How to get ripped off on the black market
Day 1,759, 10:44
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Published in Canada 
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by
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by barneyg
tl;dr version: some Croat called 666herostrat666 is a scammer, beware!
Some things are too good to be true, right? Some guy shouts "Selling 400 q7 for 9600, please pm me". That's 24 CAD per weapon, I can re-sell them for around 27.75 after tax in Canada, so ~1500$ profit overall. Great, easy money. Ignoring the obvious problem (why isn't that guy selling the weapons himself? he can't be some Nigerian prince can he?), I send him a PM (full thread in a pic below).
I sell some gold to have enough CAD and then I send over the dough. He donates weapons back... but they're Q1. Ever notice how eRep alerts stupidly say "xxxxx has transferred yyy Weapons to your storage"? How do you know what you got? Answer: you need a before/after look into your storage. That's the only way to know. Guess what, I had my storage open in another tab:
Notice how I have: 21 gold, 6111 CAD, 0 Q1 weapons, and 3 Q7 weapons.
As I said, I need 9600 CAD for the weapons so I sell 5 gold, send him the cash, and receive the "Weapons":
If you're counting:
I start with = 6111 CAD
I sell 5 gold = 739.75 * 3 + 737.99 * 2 = 3695.23 CAD
I send him = 9600 CAD
So I'm left with... 6111 + 3695 - 9600 = 206 CAD... and 400 Q7 weapons, right? No:
I have 206 CAD all right, and a bunch of Q1 weapons. The PM shouting match that ensued expectedly yielded a "LULZ admit it you sold my weapons":
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
and so on.
Today I learne
1) it sucks to pay taxes, but a regulated market protects you from getting ripped off.
2) at least one Croat is a complete asshole and I won't feel bad about fighting for Indonesia.
9/17/2012 edit: I have to definitely cross out #2 (even though that was a joke) because of a generous donation by somebody else from Croatia (thanks Sexy Macan!)
Some things are too good to be true, right? Some guy shouts "Selling 400 q7 for 9600, please pm me". That's 24 CAD per weapon, I can re-sell them for around 27.75 after tax in Canada, so ~1500$ profit overall. Great, easy money. Ignoring the obvious problem (why isn't that guy selling the weapons himself? he can't be some Nigerian prince can he?), I send him a PM (full thread in a pic below).
I sell some gold to have enough CAD and then I send over the dough. He donates weapons back... but they're Q1. Ever notice how eRep alerts stupidly say "xxxxx has transferred yyy Weapons to your storage"? How do you know what you got? Answer: you need a before/after look into your storage. That's the only way to know. Guess what, I had my storage open in another tab:
Notice how I have: 21 gold, 6111 CAD, 0 Q1 weapons, and 3 Q7 weapons.
As I said, I need 9600 CAD for the weapons so I sell 5 gold, send him the cash, and receive the "Weapons":
If you're counting:
I start with = 6111 CAD
I sell 5 gold = 739.75 * 3 + 737.99 * 2 = 3695.23 CAD
I send him = 9600 CAD
So I'm left with... 6111 + 3695 - 9600 = 206 CAD... and 400 Q7 weapons, right? No:
I have 206 CAD all right, and a bunch of Q1 weapons. The PM shouting match that ensued expectedly yielded a "LULZ admit it you sold my weapons":
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
and so on.
Today I learne
😛
1) it sucks to pay taxes, but a regulated market protects you from getting ripped off.
9/17/2012 edit: I have to definitely cross out #2 (even though that was a joke) because of a generous donation by somebody else from Croatia (thanks Sexy Macan!)
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Comments
It's a shame you can't punch people in the face through the internet.
I feel for you. Shouted the article and sent you a couple Q7s.
lols @Vrykolaus so true so true
That guy just sent me a friend request this morning.
I just sent him a welcome message.
make a ticket
admin faggs should ban him
i know a lot of scammers banned by admins
scamming is illegal
admins won't do crap. I talked to them after I got scammed by DanBreen (don't buy anything from him) they said it was a private transaction and they weren't going to do anything.
