Talk:Scam/Archive 2

Buying Faction

Did not see it anywhere here, so: User said "need ppl to dump faction to my guild will pay 2k per 5k donated". Clear scam, as there will be no proof of "donation". Right? 74.78.0.55 01:12, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

That's not a clear scam, there are people who pay for that stuff. →[ »Halogod (talk)« ]← 01:14, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) As long as there is only one person donating at a time, you'd be able to see the guild faction going up in the alliance panel. You have to be an actual member of the guild, though, you can't guest and donate faction. -- FreedomBound 01:15, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

which, still is not proof. Their alliance faction goes up, they can say "that wasn't your faction, that was someone else". Having to join the guild is irrelevant, as after they receive the dump, they could just kick the dumper. Still seems 100% scam. I can understand that people would *want* to buy/sell faction, but neither respondent mentioned an game mechanism to make it work. I'll admit that there are honest people out there; however, the Scam page is about the dishonest people. 74.78.0.55 19:50, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it's a possible scam. Yes, people pay for faction donations. No, you can't say that someone advertising to purchase faction is a definite scam. If you don't want to do it, don't do it. If you do it and get scammed, report them. -- FreedomBound 21:31, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Inflated Price WTB Scams/Ripoffs

This falls under the, "If it's too good to be true, then it's probably a scam," rule, but I see it fairly regularly. I don't see this particular con listed here already.
There's been a scam tactic in game for a while now where one player will advertise to buy an item for an absurdly high price. Another player will start advertising to sell the item for a lower, yet still absurdly high price. The idea is to trick people into overpaying for the item, thinking they can go resell it to the first player. Of course, the first player will not actually buy the item he's asking for. The fake buyer will stand around Kamadan spamming to buy a gold or green item for something like 200 ectos, when the item in question is normally traded for ~5k. If you show them the exact item they're asking for in trade, they don't pay. Either they don't respond at all, or they make up some reason why the one you're offering isn't exactly what they're looking for. Another player starts offering to sell the item in question for only 50 ectos. Sometimes the buyer will be out of the district at the moment, and other times they'll be spamming next to each other.
To be clear, I'm not talking about people that offer 10x "normal price" to just buy a mod and get out of Kamadan ASAP. These are cases where the buy ads are offering 100x or more the "normal price."
I see teams doing this at least once every couple months. I sent a support ticket about one pair over a year ago, but I've seen multiple teams trying the same con from time to time. Support wrote me back with their findings (which is a weird thing to do) saying they couldn't prove the two accounts were working together. Punishable or not, this is still a fast way for folks to lose a lot of money trying to go for that resale. If you see someone offering an insane amount of money for a fairly cheap item, DO NOT spend any of your money or trade any of your items to buy one to resell. The insane offer is probably fake, and you're not likely to get your money back for the one you buy to resell. LicensedLuny 11:29, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

oldnews.jpg. -Auron 11:39, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

There is a weird correlation between those who have lots and lots of money and those who can't hold on to it very well. | 72 (UTC) 15:16, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

My apologies if I implied this was new or if it required a particularly cunning nature to avoid. I did not mean to imply either. I thought this page was to help folks avoid scams; I see this one pretty often in game and didn't see it mentioned here. That's all. If the powers that be don't think it's worth mentioning, I won't pitch a fit if this section is deleted/archived or whatever the standard around here is. LicensedLuny 22:38, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I intend to totally rewrite/cleanup this page (see some of my contributions for examples... uh... there aren't many and they're not too recent) when I find the time, possibly tonight or tomorrow. I generally root through the talk for each page I rewrite (but it's hard for this one since half the talk and the history are people who have just been scammed saying something like "Warnings do not be watchedout if guys should offer lots of monnies"). If there is a place for this among the general or specific examples I will include it. | 72 (UTC) 23:54, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Though the current article about scam is quite completed, I think it would be a good idea to make a special article in Wiki about players market, I mean the typical trade manipulations, market price manipulations and some kinds of psychological pressure. Strictly speaking, they can't be counted as scam and they are not reflected here, but they are intentional and very common nowadays (I have been caught several times too).

