has anyone noticed this? all the platsellers etc get SPAM'd automaticly fine but people are now enacting scams with kronos and gamecards and whatnot. have never in my years been scammed or known anyone who has so odd to see this popping up. idk if from introduction of kronos or free2play model or mass exodus from WoW and we're getting their scammers or waht. others notice this happening?
Just wondering, how could you get scammed in a Krono transaction? Its an in-game item being bought or traded for other in-game items or plat
Never been scammed, and never even know anyone that has been scammed, yet reports a rise in scam activity. Okies.
As a fraud analyst, I have to admit that I'm surprised this isn't a more prominent problem. I know somebody got scammed this evening out of a Krono for advertised game cards... a deal was worked out, two Krono for three $15 Wal-Mart GCs, one Krono up front but apparently as soon as the first Krono was paid the seller camped. It's suspected that the "seller" was trying to take advantage of the fact that SOE's petition system has been spotty for days. This is a little bit "caveat emptor", but still advertises a weakness of the in-game market that isn't covered by Krono... the popularity of Game Cards for purposes other than membership. This is a long-standing vulnerability in the in-game market; SOE has already implicitly verified the cash value of plat by introducing the Krono, which inversely implies a plat value for Game Cards. The problem is that people like to pick up GCs and then hold onto them for bonus SC events; this is something SOE cannot render against the TOS, as it's the consumer's right to hold an unused cash code for as long as they see fit, assuming it's not for a time-limited award such as a lottery. What SOE needs to do to address this vulnerability is create an in-game item that is created from a valid GC code and is tradeable, but does not actually expend the code until the holder activates it. A person should be able to just look at it or mouseover it and see the base+bonus value of the item, but still be able to expend it during, say, double SC events for the full double SC value of the "card". Since SOE's system already seems to be able to discern varieties of card ($15 card from 7-11, $15+500 bonus SC card from Wal-Mart, etc), it shouldn't be difficult to just create a base item for every type of card out there. Then, when you put in the code, it verifies the source and amount of the card and gives you the appropriate tradeable item. When the item is expended, it poofs. They could even call it some other tacky pseudo-Latin name in the process. Maybe something like "Numos" (nummus being Latin for "coin", as opposed to Latin pecunia for "money"). In the meantime... and it sounds silly for me to say this, I know, but, just as in debit card fraud, a lot of people don't really seem to grasp this until something happens to them... don't buy GC codes from people you don't recognize. I also don't think it's bad form to ask for the codes first. Here's hoping SOE does something about this.
I would say do not expect to get a game card number in any trade in the game. I am assuming that is how they would make the trade by obtaining a GC number to obtain kronos? Takes too much integrity from folks who are looking to make a buck to think you would get a valid GC number. There are honest folks but it is expecting a lot. I say if one has actually obtained a valid SC card number in a trade like this...consider themselves very lucky. I believe SoE may not make "numos" in trade for SC cards because those SC cards from stores such as 7-11 have bonuses attached to them like triple and double SC **unless** they were only worth face value when you traded them in the game for what you called "numos". The reason I say that if I am not mistaken, the whole idea of getting rid of the fact you could buy subscriptions with SC in game was because folks would buy them with the double and triple SC cards and that would indirectly bring that back that problem back to them, I think.
it is a violation of the tou to trade plat for gamecards anyway, so if you get scammed while participating in such a transaction, ohwell, The only areas where sony has made rmt ok is in the purchasing and selling of kronos. And those are ingame items, your should not be stupid enough to get scammed, they put a krono in the trade window you place the plat there, done.
2 Krono are not equal in value to 3 GC, as each GC is good for as much game time as one Krono, and can also be converted to SC- old song, if the deal sounds too good to be true it probably is. I never recommend trading in GC as the possibility of a scam is always high. It is possible to do a half trade expecting something to come soon in return, and then the character logs by intent or accident, such is the risk of such trades. The good thing is, that by posting here about the continued risks, maybe more people will rethink trades and avoid scams.
A Krono is $17 or $18 for Sony depending on quantity purchased. A Gamecard is most likely around half of that amount of money for Sony. Seeing as the only advantage of Krono is secure in-game transactions as they cost more, cannot be used for SC and as a result also can't benefit from Double/Triple promos and generate most likely double the income of Gamecards there is no chance you will ever have secure in-game transactions for Gamecards since that would completely obsolete Krono. It's possible you will be able to redeem Krono or Krono2 for SC and even expansion purchases in the future.
