Know Your Scams: Deadspace/Faction Loot

Setup

The scammer advertises in Local:

Deadspace/DED/Faction loot for sale always piques interest from people. Green and Blue modules can be very expensive and very useful fit to ships. This is certainly goign to interest a lot of people.

Looking at the contract there certainly are a lot of Faction, Storyline and Deadspace modules listed and it could be interesting but lets check the price of the contract versus what they are asking for.

What Happens Now

First thing of interest is the price You Will Pay. It is 560 million ISK not 5.3 billion as the advertisement said. Let's use evepraisal.com to see how much the items are worth in Buy/Sell methods:

Ah, now it becomes clear.

The Sell value of the items is possibly 5.07 billion ISK and that is what the advert in local was saying. It's possible that it's right but the buy value is only 10.32 million ISK and, as any trader knows, the smaller the difference between Sell and Buy the more people who want it.

You could buy the contract and try to sell the items for 5 billion but you'd be waiting A LONG time, if it all sold at all. 

The scammer has just bought this stuff for around 10 million ISK and offering, what appears to be worth 5 billion, for 500 million he hopes to snare a mark who is not going to look closely at the offering.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Rule #1 in Jita is: anything in Local is a scam to take your ISK.

Is this a scam, it could be argued it isn't but its attempting to prey upon the unwaring so to me it is definitely a scam.

Block the advertiser and think no more of it.

Know Your Scams: Trade In Station

Setup

The scammer advertises in Local:

Checking the on the market you'll see the price the item is, usually, a couple of hundred million ISK more than what is being offered. In this case the Kronos is 1.27b ISK and the scammer is offering it for a flat 1 billion ISK

What Happens Now

The scammer states a trade in system because this is one way they can con a person by providing as little detail as possible, they can drag/drop a Kronos into the window and wait for the mark to enter the money then quickly swap it out for a Megathron (same hull, vastly cheaper ship at 177m).

By avoiding the use of the contract system the scammer can control the flow and easily show, with one hand, what is on offer then quickly substitute it with something else before accepting. Once complete there is no public trasnaction that shows the con, only the mark having less ISK and the scammer a larger wallet.

Confirming the Scam

There was a small, miniscule, possibility that this was a legitimate offer so I eve mailed the scammer and asked if they'd accept via contract and they said yes:

Except no contract was ever created and all of a sudden they "made a sale" and decreased the number available in their advertisement.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Rule #1 in Jita is: anything in Local is a scam to take your ISK.

If anyone offers you something but says they want to trade in station then this should instantly have alarms ringing in your head. Never, ever, do a trade within a station. Always insist on a contract where the details can be clearly set out showing what you will get in return for your money.

Block the scammer and move on.

Know Your Scams: Rare Ship for Sale

Setup 

The following appears in Local:

Two billion for a rare ship, let's have a look at that:

Certainly looks different, the Chinese/Japanese/Korean text indicates it may not be normal for this server so might be worth investing in. 

Let's check the contract:

2b ISK for this ship, seems like a bargain as other "rare" ships go sale for at least a hundred billion.

What Happens Now

The ship looks fabulous the foreign characters certainly give it the impression of rare and something not normal on the Tranquility server. Perhaps this is from the Chinese server and it'll be worth investing in.

The use of the images show a story, a story the scammer hopes will encourage a rich player to buy on a whim.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Rule #1 in Jita is: anything in Local is a scam to take your ISK.

If you look closer at the Ship Info it appears to be a normal T2 ship listed, I had a suspicion it was just a localized window for the Ishtar so I looked up the Ishtar and confirmed that the text and bonuses were the same.

Looking at the contract the ship in the contract is a T1 Vexor as opposed to whatever its name in the Show Info window is as well as there is no T2 marker over the ship image, that's a huge clue that this is a scam. 

Block the character and move on.

Know Your Scams: High SP Character for Sale

Setup

The scammer advertises in Local:

Linked contract shows the following (implant and cost may vary depending on the SP the 'character' has):

What Happens Now

The scammer is hoping the mark does not know you can't trade characters via contracts and is trying a very poor scam.

The implant is worth between 9m and 20m ISK and they're advertising it as a character with 200m skillpoints so have a price of 200m ISK.

How Do You Protect Myself

Firstly, remember Rule #1, anything posted in local in a trade hub is going to be a scam and you should not accept any contract without seriously checking on the contents and issuer.

