing first or second moob

Dekan said:

some noob fapers invite a new players to team with free healing with random loot rules) so healing "for free" is not always "for free" ) but it is just visible after killing first or second moob

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No, it is visible before killing first mob. Just go to team settings and check loot distribution.

KingMob said:

New forum member and EU player here but I thought I might add one note on a subject I've noticed multiple times. A few people have mentioned items not showing up in their inventory after a trade until they logged out and back in again. I had that happen twice already and both times it was because the item had (for some reason) been placed very low in its inventory tab and I had to scroll down to find it. And since the inventory is condensed when you log back in again it seems a logical explanation.

I apologize if this isn't really something that this thread is supposed to cover but it seems like if it could clear up a few misunderstandings it might be worth nothing.

And thanks for the great thread.

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Indeed it is worth noting. This is a very common problem

I was once persued by a noob shouting "JUPITER IS A SCAMMER" (couldn't even get my name right ) repeatedly in local chat because he couldn't find he 3 PEd I'd given him (along with several of hs fellows) for his 1k of sweat. He refused to listen to my advice ("scroll down") or the advice of his fellow sweaters but just went on and on and on...

Why he thought it would be worth my while to overpay several people just to scam him of 1k of sweat is a mystery.

In the end, I reported him for harassment, and never went back to the same spot again

jay

jaywalker said:

Indeed it is worth noting. This is a very common problem

I was once persued by a noob shouting "JUPITER IS A SCAMMER" (couldn't even get my name right ) repeatedly in local chat because he couldn't find he 3 PEd I'd given him (along with several of hs fellows) for his 1k of sweat. He refused to listen to my advice ("scroll down") or the advice of his fellow sweaters but just went on and on and on...

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Another situation I've seen a few times: the traded item's icon doesn't load up properly so it's invisible. Sometimes you can find the item in your inventory by moving your mouse around, other times a relog/repair was needed. If the chat message says that trade was successful and you can't find the item, compact your inventory, check the EU website inventory, relog, and finally repair.

This tutorial proved a great help for all of us...don't you think so??
It showed how they make us fool by their false promises and we get swayed away by them...
It also inspired me in a way not to trust these ScammerS!!!
It is high time that we should ignore them and follow these tips to avoid such scamming methods!!!
Keep posting

http://account.entropiauniverse.com/support-faq/support-policies/scam-prevention-policy/

Scam Prevention Policy
What is a Scam?
A scam is the act of acquiring items from another participant through misinformation, confusion, pressure or by taking advantage of misplaced trust.

How can I prevent being scammed?
NEVER lend or give your items to another participant that you do not trust or know personally. Due to the diversity of human nature, not all participants in the Entropia Universe will be honest upstanding citizens.
Deals that seem too good to be true - they usually are! Always be cautious and wary of people offering services or items that seem to good to be true.
When trading, always research the market to see if the suggested price is reasonable. People will use all kind of arguments as to why a certain price is the correct one, or why a certain piece of equipment is the best.
Do not pay for items or services in advance. Do not rely on people telling you that you will receive the rest of the deal later.
Always check the ITEM INFO data of an item. Right-click on the offered items to view their individual ITEM INFO data so that you can confirm it is the item you want.
If you have a valuable item that someone wants to see or try, do not hand it over. Place it in the private trade window instead without confirming the deal. This allows both parties to view it. Remember! Do not hit the ACCEPT button. If the other participant says he or she cannot see it or cannot get the information on it, you are probably dealing with a scammer at work.
Do not listen to hard-luck stories. Scammers will say or do almost anything to get your items from you.
Do not give up your loot to someone claiming it as theirs. If you have killed a creature and have been able to loot it, you have the right to the loot.
Think a deal through, as all trades are final.
I've been scammed, what should I do?
Immediately Contact Support in a Support Case. Please give us the complete name of the avatar that scammed you, the date and time the scam took place, the full name of the items lost and a short description of what has happened.

Since items in the Entropia Universe have a real value you should also consider filing an official police report about your lost items. If the local police contact us, we will cooperate with them and submit all available logs we have.