For example, one type of manipulation/pressure when you buy/sell an item, rare on market, is: "Minute, I ask my guildies about price", after that an offer can be changed significantly; you can't verify whether those conversations really had a place or not. Another type of pressure is: "I just saw on GW auction, the last price is..."; checking the validity of this statement is not easy because you need to open Web browser and find the auction page with results of such trades (note that there are several online GW auctions). Also I saw several times the things looked like attempts to manipulate the market prices using the multiple WTB or WTS bids with similar, but very far from the mean, prices; apparently the bids were made by one player from multiple accounts. In current market system, when a bid appears and disappears, it's almost impossible to check whether it was a price of real transaction or a fiction... --Slavic 06:30, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

That's a standard real-life negotiation technique. "I have to check with my wife/husband about that price. Oh, s/he sez..."

I think what you are suggesting is a guide to trading (rather than about scams) and the first two rules are: (1) do your own research before you trade and (2) decide beforehand how much you are willing to pay/part with. You don't want to depend on the other trader for information — they have a vested interest in concealing, exaggerating, or even lying. People sometimes have an inflated sense of their own items, which also affects what they tell you.

However, I must say that 99% of the people with whom I've traded have been reasonable, honest, and even helpful.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 09:18, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

May 2010 rewrite/cleanup

Finished rewriting/cleaning up the article. As with all such projects, you are invited to make changes and suggest improvements, though I ask that they be discussed or at least mentioned here so we can arrive at a final page everyone agrees to. | 72 (UTC) 04:18, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

May not of been you, but someone spelt the word "scam" wrong, and instead put "scem" Lottia Saurus 17:09, 23 June 2010 (UTC)

Whoever's mistake it was, we should "a scem" what it means ;) | 72 | 18:21, 23 June 2010 (UTC)

^ old but epic. --76.22.247.48 23:48, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Group reward collect

well, just did a droks run and something interesting. someone in the group pmed the other ppl that he would collect the payment for the run and trade it to me as one big chunk. now since it was pm, i didnt know this was going on and no one in the group bothered saying in team chat. anyways, at the end of the droks run, everyone just left. when asked about it, they said they paid the other guy and he was going to pay as a group. when pming that guy, he blocked me.

so.... this might be some sort of running scam.

Sorry you lost run money like that.

I hope you reported the other player. ANet will be able to find out exactly what went on and take appropriate action. I can't imagine that I would agree to pay another player for a service without checking with the actual runner...and certainly without discussing it in team-chat — as a scam, it seems to have limited opportunity to succeed. Let us know if you find out anything more.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 19:51, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

a scam like this is interesting though. u literally make money out of nothing. lets say u enter a droks run not needing the run, get the money half way through, u then leave. runner gets screwed since he gets no money. everyone else feels akward since they've paid already but are then technically stealing. and u yourself get a ton of fast free money without doing anything. this is actually a really really evil scam. EEEVVVEEEELLL anyways.... wiki should probably update to add this scam. Nibelhim 23:13, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

It's close enough to the run scam (this guy got money out of a run even though he didn't do the run) not to add a whole new one, but I'll see if I can add a sentence about it to the run scam section | 72 | 23:59, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

pink dye

noticed a few scams going around with this pink dye. some ppl are claiming that things dyed pink that are customized can now be recustomized and are selling a few items like oppressor weapons dyed pink and stuff.i havnt really bothered checking, but then again, this seemed like a really obvious scam till a guildy actually bought a customized oppressor focus for 100k.132.205.102.79 14:35, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

Once an item is customised, It is impossible to trade. When you dedicate an Oppressor's Weapon or Destroyer Weapon, it is permanently customised TO THE CHARACTER rather the account. An example of this, My Ritualist has an Oppressor's Staff dedicated at the hall of monuments, no other Ritualist other than Razah or Xandra on that character can use that. On the other hand I have a Oppressor Bow which hasn't been dedicated and I can swap that between characters and lend it to my wife for her Ranger. I am not quite sure how your guildie managed to buy a customised focus item. The Pink dye doesn't make any difference other than making the color of the weapon/focus pink.

