P-J
Prowler
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- Aug 9, 2005
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- PJ
II thought this might be a useful thread for the community to develop...in a wiki kind of way ...so my starter for 10....
Once you have been scammed/ hacked/ cracked you have to take some basic steps to ensure to limit the damage - in the case of people that have been hacked order your gold card, change your passwords, review your security (there are people on the forum with real expertise in this area...so I won't say any more on this issue
).
Immediately after the Scam/ hack
Assume that you have lost any items that have been scammed. MA will not replace them just on your word. The only way you can get the value of your items or items back is by taking a considered and intelligent approach to the issue.
If the RL value is small then contact MA via a support case and tell them that you have been scammed and that you will a. gather evidence to support this claim and b. you will be contacting the relevant local and international legal agencies. Keep your message short and polite. Be clear that you are doing this to create a evidence trail - not because you expect an instant response from MA.
If the value of the scam is large I would phone them quoting the reference number of the support case. In the conversation don't get angry and don't expect an instant reaction. If you think that you may lose it in the conversation or are worried about ensuring that you are coherent - write don't the points you want to make before you phone them and refer to the notes when talking to them. Explain that you are phoning to notify MA of the scam and will be providing evidence via further posts to the support case. Provide MA with info below if they request it and make it clear that you will provide them with documentary evidence. The most you can hope for is that MA will record the transactions of the Avi - if you are lucky they may temp ban the avi(s) from the game. MA take the position that the scammer is innocent until PROVEN guilty.
After notifying MA by you will need to provide them with further information: the time/ date of the event, the nature of the scam and the cost of it to you (items, skills etc). Include a real world cost and back this up with reference to one of the auction sites. Include the name of the avi that scammed you, his or her soc or any other relevant information (especially if he/ she has more than one avi). Ask them to lock the accounts and keep records of his/ her transactions while this is investigated. Also request that MA block any fund transfers out of this game from this avatar until the issue is resolved or investigated. MA will probably not do this at this stage - but ask them to do it anyway. This is important because at the very least MA will keep a record of the Avi's transactions.
Keep the post factual and not emotional. Include this in a second follow up to your original support case.
If you have been hacked try to think about how you will collect evidence that supports your case that it wasn't you that hacked the account (i.e it was hacked while you were at work/ school in a class etc). Don't go and get the evidence yet - but know where you can get it from.
At this point DO NOT POST TO THE FORUM (this will just make the next steps more difficult).
Day Two
If you are going to make a claim you need to gather evidence. This is going to be difficult as it is incredibly difficult to prove that someone has scammed you particularly because most of the scams involve a breach of trust (the scammer gets you to trust them and then steals from you). The good news is that scammers in EU are (on the whole) not very bright and very, very greedy.
The first step that I would take is to challenge him/ her or ask a friend to challenge them in game and record them stating that they scammed you (he/ she may brag about it) or record them attempting to scam other people. Involve your friends in gathering evidence: ensure that the provenance of the evidence is clear (put the date/location and name of the Avi that took the screen shot) . Once you have got the evidence then warn the community in the forums and in game.
Check to see if this avi is known on the forum as a scammer - keep copies of messages which indicate that the scammer has scammed other people. Contact people that have been scammed by the same person and get info from them. This will add some contextual information which will indirectly support your case.
Waiting may sound harsh, however, a major reason why these people seem to get away with scams time and time again is the lack of evidence. Make sure that you have some strong evidence to support your case...
Day Three
I would take these steps:
1. You have to contact your local police force. If you do this by going into the local police station you will probably be met by blank stares and humour - they won't take you seriously and won't process your claim. Most police forces now use e-mail - so contact them by e-mail - copy the text of the e-mail into a paper based letter which you send recorded delivery (you have some evidence that it was posted). Address it to your local police forces HQ address - not your local station. Keep copies of the letter/ e-mail.
Explain in your letter that someone accessed your account/ stole from your on-line account in a 'virtual environment'. State the amount they took in local currency X pounds/ Euro's/ Dollars - NOT PEDS. State the company name and location of MA and the dates/ times the crime took place. Use normal language - don't call it a scam call it a theft based on a confidence trick, unauthorized access to your accounts, etc. Also explain that one of the reasons why you are contacting them is that MA can help recover the money and will collaborate with the police force if they contact them. Do not overwhelm them with information - do not pass them screen shots etc at this point - just state the facts and alert them to the nature of the crime and give them a link to the company.
I would, however, give them the URL for this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6111738.stm
Or something similar which explains what a virtual environment is. It is key that you explain that you deposit money into the game and can then buy and sell items and withdraw cash. State that MA offers an ATM card to allow you to withdraw money from your account (wether or not you have one is irrelevant). You are trying to persuade the police authority to view your MA account in the same way that they would view a bank account*.
