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[Alexander Rykis]

I completely agree...

However, simple scams don't take charisma as much as sheer persistence.

Example:
Convincing someone who has been trying to join Goonswarm for more than a year that it's a good idea to talk his RL best friend and his best friends roommate into joining too and subsequently contract over three years worth of assets and a 1.5b security deposit takes quite a bit of charisma, confidence and imagination.

Running trade window window scams in Jita don't take any of those things at all. Well... save for possibly imagination. It just takes sheer persistence.


The point is, is that if you're persistent enough and committed enough, you can make scamming a viable and reliable isk machine. Be it recruitment scams, renting scams or trade hub scams or even elaborate wh corp theft scams... there's really something for every ability level.

Here's the problem most people run into when scamming:

Most of the time, if you're looking to scamming as your means of income, it's quite possible that it's because you find the rest of isk making mechanics to be incredibly excruciatingly boring or because you hear scamming is easy. That's why I got into scamming... I hate everything else and I heard it's easy. Here's where people have an issue... If you turn to scamming and you don't have any success, you quit and go back to what it is that you were doing before. If you don't have any success at first, it's probably because you lack the natural charisma and mental capacity to stay one step ahead of the mark and you fell flat on your face. However, instead of being clever and coming up with something within your ability and knowledge, you quit. This is where I'd like to step in.

I think I'm gonna do this, I'll make a guide. What I'll do is, is I'll put together a basic guide. The general do's and don'ts and some simple things to get you started. Anyone who is interested may feel free to contact me at any time if they want to learn more. I'll basically evaluate whoever comes to me for help and if I feel like you can handle advanced shit, I'll offer to teach you that one on one. This latter bit is what I'll be charging isk for.

HOLY SHIT DID HE SAY HE WAS GONNA CHARGE TO TEACH ME TO SCAM!?!?!?!!!11 IT'S A TARP!!!

Yes, I did. No, it's not. If I'm going to sit down and teach you to do it right, that means I'm taking time away from my new corp AND away from my own scamming. I don't mind doing it... but to quote the Joker, "If you're good at something, never do it for free." I probably made as much as 300b in scamming during the time I was in Goons and I have the chat logs and screenshots to prove it. I'm good at scamming and there's a good chance you'll make it back within your first few days. Will I have a set fee? No, I'm doing this as a favor to the community. I like teaching and helping people, so I'll only ask in compensation what you feel like the information is worth.

So... give me a few days and I'll put some shit together.

[Alexander Rykis]

Oh and...

I'll be putting this together under the presumption that it stays on this forum.

I personally don't use any of the shit I'll be putting in the basic guide, as it's a bit below my ability level and not worth my time. So, you dudes plastering it everywhere is only gonna help you fuck yourselves. If you want to make isk off it and you want your friends to make isk off it, keep it here on these forums, k?

We had a saying in Goons. DON'T FUCKING TALK IN RECRUITMENT CHAT. You post a recruitment ad in rec chat for Goonswarm and you are almost guaranteed to have one person start crying scam and it spreads like fucking wildfire. It kills the crop for a few days and fucks over everyone. The analogy we used was like throwing dynamite into a pond when you and your friends are trying to fish.

The point of this is to keep it in house. It will only help you.

I'll make a separate thread asking what you guys need the most help on and what you would like to see in a basic guide. Thanks for the feedback guys

[Senn Typhos]

I mean this in absolutely no offense, and not directed at the OP, its just something that came to mind over the course of this thread.

Every time I see a "how to make money" self-help book, I have a brief fantasy in which someone purchases said book, takes it home and eagerly cracks open the covers, and finds the words "I hope you learned something today" sprawling the pages.

The most prevalent and easily pulled scams are ones in which the target is essentially paying to be scammed. Case in point, the "I'll train you to x if you give me x money." That's not just an EVE-based idea, thats all over the MMO world. Which I suppose ties into your idea of persistence v. charisma idea...

really, if you posted that line a billion times over the course of a week, eventually, someone would doubtlessly be dim enough to bite that lure.

[Alexander Rykis]

Awesome bro...

Even though I said I'll offer the advanced stuff for whatever you want to give me. If you want to give me 5m for my effort, I don't give a fuck... just something to compensate for my time.

Yes, what you said does happen alot. But those people also charge like $40 for the book. I'm not charging anything, I'm working off tips.

Please pay attention to what I say and don't shit all over what I'm trying to do. That didn't really help in any way.

[Graanvlokkie]

I don't mean to derail this thread, but seeing your avatar and then posting about scamming some guy in EVE is hilarious.

That must be lesson one. Use an avatar with something cute in it, like a kitten, puppy or child, to lure the victim into a false sense of security

Would love to read your scamming guidelines and thoughts, even if I would never use them in games, I think it would be really interesting.

[Alexander Rykis]

Well I'll start one then

[Zuzanna Alondra]

My next favorite "scam" was when Havo paid a noob in a corp we had decked 10 mil for the list of all 100 plus pilots in the corp.  We had much fun with locator agents after that and made much more then the 10 mil back plus many fun killmails.

Good times.  Good luck setting up shop. 

[Casiella]

Perhaps the EVE Scam Guide might be of interest here. (I didn't write it, but I'm a fan.)

[Alexander Rykis]

I don't even need to read it.

Riethe is a giant (word that Silver will delete) that has since quit the game. Read it... tell me if that helps you in any way. The most useful is his description of a ponzi scheme, but that's it.

This is also why, before, I said that if you want to actually be shown how to do the things I'm saying, I'm going to actually physically show you.