Got crown scammed

solidstate77ub17_ESO

Got crown scammed for 900k back in March. Sent screenshots of scammer's username and character name in a ticket. I thought that was the worst of it. I thought Zos had my back. To this day absolutely zero gold has been returned to me by customer support. Well, I refuse to play a game, much less give them my hard-earned money, when they don't even care enough to see to it that you are made whole after an incident like this. They don't even give you closure. They say, "We'll recover your stolen items if we can"(but we won't tell you when we decide not to). And by the way, we won't be communicating with you about our actions against the offender.

xI_The_Owl_Ix

Why even buy crowns from shady people/people you dont know to begin with?

Raideen

Crown/gold exchange should have never been a thing. It's literally ZOS selling gold.

Iselin

This should have always had a secure trade interface just like selling items for gold has.

But then they'd have to stop pretending it's all about "gifting" instead of the trading crowns for gold that it really is.

It's a half-baked implementation as it is that at best forces players to act as brokers to police the system and at worst is just ripe for scamming the unsuspecting.

Tandor

solidstate77ub17_ESO wrote: »

Got crown scammed for 900k back in March. Sent screenshots of scammer's username and character name in a ticket. I thought that was the worst of it. I thought Zos had my back. To this day absolutely zero gold has been returned to me by customer support. Well, I refuse to play a game, much less give them my hard-earned money, when they don't even care enough to see to it that you are made whole after an incident like this. They don't even give you closure. They say, "We'll recover your stolen items if we can"(but we won't tell you when we decide not to). And by the way, we won't be communicating with you about our actions against the offender.

According to your previous topic you were scammed for the first time on 23rd July.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/538677/got-scammed-crowns-today-for-the-first-time#latest

I'm not sure we have the full story here.

Old_Foggy

Almost every day I see folk talking about being scammed buying/selling gold and I see the same advice.. only buy from people you know like your guild leaders etc.

Also I see lots of people in chat wanting to buy gold or crowns and think maybe they haven't ever read these stories on the forum or been warned not to do it by friends.

I have never sold/bought crowns/gold and will never do it, I earn all the gold I need by farming/selling/crafting and as an ESO+ account I get my crowns that way and sometimes I'll top them up buying some when needed.

It's sad people get scammed on such a good game but hey there is a way to avoid being scammed.. do not do deals with people you don't know in chat.

Mindcr0w

Caveat emptor my dude.

richo262

solidstate77ub17_ESO wrote: »

Got crown scammed for 900k back in March. Sent screenshots of scammer's username and character name in a ticket. I thought that was the worst of it. I thought Zos had my back. To this day absolutely zero gold has been returned to me by customer support. Well, I refuse to play a game, much less give them my hard-earned money, when they don't even care enough to see to it that you are made whole after an incident like this. They don't even give you closure. They say, "We'll recover your stolen items if we can"(but we won't tell you when we decide not to). And by the way, we won't be communicating with you about our actions against the offender.

March? Damn.

I got scammed about 2 weeks ago and have heard nothing back. It really does kick the wind out of the 'sales' and reduces motivation to continue engaging in any form of economy in the game. I got scammed along with many other people by the same guy all reporting on the forums, I'm yet to hear of any other getting their gold back too. Perhaps support is unable to do something at this time. You'd think with so many people all reporting the same guy at a similar time, that it would be a simple investigation, with so many dots to join, all submitting screen shots and one even submitted a video.

Scamming is only going to get worse with housing being giftable. There really needs to be a secure means of trade. They can still keep the 'gift' status. A trade window does not require the other party to put gold in it, you can accept a 1 way trade (meaning ZOS can still claim it is gifting), whether somebody else puts gold in that window is up to the players.

MirelaUmbrella

Same has happened to me

Was scammed in March, sent screenshots and video proof of the scam (700k) and still havent received any gold

Maybe they have stopped refunding people entirely for crown scams

I wish they'd just let us gift crown items with a COD type system. Would solve so many issues

Husan

Tandor wrote: »

show previous quotes

solidstate77ub17_ESO wrote: »

Got crown scammed for 900k back in March. Sent screenshots of scammer's username and character name in a ticket. I thought that was the worst of it. I thought Zos had my back. To this day absolutely zero gold has been returned to me by customer support. Well, I refuse to play a game, much less give them my hard-earned money, when they don't even care enough to see to it that you are made whole after an incident like this. They don't even give you closure. They say, "We'll recover your stolen items if we can"(but we won't tell you when we decide not to). And by the way, we won't be communicating with you about our actions against the offender.

According to your previous topic you were scammed for the first time on 23rd July.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/538677/got-scammed-crowns-today-for-the-first-time#latest

I'm not sure we have the full story here.

Nice catch.

These kind of posts always remind me of a friend buying an iphone on the web a long time ago (I'm talking way before it became normal practice to do so) and bragging how cheap it was. It never arrived 😆.

Buy from a trusted person and/or use a middleman, kids.

P.S. not buying from the absolute cheapest source weeds out most of the scammers.

mocap

crowns first, gold second

never agree for something else

Xuhora

mocap wrote: »

crowns first, gold second

never agree for something else

Have you bought many times with this practice? Because i would never agree to that as a seller, since crowns equal real money, while gold is "just" an ingame currency.