Do include the URL, phone number and e-mail address for EU. State how you deposited into the game (not credit card numbers but demonstrate that you put the cash into this game from a national credit cart account).
Also copy your e-mail/ letter to your national computer crime agency. In the UK, for example we have the Metropolitan Police Force Computer Crime Service
http://www.met.police.uk/computercrime/index.htm
These national agencies have on-line guidance and some have on-line forms where you can submit your evidence.
They may (or may not react to this). If they do react they will react on an 'international' basis.
Also send an e-mail reporting the abuse to the Internet Fraud Complaint Centre (IFCC):- The IFCC is an American organization which is a partnership between the FBI and the US National White Collar Crime Center. Its mission is to address fraud committed over the Internet and it includes a reporting mechanism through which people can alert authorities to a suspected criminal or civil violation.
THEN copy all these to MA - stating that you have reported this abuse to the relevant local, national and international police agencies and could they investigate the issue. MA will have to respond to this.
Day Four
Depending on the value of the scam phone MA - if its a small amount of RL cash don't phone them yet.
The next two weeks
You have undertaken all the steps MA requires of you to recover your items. You have to wait until the authorities pursue this or MA decide take action. MA should respond and should help you at this point. The bottom line is:
Hacking/ cracking your account will be taken seriously by the police agencies. If you have been hacked and have lost money as a consequence I would guess you have a 50:50 chance of the police investigating. Most people hacking other peoples accounts are just kids, however, increasingly this is the focus of international crime. If the police respond then given the scammer will feel a RL effect - and this will be a significant effect.
Confidence tricks in game will be given less of a priority, however, MA is a reasonable organization and wants to keep its player base happy - so if you have followed the steps outlined I think you have a good chance of MA giving you something back. Remember legally MA don't have to give you anything back - so you are relying on their good will.
* I made the point about trying to suggest that MA is similar to a bank because on a psychological and legal basis I think that police agencies will respond differently to - 'someone hacked my 'virtual sword and house'' than someone took 1000 US dollars from my bank account.
The final point is that law in this area is being defined...so there are lots of grey areas. Your key defense is MA - if you can provide them with enough evidence that you are the innocent victim of a scam they will support you and will take action, however, they don't have to do this. So remain polite, focused and persuade them.
Once you have been scammed/ hacked/ cracked you have to take some basic steps to ensure to limit the damage - in the case of people that have been hacked order your gold card, change your passwords, review your security (there are people on the forum with real expertise in this area...so I won't say any more on this issue
). Immediately after the Scam/ hack
Assume that you have lost any items that have been scammed. MA will not replace them just on your word. The only way you can get the value of your items or items back is by taking a considered and intelligent approach to the issue.
If the RL value is small then contact MA via a support case and tell them that you have been scammed and that you will a. gather evidence to support this claim and b. you will be contacting the relevant local and international legal agencies. Keep your message short and polite. Be clear that you are doing this to create a evidence trail - not because you expect an instant response from MA.
If the value of the scam is large I would phone them quoting the reference number of the support case. In the conversation don't get angry and don't expect an instant reaction. If you think that you may lose it in the conversation or are worried about ensuring that you are coherent - write don't the points you want to make before you phone them and refer to the notes when talking to them. Explain that you are phoning to notify MA of the scam and will be providing evidence via further posts to the support case. Provide MA with info below if they request it and make it clear that you will provide them with documentary evidence. The most you can hope for is that MA will record the transactions of the Avi - if you are lucky they may temp ban the avi(s) from the game. MA take the position that the scammer is innocent until PROVEN guilty.
After notifying MA by you will need to provide them with further information: the time/ date of the event, the nature of the scam and the cost of it to you (items, skills etc). Include a real world cost and back this up with reference to one of the auction sites. Include the name of the avi that scammed you, his or her soc or any other relevant information (especially if he/ she has more than one avi). Ask them to lock the accounts and keep records of his/ her transactions while this is investigated. Also request that MA block any fund transfers out of this game from this avatar until the issue is resolved or investigated. MA will probably not do this at this stage - but ask them to do it anyway. This is important because at the very least MA will keep a record of the Avi's transactions.
Keep the post factual and not emotional. Include this in a second follow up to your original support case.
If you have been hacked try to think about how you will collect evidence that supports your case that it wasn't you that hacked the account (i.e it was hacked while you were at work/ school in a class etc). Don't go and get the evidence yet - but know where you can get it from.
At this point DO NOT POST TO THE FORUM (this will just make the next steps more difficult).
