Do scammers even get punished?

I know how you feel. I too wish that there was a site where we could post screenshots and names of scammers so that others can beware of them. I know it's against Guru's rules and I understand their reasons why.

On the other hand there are 2 huge reasons why such a site would not be helpful.

1. The GW community is too immature. There would be "revenge" postings on the site saying "so and so" is a scammer along with photoshopped "proof" just to try and harm an innocent player. For example: "Sir Leet1337" acts up in guild chat and tries to scam some guildies. He is kicked from the guild so he decides to mock up some false data and posts on the site that his former guild leader is a scammer and the guild is a scam guild.

2. I'm not sure such a site would really hurt the scammers. Guru has hundreds of posts describing the more common "drop this uber leet weapon on the ground for me to see" scams and I'm sure that everyone who reads those posts are not fooled by those scams. Yet scammers make tons of money off that scam everyday. The average player has never visited a forum and has never heard of that trick so unfortunately even enemy #1 on the Scammer Alert site will still be able to find many victims.

To be honest, if there is such a list, it would be an honor to top that list.

If you can't be the best, at least be the nastiest

Lol Kobey, but, there is one difference about the Everquest list..Everquest had ingame guides and GM's and of course guides were people like me and you that volunteer for the job and so some of these guides also kept up with that list and then when these people got reported ingame they usually got banned or suspended when they actually did get caught in the act of doing what the board said they did. It was a much better and tighter that you play right or lose your account in EQ than it is in GW.

as for this one That certainly did happen, but, it was a better system than no system at all. Since people could leave feedback you could usually tell who were the revenge posters vs those that just wanted to report an individual for bad play. The revenge posters always 99.9% of the time turned their posts into flame wars and made themselves look bad and then they'd end up on the list. lol Generally immature people can't control their anger. The blacklisted person could leave feedback or present their cases as well. Most of the time you could tell if they were bad or innocent as well just by how they posted. I always thought it was a great system.

Well, regardless, my point is that people need to take a reasonable level of responsibility for their own actions.

Do people need to penetration test every bit of software they install? No. That's what professionals are for.

However, they DO need to at least read the instructions that pop up on the screen so they know what they need to do to maintain their shiny new software.

Likewise, this guy maybe doesn't need to keep on top of things like duping exploits, but he should at least have the initiative to skim the bloody manual so he knows how basic game mechanics work (and I still think it's common sense that if it can't go in the trade window it shouldn't be traded).

I don't like the carebears approach to knowledge. I don't think people should lean entirely on me for technical help. I think concentrating knowledge in one place like that is dangerous for business, dangerous for society, and dangerous for individuals. People need to stop being so lazy and inept and invest a little bit of time in learning some basics about the tools they use. There's just too much at stake to try and protect people from themselves all the time.

Tons of People complain every single day to Guild Wars that they have been scammed. If you do not give Guild Wars proof such as a screenshoot you have really no evidence. But since you provided a screenshot that was evidence they still probebly cant do anything at all. My suggestion never trust anyone but of course this is play money not real money. But if your buying a runescape account make sure its a real account. Sometimes you never see scams coming

I've been scammed in the past, and Anet does take appropriate action. I got the same old excuse in my inbox "blah blah we're sorry >insert technicality here< thanks". But about an hour after getting that email the dude that scammed me went off-line and was never seen again by me, or anyone in my guild. He could have just set himself to off-line, I guess, but he had been in Ascalon scamming for quite a while, why stop so suddenly? Go figure... All that work for a mere 2k.

There aren't scammers in guild wars, there are just stupid people and people ready to take the items of stupid people. If you drop your weapon on the ground in an explorable area, everyone else is perfectly in the right when they pick it up. If you got a bad deal on a trade its your own fault, you agreed to it.

Almost everyone who plays GW is a scammer of some sort or another, and if they had a chance to get over on you they would take it. Trust no one.

People who say "those who got scammed deserved it" are the ones who are most willing to scam".

I don't trust you either.

Very smart of you. People need to follow you're exsample and not trust anyone.

"I killed my Dad for the insurance Money! and i didnt get punished"

Not every crime that is commited is caught by authorities, those who do get caught, get punished, those who don't, oh well, hope they get banned next time around.

if you are stupid enough to get scammed, I really don't think the other guy is the problem.


seriously, people who get scammed are like the people who get burnt becuase they didn't realize the coffee was hot or the knife was sharp. Is it the restruants fault your retarded? nope, it's yours.



all these pity parties have to stop, for the anger i feel from this thread as caused me to double post. (i just realized i'm on the first page aswell).

Wow.. I can't believe you even considered asking if someone other than your friend should be punished. It's against the EULA to trade ig gold for anything NOT ig. the real questions is 'should both people be banned'.

Karma.

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not true. people try the quick switch for gold/items all the time. i had one guy who i was selling to, he owed me 5k for the item. he put up the 5k, i put up the item, submit, submit, accept (on my part), change 5k into 500g on his part. didn't work, but if you aren't paying very close attention, they'll get you. that my friend, is straight up scamming.

And paranoia of that sort breeds complacency.

Anet doesnt handle player commerce, so Anet doesnt deal with scammers

If one gets scammed, just learn the lesson and be smart next time round. Posting on guru will only make one feel worse with all the flames coming in.

You are already feeling bad by making a silly mistake being scammed, don't make another by posting here.

Anet does deal with scammers, when reported with evidence. How and when and on what specific cases is information that they alone hold. You'd never get your stuff back though.

For example, there was a scam where one player would claim to show another person a dupe, then take them into a mission, ask them to drop their stuff behind a rock while they were off the map. They'd trigger a cut scene, which caused players to teleport, then they'd use running skills to pick the stuff back up and either merch the runes, or extort it for cash.

A poster here claimed to have been banned for this, and admitted to the scam.

Sadly, tis' quite true... in a odd way...

Still, doing anything like that is... well, not exactly intelligent. Besides, why would someone want a Runescape account that much?

It's not a scam if you agree to the trade. Since non-GW stuff can't be regulated, the guy effectively traded gold for nothing. And that's what he got.

GW has a fully functional trade system, if you do not use it then you deserve to be scammed. Never drop spmething that is valuble and never trade for something untradeable it is just stupid