You can trade customised items. However, and this is the point of the scam, the buyer cannot use them. Cynique 04:24, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Some things that seem like scams are actually..

Well, a lot of times i've noticed that what people are considering scams, especially for dungeons and things aren't really scams so much as the rest of the team just being asses. An example is the deep. After killing Kanaxai, the chest is still in a degen zone, monks grab their loot and leave, then as someone with dp or lower health try to get their drops, they die due to the degen. This isn't a scam so much as the healer just being ass. Another example would be the squad finishing a quest or something, then someoen zones before everyone can get reward. It's not as big of a deal, but it can get annoying. No scam there, just lack of curtasy.

And indeed these are not on the list | 72 | 23:03, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Zaishen service

A lot of people are offering stuff like 'for every zaishen key you use i will use 1 of mine and you get all the drops', or some of 'for 2 z keys you use you get 1 ecto from me'...I haven't tried any of these for the obvious reasons,can anyone confirm these are scams,someone who tried...there are a lot of these ppl in GToB if anyone is interested95.180.76.188 13:04, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Actually, there are some people who are really doing this. Apparently there are some that are even doing 3 for 1.

There are several threads on Guru of such trades going on. I would recommend going for one of them, so you can see a list of references, rather than just take a chance on someone in GToB.-- Pyron Sy 02:33, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

This is a variation of the "drop it on the ground to trade" scam, prettied up by using zkeys and ectos.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 03:43, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Many of the Zaishen services are legit, I've used a few myself and never had a problem with them, many people doing them offer partial payment for they keys in advance which you then give back after they have used the keys and you get your items, just one of the few ways of making it safer.

Offering a transaction of any kind is not a scam. Even offering to sell an account isn't a scam, despite its being against the EULA. Scams are misleading the other party by lying to some degree about a possible transaction. --76.22.247.48 23:54, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't see how 'you use one key, I use one, you get both drops' can possibly be a scam. It's an Explorable Area, so your chest drop is assigned to you, his to him. You pick yours up, he picks his up. So far, so good. Now he just maps out. You have used a key that you were presumably going to use anyway, and you have your chest drop. The only 'loss' is that he kept the drop he said he'd give you, right? So he's a lying so-and-so who got something he really wanted and didn't follow through with his original offer.

It can only be a scam if he asked for something from you in exchange ahead of time to make up for him giving you the drop, and then didn't give it to you. (And then it's you being dimmer than a very dim person for agreeing to do it not as a single trade after getting the drops.) Cynique 16:43, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

I've got a friend who uses her keys this way, I watched it once and she got a Voltaic Spear as her first drop. True story. Some of them might be scams, but a lot of them are legitimate and you can spot the difference from the comments on guru.--neshot. 16:59, 3 January 2011.

I have not used any of these myself, but I'll cast another vote that this is a case of "not necessarily a scam." The people offering these services usually seem to be folks who are trying to level up their Zaishen rank title and don't care as much or at all about the drops from the chest. They offer such services to customers who don't care at all or as much about their own zrank but do want drops from the chest. From what I've read on the Guru service threads, most do require that they're the ones who open the chest for every key used. (Otherwise, they don't get points on the zrank title.) Yes, that does leave the chest drop assigned to them, and there is a potential to scam with such services. However, I think it's unreasonably pessimistic and misleading to make any claim like all of these services are scams. The Guru service threads have been around for years, and I've never seen anyone leaving feedback in edits to their posts requesting the service who claim to have been scammed. I'll second the above recommendation that anyone using such services arrange it through some kind of fansite where the player offering the service puts their public reputation on the line as a guarantee against any dirty dealings. I'd also recommend that anyone trying such a service for the first time starts with a smaller batch of keys, so if there is a scam at least not too much money is lost. With anything like this that requires trusting the other party to make good on his/her end of the deal, it's prudent to type out the details of the arrangement and both parties' agreement in team chat and take screenshots. If you wind up scammed, at least then you have a record to send support showing beyond any doubt that the player intentionally scammed you. LicensedLuny 23:09, 4 January 2011 (UTC)