Why so many scammers on Char Bazaar nowadays?

The only reasons I can think of is that the scammers know CCP was on holiday break and the price difference between skill extractors and large injectors is also quite high. Meaning they could make the most money now and have the most time to get away with it. But this has only been the case for the 3 weeks, if there were many scams popping up before these past 3 weeks then I have no idea…

I am also scammed i try to buy new char 28.12. and I still didnt get answer form ccp… And now i dont have isk… How many time need to CCP to answer any experiance?

Yeah, I have also been scammed. Been waiting over a week to get refunded on two characters I bought.

I have my suspicions as to the recent scamming uproar. Perhaps:

(1) Hackers are reacting to higher injector prices and liquidating their stock of hacked accounts;

(2) It is the holiday season and there is increased demand for RMT; and/or

(3) CCP has recently banned a ton of RMT bots. Until those bots get set up again, RMTers may be short on stock, forcing them to liquidate hacked accounts to keep up with the demand of RMT buyers.

The last time we saw this much scamming happening all at once was during fanfest.

I don’t get it though because CCP gets back the isk to the rightful owner. So, what I’m gathering is that the scammers sell the injectors for over what they bought the character for and they benefit with the extra isk because CCP only will take back the amount scammed and they keep the difference, which they probably already sent to another character?

Perhaps CCP needs to implement some kind of special account (like when you buy real estate) where the money goes and it is released only after the character is sent and received and both parties click an ACCEPT button or something?

I might be naive about the whole thing. I have only purchased on character ever and thankfully it went so smoothly. This was a long time ago before the injectors. Sorry you all have to go through this. It is not good for anyone wanting to honestly trade or sell a character and try something new in Eve. It needs to be fixed!

My stats for 2018: 147 character purchases, 13 were scams. (8.8%) Current streak: 9 consecutive successful character purchases since December 5. Support ticket response times ranged from 24 hours to 19 days, with an average of about 8 days.

In examining the scam instances, I also get a sense that the characters are coming from hacked accounts, or possibly inactive accounts that have been purchased on the RMT market. Most of my instances also occurred during fanfest, the holidays or right after major content updates; times when CCP’s resources are stretched. Seems to be a concerted effort by RMTers more so than random Jita 4/4 style scam attempts by players either thinking they can get away with it or simply unaware of character sale policy.

I think some sort of escrow system for character transactions would be great. Might work something like this: the buyer locks in the character name, skill point total expected, ISK and account to receive the character, and the seller locks in the character, account to transfer to, PLEX (if PLEX transfer) or cc payment. Once matched and transfer fees paid, the exchange takes place (possibly subject to a waiting period if deemed needed).

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I just got scammed again, look here: WTS 117 M SP all arounder toon

Sent isk to seller 2 days ago, he disappeared after that. Sent multiple eve mails requested for status update, no response. This is getting out of controlled… 1 out of every 3-4 transactions is a scam now.

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and someone just got scammed as well…

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if CCP doesn’t do something about this soon, the character bazaar forum system will break soon…too many scamming going on at the moment. I hope CCP can take real legal action lawsuit against whoever is behind all this once caught.

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There is a pattern to the character scams. It is usually higher SP pilots worth 50 bill or more, the seller accepts a at or below SP extraction value bid, They may try to negotiate in game so that they can have more than one person send them ISK, there is usually a lack of information and no time put into making the post.

Red Flags:
Low buyout value
Quick sales under 30 min
Accepting the first bid that is placed
Lack of REQUIRED information ( I see allot of people buying characters that are missing required information.)

People should also try and confirm if the transfer is going to be through PLEX or CC. If they are transferring by credit card and it sounds like they are going to transfer right away and an hour or two passes you should create a ticket ASAP. By giving them multiple days it makes their job of RMTing easier and they have a much higher chance of getting away with it.

In my opinion if people start staying clear of red flags then the scammer numbers will drop. I stopped trading characters months ago because the scamming got out of control for my standards. I just recently came back to see that the market got even worse.

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@Alocose here is an active sell thread that matches some of your highlighted criterias: WTS 109 mil SP Pilot

posted 3 hours ago and accepted the first bid under extraction price… now seller is actively trying to contact the first bidder to send him ISK ASAP. even now, the seller just replied to my post on his thread. 99% scam i believe…let’s wait and see.

I think we have a real SERIAL SCAMMER here… just 1 dude behind all this.

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It is defiantly suspicious because of the SP amount and it is also a fairly quick sale for a pilot of that level. Personally I would stay away, but there is still a chance that it is legit. Most pilots with characters around that SP are going to want a min of 100-105 bill.

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Another tip is to refresh the SP right before you send ISK and give it 10-15 min I have caught a few scammers extracting the character before they even have the ISK :smile:

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I am that buyer and now you have me real worried.
I’m already worried about a sale I may of rushed into this morning before coffee.
I wish ccp would implement some type of pre sale checks and of holding before being able to post sales.

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go for it, buy it. you’ll make a profit extracting… but if it turns out to be a scam, let me remind you that CCP is dealing with a lot of scam cases right now so don’t expect to see your isk refund until after 3-4 weeks… i’m still waiting for my isk refund from 2 scams. good luck

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Good lord, I am happy I backed out of that one then. Ended up buying another one for under extract and was kind of suspicious. But logged in and the guy was sending mails to people saying he is selling the character and that they should know the next person won’t be them. So I figure it’s a legit transaction and it’s been on my account for 24-48 hours now, don’t quite remember. So I think I am in the clear

Yea i just looked at that one, instead of 41 mil SP, it is 21 Mil SP according to eveskill
I saw some guy that was going through, not an ISD and trying to get people to post the correct info. Some people are salty and wanted to report him… I think if more people would try to help hold those posting in the bazaar accountable maybe the scams could be cut down… especially if someone like the @ISD_Sakimura could keep a closer eye on the bazaar to cut down on the scamming.

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I get a lot of salt when I post in threads asking them to do it correctly or to not try to mislead in their title. It’s quite fun when they are salty, and even better when they understand their mistake, say thanks and fix it.

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I imagine stating you applied is enough to disqualify since it’s my understanding that there should be no connection or thought of connection between an ISD and their player account

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Confirmed the tokens for that pilot have been revoked (or he was transferred, but I assume not) {"error":"invalid_token","error_description":"Token is no longer valid."}

Tokkmar’s are as well.

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@Brock_Khans yeah for sure it’s a scam. the seller went missing, no response whatsoever from him. Haven’t received any email about pilot being transfered to my account. Just checked account, nothing there. Scam for sure.

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