AbsolutGrndZero Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 (edited) Okay, so a guy, we'll call him Donka (not his real character name) posted in General chat WTT Cathar Honor Sword. PST. Okay, so I made him a few offers, before he asked if I had a M-39 Sniper Rifle, he really wanted one and would trade the sword for it. Okay, so I said no but I can get enough to buy one in about an hour. SO, then I told him I'm about 300k short, but I do have a white eyes unlock that is currently around 375k on the GTN (they were at the time) so he agreed to buy that form me for 300k, and voila I had the money for the sniper. Soon as I got it off the GTN, he logged. Which was suspicious to say the least... Was this some elaborate scheme to trick me into buying the sniper rifle from his alt or friend? Furthermore, about ten minutes or so after he logged, I sent him a in-game mail asking about what happened... so a few days later, I get a reply back that he has intermittent internet due to an app he uses on his phone to run internet through it. He couldn't remember how to spell my name, so after a few days he just bought the sniper rifle on the GTN. Sorry for any inconvenience. Really? So, he didn't check his mail in all those 3 days and see the email with my name clearly there? Needless to say I will no longer be doing anything like this again, next time I will just give him the money necessary to buy the rifle on the GTN. Worst part is, the price of the sniper rifle has dropped 50-75% since I bought it. Wonder how long it will take him to notice and return the COD email I sent him with the sniper rifle. So, what do you all think... was I scammed, or was it an honest disconnect etc. like he says? Edited May 28, 2014 by AbsolutGrndZero Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrrly Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Yep, you were scammed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warrgames Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 So let me get this straight. He bought White eyes off him for 300k so you could go to the GTN and buy the sniper riffle? Instead of trading him white eyes + credit difference between the sniper riffle and white eyes and getting the sword? Sound like you got scammed. I don't always check my mail because there is nothing interesting in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle_Robo Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 There's nothing elaborate about this scam, the "trader" and gtn seller are one and the same. Its a simple trick to have you buy his overpriced gtn item. Never ever do a transaction where you have to buy something from the gtn, make it an all credits transaction and tell the person to buy the item off gtn themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbsolutGrndZero Posted May 28, 2014 Author Share Posted May 28, 2014 (edited) Yeah, I won't ever make this mistake again, I just wanted to see what others thought. I did see that the seller was not him, though as I said, it could have been either an ALT or his friend. The elaborate part was that he paid me 300k for the white eyes and also while I sold to others who sent a tell first, he was offering to buy isotope-5s from me when I advertised I had some to sell... Edited May 28, 2014 by AbsolutGrndZero Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kourage Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Report him. They can track his actions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JattaGin Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 OK, I had a long day at work, so maybe I am too tired. But how exactly did the OP get scammed here? Someone bought something from him for 300k, so much I follow. And then what exactly happened? He bought a sniper rifle for the 300k? Man, I feel quite dumb because I really don't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugattiboy Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 IRL it's innocent until proven guilty, but in a online game it's guilty until proven innocent. Report him. EA can do way more than a forum thread ever will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoshkar Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 (edited) OK, I had a long day at work, so maybe I am too tired. But how exactly did the OP get scammed here? Someone bought something from him for 300k, so much I follow. And then what exactly happened? He bought a sniper rifle for the 300k? Man, I feel quite dumb because I really don't get it. The rifle in question is not worth 300k. On my server it has 3 pages flooded, and is worth 3,000 at most I think right now....It is a pretty easy scam to do if you have an alt / second account / friend who is as crooked as you are. Edited May 28, 2014 by Hoshkar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tolunart Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 (edited) OK, I had a long day at work, so maybe I am too tired. But how exactly did the OP get scammed here? Someone bought something from him for 300k, so much I follow. And then what exactly happened? He bought a sniper rifle for the 300k? Man, I feel quite dumb because I really don't get it. Scammer wanted to trade very valuable item (Cathar Honor Sword) for a rifle he couldn't afford to buy himself. OP couldn't buy the rifle so he offered scammer another valuable item (eye color unlock?) so he could afford the rifle to trade for the sword. After buying the rifle the scammer