And to the OP and others: there is an official statement from ZOS that selling crowns for gold is a buyers aware market, and they do not intent do step in if someone gets scammed. Im sad to hear that you lost ingame gold, but as many said: there are some efficient ways to almost guarantee that you wont get scammed during the process.

volkeswagon

mocap wrote: »

crowns first, gold second

never agree for something else

Then we'll have posts about people gifting but not getting the gold. A COD system is needed

Grizzbeorn

Stop attempting to trade crowns in zone chat.
There's a constant stream of stories about people getting scammed by doing this, so I don't know why people think it won't happen to them.

Join one of the crown exchange guilds.
World Crown Exchange has had at least one instance of a rogue seller, recently. But it's rare, and I imagine the guild leaders would make proper amends if that happens.
But I haven't seen that Tamriel Crown Exchange has had that problem at all. They boast an insurance fund for refunding such things, anyway, and they use third-party brokers to conduct the trades.

Either option would be much safer with regard to the integrity of a crown trade than trusting some rando directly.

Fischblut

Also I see lots of people in chat wanting to buy gold or crowns and think maybe they haven't ever read these stories on the forum or been warned not to do it by friends.

Or maybe because scam is not as widespread in game as some people on forums want everyone to believe? To make everyone use certain discord channel(s) at high fixed price, and get cut from every trade?

Have you bought many times with this practice? Because i would never agree to that as a seller, since crowns equal real money, while gold is "just" an ingame currency.

Since September 2019, it's the only way I buy gifts Most of people agree to gift first. Rarely people don't agree. Few times I could persuade people to make exception and gift me first (I always record my trades, so I encouraged them to do the same; I don't even mind it being streamed in real time) - since then those people are on my friend list for future safe trades as well.

And to the OP and others: there is an official statement from ZOS that selling crowns for gold is a buyers aware market, and they do not intent do step in if someone gets scammed.

That's what scammers would want everyone to believe... Scamming is actually serious violation.

TheRealDrRat

You can't blame ZOS for your interaction with some players. You shouldn't buy crowns for in-game currency if you not prepared to be scammed, no way is there a failsafe for something like that instilled in the game. You're basically selling your in-game currency for real money and I'm sure somewhere on the user-agreement it doesn't allow you to make money from Bethesda's code/property.

Danksta

Can't just send in screenshots of someone's name and hope to get gold out of it. If that was the case everyone could screenshot people's names and get free gold.

Raideen

mocap wrote: »

crowns first, gold second

never agree for something else

No. The person spending real life money should get the gold first.

The person who trades gold for crowns and gets scammed loses time played in game.
The person who trades crowns for gold and gets scammed loses real life currency.

LightYagami

Xuhora wrote: »

show previous quotes

mocap wrote: »

crowns first, gold second

never agree for something else

Have you bought many times with this practice? Because i would never agree to that as a seller, since crowns equal real money, while gold is "just" an ingame currency.

And to the OP and others: there is an official statement from ZOS that selling crowns for gold is a buyers aware market, and they do not intent do step in if someone gets scammed. Im sad to hear that you lost ingame gold, but as many said: there are some efficient ways to almost guarantee that you wont get scammed during the process.

Absolutely. Crowns are much more valuable than in-game gold because people are buying crowns with real money.

Players should never send crowns before receiving gold.

One way to mitigate potential lost of both parties is to trade by smaller amounts instead of a large lump sum. In this way even you got scammed, your lost will be controlled.

Zer0_CooL

LightYagami wrote: »

Absolutely. Crowns are much more valuable than in-game gold because people are buying crowns with real money.

Players should never send crowns before receiving gold.

One way to mitigate potential lost of both parties is to trade by smaller amounts instead of a large lump sum. In this way even you got scammed, your lost will be controlled.

And i spent real time to get that gold together ...

idk

It is pretty sad when low budget F2P games like Neverwinter have a trading system for their similar currency, making ESO's look like a failed intern project. However, it is what it is, and we should use better judgment. People are trading with strangers and expecting people to be honest when they have no reason to think so.

Previously I have suggested that Zos creates a BoE token for every item in the crown store they intend to be one we can gift. The person who uses it token receives the item in their inventory or collections, depending on the appropriate location. While the token system's creation may be complex, the rest of the idea is amazing in its simplicity and effectiveness. We will be able to trade those tokens via guild traders for complete protection. If a player chooses to trade directly with a player and gets scammed, it is their problem because they chose to avoid the safe trading method.

Until then, please do not trade with strangers because it makes no sense. Just because we can do something does not mean we should.

HellaAverage

Or they should just sell gold lol. Wow basically just sells gold. Idk what image they're trying to maintain. It's a victimless crime that isn't a crime.

idk

HellaAverage wrote: »

Or they should just sell gold lol. Wow basically just sells gold. Idk what image they're trying to maintain. It's a victimless crime that isn't a crime.

Effectively Zos is selling gold. The ability to sell cash shop items in a game has always pushed the gold seller industry and that has happened here. I am not suggesting Zos is intentionally promoting the gold sellers, hence bots, but that is the effect things like this have.

ZOS_ConnorG

Greetings all,

After review this thread has been closed as it is a quitting thread. Thank you for you understanding.

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