PSA: Scammers Stalking Guild Stores, I lost 400k.

Alanar

Here's a warning to the ESO community about a current in-game scam.

I was contacted on two successive days by a player who wanted to buy a high-value item (Attunable Blacksmithing Station) but wanted to trade in person to save the guild store fees. I had one on hand, so I agreed. They then grouped with me, met up, I placed the item in the trade window, they put in the gold, and then I submitted and they canceled. This repeated twice (I thought the trade system was glitching as it has in the past) and then I submitted before they put in the gold and they ran off with the item. They then immediately ignored me so I couldn't whisper them and haven't been heard from since.

I know this sort of cheating has gone on in the past, however this player showed a higher degree of sophistication than most. They specifically targeted me because I had a high-value item listed on a top guild trader (ETU on PC / NA), and they messages me on two consecutive days. If they did this once to me, I can only expect that they will continue to do this to others until their crimes catch up with them. For now, I would recommend never trading with strangers directly, and instead using guild stores for sales to avoid scams.

For ZOS, I have reported this player using the in game system, I hope you address this promptly. In either case, I'll report the results of my support experience here as well.

Alanar

Update, at least 5 other players have been scammed by this player in the past few days, so this is an active scam. If you are affected by a scam like this, please report it to ZOS immediately.

@ZOS, for reference, my support ticket number is 170604-004660.

Update - 6 Jun 2017
Here's the response from support. Looks like players who have been scammed should not expect any recompense from ZOS.

Greetings,

The player market in The Elder Scrolls Online is a "buyer beware" market, and we are unable to provide any compensation or reimbursement for a trade or mail scam that occurred in-game.
If you are playing on a console and wish to take further action, you may submit a griefing report to Sony Support if playing on the PlayStation 4 or report the abuse to Microsoft Support if on the Xbox One. Players on the Xbox One also have the option to submit a player review against a player’s reputation through their profile. Please visit either Sony or Microsoft’s support sites for more information on how to submit a report.
Thank you for understanding
Best Regards,
Elder Scrolls support

geonsocal

name and shame....name and shame...name and shame...

name sounds like, rhymes with?

you can only wish for the worse for folks like this...think of the big black hole where there should be a soul...

Alanar

geonsocal wrote: »

name and shame....name and shame...name and shame...

name sounds like, rhymes with?

you can only wish for the worse for folks like this...think of the big black where there should be a soul...

I'll avoiding naming in the interest of keeping the thread open, though I definitely named him in the support ticket, and also put out a PSA in zone and to the major trading guilds. In any case, this type of behavior is unacceptable, can easily be confirmed by ZOS by checking the chat and trade logs, and in my opinion should result in a permanent ban. We'll see if that actually happens.

Cpt_Teemo

This is why a centralized server wide AH would be best, to stop scammers

Invincible

It's not a scam if you hit submit

kargen27

Kyle1983b14_ESO wrote: »

This is why a centralized server wide AH would be best, to stop scammers

Exactly how would that stop scammers? They would just go to the centralized list see who has the most expensive stuff then do exactly what they did here. Basically it would put all the targets in one place.

MLGProPlayer

Kyle1983b14_ESO wrote: »

This is why a centralized server wide AH would be best, to stop scammers

How would a central AH prevent this from happening?

LordSkyKnight

Invincible wrote: »

It's not a scam if you hit submit

Yea it is. Stop being dense. He obtained the item through trickery, it was a scam.

Royaji

I mean yeah, it sucks but his actions were not illegal. ESO has a very decent trade UI. And they sctually bothered to create unique icons for items to make scamming via trade window harder.

So why the hell would you press confirm before he put the money in? You basically traded this crafting station to him for nothing.

Using guild stores is fine but using your brain might actually help a lot more...

SydneyGrey

And here comes the Troll Parade ...
*Rolls eyes*

StormWylf

Royaji wrote: »

I mean yeah, it sucks but his actions were not illegal. ESO has a very decent trade UI. And they sctually bothered to create unique icons for items to make scamming via trade window harder.

So why the hell would you press confirm before he put the money in? You basically traded this crafting station to him for nothing.

Using guild stores is fine but using your brain might actually help a lot more...

What's with all the negativity? The OP is giving a warning to the community, nothing wrong with that.

Drummerx04

If you do not trust the person you are trading with (i.e. he/she is not someone you have good relations with), then put your items in the list and then wait for their items. Literally wait like 10 seconds before taking any action after that, scammers wait for you to make a mistake.

Another reasonable way to tell whether someone is looking to scam is to ask whether they will take a COD, if they agree then they are probably genuinely interested in getting the item fairly, so an in person trade is less risky.

Sheva I 7 I

lol you gave the item away, how is this a scam? Pay attention to what you doing maybe?

Cpt_Teemo

Sheva I 7 I wrote: »

lol you gave the item away, how is this a scam? Pay attention to what you doing maybe?