Day Two
If you are going to make a claim you need to gather evidence. This is going to be difficult as it is incredibly difficult to prove that someone has scammed you particularly because most of the scams involve a breach of trust (the scammer gets you to trust them and then steals from you). The good news is that scammers in EU are (on the whole) not very bright and very, very greedy.
The first step that I would take is to challenge him/ her or ask a friend to challenge them in game and record them stating that they scammed you (he/ she may brag about it) or record them attempting to scam other people. Involve your friends in gathering evidence: ensure that the provenance of the evidence is clear (put the date/location and name of the Avi that took the screen shot) . Once you have got the evidence then warn the community in the forums and in game.
Check to see if this avi is known on the forum as a scammer - keep copies of messages which indicate that the scammer has scammed other people. Contact people that have been scammed by the same person and get info from them. This will add some contextual information which will indirectly support your case.
Waiting may sound harsh, however, a major reason why these people seem to get away with scams time and time again is the lack of evidence. Make sure that you have some strong evidence to support your case...
Day Three
I would take these steps:
1. You have to contact your local police force. If you do this by going into the local police station you will probably be met by blank stares and humour - they won't take you seriously and won't process your claim. Most police forces now use e-mail - so contact them by e-mail - copy the text of the e-mail into a paper based letter which you send recorded delivery (you have some evidence that it was posted). Address it to your local police forces HQ address - not your local station. Keep copies of the letter/ e-mail.
Explain in your letter that someone accessed your account/ stole from your on-line account in a 'virtual environment'. State the amount they took in local currency X pounds/ Euro's/ Dollars - NOT PEDS. State the company name and location of MA and the dates/ times the crime took place. Use normal language - don't call it a scam call it a theft based on a confidence trick, unauthorized access to your accounts, etc. Also explain that one of the reasons why you are contacting them is that MA can help recover the money and will collaborate with the police force if they contact them. Do not overwhelm them with information - do not pass them screen shots etc at this point - just state the facts and alert them to the nature of the crime and give them a link to the company.
I would, however, give them the URL for this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6111738.stm
Or something similar which explains what a virtual environment is. It is key that you explain that you deposit money into the game and can then buy and sell items and withdraw cash. State that MA offers an ATM card to allow you to withdraw money from your account (wether or not you have one is irrelevant). You are trying to persuade the police authority to view your MA account in the same way that they would view a bank account*.
Do include the URL, phone number and e-mail address for EU. State how you deposited into the game (not credit card numbers but demonstrate that you put the cash into this game from a national credit cart account).
Also copy your e-mail/ letter to your national computer crime agency. In the UK, for example we have the Metropolitan Police Force Computer Crime Service
http://www.met.police.uk/computercrime/index.htm
These national agencies have on-line guidance and some have on-line forms where you can submit your evidence.
They may (or may not react to this). If they do react they will react on an 'international' basis.
Also send an e-mail reporting the abuse to the Internet Fraud Complaint Centre (IFCC):- The IFCC is an American organization which is a partnership between the FBI and the US National White Collar Crime Center. Its mission is to address fraud committed over the Internet and it includes a reporting mechanism through which people can alert authorities to a suspected criminal or civil violation.
THEN copy all these to MA - stating that you have reported this abuse to the relevant local, national and international police agencies and could they investigate the issue. MA will have to respond to this.
Day Four
Depending on the value of the scam phone MA - if its a small amount of RL cash don't phone them yet.
The next two weeks
You have undertaken all the steps MA requires of you to recover your items. You have to wait until the authorities pursue this or MA decide take action. MA should respond and should help you at this point. The bottom line is:
Hacking/ cracking your account will be taken seriously by the police agencies. If you have been hacked and have lost money as a consequence I would guess you have a 50:50 chance of the police investigating. Most people hacking other peoples accounts are just kids, however, increasingly this is the focus of international crime. If the police respond then given the scammer will feel a RL effect - and this will be a significant effect.
Confidence tricks in game will be given less of a priority, however, MA is a reasonable organization and wants to keep its player base happy - so if you have followed the steps outlined I think you have a good chance of MA giving you something back. Remember legally MA don't have to give you anything back - so you are relying on their good will.
* I made the point about trying to suggest that MA is similar to a bank because on a psychological and legal basis I think that police agencies will respond differently to - 'someone hacked my 'virtual sword and house'' than someone took 1000 US dollars from my bank account.
The final point is that law in this area is being defined...so there are lots of grey areas. Your key defense is MA - if you can provide them with enough evidence that you are the innocent victim of a scam they will support you and will take action, however, they don't have to do this. So remain polite, focused and persuade them.