In this case it should be clear to all but the most remote hermit that:

• characters cannot be traded in-game via contracts.
• an implant is shown not the name of a character
• the value of the contract that the issuer wants is the same as the SP they say the character has

This is a very poor scam but one that can catch new players out. As always check, double check and then triple check the contract details and its clear no character is being sold and its a cheap implant.

Block the issuer.

Know Your Scams: Plex Wraps

Setup

The scammer advertises in Local:

This is a variation on the Plex Box or Lucky Dip box scam that have been seen before.

In this instance the scammer includes a link to an image that perportedly shows what is in each box:

What Happens Now

They want people to buy the contract so pricing at 60m is a boon when they are advertising that there are TWO PLEX in every box.

The scam will repeat with new boxes appearing when unsuspecting marks buy them.

How Can I Protect Myself

Firstly, remember Rule #1, anything posted in local in a trade hub is going to be a scam and you should not accept any contract without seriously checking on the contents and issuer.

With this scam the added image contains all the evidence that this is indeed a scam. Let's look closer:

The Local window is used to show the user is active and this isn't an old contract setup but its the hanger view that quickly gives this away.

The fact Item Hanger is selected and you can see both the wraps and the PLEX shows that the plex are NOT in the wraps. If the were the image would have shown each Wrap being selected in order to show the content.

The Wraps clearly contain junk and no PLEX whatsoever.

Block the issuer and think no more of it.

Fake Wallet API

There are numerous scams people use in EVE Online and one variant uses a fake website, setup to appear genuine and convince people that they really are giving out ISK for free.

 

There have been various sites setup to help with this as well as numerous people attempting to use the same site and fake wallet details. Some are successful but then there are those that just throw things together and hope for the best. My recent favourite was one that was a reasonably new character, a couple of months old, but was using wallet history that was older than the character. Oh how I laughed at that one.

 

Still, this hasn't been frowned upon by CCP. This type of scam has managed to stay under the radar and within the rules.... until now.

 

Overnight CCP Falcon has released a announcement that, in the interest of reducing support tickets/GM overload, says that scams that rely on fabricated wallet details are no longer allowed.

 

Awww yiss!

 

Another scam bites the dust.

Even Scams should be spell checked

This is a couple of days old but I blocked the character so I don't know if its still like this but whilst in Jita the night that Rhea was deployed I saw the following appearing in Local:

Theta requires armor tanked ships! Typhoon Fleet Issue with Missile Rigs for only 410 million ISK! Save 10 million isk off current market value! Show some love to the Minmatar!

Can you see the error?

Seems like a deal but I cannot get past the first word without cringing, Thera is the name of the new wormhole system NOT Theta.

Sure its a simple typo, T is next to the R on a QWERTY keyboard but it just shows a lack of professionalism from a scammer.

They want our ISK but are too lazy to do a basic spell check, scammers today eh. Back in my day it was different ;)

Edit: Thanks to commenter Chinana who pointed out my own spell check failure.

Know Your Scams: Hanger Clearance

Setup

A message is posted in local stating the character is headed to null/clearing their hanger/disposing of loot from a corp theft. There will be a contract linked:

A contract will be setup that will contain various modules/implants that may be Faction/Deadspace or Officer class and there will be a cost to the contract, under You Will Pay, but the listed items will fool the mark into believing this is a cheap contract that will be very profitable to resell the contents.

What Happens Now

The mark will accept the contract but find out when they try to sell the individual items that they are either not as valuable as they expected and there is a very low sale volume.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Firstly, remember Rule #1, anything posted in local in a trade hub is going to be a scam and you should not accept any contract without seriously checking on the contents and issuer.

You can immediately check this contract by performing a price check of any items contained with the it using item prices from Jita (either via in-game market, EVEpraisal or EVE Central).

The Smiling Assassin: Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Infiltration

There was no point in doing anything suspicious for at least a month, there was the chance he could be found out so TSA made sure to login and lurk rather than say or do much. The idea being that by establishing a corporation  history or at least a month he could allay any suspicion should he be discovered within that time.

He spent the time logged in watching the chat channels and recording details of activities performed by those he saw. Better to avoid PvP focused people and concentrate on the industrialists, PvE and, like himself, newer players to the Corporation/Alliance.

Once in the corporation it was time to reconnoiter, identifying the different characters within the the corp and when they were most active. 

It took longer than expected but after three months TSA was ready to strike.

Variations On A Scam

One fateful July day TSA logged in with his alt and decided to work a different angle from what he usually did. It had been suggested that he link NPC Loss Mails and claim that the pilots were his alts. Perhaps this would be enough to solicit donations to help replace the loss.

"Not a bad idea in theory" the TSA thought and he began linking various NPC losses in Corp chat. In practice it turned out to be harder getting anyone to gift him ISK than getting blood from a stone, his corporation was full of tight-walleted players who would only laugh or cringe at the losses he presented.

So TSA decided to try a slightly different approach, everyone in the alliance rats and as he'd linked losses it would make a lot of sense to ask for advice from others on how to correctly fit a ratting ship.

Evolution - Ratting Advice

People in the corporation responded to TSA's pleas for advice, people offered fitting advice, recommendations and linked their own fits for him to view. He then took a chance and privately convo'd two of the pilots offering advice asking if he could "borrow, definitely not permanently, for a test drive before he bought a new one".

TSA > Shot in the dark here, and I won't be offended in the slightest if you decline.

TSA > But is there any possibility I could borrow that fit for like... two hours?

TSA > Just wanna test it out before I buy one.

TSA > Well, figure out if I want to buy one or not I should say haha

Three people bit the bait and two, after a convo with TSA, with a third (Armageddon) without a convo, contracted ships.

One offered an Armageddon but asked TSA to bring it from Jita:

Commander Kyle > well I wouldn't mind, only thing is my geddon is like 30 jumps from 0.0 on my alt, thats why I had to type it out rather than link it

TSA > Aaaaaaah, shit.

Commander Kyle > yeah lol XD will have to take it down when i've got a clear day

TSA > If it's in highsec, I'll do you the favour of dragging it out on my hauler alt if you don't mind me blowing through an anom or not.

Commander Kyle > ill contract it to you

Commander Kyle > its in a system called nibainkier

Another offered a Dominix, again to be bought in from Jita:

TSA > Got the alt back in Jita, docking up just as soon as this cow enters warp.

Rhakaro > i havent bought the domi yet

Rhakaro > hang on

Rhakaro > ill send u isk

Rhakaro > u can buy it and bring it in?

TSA > *nods*

TSA > Can do dude

TSA > 197 mil is lowest in Jita, unless I'm mistaken.

Rhakaro > ccc rigged domi

Rhakaro > isk sent

Rhakaro > that ok?

TSA > Thanks for the 5 mil tip dude :D

Three ships accepted and now TSA had to pretend move them. The scam had evolved quickly and very profitably so far...

TSA Freight Services

Making an out-of-corp freighter run to from Jita to Esescama will be passing through Amarr. Leaving in 10 minutes. Convo me if you have anything you want hauled.

The offer was made to the corporation how would you like to "get stuff moved to our null sec home via an out of alliance freighterbro" as, yet again, the alliance was in a war that prevented the safe movement through high sec. The only stipulation that TSA made to anyone using the service was that they pay for fuel used.

TSA Freight Services - If it absolutely must never arrive

This itself is hilarious as freighters in high sec consume no fuel and as no jumps will be made this was another method to extract ISK from the marks.

In just a few hours TSA has found the Corporation members to be a very profitable source of ISK, so why not take the next step and advertise to the Alliance; so TSA copy/pastes his advert into Alliance chat to see what else could be reeled in.

It worked, shortly after advertising to the alliance TSA received a request to buy and move an Arazu:

Timeline Redghost > Can you bring down an ARAZU?

Timeline Redghost > gimme the prize i'll send money

TSA > Def got room for a cruiser :)

TSA > Contract it to this toon, please. I don't like to link my hauler alt.

Timeline Redghost > meh, i have not it in jita I've to send money to buy it

TSA > You want rigs on it? If just T1 rigs I'll throw them on for free.

TSA > I'm fucking rolling in rigs, produced way too many a month back.

Timeline Redghost > hull

TSA > Kk

Timeline Redghost > should be 154 or like

TSA > Cheapest at 153 in Jita

Timeline Redghost > eve central

TSA > 153.9*

TSA > Send the isk over and I'll drag it out for you.

Timeline Redghost > I send to you and thank, don't forget my name fot tha contract back :)

and another to move implants worth around 100m ISK.

scopered > were are you dropping the stuff off in null or in hs

TSA > I'm stopping off in both

scopered > 1 sec got a little shopping list

TSA > I've stopped in Amarr for a bit, you gonna be long?

scopered > Inherent Implants 'Noble' Repair Systems RS-603 x1

scopered > Eifyr and Co. 'Gunslinger' Motion Prediction MR-703 x 1

scopered > Inherent Implants 'Lancer' Gunnery RF-903 x1

scopered > Inherent Implants 'Lancer' Large Energy Turret LE-1003 x1

scopered > Inherent Implants 'Squire' Energy Management EM-803

scopered > please

scopered > should be about 100 mill give or take

TSA > Fuck it, send 110 for a bit extra for fuel and I'll send you whatever I don't use.

scopered > there normaly about 20 mill each

scopered > and theres 5

scopered > sent m8

A few pilots asked for packages to be bought in to the region from Amarr/Jita and paid for these upfront instead of using Courier Contracts. This all helped to pad out the wallet.

