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"Space Trade Empire" scamming


Teufelaffe

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2 minutes ago, blazemonger said:

well.. I'm pretty sure the scam offers gold scrap at a price which is too good to be true and you know what they say about things sounding too good to be true.. ;)

*shrug*  Not everyone is going to know what is and isn't a "too good to be true" price; especially newer players.  

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While true, scamming in game is not against TOS. The problem is that since NQ has pretty much locked down the Alioth, Thades, Madis triangel as a permanent safezone, there is no way for players to (re)act as scammers can do what they like without any consequences to them at all as no one can touch them in any way. 

 

It's the same with pirates in space, they can just set up base in the safe zone and jump out to do their daily dose of piracy, then jump back in and be untouchable.

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6 hours ago, Teufelaffe said:
The org Space Trade Empire has dispensers purporting to sell gold scrap, but dispense 0.10L of hydrogen.
I'd recommend never buying anything from them, ever.

I am new myself and when I saw that dispenser I very nearly fell for it. The 'too good to be true' is what stopped me. Seems 'human nature' and the axiom of 'buyer beware' followed us to our new home afterall.

 

This definitely adds a bit of realism to the game for sure, but I can see how something like this could be very frustrating to some people. Especially new players with little money to spare. I was thinking, unless/until the devs decide to add in a type of reputation system for people and organizations, this is most likely the best way to warn others. I want to thank you for your heads up.

 

I wonder if it would be feasible for an organization to keep and post a list of 'trusted known sellers/traders', sort of like the Better Business Bureau in the US. I imagine it would not be easy with the current system because there doesn't appear to be any type of ingame mail system and not all players in the game read the forums, but having an ingame player ran checking system would add another level of realism to the game. Since I am in the very early stages of trying to build my own store to sell spaceships, scams like this make me realize that I will need to advertise coordinates to my (future) store on one of my territories in hopes of gaining some trust of buyers. But a reputation system would go a long ways in helping that trust.

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10 hours ago, blazemonger said:

While true, scamming in game is not against TOS. The problem is that since NQ has pretty much locked down the Alioth, Thades, Madis triangel as a permanent safezone, there is no way for players to (re)act as scammers can do what they like without any consequences to them at all as no one can touch them in any way. 

 

It's the same with pirates in space, they can just set up base in the safe zone and jump out to do their daily dose of piracy, then jump back in and be untouchable.

Not suggesting that it's against the TOS, just making people aware so that STE loses potential legit business in addition to some income from those containers.  Since, as you point out, there's not much that can be done in-game, I'm doing what I can out of game.

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15 hours ago, Teufelaffe said:
The org Space Trade Empire has dispensers purporting to sell gold scrap, but dispense 0.10L of hydrogen.
I'd recommend never buying anything from them, ever.

Thanks for the heads up.

A consequence of a huge safe zone, unfortunately.

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"Space Trade Empire" is probably a one (sad) person org.  And they'll probably just make a new org with a new name once word gets around.

 

But it's definitely a good idea to spread the word about the scam itself.

 

Someone should park a construct next to their dispenser with a sign saying "THIS IS A SCAM".  We may not be able to blow them up, but we can still fight back.

 

I'm fine with the whole "All's fair in love and war" thing.  But the fact is, this is a game, and when the first thing that happens to you in a game, is getting scammed, it's not a great first impression.

 

At the same time, what is Quanta even for? lol

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Why would anyone even want gold scrap? It's the heaviest scrap. And don't dispensers tell you both what you get and what you pay before you continue, and you can press cancel?

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12 hours ago, Haunty said:

Why would anyone even want gold scrap? It's the heaviest scrap. And don't dispensers tell you both what you get and what you pay before you continue, and you can press cancel?

I keep asking that, but everyone just seems addicted to it. Any other T4 scrap is better. Even lithium scrap (T3) repairs more per kg of scrap I think. (I need to actually test that).

 

Pay your market taxes... much cheaper than getting scammed.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/16/2020 at 5:31 AM, Haunty said:

Why would anyone even want gold scrap? It's the heaviest scrap. And don't dispensers tell you both what you get and what you pay before you continue, and you can press cancel?

no they dont tell you

 

On 11/15/2020 at 8:55 AM, blazemonger said:

While true, scamming in game is not against TOS. 

Oh you are wrong it IS against the TOS

 

https://www.dualuniverse.game/legal/code-of-conduct
 

You must refrain from engaging in any behaviour that could harm NOVAQUARK’s image and/or reputation, that could harm one or more other Users or have a negative impact on their gaming experience, or that is detrimental to the proper functioning of the Game.

