Private Station Scam Attempt - How it works, how to avoid it

Communications Center General Discussion
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So out of the blue, this guy Kipp Towers messages me offering me some really cheap Large Skill Injectors.

Wondering if I had previously engaged with him in chat, I humor him and ask for details and quantities.
We settle for 30 LSI’s at 880m each (a steal), which were located in Gallente High Sec.

He contracts the LSI’s from his alt O Little, and once I open the contract, staring at me in bright red letters as big as the red flags Kipp had triggered, is the information that should warn ANY would-be buyers: “Station may be inaccessible”

You see, Kipp was using his own Station (in this case in Wysalan), so he can always deny access to anyone that’s not in his corp… yet that is another scam for another day. Today I will tell you about this ingenious trick to get your isk and your goods.

So as we all know LSI’s can be activated remotely, so you may say, “who cares if you can’t access the station, you can still activate the LSI’s!” … which is a yes… but also a big NO.

What Kipp was aiming to do, was to have me accept the contract…and then on the second I’d accept it, he would input broadcast his army of Oracle fitted Alts hovering the station, to one volley the remaining hull of said station. That way after the core-less station is destroyed, he could collect the loot dropping from it… which would have been my Large Skill Injectors. A gain of 26b vs the loss of a structure that costs 600-700m.

Not being overly dumb, I kept him talking while I warped to his station… and this is what I found:

In the picture you can see all his alts that are members of the same corp, which has Friendly Fire as being legal… reason why Concord would not get involved.

Scam attempt
Scam attempt1920×1080 240 KB

So to anyone reading this… never accept contracts for LSI or anything that is out of a Private Station, as there is a very likely possibility you won’t get what you paid for.

I’m putting this into the public’s eye, as previous knowledge of how it works just saved me from a 26b loss and allowed me to troll this guy. I’m hoping that with this, newer players will become aware of how ruthless eve is, avoiding being placed in a position to rage quit after falling for such an ingenious scam tactic.

Funny thing: after I warped in and trolled them in local, they all warped out and the snowflake blocked me

P.S.: another thing to be aware of, if the station is in low power state, remote delivery won’t work either, so also be careful taking Hauling contracts to private stations.

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I look at a lot of contracts because I like [Multi Items] and I like to see what players try to get rid of but I always ignore contracts or market offers outside of hisec that have the “Station May Be Inaccessible” warning. It smells like ripoff.
Thanks for shedding light on the possible swindle.

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Wow, this one really put effort into their scam.

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The thing is. This is not new, it existed since the abandoned mechanic came into play.

Smart way to make some isk. Got to spend some isk first and keep the structure alive long enough not to get wardecced.

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Oh yeah its not new that’s for sure, but so many people are still unaware of it. I’d hate for vets and newbros alike to quit the game because they got scammed.

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Caveat emptor.

There’s a reason the maxim “if it’s too good to be true, it isn’t true” has been one of EvE player’s most popular operating principles.

Just not being greedy will avoid 90% of scams.

Better for a player to learn that the hard way if necessary earlier in their EvE playing when it’s cheaper.

If that makes them quit rather than learn then they would have quit over something in EvE anyway.

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I think your only option here would have been to immediately trigger asset safety items the structure.

Worth reviewing Scams in EVE Online - EVE University Wiki as well for awareness.

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Hey there @ISD_Drew! Thank you for pitching in, though could you explain how to trigger asset safety?

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From the personal asset window (Alt+T), you can right click on any upwell structure and it should be a drop down option.

image

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Oh wow I had no idea!! Does that work even if the station is without a core, or powered down/abandoned?

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The interesting thing here is that CCP turned off the ability to create courier contracts TO not onlined structures to prevent easy courier scams. CCP conveniently forgot the FROM not onlined structures.

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Even if it would work mechanic-wise, I don’t think the asset window will update in real-time, but only delayed. So you would need something already in the structure before accepting the contract to making this work. However you can’t deliver to an abandoned structure. So no, this is not an option, as the scammer only needs a few seconds to kill the structure.

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Tipa beat me to it. The asset window is stale up to 30 minutes if I recall from the old UI, so it is not a reliable method to quickly asset safety stuff in a structure you’ve never had items in before.

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Yeah once you accept that contract its game over

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That’s a dangerous accusation without any proof.

Also, no such thing as a private or player owned station.

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I warped in, and ALL the Oracles started warping off to a different Safe Spot immediately… so it wasn’t a generic “warp fleet to X”. Also when their warp spooled up, they all warped out at the same time, no delay whatsoever which would have indicated someone manually warping each character to a different place.

Moreover when I say private station anyone would understand what I mean, and if they don’t… there is a screenshot for them to see what I meant.

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That’s possible with destination set and autopilot hot keyed and cycling thru accounts quickly. With eve server tics being one second its entirely plausible to cycle 10 or more accounts in that time.

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Right sure, but it helps to use actual names. IE. Structures for upwell structures and stations for npc stations.

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All players need do is avoid sales contracts ‘out of the blue’. If someone you’ve never heard of is trying to sell you something…it is 99.9999% likely to be a scam. One does not need to know the intricacies.

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Here is what you should have done.

Kept him talking (im trying to get the funds together, gimme an hour or two)

Meanwhile you contact @Aiko_Danuja and make them aware of situation.

Aiko and crew appears with 15 cats , blow the station, maybe even cut you in on the loot if they are successful in getting it.

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