Will I get my items back?
Unfortunately, if you do fall victim of a scam we cannot return any of the lost items or money.

What will happen to a reported scammer?
If you report another participant as a "scammer", we will investigate and determine what actions need to be taken. Each case is unique and will be treated as such. One means of disciplinary action is the issuing of a warning and a call for the behavior to cease. If the behavior persists, the participant risks suspension of his or her account, or permanent expulsion from the Entropia Universe.

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I was wandering by and after reading several of the posts, I thought I'd share the only scamming (or attempt at scamming) I have seen in the one month I've been in the game.

I had taken a trip to Arkadia and went through the newbie missions there. One mission required me to have a finder, and since I didn't have on, I bought one on the TT there. Now, as many of you know, the newbie finder on Calypso is 0.06 PED, is limited, and wears out pretty damn quick. The one on Arkadia costs 1 PED, but can be repaired and lasts a lot longer. Well, I didn't really want to spend the PED on something I might never use again, but I bit the bullet and got it anyway so I could finish the mish. The next day, I went back to Caly and forgot about the Arkadian finder. Well, a week went by and I, like many other newbs, was spending all my game time sweating, and it was damn hard to find a buyer for it. I finally found someone to take my 4k of sweat for 1.7 PED per k, and I decided then and there I was done with it. When I first started, the only thing that seemed to make me any money was mining. I remembered that I still had that finder from Arcadia, and when I checked the stats against the Caly one, they were the same and the Arkadian used the same amount of probes. So, I figured I'd just buy as many probes as I could afford and use the finder until it wore out. If I made any money, I'd fix it and do it all over again. I went out to one ofthe places that the Forums has said gave good stuff. I almost never came accross a claim, and when I did, I got next to nothing. I tried different places with the same result. After burning through 100 probes and having little to show for it I was just about ready to throw in the towel. I went to the Forums for help, and read that different planets had different kinds of stuff and it clicked. The Arkadian finder might be good for getting the Arkadian loot, but be terrible everywhere else. I couldn't find anything that specifically said this, so I decided to test it. I grabbed a newb finder and 10 probes from Port Atlantis and went out to the nearby hills. Once I was done, I think I had gotten almost as much enmatter and minerals than I had using the other finder. Needless to say, I was kind of pissed. I told my Soc leader about it, and he kindly bought my loot for a good price. I sold off the useless finder, and mined with the cheap stuff on Caly.

A week went by, and I was at Camp Icarus. A guy there was advertising a finder that was perfect for newbs for only 2 PED. I was curious, so I asked if I could see it. He showed me it in trade, and it was another Arkadian finder. I told him about what I'd been through, and he assured me that I was wrong about the finder and I was just going to the wrong places. When I told him I had been to many different areas, he said that maybe I just wasn't any good at mining, and started trying to sell it again. I doubt this was some large scale scheme where he was importing hundreds of such finders to trick new people. He probably had the same problem I did and decided to make a little more than TT value back.

I realize that maybe I'm making a big deal over 2 PED, but to a new person, that can be a lot of money. They can get some actual working finders and and make a little money back, by some bullets, etc. If they end up learning the hard lesson I did, they may not be as patient and quit the game.

I hate scammers of all sizes, but the ones who prey on the new people are the worst.

Bonewagon said:

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dont believe everything you read on forums, if you think that planet specific finders works best or "only" on those places I suggest you rethink and retest (unless it was about actual treasure mining)

Obviously you just had a shitty run when you used the rookie terramaster, same as you can have with any finders. Dont call a seller a scammer for providing a service many would find useful, you should know many Calypso rookie finders got sold at Arkadia before Arkadia had it's own rookie finder and none complained about it being a Calypso finder. (and Arkadia had it's own normal finders at that time)

Also as a side note, that mission that require you to mine some will also give you a mining finder so you dont need to buy it, same as you got the weapons.

Crow-spotting:

You are a crafter and are using the same materials day in day out (around the same time) one day you log in and all the stacks have been doubled in size and the markup is higher - all listed by the same avatar.

