What is Scamming?
Scamming is a term that is used, when someone tries to cheat other players in Entropia Universe. As Entropia allows you to trasnfer your wins from the game into real money directly (no need to use eBay or another trading platform), it is obvious, that a lot people try to rob other players in the game.
I will eplain some of the most common skamming methods here.
A even more detailed article you find here: http://www.entropiaforum.com/forums/entrop...ds-exposed.html
A very good hint:
If you think, a trade is too good to b true, you can be sure, it is too good to be true. Believe me, I know what I am talking about, all "serious" players fell into the skamming pit once.
What is NOT Scamming?
Beginners often scream "XYZ is a scammer!", when they think, they found an unfair trade. You should NEVER call someone a scammer if it's not one of the things, I described here. Simply because you will learn, that Entropia is a lot bigger than you can think of, when you have played it for 3 months. Especially if someone offers you a very low price for something that you think is worth more money… this is NOT skamming!
Scamming: upgrade armor
Case: someone talks to you and says, he can upgrade your armor (example: convert Pixie to Ghost or color your Pixie in black/red).
In Entropia Universe it is not possible to upgrade any armor. No. No way. Not even Photon or Auktuma can do it. Not possible. That simple. Period.
You can attach armor plates to an armor, but this EVERY player can do alone, no crafter is needed to do this.
But it is not possible to convert one armor to another armor type, or to change the coloring/look of an armor.
Scamming: Wrong/missing items in trade window
This I have seem especially with armor parts: Someone sells a Vigilante set (blue/white). He shows all items. When you agree on a price, he closes the trade window or clears his window and says "sorry, wrong button", then adds all armor parts again. The trick: now one expensive part (like Vigi Harnesh) is not Vigi but Settler (looks very similar). So always on the second trade step (see screenshot), take all the time you need to check, if the items are exactly what you talked about. A variant of this skam is to talk about a big bulk of ores/enmatters (for example 20 different items) and then add them to the trade window twice (same method as above). The TT value is the same, but one expensive ores has been replaced with a cheap ore.
Scamming: Clear trade window
I have seen beginners even fall into this: after agreeing on a price, the seller clears his trade window and hits accept. You (the buyer) get even a message that the seller cleared his window, so again: check very carefully the trade windows.
Scamming: Team hunting
Yes, it is possible to skam in a team hunt too. The trick is, that the scammer starts a team with the setting […..] and invites you to a team hunt. This setting means, the first mob that gets killed loots to the team starter, the second loots to you, the third to him etc. Your problem is, that this person will tell you "I use this big gun" but when hunting, he uses a small gun that looks the same. Or he takes the amplifier of. In the end it means you, the beginner, will use more ammo/decay than the skammer, so he gets his loot very cheap because you pay for him too.
Solution: If you team hunt with someone you don't know very well: the only setting to go is "Stack share", this means, you get a % of all loot items based on the % of damage you do.
Scamming: Mentor skams
One of the most common scams are fake mentors. Someone approaches you and offers you a free item (e.g. a free pixie armor or at least a free part etc). These "mentors" tell you that every mentor should do this, so if your current mentor did not give you something for free, you should switch to the person as a mentor. Again skam rule #1: if a trade is too good to be true, don't believe in it. None of the real mentors will promise you to give you anything for free. Most of them do, but they will never promise this in advance. If a mentor says: come to me and I give you something for free, it is sure to be skam.
The trick for the scammer is: he will not take care of you, he just puts you on ignore list after 3 days (then you cannot leave him anymore!). So he has no trouble with you, no work. If you ever reach level 2000 in a profession, this mentor will get a gift from Mind Ark. Your problem: without a good mentor, it is extremely hard to learn the game. You will loose a lot money, if you don't have agood mentor, so be very very careful with choosing your mentor.
Scamming: Trust me, because I am [XYZ]
Never trust anyone because he says things like "I am the well known person [XYZ] or his brother/sister/whatever". Tricks are: The account of this person has been hacked/stolen (happens several times a year with pretty big avatars! [Read here] how to avoid getting your account hacked!) or the name is written very very similar, by using special characters etc. Of course it is totally stupid to trust someone because he says "I am the brother of XYZ"
.Scamming: Account hacking
From time to time someone creates a site where it says you have to log on with your Entropia Account. Examples are that you are invited to a Beta test of the new system etc blabla. NEVER use your Entropia Account login data anywhere except the official Entropia website. Never follow a link in an email to the site, always type it by hand. Use the same security rules as with a real bank account.
Be aware of trojan horses and keyloggers on your system: a very very cool program to make Entropia Universe more fun/more easy to use might just be created to get your account data! See [Entropia Security: Account hacking/stealing] for details.
Scamming: Other scams
Scammers always have new ideas how to cheat the system or other players. Again: if you think, a deal is too good to be true, don't trade. If the seller says, it has to be done now (he says he can't wait until you alk to a friend), don't trade. If your mentor is online, ask him to do the trade for you, so you can be sure, he checks the trade very careful.