Reeling In A Whale

The advertisement in alliance didn't yield many bites but the corporation advert hooked, what turned out to be, a whale of size to dwarf he accomplishments so far.

TSA opened the conversation request from a new corporation member and the conversation moved to requests for advice on manufacturing ship rigs. TSA strung the member along providing information and advice on how best to setup manufacturing, even including a wildly inaccurate quote of 1.3 billion ISK that would be needed to enable a start to production.

The pilot even wrote:

"You seem like a nice guy, what could go wrong :P"

and shortly thereafter TSA's wallet flashed as the 1.3 billion ISK was transferred.  But wait! He hasn't finished there as later asks for help to move ~100m worth of salvage out of the region to sell in Jita and he offers a battleship to TSA "for use when ratting".

Tally... So Far

At this point TSA was feeling very lucky, previous attempts to the freighter scam had only yielded a few hundred million ISK and here, in one mornings work, he was sitting on nearly two billion ISK, four T2 fit battleships and an Arazu with odds and an indeterminate value of modules and salvage.

After starting the day with just 120,000,000 ISK and a Newbie Ship he was now seeing a very fattened wallet and a collection of ships that could be disassembled and sold for even more profit.

Our last chapter leads us into the wrap up of the scam and the, as TSA put it, “delicious tears” that flowed upon his unmasking.

The Smiling Assassin Quick Links

Episode 1 - Introduction

Episode 2 - History

Episode 3 - Choosing the Target

Episode 4 - Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Episode 5 - The Scammer Revealed

The Smiling Assassin: Choosing the Target

The Aim

TSA has one aim in mind with his next target, profit.

It’s a simple concept but infiltrating the right corporation and gaining the trust of the leadership enough to be put into a position where corp theft was possible as well as being able to extract ISK from other members is not easy.

This requires the real life skill of Social Engineering V and even then there is no guarantee that the infiltration will be successful. This means that finding the right target, with sufficient lax security, is vital.

Targets Aplenty

There are plenty of Alliances and Corporations in New Eden that are ripped for infiltration but TSA had received suggestions from friends that he target one particular Alliance based on their history and their current relationships with other entities in their region.

It didn’t hurt either that TSA had been a frequent visitor to this Alliance’s home systems in the past and his success there had resulted in, what he referred to, the locals “having a hateboner” for him.

To him this isn’t just a scam but a scam with a longer-term metagaming bonus to it and that most important aspect:

Fun!

The Target

This particular alliance is not known for it's "smarts" and certainly has a less than stellar reputation with the other occupants near their space. It's not unknown for them to lose expensive ratting ships or capital industrial ships because pilots aren't even paying attention to the local Intel channels.

In fact intel is something I've heard they do their way and only their way meaning that whereas local constellation residents share an intel channel the members of this alliance are instructed to use only the intel channel for the other areas of the region. At least that was the dictate in 2013 when I found out, it may have changed since then.

TSA has spent time investigating the various corporations making up the alliance and eventually found one that was not stringent in it's background checks and was fairly lax in most basic security measures found in other corporations. 

The Corporation Repubblica Indipendente di Genova of the Yulai Federation Alliance, who reside in seven systems in Northern Providence, now had one more member, only this member wasn’t interested in the well being and success of it’s new home...

Staying Safe

It's worth pointing out at this point that TSA’s alt character has had a shared corp history with his  main’s personal corp and has a bio full of quotes by a pilots in alliances that are red/kos to his new home. If they had checked his API it would have shown a history of transactions with red characters and a contact list full of people who are red.

Fortunately for him this corporation did not ask for an API nor did they perform any form of vetting before allowing him to join. Now he was in he needed to lay low and gather intelligence in order to successfully perform a scam later on. 

Being seen but not being seen is the first step, he would login and remain idle occasionally adding to conversations within his corporation but remaining out of alliance chats. As time passed and he remained in the corporation it gave more legitimacy to his alt as not being a infiltration character. Questions of loyalty would be easier to deflect and any characters who did claim he was a scammer would not be believed.