It's a good business sense to become a reseller watching trends but it's not the same as recovering the 10% loss hunting / mining or w/e. Worth taking note of the MU on your materials, if one day they are hugely inflated avoid using the materials for a day or two so the bubble contracts.

Second: Newbie crafting materials

Ganganite is used in the Super Alloy Plating bp with Lytarian Powder, Pigbenis has it "almost like lyst" in his mining videos (Awesome videos) however markup sometimes inflates to 130%.

Again be careful when skilling your crafting professions, there is a lot of MU to be made by resellers noting down when the auction volumes inflate and contract and strategically buying newbie recipe mats, doubling the stack size allows MU control and will also make fine tuning even easier - a reseller can easily take 2 "3x"ped stacks, combine them and add an additional PED.

This would be a form of market exploitation if it were the real world: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21272606

Four banks will now compensate tens of thousands of small businesses who were mis-sold complex insurance deals, says the Financial Services Authority.

In a pilot study, the FSA found that 90% of deals sold to "unsophisticated" customers broke at least one rule.

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Like walking into a shop and the owner adjusting the prices upwards until you left (imagine milk going through this).

I've not been scammed but if anyone states "gimme your peds, and I'll double it" I wouldn't expect to see any ped given, or at best watch the ped being doubled!

jenny ferr said:

dont believe everything you read on forums, if you think that planet specific finders works best or "only" on those places I suggest you rethink and retest (unless it was about actual treasure mining)

Obviously you just had a shitty run when you used the rookie terramaster, same as you can have with any finders. Dont call a seller a scammer for providing a service many would find useful, you should know many Calypso rookie finders got sold at Arkadia before Arkadia had it's own rookie finder and none complained about it being a Calypso finder. (and Arkadia had it's own normal finders at that time)

Also as a side note, that mission that require you to mine some will also give you a mining finder so you dont need to buy it, same as you got the weapons.

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A shitty run? No one's luck is THAT bad. As I said, I went out with 100 probes and the Arkadian noob finder. I went to several different areas, and I'd say I got a hit 1 in every 15 scans, using 3 probes each time. When I DID find a claim, it was either belkar, oil, or lysterium and not much more than 1 or 2 each time. When I went out with a Calypso noob finder with 10 probes searching only for enmatter and ended up with MORE TT value than I did with the other finder when I was done. Now, I'm no math wiz so I won't even BEGIN to try and calculate the odds of this happening (if both finders are indeed programmed exactly the same), but I think I can safely fit it into the category of "Not Bloody Likely." Who knows? Maybe I was holding it wrong.

I mined constantly the next week and a half on Caly using its finders and consistently broke even or got a little ahead.

Also, the mission I did named "Mission: ACA - Mining Training" did not supply the finder. The dialogue gave detailed instructions on where to find a trade terminal and buy one, as well as how to get PED with real money.

And, back to the gent in question, if he really WAS being just trying to help newbs out, he could have just given the thing away.

Bonewagon said:

A shitty run? No one's luck is THAT bad. As I said, I went out with 100 probes and the Arkadian noob finder. I went to several different areas, and I'd say I got a hit 1 in every 15 scans, using 3 probes each time. When I DID find a claim, it was either belkar, oil, or lysterium and not much more than 1 or 2 each time. When I went out with a Calypso noob finder with 10 probes searching only for enmatter and ended up with MORE TT value than I did with the other finder when I was done. Now, I'm no math wiz so I won't even BEGIN to try and calculate the odds of this happening (if both finders are indeed programmed exactly the same), but I think I can safely fit it into the category of "Not Bloody Likely." Who knows? Maybe I was holding it wrong.

I mined constantly the next week and a half on Caly using its finders and consistently broke even or got a little ahead.

Also, the mission I did named "Mission: ACA - Mining Training" did not supply the finder. The dialogue gave detailed instructions on where to find a trade terminal and buy one, as well as how to get PED with real money.

And, back to the gent in question, if he really WAS being just trying to help newbs out, he could have just given the thing away.