logged off and never traded for the sword. So the scam is, he had an overpriced rifle for sale and talked someone into buying it. He had to buy another item from the scam victim first, but I assume it's easier to sell than the rifle that no one wanted. So the scammer will easily get his 300k back by selling the eye color thing, and the OP is stuck with a rifle that's not worth what he paid for it. Yep, got scammed. If you're going to trade/buy stuff outside of the GTN, make sure it's with someone you trust, or at least someone like a guild member who probably won't just disappear on you without holding up his end of the trade. My first thought is, why couldn't he just sell the sword through the GTN and use the money to buy whatever he wanted? I see a constant stream of "WTS" spam in fleet chat, why should I take a risk like this just because the seller is too cheap to pay the tax and sell it on the GTN? Edited May 28, 2014 by Tolunart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 The rifle in question is not worth 300k. On my server it has 3 pages flooded, and is worth 3,000 at most I think right now....It is a pretty easy scam to do if you have an alt / second account / friend who is as crooked as you are. /Agree the rifle in question is saturated on the market and so not worth much right now. That said..... prices and volume vary on the GTN all the time.. and the burden is on the buyer to figure out current market prices BEFORE buying. Why? Because anyone can offer to sell anything they want for whatever price they want...but it is the players in the market that establish what will be paid for an item at any given point in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Yeah, I won't ever make this mistake again, I just wanted to see what others thought. I did see that the seller was not him, though as I said, it could have been either an ALT or his friend. The elaborate part was that he paid me 300k for the white eyes and also while I sold to others who sent a tell first, he was offering to buy isotope-5s from me when I advertised I had some to sell... I was not there.. so no way to know for sure.... BUT... IMO .. if you were offering items in trade/general chat.... then I think you were just being trolled by the player in question, not scammed per se. I have personally seen players do this to others in chat. Why they do it... only the person doing it knows for sure.... but obviously there is some part of their psyche that is being fed by their actions. Point: you cannot be scammed per se on buying/selling an item. Why? because nobody can force you to buy or sell any item at a price they demand. Trading and GTN-selling are secure by design. You have to willingly over-ride the security features of trade and sell of items in order to be "scammed". All that said.... I would say you learned something by this (by your own admission). That alone is probably worth the hassle you experienced..... since it may save you from a much larger trade/sell catastrophe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOHboy Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 /Agree the rifle in question is saturated on the market and so not worth much right now. That said..... prices and volume vary on the GTN all the time.. and the burden is on the buyer to figure out current market prices BEFORE buying. Why? Because anyone can offer to sell anything they want for whatever price they want...but it is the players in the market that establish what will be paid for an item at any given point in time. what gets me, is if the prices are so low and market is saturated, the only way for this to work is if a) seller owns ALL the items on the GTN and is selling them one at a time. b) buyer ignored all the other pages of an item and chose the most expensive for some reason. At the point where I realized I didn't have the credits and had to jump through 30 hoops to get it, I'd probably just give up and try again another day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tolunart Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 (edited) what gets me, is if the prices are so low and market is saturated, the only way for this to work is if a) seller owns ALL the items on the GTN and is selling them one at a time. b) buyer ignored all the other pages of an item and chose the most expensive for some reason. Every server has its own marketplace. On server A there might be 50 sniper rifles for sale and competition has reduced them to dirt cheap prices, while on Server B there might only be two, both sold by the same person through different alts. He might appear to be competing by undercutting his first listing by a small amount, and try to scam someone into buying the lower listing by making them think it's a good deal. Edited May 28, 2014 by Tolunart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Every server has its own marketplace. On server A there might be 50 sniper rifles for sale and competition has reduced them to dirt cheap prices, while on Server B there might only be two, both sold by the same person through different alts. He might appear to be competing by undercutting his first listing by a small amount, and try to scam someone into buying the lower listing by making them think it's a good deal. Yeah... I do see people doing this. They take advantage of there being no listings for an item currently up.. and then they list high and then undercut themselves with an alt at a lower price trying