TSA has also been very lucky in that this particular corporation seem to have inactive leadership, the only semi-active member of the leadership Director, Sarah Barathian, is AFK more than active.

Joining

After deciding on the target he made sure he was ready and moved other character assets nearby in order to support the infiltration alt as needed.

He applied and was accepted in without so much as an API check...

The Smiling Assassin: History

In the Beginning

The Smiling Assassin did not start off in EVE Online as a scammer but after getting sick of ratting for ISK he started building Stabber's and then, before the faction icon was introduced into contracts, he would rename them to Stabber Fleet Issue and sell them by the dozen in Amarr.

Amarr at the time wasn't plagued by as many scams as it is today so it was a very profitable enterprise, so much so that TSA setup an alt whom would be dedicated to scamming and increasing his ISK.

Scamming Corporations

Over time the Stabber scams evolved into corp scams, with early attempts being as simple as asking benevolent CEO's if they could lend him ISK for PLEX. Of course this came with promises to repay any loan but never were.

Remaining in a corporation longer than a few days TSA would ask for roles in order to make use of Corporation Hangers or get access to any Corporation Hangers and in turn POSes (should corporation have one in high sec). This was another hit and miss thing and several times he turned his hand too early and had to leave before being able to steal anything.

However over time his social skills improved and he would be able to not just get ISK from marks but also access to Corporation Hangers which, often contained plenty to steal. In every case, if it wasn't nailed down the TSA would steal it.

The Fairer Sex

TSA has refined his corp theft methods each time he uses it but it isn't his only approach. He's found a female character, who has a permanently broken microphone, to be a very good method of extracting ISK from unsuspecting players who try to flirt and ingratiate themselves.

Pretending to be that elusive of EVE Online player, "the female gamer", has been very profitable with this particular alt has been a member of at least six corporations and has been able to extract from each at least one PLEX and a lot of ships and modules.

Inside the Mind

EVE is played by many different personalities and in many different ways. Talking to TSA you get the feeling that he enjoys the meta-game more than the "spaceships in space" game play and this turns out to be true as I found when I asked him about his play style:

Understanding how I play the game and what will explain why I play the way I play, is that I find the meta-game of EVE infinitely more fun than the actual game itself. I still love PvPing, don't get me wrong I enjoy the game itself, but it's all of the additional facets that aren't present in other games that keep me interested.

I asked what he thought about the PvE or ratting aspect of the game and he replied, rather bluntly, that:

Any kind of ISK-grind absolutely kills the game for me.

It's no surprise, PvE/ratting can be incredibly boring and very tiring to do and again no surprise that he turned to alternative methods of ISK income comprising corp infiltration and scamming.

This leads us nicely into the next chapter of our story, the infiltration and mockery of a, minor, null sec alliance.

The Smiling Assassin: Introduction

Background

I've been in EVE Online for a little over four years now and I've met a lot of players with different play styles. Some are/were industrialists, others PvP focused but the smallest minority also became that loathed personality of EVE Online, the Scammer.

If I was to map my EVE Online contacts somewhere, right in the middle, would be the CEO of my current corporation. It is he who, along with my out of game playing friends, has had the largest input in my in-game activates and the people I know and it is through him that I came to meant "The Smiling Assassin".

The Smiling Assassin

Hereafter referred to as TSA, has an extensive corporation history. He is a very PvP focused player but he has the social skills that he uses to infiltrate a target corporation for profit, usually through awox-ing or asset theft.

When he's not infiltrating a target he's an extremely adept foe in just about any ship and regularly roams through the regions of New Eden looking for targets. 

I have a number of stories that I'll be writing about, with TSA's permission, over the next few weeks where share his adventures as well as lessons that can be learnt from the outcomes of these adventures.

What’s To Come

Which brings us to the present where TSA managed to get an alt into a null sec alliance and has, despite being "outed" at least once, managed to gain a good reputation and work his way in the confidence of his corporation and alliance and is poised to reap the benefits.

He's on this map, he could be in your alliance or even your corporation

Over the following episodes you’ll get to know TSA and see the results of his work:

Episode 1 - Introduction

Episode 2 - History

Episode 3 - Choosing the Target

Episode 4 - Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Episode 5 - The Scammer Revealed

Know Your Scams: Rare Item For Sale

Setup

The 'Rare Item for Sale' scam utilises some of the cheaper officer/deadspace/faction items that can be found on the mrkate. The key to the scam is setting up the contract with one or two items plus other innocus items that make it appear that the price advertised is a really good deal.