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Just to notice: 100 probes wiht newbie finder is VERY short run . Ask many high end miners and they will tell you that even with amped mining (that sometimes cost few peds per 1 drop) you can get 100 or more "no reasources found" in a row (resulting with few hundred/thousands) peds lost in just 1-2 hours.

Do not blame the finder it wokrs ok on any planet. Do longer runs (at least 1-2k drops) to get more sustained returns.

Falagor

Falagor said:

Just to notice: 100 probes wiht newbie finder is VERY short run . Ask many high end miners and they will tell you that even with amped mining (that sometimes cost few peds per 1 drop) you can get 100 or more "no reasources found" in a row (resulting with few hundred/thousands) peds lost in just 1-2 hours.

Do not blame the finder it wokrs ok on any planet. Do longer runs (at least 1-2k drops) to get more sustained returns.

Falagor

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You have to admit that the probability of this happening if the finders are identical, 100 vs 10 with those kinds of results is pretty crazy. I'm adding more money in today, but I was floating around 5 PED for awhile and never had that kind of "bad luck" mining again.

Bonewagon said:

You have to admit that the probability of this happening if the finders are identical, 100 vs 10 with those kinds of results is pretty crazy. I'm adding more money in today, but I was floating around 5 PED for awhile and never had that kind of "bad luck" mining again.

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Clustered results are not as uncommon in random systems as you believe. I dropped some thousand probes during my time in EU and i can assure you basically all finders work the same on all planets. My data doesn't imply any different assumption. Anyway beside that theory, which is off-topic in this thread, it's definitely not a scam to sell gear from other planets.

Jennson said:

Clustered results are not as uncommon in random systems as you believe. I dropped some thousand probes during my time in EU and i can assure you basically all finders work the same on all planets. My data doesn't imply any different assumption. Anyway beside that theory, which is off-topic in this thread, it's definitely not a scam to sell gear from other planets.

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Maybe not. However, good luck finding decoys to deploy on all planets.

Bonewagon said:

Also, the mission I did named "Mission: ACA - Mining Training" did not supply the finder. The dialogue gave detailed instructions on where to find a trade terminal and buy one, as well as how to get PED with real money.

And, back to the gent in question, if he really WAS being just trying to help newbs out, he could have just given the thing away.

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ok I thought you ment the new player mission chain as thats generally what people mean, so I guess it was the academy one you did instead or too.

And about him giving things away, I think his price of +1 is very fair seen others with way higher. And you do realize 1ped is money too, right?



Sorry for derailing the thread, just wanted to try and get this guy to realize whats a scammer and whats not.
(last reply from me, unless I find out something not posted yet thats about the OP)

Some people pretend to be female characters and get their fat girlfriends to talk on the phone to try and convince people there actually a girl when in reality there just some pathetic pipsqueak nerd who likes to scam people out of money in real life aswell {removed}

Wow! above poster musta broke nearly every forum rule in the book Reported.
You can't go round just slandering people, that's not what this thread is about. You can't name avas like that, because for all anybody knows, you are the jerk and an innocent name just got dragged through the mud.
Besides, all I can tell is that this person pissed you off. There's no indication of what kind of scam you're accusing them of at all.
Peretending to be a girl is not a scam, if indeed they did.
Having a fat RL gf is not a scam (and please let's have a pic to prove that she's fat, if it is)
Being a pathetic pipsqueak nerd is totally acceptable in EU. Also, not a scam.
"likes to scam people out of money in real life" is IRRELEVANT, if even true, because that's way outside the scope of this forum, and we don't want a bunch of lawsuits, thanks.

Besides, what anybody likes or dislikes is hearsay/conjecture. This thread is concerned with what people actually do, not what kind of person you think they are.

jay

I got scammed 1ce for 3 ped when i was really just out of the box. I didnt know how the trade works and the scammer took advantage of that

If you buy SI Hearts from Cyrene and sell them for more than TT value, is it scamming? I've seen people do this!

JustinStarry said:

If you buy SI Hearts from Cyrene and sell them for more than TT value, is it scamming? I've seen people do this!

