Scamming prevention guide

Like with everything where real cash is involved, in EU some people will try to get at "the best you have" by unfair means. So generally use your wits and common sense and show a healthy level of caution, especially when something sounds too good to be true.

NEVER EVER disclose your username/password (on 3rd party websites e.g.), or use 3rd party tools from questionable sources. Also be careful with internet café PCs, Wifi Hotspots,  etc. Use 2-factor authentication if possible. Try not to brag about how much money you have dumped in game, etc. Register on entropialife.com (NOT with your in-game e-mail and password!) and set your profile to private, if you feel necessary.


One of the best scam preventions is to be patient, do not let others rush you into things. Ask your mentor or in soc chat, if you are not 100% sure, or some experienced player on your Friend List you know you can trust.

If you think you can use this as a blueprint to rip people off, you will get booted from our soc faster than you think, as well as reported to MindArk.


This is just a stub for now. If you have contributions to this, as always, please post in thread.

Some common scams:

The Jester D-1 (and other weapons, like: Karma Killer, Maddox, RepEx Axe, and whatnot)
This is a decade old classic. Jester D-1 for example is a beginner blueprint for weapon crafting, so quite some people click on it. Some especially clever persons try to sell the guns they get to newcomers then, claiming it is better than other beginner gear, especially pointing out max damage and attacks/minute that are possible. This is of course true, but the Jester needs level 100 sniper to reach those values, whereas your beginner stuff reaches it at level 5+-. Have a look at the first part of the statistics in item info, those are the ones you will get at your current level. The Jester will suck badly there, wasting like 50% of ammo on every shot. How are you supposed to profit in the medium-long range with such a horrible loss on every shot? Same with all the other "never/never" gear.
Always check item info before buying stuff!

Begging
Not quite a scam of course, but in so far as people make up all kinds of unthinkable stories in EU, you should follow the general rule: you can give out stuff, but only at your own will. Not because somebody you do not know at all tells you some made-up story about hunger, sick childs, or whatever other fart resides in his/her brain.

The TT value
Some people want to buy stuff off you, and ask to PM them for it. Once chatting with them, they will explain in more or less clever ways, why the true value of that Rubio is just the tt value, ripping you off market-value wise. Sometimes even as stupid as claiming that since the (L) item cannot be repaired and is not full anymore, the true value of it is not the tt value anymore, but below...
A similar scam is offering low-value (L) stuff on auction for regular Markup, leaving you with tt food you paid MU for. Also take care when buying (L) blueprints, their tt value in PEC is the amount of tries left on them!
Have a look at the basic economy guide.

Lend me an item/some money
Astonishingly, MindArk has managed to introduce a safe interface to hand out vehicles to strangers (Driver can disappear for 30 mins from your radar before vehicle is brought back to your storage).
Sadly, since over a decade, it obviously was not possible to include something similar with regular items to this excellent piece of software engineering.
This, together with MA's approach that "all trades are final" makes lending items a ride on the razor blade. Countless people have unsuspectingly handed out sets of high-end armor and guns only to see their year-long "friends" run off with it.
So, even inside of soc, and with people you think you know, be very very very cautious about this. See also the society rules!

The Banks
Ahh... the banks. Introduced with a lot of hype back then, then ended in a lot of drama. Basically just pawn-shops that rip you off with interest rates like 60%, which would be illegal in quite some RL countries... Stay clear of them.

Coloring/Upgrading/Repairing scam
Some people claim to color/upgrade/repair your item (especially funny is the coloring offer on non-(C) items....). Of course they are doing it for free, so you should also not ask for a collateral... and then you can see em suddenly vanish with your 1000 PED gun they wanted to spray pink...
Professionals will give you a collateral while they are busy with your item.

Taxi service
Sometimes people will offer to take you to another TP or a location of your choice for free or a fee. As in real life, careful when entering the vehicle of a stranger.
Some people might turn this offer into a space scam, claiming it is necessary to enter space to get to the other location, so read on with:

Space Taxi service
Sometimes people will offer to take you to space for free or a fee. As in real life, careful when entering the vehicle of a stranger.
Space is lootable pvp, so always make sure you empty all materials/mined resources from your inventory. Also all storage boxes or vehicle trunks that may contain mats/resources!
While a lot of people offering taxi service do not have bad intentions, as always some have. They might talk you into filling your inventory with a lot of lootables, claiming they accept only that as payment, or claim space is not lootable at all, since it was changed, using the safe zone around the stations as misleading example.
Before you know it, you are kicked out of vehicle in lootable zone and killed, or a friend pirate of your taxi driver takes advantage of the scheme. Some taxi guys are just newcomers themselves and might go to space over-eagerly, haplessly falling prey to pirates.
Related to space also is:

Random Team invites
Summoning to a spacecraft comes disguised as a team invite. Suddenly you sit on a privateer or mothership, maybe full of lootables, and try to fly back to planet on your own. Team invites should be announced in soc or private, so decline invites you do not know where they come from.

And since there is nothing than a good ranting for breakfast, here is something by a well-known avatar which might be interesting to those drooling at the Explosive Projectile HOFs.

Code:

2018-12-15 14:27:38 [System] [] You have gained 0.0815 experience in your McCormick Safe (C).