True words of a scammer ^

Fyi =


scam
/skæm/
noun
1.
a stratagem for gain; a swindle
verb scams, scamming, scammed
2.
(transitive) to swindle (someone) by means of a trick

brandonv516

I don't know about anyone else but when I sell anything of high value I am extra cautious to see that everything is in order.

I'd suggest you do the same so scammers can't scam. Or don't.

ArchMikem

That's why whenever I'm selling, I wait for the person I'm trading with to submit their gold first. For someone like me, selling a sealed crafting writ for 80k or 90k is a helluva high ticket item, so yeah, I made sure they submitted first.

disintegr8

Always people trying to victim blame.

If someone agrees to give me money for an item and I give them the item but they do not give me the money, that is theft/fraud/deception - full stop. Just the same as if I take their money but do not hand over the item. It has nothing to do with who gave who what first, it has to do with breach of contract.

If I do agree to trade with someone and we have agreed via text chat on what for and how much for, I screen shot that text chat before I trade. Personally i prefer mail with COD, as the worst that can happen is they don't pay and I have to wait 30 days for the item to be returned.

Morgul667

That's lame

Judas Helviaryn

This is a very old scamming technique used in many games with trade windows like ours. I'm glad you put a PSA out for this, because while a good portion of the playerbase is wary of this activity, I'm starting to realize more and more newer players are ignorant to these techniques.

That being said, I'm one of those people who will contact a guild store merchant if I have a counter offer, and I prefer to do trades in person as well, to avoid mail issues as a seller.

If someone's acting edgy, or trying to rush you, or constantly ending the trade before it finalizes, chances are good that they're trying to manipulate you.

AzraelKrieg

Had one of my friends/guildmates contacted by someone in game saying they wanted to buy the item they had listed in a guild store at a higher price than was listed but didn't want the 10% to go to the guild. That immediately raised a red flag. If someone offers to buy and item from you that you have listed in the store at a higher price than you listed it, either turn them down or send it to them via in-game mail with COD. Easiest way to not get scammed. They can't claim the item from the mail unless they send the gold.

essi2

Never trust people who insist on trading in person.

starkerealm

Kyle1983b14_ESO wrote: »

This is why a centralized server wide AH would be best, to stop scammers

How exactly?

Alanar wrote: »

...but wanted to trade in person to save the guild store fees.

Oh, look at that, he could have listed it in the guild store, but chose not to. A global AH wouldn't have done anything about this, when the participant chose not to use the guild store in the first place.

starkerealm

essi2 wrote: »

Never trust people who insist on trading in person.

This. If you're in a trade guild with a public Kiosk, and someone's looking for a thing? List it and tell them. Sure, some people never follow through, but you will get your money if it sells.

juxe

Thanks for the warning, good to know.

Huyen

Kyle1983b14_ESO wrote: »

This is why a centralized server wide AH would be best, to stop scammers

Scamming will still happen, even with an fully server-wide AH. Seen it loads in WoW.

zassasaurus

Yeah I had someone offer to buy an item today outside of the store to avoid the 10% store charge, someone in my guild had just warned us this guy was trying to scam people so I just ignored them. Obviously they were just going through the traders in rawl'kah targeting people with high priced items for sale.

Molec

Toxic community

Epona222

Molec wrote: »

Toxic community

Honestly I think a lot of the community is pretty good - I run into good friendly people more often than I run into wrong'uns. Unfortunately it's the wrong'uns that tend to be remembered, but they don't make up the entire playerbase.

Magdalina

It's actually possible to retrieve your things really quickly right before the trade goes through. It's impossible to notice and impossible to prevent. I've seen a friend do that so he just screws around with it giving people extra stuff instead, but it's very possible to scam people with that too. Person to person trading seems unreliable.

Not what happened to the OP but saying it's his fault? Lol. So he assumed the guy was honest and the system buggy(which it often is), yeah what an idiot. Geez. Hope the person in question gets banned, sorry it happened OP.

altemriel

Alanar wrote: »

Here's a warning to the ESO community about a current in-game scam.

I was contacted on two successive days by a player who wanted to buy a high-value item (Attunable Blacksmithing Station) but wanted to trade in person to save the guild store fees. I had one on hand, so I agreed. They then grouped with me, met up, I placed the item in the trade window, they put in the gold, and then I submitted and they canceled. This repeated twice (I thought the trade system was glitching as it has in the past) and then I submitted before they put in the gold and they ran off with the item. They then immediately ignored me so I couldn't whisper them and haven't been heard from since.

I know this sort of cheating has gone on in the past, however this player showed a higher degree of sophistication than most. They specifically targeted me because I had a high-value item listed on a top guild trader (ETU on PC / NA), and they messages me on two consecutive days. If they did this once to me, I can only expect that they will continue to do this to others until their crimes catch up with them. For now, I would recommend never trading with strangers directly, and instead using guild stores for sales to avoid scams.

For ZOS, I have reported this player using the in game system, I hope you address this promptly. In either case, I'll report the results of my support experience here as well.

wait, why you submit offer until they place the gold into it too on their side?