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Not a scam. It would be different if they were selling Caly TT items on Caly for more than the TT cost, because then the only people who would buy them would be the innocent noobs who didn't know any better. In this case they are providing a service, and one which many people are willing to pay for. It's takes time and ped to go to Cyrene to get the faps and bring them back.

Mack said:

Not a scam. It would be different if they were selling Caly TT items on Caly for more than the TT cost, because then the only people who would buy them would be the innocent noobs who didn't know any better. In this case they are providing a service, and one which many people are willing to pay for. It's takes time and ped to go to Cyrene to get the faps and bring them back.

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id be happy to pay a little mu for that service, however I recently screwed up and bought a tt BP for like a ped on caly I was like omg when I realised

Kitch said:

id be happy to pay a little mu for that service, however I recently screwed up and bought a tt BP for like a ped on caly I was like omg when I realised

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Prints normally drop whilst crafting. Thus the seller himself might not have realised it's one he could have bought from the TT.

Anyway, since 1 PED is the minimum price you can set in auction or shop (and more than half of that would go in auction fees, and you still pay if no sale) the selling of common prints for 1 PED is more the action of an optimistic newbie than a scammer.

I 've also seen people bitterly accused of scamming for selling prints with high quality rating at prices that look outrageous if you don't understand the crafting system. People should read a good crafting tutorial before they buy prints...or comment on the price of prints!

Sad fact, if you are active in EU , you will get accused of of scamming by newbies sometimes. MAybe we ought to have a checklist at the start of the thread:"these things are NOT scams", but would people check it? Probably not

Anyway, can this thread get back on topic? It's a long time since I saw a post that actually exposed a scamming method ("I got scammed of 3 PEd as a newbie" doesn't count, unless you relate how it happened. The object of this this thread is to help others avoid the same pitfalls)

jay

JustinStarry said:

If you buy SI Hearts from Cyrene and sell them for more than TT value, is it scamming? I've seen people do this!

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i agree mac, its a act of interplanetary trading and in this way, because of the non-availability not a scam.
a scam would be if you sell it right left of the TT terminal on the same planet where you can buy them on TT.
some people had been called scammer beacuse they tried to sell items like ark-0 (earlier name was ark-10 and available on TT on arkadia) but this were crafters who didnt know it is a TT item

funny thing is, some of them where med or even a bit more uber crafters and played that long they never checked TT again.
So most of them really didnt know.

today many things are called to often scam.
in my eyes i would define a scam in 2 ways :

1st way definition : technical or "real scam" by irritating the trade partner, set him under psychologic preassure or use the not existing knowledge about game mechnics in expection the trade-partner is doing a big misstake to get his ped or TT-worth in items.
(example paypal scam[never use paypal in entropia, NEVER !!!], or the trade-window-remoove scam)

2nd way definition : moralic , the moralic scam is not really a scam and aswell IRL it would not be a scam based on law because it is not il-legal. the most incidents with this have to do with the not existing knowledge that the item is probably ways more worth.
best example here is : reseller stay nearby auction and is shouting for a item to buy for e.g. 105% during he can fill order straight on for 110%.
peple which figures this out later feel indeed "scammed". i would say this bastard is scammer aswell ^^
but in the end its here compared to the real scam really a fault of the seller.

i logged on in eve online last days and was in jita. who this game knows, knows aswell the "SCAMS".
i didnt think how rude some people heading around there with there scams like 1st way definition scams.I was really shocked. they always seek for people, which are currently in a bad psycholgic condition and pretending a "rush" to increase the preassure in hope the victim is overstrained with the situation.
so we are fine in entropia , we dont have that many of the 1st way scams , but still be carefull !!!
always if someone is performing preassure on you , skip the trade !!! tell him to shove off if he has not the 1 minute time to give you to proof the trade window if all is correct !! (im talking here about entropia )

So in my eyes is trading TT-items not a scam, its providing stuff which is not available in this area and this is the RULE NUMBER 1 in trading ever. not existing supply causes higher price. All traders IRL or ingame , live ONLY from MU !!!

so gl all ^^