Eve Scams and How to Avoid Them

If you are like the thousands and thousands of people like me who play EVE you have no doubt had people try to scam you. Well it's time someone popped in and helped you catch the bastards and eliminated, or at least reduced, the chances of you getting pwned by more than just NPC's.

If you don't know about EVE, the imagine it this way. Think of every game you have ever played, every single one. Ok, now picture those games being shadows of what this game is. EVE is so expansive that you can find a direction to go and before you could even think of getting bored, can open up door number two, and so on. You start off in a little ship and have to fly around popping a couple of pirates. Of course this is after you choose your race and a whole bunch of things you may not get at first. Don't worry about it. Your trial is free so you can get a better idea of what you want to be and do within those two weeks. Then just create a new character and get started fresh with a new view of the game. I will write a separate article on the game later, but this article is designed for one purpose only.

STOP SCAMMERS

Nothing takes the fun out of a game faster than being a victim of someone's BS. Yeah, many of us chalk it up to a learning experience, but whatever you want to call it. If people keep getting away with it, more and more people will do it until we are wading through scams for our gaming experience. So here are some common scams and some not so common scams to watch out for.

#1 Market Scammers

So you need an item, and you decide you want to buy it. You find it in the EVE market and go to buy it without thinking. Next thing you know that little warp core stabilizer just cost your 34 million isk instead of 34 thousand.

What happened?

These are passive scammers. Screw you who want to argue and say that it was the buyers fault for not paying attention. Should they really have to make sure that they are not being ripped off because some jerk figured out a way to get their high priced item through the filters because of a bug? Manipulating the system to exploit money from people is the definition of a scam.

How to avoid it:

Whenever you are looking to buy something click a few of the tabs that let you filter between price, jumps, and amount available. This will let you see in big white letters who is trying to get you to part with your hard earned isk.

Market Scammers also come in the form of buyers. But in all honestly, I barely call this scamming. There you are, sitting in a station, selling all your salvage and loot that has made finding your afterburner nearly impossible. Well watch out before you just go accepting all the offers when you try to quick sell something. Bottom line is there are people who look for items that nobody else is buying in a station just so they can be the buyer at an insane price. Why? Well they primarily do one of two things with it. They will either turn around and resell it, or they will reprocess the item because the end trit, isogen, and other ores are worth more than the product themselves. Watch the percentage whenever you are selling an item. Most of the time you want to avoid selling anything that is being purchased for less than average, and even those that are being sold above average but selling at a low price will generally be worth more if you just reprocess them in the first place. Scam or not, if we all hold our items until they sell at a good price, there will be more value in our items.

#2 Buying Isk.

If you have been on EVE for more than a minute you have seen this garbage:

"Buy EVE Isk. We give bonuses to all purchases. Isk delivered in thirty minutes guaranteed." Then you go to the website, and despite the bad grammar you decide to buy it because, hell, it's cheap enough right?

Wrong NUB!!!

Buying Isk is a big no no. You think EVE people don't catch it when someone who has been playing for two weeks suddenly has two billion isk sitting in their wallet? Oh yes, you may get away with it, but then again, it may cost you a buttload more than that.

My friend Roger went online to buy isk and thought it would be great to show me up. So he went to a website and used his CC which apparently wasn't working right, and then his paypal account to get the isk. Two days later Roger was not a happy boy. Not only did he never get his precious face rub, but instead ended up with a face palm. They took his money, two different ways, and then he had several fraudulent purchases made on his card and didn't find out till the bank realized something was up.

And what could he do? Notify EVE or other EVE members that the place was a rip off while in space? Of course not, he would be admitting to violating EVE's TOS and they would double salt the wound by banning his account, and if he got some pisser with a burr in their tail, his IP.

Don't do it. If you really want to get up that high in ISK as quick as you can, ask people to tag long in their missions when they do level IV's and offer to do all the salvage and cleanup, letting them take what they want by dropping it in a can. They will generally leave you a few mill every mission or so and you can build your ranking while you gain isk.

#3 CORP TAX SCAM

So there you are, fresh out of the academy and ready to get involved when you read the text. "Our Corp now recruiting, we are a total noob corp and will teach you everything you need to know." So you go through the process and you join. But the learning isn't what it should be and you just seem to have a hard time making money. Then one day you notice huge taxes being paid for the stuff you are selling. You think, wow, who am I paying this stuff to? I have actually heard of Corps who charge as much as 50% and love all the noobs who fall for it. Before you join a corp, ask them about their tax rate. Actually, you will do better off hunting a corp down yourself. It may take some time but don't be shy, worst that happens is nothing, best that happens is that you make some awesome online friends.

#4 CAPTIAN OBVIOUS

Your going to find people trying all kinds of scams throughout EVE. Bottom line is EVE is just like life; if it sounds to good to be true, BLOW UP THEIR SHIP. Ok, maybe not, but come on. I have a hard time feeling bad when people fall for some of these.

DOUBLE YOUR ISK. Give me Isk, and I will double it for you. Why? If you can double isk why not double your own and just give isk away if you really can? These guys take small amounts and double them so they can turn around and steal large amounts later. Don't fall for this crap.

FIGHT ME, IF I KILL YOU I WILL GIVE YOU A MILLION ISK. People are under no obligation to do anything of the sort. There you are in your little destroyer, and thinking, what the heck. I get a million isk, then I can get that battle cruiser I want. Then you're popped, they're gone, and you feel used. If you're not ready to lose it, don't risk it. Especially to people you don't know.

If you use some common sense, you will be just fine on EVE. If not, let me know your character name and I'll be happy to take your brains out of your afterburner pipe.

Peace.

Editor's Note: Follow-up article is titled The Biggest EVE Online Scam of All Time