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Players giving away gear and EC - is it a known scam?
wideningxgyre
Member Posts: 710 Arc User
I was going about my business in ESD and got a PM asking if I wanted some EC and research materials. The player said he was deleting this toon and starting over.
I was in the middle of doing some stuff on the exchange before the maintenance, so just accepted without thinking about it. But now, I'm thinking the story doesn't make sense and am wondering if this wasn't some sort of scam.
Is there any risk - either from some crazy terms of service violation or from picking up items which might have been TRIBBLE in some manner - to which I might have inadvertently exposed myself?
I was in the middle of doing some stuff on the exchange before the maintenance, so just accepted without thinking about it. But now, I'm thinking the story doesn't make sense and am wondering if this wasn't some sort of scam.
Is there any risk - either from some crazy terms of service violation or from picking up items which might have been TRIBBLE in some manner - to which I might have inadvertently exposed myself?
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Comments
I can think of one thing that might be possibly "nasty" to recieve - Injuries can turn into inventory items when you have too many, and there might be a way to trade them. But I figure you can probably see if they put that in the trade window as well, and if you go to the next injury repair guy/gal on ESD or Q'onos,y o ucould still remove them with no lasting harm.
As for folks giving stuff away there are people that do it from time to time. On occasion when cleaning out the bank on a couple toons I'll give stuff away myself in zone. Not exactly common for folks to do it but not rare either if that makes sense.
Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator
as long as it's plain as day your not in cahoots to clear out someone else's account... it shouldnt be an issue even if fraud was involved.
if one has gone completely gonzo, one can make up whatever story they would like and no one would know any better. it can be a scam if one ignores the improbable no matter how silly it appears.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
> if someone asked you they might give some of their stuff away, and so they do. Then they can come back around saying that you stole their gear, and that you and they communicated by a third party means where you threatened this person into it and so the stuff was given even though you and this person know it is a lie, how would an outsider who is abritating this know for sure? There is no way to know if one is being truthful or not but a choice needs to be made.
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> if one has gone completely gonzo, one can make up whatever story they would like and no one would know any better. it can be a scam if one ignores the improbable no matter how silly it appears.
That’s quite a stretch. IANAL, but such an accusation sounds like grounds for a defamation suit to me.
Anyone who voluntarily gives things away is responsible for so doing. If it turns out that person stole stuff and you know from whom it was stolen, you can give it back, but accepting a gift from another player is not a cause for censure of your account.
Essentially the person accusing someone of stealing from have to prove that did happen rather then the person being accused having to prove that they didn't steal anything.
stretch, yes but you haven't said its impossible either.
Documenting everything is the best you can do, it isn't foolproof but its better having the full timeline of events, including records of conversations and so on. Nasty things can and will happen and no matter how unlikely, the possibility always exists. Scam artists will try to use any advantage they can to get one over their victims and some have been known to use the system against the victim.
Precautions are the best you can get.
That is a whole other can of worms and the accuser has as much of a chance as the accused on that end, more so if the accuser was collecting evidence of their own and as a result the burden of proof could easily switch to the accused.
Always protect yourself from things like that and keep all records, screenshots and the like. it might be paranoia but that is how one survives in the wild of online gaming where you can not possibly know what someones intentions are, even if you believe they are sincere. Best to be safe than sorry.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Also it is a bit far fetched, and by "a bit" I mean "very", because this stunt can be pulled once. The second time you try to use said story, you'll need the pope swear on the life of his children to at least get two or three people to believe you. And that for something where you don't have much to gain (what could possibly happen except for you getting the stuff back) and a very high risk (if there is reason to believe you fabricated the whole story, goodbye account and everything that went into it).
The thing to remember is that burden of proof is binary either it is on someone or it isn't. We can say with rather high degree of certainty that Cryptic does ask proof that a theft did happen, rather asking you prove your innocence against accusation of theft from a random person you might not even met. simply since it's far easier to prove that something did happen then to prove it didn't happen.
Having to prove guilt rather then innocence also means less work for cryptic since it increase the threshold of making false accusation.
Nothing was asked for either way, it just was. I wasn't running any scam. It really did not cost me much but I am glad I did it. I kept the mail.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Just as well this is out in the open, i'd rather make sure that it can be dealt with in some manner and you're all aware of it than running the the risk of being "a bit" and "very" far-fetched all the same.
Gonna move on along now.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
To what end? There is zero benefit to doing this, apart from getting their stuff back. However, when trading, both have to press accept, and when sending in the mail, it's only on the sender's head.
As for the 'threats'....that's school bully boy stuff, not gamer theft.
People can claim anything but it means nothing without proof. I could claim I'm the reincarnation of King Arthur Pendragon but it would mean nothing without proof.
In the case you describe they would have to prove somehow that there were third party communications and such. Unless there is sufficient evidence to prove such claims there would be no action taken on it. Far as they're concerned it would be 2 players engaging in a voluntary transaction. The guy who took the item in good faith at worst may have it removed from his account simply, or the guy claiming theft may get a duplicate of the item. Either way without that proof there would be no cause for concern.
Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator
Usually its when I see someone asking about places to get certain gear/weapons etc and if I happen to be on a toon with something that matches I'll drop it in the mail and send a message to suggest they check their inbox.
Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator