Scammers

Well, he's both a scammer and a griefer. Or, to be more specific, a defrauder and griefer. To defraud is to cause deprivation by deception.

Whether people are careless and 'silly' for allowing themselves to be defrauded is irrelivent. The fact remains that somebody lied or used a means of deceit to obtain the other party's goods.

Yeah I hate that 50/50 crap because I'd get all the damn ectos then. Never did it that way, and my old guild leader hated it as well so we'd just duo. Some people have crap luck though and want 50/50.

Powertraders complaining about scammers? The irony is palpable.

bad luck if you ask me...

only fools get scammed.

The only time I every got "scamed" wasn't even really a scam.

We were doing a spider run for a guy in UW for 20k. Near the end of the run, the guy (who had not followed orders and repeatedly aggroed) said he had no interest in getting a spider and had just been "wasting our time." He didn't even have charm animal equiped.

That was kinda... odd. I mean, he gained no monetary reward from that. He didn't get anything (he didn't get a spider, he didn't pay anybody either). I got 2 ectos during the run. It wasted his time as well as ours. Technically, it wasted his time MORE then it wasted ours, since I got something out of it.

Moral of the story, people are just asses who often get a thrill out of annoying others. Stealing 800g from people via a consulate docks run isn't really worth getting excited about. It's the trill of griefing that these sickos get off on, completely independent of wheter they rip you off for 800g or 800 ecto.

Some guy scammed 100g off me during the weekend, now I'm broke. /sob.

Trading isn't scamming. If both parties agree to a price then it's just a trade. Don't be so ignorant.

well if you dont know uve been scammed have you been scammed?

the reasons why GW has so many scammers are:

1) Lack of GM support - In WoW if you make a report about being scammed, grievance etc, a GM will contact you within a day usually in an hour or 2 and you can tell him what happened personally. In GW... heh...

2) Max Lvl in a few hours - One can lvl a character to 20 in a few hours and start scamming people whereas on WoW it takes weeks, usually months, to lvl a character to max lvl and after all the effort most players rather not risk their characters.

3) Reputation - In WoW, your reputation on your server is vital to you whether it is trading, grouping, raiding, finding a guild etc. If you scam, have a lousy attitude etc the whole server community will know about it and that toon will be shunned. On GW, reputation doesn't matter (except for highend trades) because the community is spreaded out across 3 huge maps (ie tyria, cantha and EOTN) making it highly unlikely ppl will meet remember u.

4) Kids and adults - GW being a no-monthly-fee game skews the kids to adult ratio (guessing its 3 kids to 1 adult) and as you know kids are immature and greedy. They have not seen the world (real world) and they don't know that having friends and having good contacts will take you places. Thus they have no qualms blowing their mouth, scamming etc to get whatever they want. I'm not saying adults don't do this. I'm just saying kids don't have the experience and mental maturity to think about the consequences.

solved my problems, i buy and sell on guru's auction!
no headache no lost time in town to find a real buyer or seller!

i saw such runs!

/signed

I'd say that the bigger difference is visibility. In WoW, the GM comes to talk to you in game. Very visible/personal response. In GW you deal with it through the support site. Probably not a huge difference in work-load for the support guy, but not nearly as visible as the WoW GM. Of course, the lower visibility of GM/Support actions probably does contribute somewhat to the delinquency of certain players.

I don't know how important this is in WoW, but in GW trading with non-max-levels is nothing all that surprising. A better point would be that the biggest trade hub (Kamadan) is also the starter town for NF.

Reputation might not be terribly important for puging, but within certain groups it's probably no less important then your WoW rep. High end trading, high end PvP, elite zones, all of these being known as a "good group member/trade partner" helps.

I suspect this argument is somewhat overblown in GW case. GW isn't free, you still have to pay $25-40 to get in. Sure it's a little lower of a barrier, but the most kids who can get their parents to shell out $40 for a game can probably get them to pay a monthly fee as well.

The argument holds a lot more water in the "micro-payment" type online game popular in Asia, where it really is free to get in and play.

Having actual GMs standing around in major cities and/or points of high interest/activity/high botting areas, would do a lot to discourage scammers, spammers, griefers, rulebreakers, etc.

Those 'powertraders' are usually as naive as the ones that buy what they sell with prices those items do not worth.

It's not their fault, they just came with mentality from other games where prices went 'boom'.

This wasn't a scammer but it backs up Bart's reasoning about kids to adults and one of the main reasons I rarely trade stuff.

I placed a green bow up for auction for 2k. (Not here, another site which I'd name but the mods would just delete my post). A kid won the auction and immediately sent me an e-mail asking for a trade. I was not online until the next morning and I contacted him ingame asking to trade.

Kid: YES! come to the armory!!! NOW!!
Me: Ok, where can I meet you?
Kid: The armory!
Me: Where? Vasburg armory? (I was in DOA at the time)
Kid: Shing Jea Armory!
Me: Ok, the monastery then?
Kid: NO!!!! THE F*** ARMORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: I have no clue what you mean. Meet me in Kaineng Int Dis 1
Kid: i dunt no where the F**** that is. F**** off!!

time passes

Kid: Were r u?? Give me my bow!!!!!!!
Me: I will if you'll ever tell me where you are
Kid: Armorsmith at the monastery!!!! Stupid s***
Me: Fine which dis
kid: ARMORY!!!!! STUPID

I finally convinced him to meet me in international districts after a stream of even worse explicitives. He actually bought the bow and then spent the next 10 minutes sending me extremely pornographic and explicit PM's.

I put him on ignore and as a result my inbox on the auction forum filled up with explitives. (He's since been banned on that auction site). After an hour I took him off ignore and within 5 seconds got some more pm's from him. (LOL, I thought I had no life. He spent an hour trying to pm someone who had him on ignore?)

I told him he would get his account banned for harassment and got called some more colorful names as well as being told that only a complete dips*** would report someone. I said I guess I am then because I'm reporting.

He immediately started apologizing and begging me not to report. He said this was his parents account and he'd be in big trouble if it got banned. Great. Not my problem.

Sigh, how do I find these people?? Someone who flies off the handle just because he's asked which town to meet is not mature enough to be playing a MMO game let alone trading with people.

I probably report as well if I were you.

It probably do the kid more good to be banned.

Happened to me, I was accused of scamming for selling a +30hp sword mod for 6k. I sold it so someone and some other guys starts PMing me calling me a scammer. He tells me those are 3k and no more and that I need to stop scamming people. I told him that if someone wants to pay me 6k they can nothing is stopping them from saying "no" to the price. He PMs me back saying I need to sell +30 sword mods for 3k from now on or he would report me for scamming. I laughed put him on ignore.

I don't PvE much except to solo farm and don't hang out in towns so I don't really know the going rate of stuff and usually have to ask friends/guildies but I in no way scammer anyone or had that intention, yet I get blammed.

Right, that was pretty stupid, but Its still f**king stupid that scammers get away with things like that.

There are a bunch of unemployed 55 monks? Maybe they have resorted to scamming to make there living

I wonder what will happen one day when a scammer meets another scammer.

Teleports to each other's position, steals drop ... ... Trade completed

LMAO. Oh the irony.

Oh and I love the threat about selling +30 sword mods.

I was never accused of scamming people, but I could've been. Back when Victo's Battle Axe was at 15 or 20k, I was selling a Victo's Sword for something like 5k. I get a PM; a guy wants to trade his axe Battle Axe for my sword. I asked him TWO times if he was sure about his trade, and he replied positively both times... either he was aware of the prices and he didn't care, or he didn't know the prices at all. I had a flurry of "OMG THANKS" and such in whoespers... seemed I made this guy's day. Some people don't care as much for prices; when they want something really badly...

Sold the axe for full price 10 minutes later. I wouldn't call it a scam; both parties agreed to it. And I DID ask before if he was SURE... >_>. I guess that's more "taking advantage of the situation"... lol. >_>.

hahaha I would love to see that happen...

If you think about it every mmorpg has the common petty scammers, I think if you're dumb enough to fall for their tricks then maybe you really shouldn't be playing the game 0.o (except for noobs, because it happens to almost everyone in the first couple days!!!11!1)
(sorry, a bit harsh, don't flame)

i always check carefully everything being traded, those that tell me to hurry up - i either ignore them and take my time, or quit trade and walk away.

Gah reading about idiots like that is so interesting. On one hand I wonder what kind of responses I'd make to make them angry, and on the other I wonder why people are so freaking stupid.

I am surprised people still fall for the drop items thing. =\

I've been the target of scammers many times, but never actually been a victim. I actually like scammers, I play along, long enough to get screenshots of the scammers' actions, then tell them they've violated the rules of conduct and earned a report. Same with those who use foul language, I don't reciprocate, but rather report;always with one or more screenshots. The sweet text of pleas always brings a tear to my eye. They all get the same message from me, it's my job to keep the trash out, it's anet's job to hear their woeful little tale.

I know people that have been scammed or frauded before. It sucks. But sorry to say this almost 100% of the time it is the victim's fault.

You need to make sure that the correct amount of gold has been offered or if the item u are receiving is the correct one.

If someone is complaining about lag and wants to go to a instanced zone and trade go crazy, but never ever drop your item or gold on the ground.

As for runners not being paid, it has happened to me before. You just have to cover your losses and move on. Their is nothing you can do about it.

And for new players, if you dont want to be scammed wait a little while so you can learn the economy of the game, the values of items, and such before you start trading.

And alas my 55 is unemployed these days, but still I dont resort to scamming people. I just hfff instead

Last nite I was selling my Unded Mini Lich in Kamadan and someone whisper to me begging to have an SS of my Lich. He said he'll pay 2k for the screen shots. He party me and went outside. Asked me to bring out my Lich and asked me to kneel in front of it.