Tough luck, but at least you've learned a valuable lesson in RL as well as eLife. Caveat Emptor, Buyer Beware
Ouch ... now that sucks. I loss similar (actually more) in mistakes made when I first started to play erep a few months back. I feel your pain. Voted your post
That's balls BG. I hope this guy gets his testicles removed with piano wire.
Good article, I am sorry you got ripped off. I hope you can get your money back! Voted and Subbed.
thanks Mary Chan, and everyone for the comments. Kwest, I can't really vote your comment (other than C&P with x2) but I like the idea. (visually, not really)
the saddest part may be that another Canadian was scammed what looks like a few minutes before I was. he posted a warning on the MDP feed but I don't frantically look at what happens there so I missed it.
I don't expect admins to do anything and haven't reported him.
what the admins could do, however, is clarify the stupid alert to prove without a doubt that a scam happened. if you look at my screenshot above, it clearly says
"666herostrat666 has transferred 200 Weapons to your storage."
who the hell cares about "Weapons" and "Food"? how about "Q7 weapons" or "Q3 food"?
It's a shame you can't punch people in the face through the internet. x2
Life would be alot simpler if that were the case.
Unfortunately, the "Donate" button is just that, a "Donate" button. No implied or enforced contract on it.
Sucks you got bit by the scammer roaches, but there's nothing to be done.
That's why you should only trade with people you know really good. I traded a lot on a black market and I never got scammed. I only do business with people I trust.
Next time, if you ever decide to deal like that again, talk to Don Milli.
Good, this way people will actually start contributing to the system. Then we can have a proper military and can afford lots of MPPs!
And \o/ Indonesia \o/
That dude befriended me yesterday. I guess Imma have to defriend the cheating bastard. To bad there isn't a way to bring scam artists to justice.
There's a few ways you can protect yourself.
Only do trades with people in #itrade on IRC that have the proper credentials, never make big deals in one huge trade (break it down to smaller pieces) and if all else fails, if the deal is too good to be true, it probably is.
As lousy as it is to get scammed, avoiding it is simple. Keep it on the level and you're guaranteed to be ok. For $1500 profit this transaction just seemed too risky. Either way sorry you got ripped and I will send a couple foods over.
To help you recover I sent a bit of gold your way. But next time I would advise caution. If a man tries to sell you a 2012 car for $100 tell him no and phone the cops, since it's probably stolen.
It's a shame you can't punch people in the face through the internet. x3
Thanks everyone for the advice, food and weapons, but I don't deserve any of it (except advice I guess).
Don't worry Barney and don't beat yourself up. You learned a lesson and life goes on.
Everyone should send the scammer an email as well just to tell them what kind of scumbag they are.
there are several FAGS out there http://www.erepublik.com/en/citizen/profile/3046388 he is one too
I believe that I can say on behalf of all eCroats, that we apoologize...
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/666-je-prevara-eng-666-is-a-scamm--2120050/1/20
he's a known scammer in eCroatia, he even tried to scam me!
you really shouldn't judge whole enation by some asshole, there are scum everywhere
btw v+s
"you really shouldn't judge whole enation by some asshole"
Don't worry, I don't. My TIL #2 was a bit tongue-in-cheek, Indonesia's not going to be our DO/campaign of the day much anyway.
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/this-is-not-just-about-money-mate--2120630/1/20
barneyg, it looks like you weren't the only one scammed by this ahole.
I guess that's why they call it Black Market, and not White Market....
I think this is the sole reason e-murder should be legal
Thanks for writing this article it's a good heads up and it would be nice if you got your money back from the admins. I'm sure they have serious statistics on what happens on their servers and just because we can't see if it's Q7 or not I'm sure they know. If the server is smart enogh to know to put the appropriate picture besides the various qualities of goods when donating I'm sure it keeps track of what qualities in what quantities were transferred.
Voted, scammed me into a rocket pack. Reported him to admins.
v+S be careful guys
voted and subbed