Hello!
Want to raise the issue on direct exchange between the players. At the moment, this exchange is not finalized, what scammers use. I personally saw at least two problems: 1) No any delay after we change the terms of exchange. (2) the Parties shall not give any notice of these changes. If with the second and so understandable, then here is the first is worth to consider much detail. After changing the conditions, the changes may not have time to be downloaded from another client due to a delay. Now an example of how this happens: “You were offered an exchange beneficial to you. You agreed. For example it was the sale of the ship for 1kkk. Everything seems to be fine, but when you accept the exchange, you receive an amount that is not even close to the one that was shown in the exchange window. And all because at the last moment the other player changes the amount, but because of the delay between the clients and the server, you do not see the changes.”.
My suggestion is that if the terms of the exchange are changed, neither party can accept the exchange until the five-second delay has passed. It would also be nice to warn the parties about changes in the terms of the exchange.
You can direct trade with other players in complete safety using the contract system. Safety has a price - 10K ISK to create the contact. Otherwise trade with people you know and trust - or accept the risk.
If a deal looks too good to be true and the counterparty refuses to use a contract you know it’s a scam!
That may have been a “bug” back when the direct trade function was initially introduced (well before my time) but players figured out how to exploit it for market PVP and CCP decided it was a legitimate tactic. If they haven’t “fixed” it by now, it’s working as intended.
Such a mechanic would require at least an extra click, which would be annoying if you were handing ships out to a fleet or trading with a trusted companion. Given there is already a 100% safe way to trade with a stranger - via contracts - I can see why CCP hasn’t changed the current trade system.
Just don’t use the trade window with strangers. Given how easy and effective contracts are, I’m not sure I would want to trade the ease of the trade window for more security I don’t need.