To ZOS - I have a suggestion for how you could deal with the scammers.

Azurephoenix999

I tried to talk about this in another thread but some guy came along and started causing trouble, causing mods to lock it for disruptive behavior.
I'm reposting in the hopes that the developers actually see this thread before the same guy shows up and gets the thread shut down again.

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You banned trading from the forums because you couldn't deal with complaints about people getting scammed. The best way to solve a problem is to figure out how it happens in the first place.

Scamming via trading is possible and very easy within ESO.
Here is how to do it:

1. Invite someone to trade, promising them a super rare item in exchange for a few of their less-rare stuff.
2. Place your item in any open slot and wait for them to place theirs.
3. Wait for them to submit their items and then remove your own item and submit.
4. They give you all their stuff and you get nothing.

A similar method if the guy refuses to submit his trade until you submit yours (requires fast fingers):

1. Invite someone to trade, promising them a super rare item in exchange for a few of their less-rare stuff.
2. Place your item in any open slot and wait for them to place theirs.
3. Submit your item, making them think that you intend to go ahead with the trade.
4. Go back before they have a chance to submit their items, remove yours, then resubmit. If you do it fast enough, they will submit before they've realised what you've done.
5. They give you all their stuff and you get nothing.

I was in Riften with a bunch of guys, I witnessed people using this tactic successfully on people at least a dozen times.

You know what you could do to stop this?

For the first method:
Make it so that if Player A has submitted, Player B changing anything will cause Player A to be forced back and need to resubmit.

For the second method:
Add a cooldown of sorts to the back button. If Player A (the scammer) goes back, changes something, then tries to resubmit, they will be unable to until a second or two has passed.

Added security:
Add a similar cooldown to changing things in general. If either player changes anything, a clearly visible bufferring icon could be shown for about a second. While the icon is visible, neither player can submit(but they can still change things about their trade). This is in case the scammer tries the first method but removes their item BEFORE the other player submits (a loophole I found).

The result for both methods plus the added security:
This way, if they remove the item, the other player will have the time to notice and back out before the scammer can rob them of all their stuff.


As this is by far the most common and easiest way of scamming someone, having these mechanics in place would significantly reduce the number of successful scams in the game.




Another fairly common method of scamming is having people pay up front for a werewolf/vampire bite and not being given the service afterwards. It can also be done backwards, with the player promising payment afterwards, receiving the bite, and leaving without paying.

Unfortunately, since it is impossible for the money and the bite to be given to the other player at the same time (like in a normal trade) there is very little that can be done about this one. My advice would be to simply raise awareness that this does happen so that players are less likely to fall for it.

The same should be done for exchanging real money for in-game items. You can't stop people doing it, but raising awareness of possible scammers can help stop people making huge mistakes like this.