Then he walked away and asked me to face him. He dropped his weapon and picked it up again. He asked me to drop my Lich and I laugh at him and told him that he's a scammer

He was an assassin

Experienced the same method of scamming when I was selling my Obsidian Edge. That guy was really polite though, so some points to him

There are only 2 things to do to prevent scamming (of items):

1) Do not drop items on the ground
2) Double check the trade window

Ok, new players might not be that cautious....
Then how about adding some sort of "introduction" to trading when you create your first character... like 1-2 sentences what not to do etc, or what to consider before pressing "accept"

..... or how about a "10 second lock" on an item that has been dropped.

u iz teh gw policia

Got scammed with shadowstep last night out of my 3rd year birthday gift... I'm not a noob, I just honestly never had heard of that scam before. I reported him, but it won't do any good. I had screenshots of the whole transaction. My Guildmates thought it was funny, but I don't. I'm ready to quit the GW series because ANet doesn't do anything about it. I don 't want to participate in a game where the developers don't give a rip about the REAL issues in the game. It's just like the old Diablo inventory drop stealing days... maybe it's time to go back to FPSs.

Why would Anet do anything about that? You were the one foolish (to be gentle) enough to drop your item on the ground in the first place. The person who got your b-day present didn't scam, because you willingly dropped it on the ground, whether or not you were persuaded to or coaxed into doing so. As far as Anet is concerned, anything dropped on ground is legal tender for anyone to get. Once you drop it, it's no longer yours.

Kudos to your guildmates. I would have laughed too, since you said you're "not a noob."

---

Your tale reminds me of a FoW run I did long ago where this guy dropped an Obsidian Shard on the ground so his "little brother" could have it (as he had multiple shards). I saw him drop it, and clicked on the shard, believing there was no way I would get it before the other guy picked it up. Wrong. I ended up getting the Shard, and was berated by everyone else in the group. I chose to mock them, saying "use Trade," "once you drop it, it's legal tender" and "if this was really illegal, then the monsters in GW should report us all, as we scam them every single time they drop an item or gold!" (this one got heaps of laughs in Guild Chat). In the end, I was about to give back the Shard to the poor sap, but they all rage quit over a mere 2k (at the time). I also had dropped a worthless green item of mine, taunting them to pick it up, so I could "report" them for "scamming" LOL

WTFever, thanks for your compassion. Just keep on being an enabler and making excuses for the scammers out there. That'll make the game better...

Aubrey, welcome to online gaming then. Hardly anyone shows compassion to anyone who gets "screwed" this way. Now, if you were a newbie to the game and you got scammed, you can expect some compassion. However, you said it yourself. You are "not a noob" and played for at least 3 years. If by now you didn't know most of the workings of the economy and scammers etc, then what GW have you been playing? Or have you been Hero/Henching everything all this time? Either way, tough for you.

And why worry about a lame 3rd year present? You'll get another one when your next character hits 36 months. That is, if you ever play or log in again.

When games start to die you get more and more scammers. I find 80% of trades on diablo 2 are scams now its just stupid lol

Yes Deadbolt. GW is a dying game. It began its decay long ago. Choose one of these points in time:

1. First AI upgrade, making Firestorm etc AoE and monsters fleeing.
2. Second AI upgrade, "weakening" skills like Spiteful Spirit.
3. Griffons nerf in Desert.
4. Release of Guild Wars: Factions.
5. Release of Nightfall.
6. Release of Eye of the North.
7. Ursan Blessing.
8. Hard Mode.
9. Loot scaling.
10. PvE/PvP skills split.
11. Upcoming Guild Wars 2.

That's just for PvE. I won't go into PvP...someone else can fill out the details. Some or all of the above have driven away players and guilds in GW's history, or reduced their play times etc. Sure there are plenty of counterarguments, but all in the eye of the beholder.

Actually, those were good things. AI was such a piece of crap than even in Diablo 2 mobs were smarter. I mean they didn't stood in AoE so it can buttrape them. Spiteful Spirit is still god damn strong. Griffons - good it was nerfed, I've seen a video how much monk could make in few minutes, now he must make in like 2 hours. And GW:F, except for the horrendous difficulty is fine.

Funny Story:
About the check the gold in the trade thing. Yesterday, I didn't feel like working my way from Ascalon to LA so i got a run. We finaly got there and they guy wanted the second half of the 1k I was paying him. No problem right? Well I must have been really out of it or some thing and in the plat section I tryed to put 500 in. Having only 1k on they character it would put 000 instead of 500 in. So I'm sitting there like WTF is going on and the runner is getting pissed... so I pay him the 1k and go about my business, only to realize about 20 mins latter I was trying to give him 500plat instead of 500 gold -_- Yes I fail.

It's more like welcome to humanity.