to bait people who are not aware of what the current market prices are for an item on the server. Smart buyers know what current market prices are though.. and just wait out the absurd list prices...because they know in a day or two prices will return to market rates for the item on the GTN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOHboy Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Every server has its own marketplace. On server A there might be 50 sniper rifles for sale and competition has reduced them to dirt cheap prices, while on Server B there might only be two, both sold by the same person through different alts. He might appear to be competing by undercutting his first listing by a small amount, and try to scam someone into buying the lower listing by making them think it's a good deal. If i'm the only person selling something on the GTN at that time, the price is what I set it at...if it sells is upto the buyer. If seller generates artificial demand to unload one item its a scam and will happen from time to time if all things align i. e nobody else is selling that item at that instance, and somebody is willing to buy it for some other reason. In this instance it sounds like a pretty difficult scam to generate and find someone to fall for it, without having some significant risk and effort for what amounts to very little in return. I can't imagine this being sustainable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivanhedgehog Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Scammer wanted to trade very valuable item (Cathar Honor Sword) for a rifle he couldn't afford to buy himself. OP couldn't buy the rifle so he offered scammer another valuable item (eye color unlock?) so he could afford the rifle to trade for the sword. After buying the rifle the scammer logged off and never traded for the sword. So the scam is, he had an overpriced rifle for sale and talked someone into buying it. He had to buy another item from the scam victim first, but I assume it's easier to sell than the rifle that no one wanted. So the scammer will easily get his 300k back by selling the eye color thing, and the OP is stuck with a rifle that's not worth what he paid for it. Yep, got scammed. If you're going to trade/buy stuff outside of the GTN, make sure it's with someone you trust, or at least someone like a guild member who probably won't just disappear on you without holding up his end of the trade. My first thought is, why couldn't he just sell the sword through the GTN and use the money to buy whatever he wanted? I see a constant stream of "WTS" spam in fleet chat, why should I take a risk like this just because the seller is too cheap to pay the tax and sell it on the GTN? and half the time the guy selling wants more than they are asking on the GTN anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoshkar Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 and half the time the guy selling wants more than they are asking on the GTN anyway. These ones make me laugh, and are very fun to call out in trade chat. They tend to stop trying to sell their over priced junk pretty fast and toss it on the GTN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XiamaraSimi Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 (edited) These ones make me laugh, and are very fun to call out in trade chat. They tend to stop trying to sell their over priced junk pretty fast and toss it on the GTN. Got a good laugh at a guy selling (attempting to anyhow) Krayt Dragon Pearls on the fleet the other day for 1m per. Any community with currency will have scammers, from "Professsional Beggars", to "G.I.R.L.S" offering to ERP for creds. Just have to be aware, and unfortuneately, be skeptical of everyone unless proven otherwise. Edited May 28, 2014 by XiamaraSimi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOHboy Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Got a good laugh at a guy selling (attempting to anyhow) Krayt Dragon Pearls on the fleet the other day for 1m per. yeah, the rare != expensive. Used to see this alot with the other low level gear/mats. Like they expected people level 15 or lower to have 100,000's of credits (before alts were supper common). and still do from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daekarus Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 I don't do anything except direct trades or gtn transactions. And I generally ignore the WTS spam in fleet, because there is no reason I should bypass the gtn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Report him. They can track his actions. It's caveat emptor on this one, I don't think the scammer actually broke the ToS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZahirS Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 It's caveat emptor on this one, I don't think the scammer actually broke the ToS. Yes actually very smart scammer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Wicked Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Report him. They can track his actions. Report him for... What exactly? The OP was the gullible one truth be told. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scyphon_ Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 replying to op..yes it happens, seen it on Bastion more than a few times... If its to good to be true, it probably is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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