In response to original question. I have noticed a big increase in what I would call shady offers spammed over and over. I am reluctant to call them scams as I have never myself been burned by these offers. The following is what I see constantly on Povar. 1.). Offers to Trade for Game Cards 2.). Offers to buy LoN items 3.). People looking to trade Krono for ITunes cards. (Creative!) 4.). Never ending spam for Power Leveling. a ) a highly annoying Mage offering "Beam PLing" at 50 K per pull b ) a guy offering PL and wanting real US dollars for it c ) lots just selling PL for plat 5.). A guy had been spamming to buy your unused Station Cash (this seems very shady to me and I have no idea how that would even work) There are prob more examples but these are the ones that come to mind.
This thread reminds me that with all the nostalgia for 'the tunnel' and NFP there were a ton of scammers too lol. GM's used to police some kinds of it too. I fell for a couple of them until I wised up. I can't even remember all the different kinds anymore but there would be threads on the server boards all the time to beware of such and such scam.
i wasnt reporting a rise, i was asking if anyone had noticed one, after there was a guy last night as Jonny Panic said in a response here, doing just that on our server, and did confirmedly scam it. It seems such a scam that would be repeated if successful so I was asking if such activity had been seen on other servers recently. other "shady offers" you see in general chat all the time dont come off as scammable due to the community's own enforcement as such offers etc arent being done at level 1 or 2 but with an establish recognizeable character blah blah, doesnt stop them from being shady always lol, but not a scam. This is in particular a specific scam being done and would seem to be one that would be done on multiple servers either at once or over time once they find out it works, thats waht scammers do they dont just do something once if it works and they can get something from it as far as buying/selling stuff goes, once bought theres no real-money value for gamecard codes or kronos, you can not take yourcard back to the store and get the money back, muchless take a cardless code to a store and ask for cash from it. You can not download your krono and email it to SOE for cash or anything of the sort. People do have gamecards stashed around they bought a long time ago waiting for that special sale (i never understood this practice though i will do it a week or 2 ahead when i think there MIGHT be a sale coming, and then if there is none i use the card anyway) and imo wouldnt be considered buying anything so much as the money is already spent and can not be returned. These guys are not selling them for plat either theyre trying to trade, at least the one in our General chat was last night. People have bought gamecard codes with plat ever since it was stated by devs or soemone official anyway on the forums, that the trade of gamecard codes was legal. This however was prior to the introduction to the Kronos and maybe they changed their minds, who knows. The fix would be simple for all of this, leave cards the same as they are now but allow Kronos to work for station cash as well, and expansions etc, but not be allowed to double or triple (as they have it blocked from working with SMS transactions) anyway point was to ask if others had seen a rise in the activity. i see people tryign ot buy powerlevels for krono or plat or gamecards etc all the time yeah and those could be scammed by not trading after the service wahtever but the community enforces that stuff if theyre doing that theyre doing it on a toon high enough to be recognizable and isnt going to get deleted to avoid trade. i see ppl offering to buy LoN cards: that is fully legal and supported by SOE, but there are websites in existence that already do taht. LoN cards arent tradeable once in EQ and thus are not part of the EQ eula, they are only tradeable in LoN and only under specific circumstances, i dont see taht as some kinda scam. i do agree that there is shadiness with some of the other things mentioned above, like 50k a pull beaming and stuff like that, but it's not a scam attempt just moneygrubbery.
On the surface that does sound like a scam, after all who is going to trade 3 game cards worth $45 for 2 krono worth $35.98 considering that the station cash cards can give game time or station cash.
Trade at your own risk. Don't trade with random people if you don't want to accept the risk. I've bought LoN items for plat before, never been scammed, but it was from people who had a reputation on the server. Do a trust trade with random level 1s in the bazaar and you're gonna have a bad time.
I was scammed for 5 krono's from someone on Luclin. 100% my fault, never petitioned or tried to do anything about it other then contact the guy and in reality i was already assuming i was going to get scammed... So it is what it is...
One of the biggest ways SoE can help cut down on this is offer Station Cash along with the Kronos. People will risk more to get a GC so they can get SC also. If they would add SC to the Krono's, would see a decline in GC's being sold for plat online. But buying a GC for 200k plat that has 1500 SC + 500 bonus or a month of sub + 500 SC or a Krono for 250k+ plat that has no SC at all. What is most people going to try for.?
I haven't seen any problems like this. By the way, OP, I have a bridge to sell that connects North Karana to East Karana, are you interested in buying it?
Me too. Some way to convert a store bought card into a game-tradeable item would be super. The thing is that this could be as interesting to players as Kronos, especially on sale weekends.