Faction items in a contract, must be a good deal

Officer items especially can sell for several billion ISK and seeing one or two for sale in a contract for, what appears to be, the low price of a billion or two can be irresistible.

Once setup the scammer will start advertising in Local, usually something like:

[Multiple Items] Hanger Clearance
[Multiple Items] Corp Closing - Hanger Clearance!
[Multiple Items] Rare Items For Sale!

With the contract linked at the start and a description indicating a firesale or rare item is available.

What Happens Now

The mark comes along and sees, what appears to be an awesome deal for faction/officer or deadspace items that appear to be well under "perceived" market prices. They of course Accept it and find out after price checking that they aren't as valuable as they thought.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Spend a little time reading the details of the contract closely will help you. Verify that the green text shows you receiving what you're expecting. This type of contract implies a ship with rigs and fit, so verify not just that you can see the fit and rigs but also the ship is there.

If you see a contract make sure you block both the issuer AND the person who advertises the contract (they could be different).

Know Your Scams: Contracts for Fitted Ships

Setup

The scammer sets up a contract that appears to contain the modules and support items (e.g. Mining Crystals, Drones etc..) for an Orca in a mining support role. The contract is priced very competitively when you take into account the price of the ship, modules and any extra items.

Example contract setup

The scammer will then actively advertise the deal in Local with the contract linked with some favourable information on the contract.

Local advertisement by known scamming character 

What Happens Now

The mark clicks the link in Local, sees what appears to be a really good deal and clicks Accept.

Look closely at a scam contract and you'll see one thing is missing, the modules are present are as all additional support items but the critical item, the Orca, is no listed. 

The scammer is relying on the mark not checking the details in the contract under You Will Get, by putting often used modules and items they are hoping that they won't notice the lack of Orca.

Variations

There is another variation of this where instead of the missing Orca you will see one of the following:

• A large General Freight Container renamed to Orca
• An Orca blueprint copy

Regardless the scam is still the same, there is no Orca ship so you're overpaying for what is there under the belief that the contract is for an Orca with mining support accessories.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Spend a little time reading the details of the contract closely will help you. Verify that the green text shows you receiving what you're expecting. This type of contract implies a ship with rigs and fit, so verify not just that you can see the fit and rigs but also the ship is there.

If you see a contract make sure you block both the issuer AND the person who advertises the contract (they could be different).

Know Your Scams: Index

Overview

This is the Index page for the Know Your Scams series, as I add new scam posts I'll link them here to this index page so you only have to bookmark the one location.

You may know but there is almost certainly a player, new or old, who doesn't. This page is for those that don't know but want to know.

Posts

1. ISK Doubling/Tripling
2. The Missing Zero's
3. Buying PLEX
4. Blueprints
5. Rage Quitting
6. Margin Trading
7. Hanger Clearance
8. Contracts for Fitted Ships
9. Rare/Officer Item(s) for Sale
10. Mining Operation in WH/Low/Null
11. PLEX Wraps
12. High SP Character for Sale
13. Rare Ship
14. Trade In Station
15. Deadspace/DED/Faction Loot

Posts without links are scheduled for release in the near future.

Rules To Remember

The trap cannot be far away...

Rule #1: In Jita, anything that appears in Local is a scam

Rule #2: See Rule #1

Your experiences at other trade-hubs may vary but I find that these two Rules work extremely well in any system that has a Local channel.

Further Reading

I've found the following blogs/forum posts on scams in EVE Online and they may be worth your time reading them:

• 2011 Forum Post on the Scams in EVE Online
• Write up of one of the first EVE Online scams
• The scam that caused a change in the EVE Online Terms of Service
• List of common scams in EVE Online
• The Definitive Guide To Avoiding Scams In Eve Online

Feedback

If you have any feedback about a post (or posts) please leave it as a comment on the post, if I'm wrong or am out of date I will take the time to update my post. Your feedback is appreciated and valued.

If you have suggestions for new posts on scams in EVE Online please leave a comment on this post.

Know Your Scams: Selling A Ship

Setup

The most often seen example of this scam is the substitution of the Charon freighter with a piece of Carbon. 

The advertisement in local will appear such as:

 "WTS Charon for 1.2b , i need isk now !"

Clicking on the link will show the contract which will contain a Pay section of 1.2 billion ISK but in the Get section will be a piece of carbon:

Yes, I'd like a cheap deal on a Charon

Along comes Mr (or Mrs/Miss) Mark... "oh a Charon for under market price, I've been wanting one of those for a while..."

What Happens Now

As you can see in the screenshot the Info by Issuer clearly states he wants to sell a Charon for 1.2b but looking at the details section there is no Charon only a piece of Carbon.

