Pyramid/Ponzi schemes.
They exist in EVE but aren’t common because they’re so obvious. Don’t be dumb and you won’t get caught out.
Contract Scams
Painfully, painfully obvious. So obvious, you’d have to wonder how anyone could be so utterly vacant in the head department they would be fooled by something like this. But I have to imagine that it works every now and then. Otherwise they wouldn’t be the most common scam in EVE. I’m talking of course about contract scams. Contracts are alternatives to buy-orders. Hang-overs from the ancient ESCROW contract system when EVE was released. Contract scams can be basically summarised as follows:
Contract Value Scams: “WTB 2xPLEX, 1.2 BILLION!” with a linked contract trading 2 PLEX for 1.2 million or similar. Count the zeros. Counting the commas helps too.
Item Exchange Scams: “WTS 2xPLEX, 1.2 BILLION!” with a linked contract where you pay 1.2 AND give over 2x PLEX. Look at the “You will pay” and “You will get” text.
Name Scams: “WTS Gnosis 50m!” with a linked contract in which you pay 50m and get 1xGneiss (the rock). Often buried in a bunch of modules
Location Scams: “Make a huge profit – 1 jump away”. Linked contract is for a station a few jumps away and local buy orders are far above this. The scammer is waiting to suicide gank your ass as soon as you go to pick it up..
Courier Scams: Similar to location scams. Courier contracts with unidentified contents and high collateral. The scammer/pirate will watch as you accept the contract then suicide gank your transport.
You could block 50 contract scammers a day and have just as many to block the next day. They’re just that common. Simple solution is never trust a contract unless it’s private and from someone you trust implicitly.
ISK Doubling
You’ll see these cretins in any significant trade hub. They all follow the same pattern and are easy to spot. The premise of the scam is that if you send a sum of ISK to the doubler, they will double or triple (or more) that sum. If you weren’t able to spot this as a scam immediately you should probably finish your first year in primary school before trying EVE again. I’ll spell it out for you though:
Nobody is obligated to give you free ISK. Nobody.
These scammers often follow an extremely predictable pattern: Carbon copy character Bio’s and advertisements. Here's a typical one:
First off: Very few people in EVE could even hope to earn 100million a day, let alone 9 BILLION. The only players that could even possibly hope to crack 1 billion a day are high-volume market traders and botters. The scammer will also claim that you didn’t follow the description in their bio or was afk when you sent the ISK. Alternatively, they’ll claim they were spammed by people sending 1 ISK and hence can’t see your deposit. This is all pretty obvious stuff but amazingly some players still fall for it.
This is where ISK doubling gets insidious though. Some doublers will honour small amounts of ISK in the hopes of you sending a second, larger amount. So far, not so insidious Phoenix.
Well. Do you know about API key’s? An API key can be generated for any character. This key can be input into websites and apps. The key allows character information to be pulled. This includes your wallet transactions. Recently, ISK doublers have been using the shell website eve-api.com (redirects to battle-clinic.com). This website will be in the scammer’s bio or ad to “help prove they are legit” (see our friend Scooter's bio above). This is the use of a legitimate game mechanic in an effort to trick people who trust that API information can’t be falsified. They’re right of course – API information can’t be falsified; except that an API isn’t even being used here.
The page is set up to look like an API reader, updating half-hourly showing the scammer’s transaction history. They invite you to send 1 ISK to prove it. The scammer just picks and chooses what transactions to show and has 30 minutes to do it. They can fake transactions or show just your 1 ISK donation if they wanted to. APIs = useful, fake API websites = scams.
Lastly, I have to give special mention to a doubler named Erotica1. Credit where credit is due – at the moment, it’s one of the most well thought-out, long-running scams in EVE. Erotica1 is just like any other doubler, but has all this “proof” that they are the “only legitimate ISk doubler in EVE”.
There are multiple (at least 5) separate forum threads in the Eve-O Crime and Punishment forum supporting Erotica1. The first thing to understand is that C&P has a massive proportion of trolls. The lengths that some characters go to for their schadenfreude fix is actually rather pathetic. Whether they had ISK doubled, small amounts doubled, want to troll, or have been bought-off, people will throw their support at Erotica1, trying to over-rule screenshot evidence to the contrary (CBF finding the link). If you claim you got scammed by Erotica1 be prepared to be inundated with “you didn’t follow the rules” responses, but no explanation of which rule you broke.
Now, trolls, before you think or comment “Haha Phoenix, I bet you got scammed”; No. I have never fallen for an ISK-doubling scam. I will admit I ALMOST started giving Erotica1 the benefit of the doubt when I saw some well-known names throwing their support into the ring, but it doesn’t take much to see through that. Psychotic Monk does a lot of great work when it comes to getting newer players involved in safaris/AWOXing, but certainly isn’t above tricking people dumb enough to send ISK to a doubler, while taking a nice little commission on the side.
Margin Trading/Buy-Order Scams
Very similar to contract scams. When you put up a buy order in EVE, the market will hold the ISK on the buy order in escrow (to make sure you can pay the buy order when it’s filled) Margin Trading is a wonderful little skill that reduces the amount held in escrow to 24% (at level V). If you see something like this
This particular contract isn't the best example but you should check the disparity between the top buy-order amount and the next item down? Seems too good to be true doesn’t it. Funny that. Also look at the number next to the price – minimum order quantity. How many shiny expensive items are available in that contract?
Recruitment Scams
You might have heard of the Goons/Goonswarm etc. They’re a major power bloc in nullsec space. If you’re a newbie with delusions of grandeur and want to join the Goons or any other nullsec alliance, there is usually an easy-to-find, publically available website that will tell you how to sign up. Goons are also famous for recruitment scams.
Contacting or being contacted by a recruiter in-game is a sure-fire way to get your ass scammed. Players will claim to be a recruiter for a corporation you want to join. They’ll ask for a “security deposit” or similar to facilitate your application. If you handed over any ISK/assets for this deposit, then congratulations, you just made a non-refundable donation. Asshat. Certainly don’t give them more money/assets. Just accept the loss and move on. Sometimes, the recruitment scam will involve you shifting your assets to a corp-controlled/low-/null-sec system for some good old fashioned reverse-safari’ing (see below/other nef activities). One relevant link of literally hundreds.
Mining Permits/Protection Rackets
The New Order and James315 are considered by a lot of players to be greifers. They bump and suicide gank miners, which in itself is hilarious because of how upset the miners get. The roleplay the New Order uses is pretty funny too, although some of its members are more than a little shite at roleplay or overzealous and just end up sounding like tryhards desperate for anything they can construe as tears.
But what’s the “scam” component? For the low, low cost of 10million ISK you can obtain a mining permit and be protected from suicide ganking/bumping! It’s a scam because just like ISK doublers and every other scammer in EVE, you’re relying on the scammer’s honesty – something they’re not exactly known for. There’s no reason a random person, New Order agent or NO alt/in disguise won’t just ignore your permit and blow the bejesus out of your un-tanked barge anyway.
Some entrepreneurial individuals have also taken to selling “protection” from bumpers or even themselves. For example; well-known freighter gankers won’t gank you if you pay them a licensing fee – just so long as you trust their word… riiiiight. If you still haven’t seen the common theme on this page then there’s no hope for you.
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