Harassing or threatening other users and interfering in any way with their use and full enjoyment of the Game;

Participating in any fraudulent action against any other User of the Game, including by means of scamming or social engineering;

 

So the question now is, when its 100% against the TOS, why is DU not handle it?

 

Lets be clear, a company not following their own rules is a 100% chance i will leave and never come back again

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It's not against TOS as User (Player) != character

TOS refers to RL situations here, not in game. (and this is a pretty standard part of any MMO TOS..)

 

You can scam in game all you want, you can blackmail in game all you want. You can't tell someone IRL that unless they give you money you are going to trash their place in game.

 

You can blockade a character's base in game, you can't cut someone's access to internet preventing them to play IRL

And no, you can't call SWAT IRL on your opponent in game as a battle starts

 

and yes, those things have happened. Not in DU yet but they have.

 

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3 minutes ago, Emptiness said:

Then why did they ban for market 15? An action, I might add, which only hurt them, in my eyes.

 

That is the big question in that instance, yes. NQ claimed it was due to using an exploit (which was never published) and tried to make the case that non player assets are exempt from these rules and in general not to be tampered with.

 

In the end it's their ball game so if they want to make the rules as they go, they can. How that affects the game is another matter but let's not go there again..

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TOS, COC and EULA are very misleading (not that we had that topic years ago already). On one side this clearly refers to RL scams and social engineering but then again the first line reads "When using the game". So you could argue scamming is against COC, but we never got any clarification on such topics in the past so the fight continues.....

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11 hours ago, blazemonger said:

It's not against TOS as User (Player) != character

TOS refers to RL situations here, not in game. (and this is a pretty standard part of any MMO TOS..)

 

You can scam in game all you want, you can blackmail in game all you want. You can't tell someone IRL that unless they give you money you are going to trash their place in game.

 

You can blockade a character's base in game, you can't cut someone's access to internet preventing them to play IRL

And no, you can't call SWAT IRL on your opponent in game as a battle starts

 

and yes, those things have happened. Not in DU yet but they have.

 

SWAT tackle best tackle lol.

 

Some people seem to dive too far into sandboxes.

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2 hours ago, Hiturn said:

I saw some warnings at the market about the dispensers but why aren't they walled/jailied ? Is that against the rules?

Putting a wall around the scammer's construct would definitely get you banned, ironically. That's in an NQ clarification somewhere - no blocking other people's advertising.

 

I'd really like to see advertising at the markets/districts banned.

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14 hours ago, Daphne Jones said:

Putting a wall around the scammer's construct would definitely get you banned, ironically. That's in an NQ clarification somewhere - no blocking other people's advertising.

 

I'd really like to see advertising at the markets/districts banned.

Curious, would you consider unobstructive advertising to be okay? i.e. billboards that are on the already existing building that does not impede your movement through a given area... just look or don't look...

 

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23 hours ago, Deintus said:

Curious, would you consider unobstructive advertising to be okay? i.e. billboards that are on the already existing building that does not impede your movement through a given area... just look or don't look...

 

As long as it doesn't cause lag (but it does), yes.

 

The most annoying thing is the 10 advertisers, none of which blocks the entrance, but collectively they make it very hard to get to the entrance. Even if you clear that, there's lag. My game always (literally always) crashes right after I land at a district market and often does that at non-district markets too.

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11 hours ago, Daphne Jones said:

As long as it doesn't cause lag (but it does), yes.

 

The most annoying thing is the 10 advertisers, none of which blocks the entrance, but collectively they make it very hard to get to the entrance. Even if you clear that, there's lag. My game always (literally always) crashes right after I land at a district market and often does that at non-district markets too.

That's fair.

 

I may be overly optimistic, but I believe most lag and crashing issues will be resolved when they (DU Devs) begin the optimization and bug squashing patch. Maybe it would be a different story at that point. But I definitely will concede the lag and crash issues should come before amenities.

 

*EDIT when I say amenities I mean player additions such as ads, billboards or player markets.

 

 

Edited by Deintus
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  • 3 months later...
6 minutes ago, Pseudolukian said:

And they are still doing the same. Shame on DU

I think scams are intended game play lol. I guess game play options for total losers are required for modern games.

 

But we got transparent dispensers finally, so this particular scam must not be working so well now.

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The whole concept of designing dispensers that accepted money but didn’t actually show what they dispensed was pretty indicative of NQ’s naïveté, IMHO. 

 

pretty much like how J-“it will potentially take months to get into space”-C himself seems to underestimate the level and cunning of his player base at every given opportunity, almost like clockwork.

 

 

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