The price of a Charon at the moment is ~1.325b ISK so the contract advertisement looks like a good deal. The mark will be expecting to get a freighter and they'll see something beginning with C in the Get section so may just go ahead and clicks the Accept button.

Except they'll receive a piece of Carbon, worth 300 ISK instead and see 1.2b ISK in their wallet.

Variations

There is a variation of this, not often seen now due to the freighters being much higher in price, that swaps the Charon for a Onyx Heavy Interdictor and the Carbon for a piece of Onyx Ochre.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Rule #1 in Jita is: anything in Local is a scam to take your ISK.

Rule #2 in Jita is: See Rule #1.

A visual check, and a hold on pressing that Accept button, would easily confirm this as a scam. There is no complex UI to navigate or confuse you. The contract clearly states 1.2b will be paid for a piece of Carbon. Apart from the advertisement in local AND the Info by Issuer at the top of the contract nowhere is Charon mentioned.

Pass on the contract and add the person to your blocked list.

Know Your Scams: ISK Doubling/Tripling

Setup

A message is posted in local advertising, by someone purporting to be either "an alt of a very rich player" or the "alt of a player who wants to give back to EVE", a "multiplication game" whereby you send an ISK amount to the player and they will multiple it and return a larger value. 

The scammer will then write in their bio details of the game along with instructions, in varying font sizes so as to confuse/mislead the reader, how to play:

Reading this bio you can see the "game" breaks down into several brackets depending on how much you send, the more you send the more your money is multiplied and you get back. Some variations even have a link so you can "view their wallet" transactions and see that they are legitimate, that's a more involved version of the scam that is more work for the scammer but does help.

Notice the tiny text at the bottom that states "Amounts not listed are considered donations and there is no refund", so send in 49m or one cent over 300m ISK and it's a donation.

What Happens Now

When the mark sends ISK the scammer will receive it and just keep it, but they'll post in local something like this:

As we can see, we have a real character as they're interacting in Local but they aren't paying out and keeping all monies sent. This tries to show a semblance of respectability by the interaction and how some people do benefit but those that do typically are friends, alts or characters only a few days old.

Update: It's been pointed out that the site eve.apiverified.com is fake and is actually a payout simulator setup by someone in order to help perpetuate this scam. I cannot confirm this but the site is very suspicious.

Variations

There are a few variations of this, typically ISK Doubling or Tripling will be seen although I have seen ISK Quadrupling offered in Amarr but not Jita. The advert and details within the Bio of the scammer will vary but generally the same details will be used (copy and paste anyone?).

A minority have their perported wallet linked for you to view but it will be a man-in-the-middle scam that is a fake wallet journal, that looks like a legitimate one, that is on a site that is setup to appear like its one of the character valuation sites.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Rule #1 in Jita is: anything in Local is a scam to take your ISK.

For simplicity, and this should be remembered, anything that appears in Jita (or any system) Local should be ignored. 2013 was the "Spaceship Barbie "my isk for a single piece of tritanium"" and copycats, this year it is this scam that is the favourite. Like the real life "Microsoft and AOL want to give you FREE money" emails, why in their right mind would someone want to give away all their ISK, it doesn't make sense.

The age of the character will be days and not weeks or months, they've been setup especially for this scam and as such they have no audit trail or history with anyone else so the money received can be laundered quietly and without any links to legitimate characters. 

For ones that include a wallet link, make sure to check the URL or web address you're seeing, most likely it will not be from one of the character valuation sites but a name very similar or mispelt in a minor way.

Know Your Scams: The Missing Zero's

Along with the ISK Doubling/Tripling posts this is one of the most common scams that appear in Local chat in the trade hubs. Like the Rage Quit one this scam relies on the greed and inattention on the part of the Contract Acceptor to work.

Setup

The contract issuer sets up a contract for an item or items, typically PLEX, for an amount that is missing three or more zeros from the actual value. So instead of offering 395m for a PLEX they'll actually only put 39.5m or 395,000.

Once the contract is setup they will then advertise in local that they urgently want to buy "[item(s)] for [x] ISK":

Image credit to Broadscope Corporation Online

A look at the contract shows 395 in the Get and a PLEX in the Pay, so it must be right so I'll just click Accept...

What Happens Now

The PLEX you had in your inventory is traded for the 395,000 ISK that the contract stated was what you would get instead of the actual market value for the item.

Not much else happens, you might laugh or curse but face it, if you Accepted the contract you traded that PLEX not for it's actual market value but for a fraction of that.

How Can You Protect Yourself

As with the Rage Quitting contract, spending a little time reading the details of the contract closely will help you prevent such a mistake happening. The green and red text are right, at a glance but reading the full You Will Get shows that you will be getting far less than you should be.

If you see a contract make sure you block both the issuer AND the person who advertises the contract (they could be different).

Know Your Scams: Buying PLEX

PLEX are one of the most wanted items in EVE Online, they represent game time, in-game ISK as well as being one of the best trade able commodities. 

The market for PLEX along is worth trillions and daily hundreds, possibly thousands, are traded in Jita and other market hubs across New Eden. The price of PLEX has been steadily increasing, with a near 50% increase in price over the past 18 months (from around 480m ISK to just over 720m ISK per PLEX).

Based on this it's no wonder its a prize item for scamming.

Setup

There are multiple variations of the PLEX scam (buying or selling), it might be for one PLEX or multiple, the contract may offer the stated price but you'll be paying for a PLEX but also handing over a PLEX as part of the transaction (shown is the Sell variation below):

One of the many PLEX Contract scam variations

Just like all other scams the setup is simple, a contract is setup stating that a PLEX is wanted and they are willing to pay "x amount" for it. The amount is typically under the current market price so it looks like "a really good deal".

Depending on the variation contract however will be setup to only give a fraction what the advertisement will state (700k instead of 700m) and in some variations you may find that you'll be receiving a PLEX but also providing one along with the ISK (as seen above).

The advertisement in Local will appear simple and innocuous like this:

"No I don't want to sell my item on the market, I'd like to save the fees" 

What Happens Now

The mark sees the advertisement and thinks to them self "Oh discounted PLEX, I'll have me some of that" and clicks on the contract and glances at the details. The Pay section says I'll be paying 700 so it must be million and the Get section shows a PLEX, so it must be the real deal.

The mark clicks accept and then realizes that they've been conned. 

In the Buy variation the user pay change the contract so they'll pay only 700k for the item, as a result you've sold a PLEX for 1% of its true value or they'll offer the actual price (700m) but state that you're actually providing two or more PLEX instead of the one they advertised. The Sell variation has much the same ending, you either pay too much or find you are providing two or more instead of the one you had wanted.

How Can You Protect Yourself

As with all Contract scams, read the details. Spend time verifying that the contract is setup correctly and the right amounts/items are in the right sections. 

The PLEX scams especially are too good to be true, seriously consider yourself in the position of owning a PLEX, under what circumstances would you knowingly sell it for LESS than the market value (even taking into account fees). None that is the answer, no legitimate owner of a PLEX will sell it for less than its worth and even if you did need ISK fast why use a contract when the Buy Orders for PLEX will pay you nearly the market worth.

Know Your Scams: Blueprint Scam

This is another old scam, I remember back in 2010 more of these than the ISK Doubling/Tripling Service ones. As with all contract scams take time to verify the details of the contract before thinking about clicking that Accept button.

It's a variation of the Ship scam where instead of a ship in the contract it is the BPC for the ship/item.

Setup

The scammer will setup a contract containing a basic variant blueprint copy of an faction and/or T2 item/ship that people want, a common example is instead of a Megathron Navy Issue BPC they will use a basic Megathron BPC.

The contract will contain the item, which at a glance loojs like a BPC of the item the mark wants and of course the price for this item will be around the price of the more expensive faction/t2 item/ship.

Example of the Blueprint Scam

They will then advertise the contract in local:

Advertisement in Local for the scam contract

What Happens Now

The mark comes along and sees the advertisement, they click on the link and see the item at a good price and although they look at the item they will get, they see it has the main part of the name and is a copy of the blueprint but not that it is not the item that is being advertised.

They click on the Accept or Place Bid button and, once they win any auction, receive the blueprint but on closer inspection notice it is not a blueprint they were led to believe it was.

How Can You Protect Yourself

As with other contract scams the ruse plays upon the mark not looking at the contract too closely, the use of a similar named, but much cheaper, item would allay some suspicion and the use of a price that is much lower than the actual value screams "awesome deal". The mark may well be inclined to accept the contract without spending the few extra seconds checking the details, after all if they can see the contract so can everyone else in the same system.

To prevent yourself succumbing to this type of scam, spend time verifying that the contract is for the right item, at the right price and that the Get and Pay sections are correct. 99.9% of the time these contracts are too good to be true and common sense dictates that if it is too good and you can't believe your eyes, it is too good and there must be a catch.