Spiral Knights - Questions about scam/theft management by GMs

Questions about scam/theft management by GMs

9 replies [Last post]

Sun, 06/23/2013 - 19:21

Drarken

I just got scammed after agreeing to pay the unbind fee for an item that some [insert expletive here] player agreed to sell to me. As soon as I gave him the unbind energy, he bails and logs off. Thankfully, I take screenshots every time I make a trade so I submitted the screenshots along with my written complaint. Shortly after, I get a couple replies from a Game Master saying "We have received your complaint. We do investigate all complaints thoroughly and take action if necessary" and ”If you have any new information to share with us, please reply to your currently open ticket”.

This leads me to a few concerns. Firstly, the fact that they need to "investigate" the situation despite me providing clear screenshots and the fact that they encourage “any new information to share” makes me wonder, do Game Masters just arbitrarily decide whether a scam has taken place based entirely on feedback (which is really bad and can have countless loopholes)? Or are there systems (i.e. logs, etc) that lets a Game Master know what has been in said in chat and transacted via trade window?

Also, the part where it says "...and take action if necessary” is a bit alarming. Heres a hypothetical situation: you give an Ecto Drop as collateral to someone before making a trade, and then that someone decides to just run off with your Ecto Drop. Theft has occurred. Now the question is, will Game Masters consider retrieving your stolen Ecto Drop or will they deem it “unnecessary” since we all know Ecto Drops are laughably cheap and almost worthless after all? I dunno if it’s just me, but does this suggests that Game Masters decide to take action based only on the SEVERITY of an infraction, not whether an infraction (regardless of severity) has been done or not?

I’d appreciate it if anyone who has been scammed and went through the whole process of working with GMs fill me up on what to expect, as this is the first time this happened to me. Thanks.

Sun, 06/23/2013 - 19:37

Fehzor

I'm not entirely sure how they operate, but I do know that photoshop is a thing, and that it can be used to fake screenshots... hopefully they'll be able to see a chat log of some sort. It would be awfully silly if they didn't have that.

As for the ecto drop scenario, I'm pretty sure they weigh all items and such equally. I've seen screenshots of people calling the GMs in for a precious ecto drop fallen slightly out of bounds on firestorm citadel... of course, they don't need that ecto drop. They're just being massive attention cravers. But the GMs did come and get it for them.

Sun, 06/23/2013 - 20:03

Little-Juances

Anyone can fake a screenshot with paint. They will never work as valid proof.
Just look at this thing I made in 5 seconds without even caring http://imgur.com/GTyTwKz

Your case is legit, but then someone will try to scam OOO by faking a scam. That's why we can't have nice things.

Sun, 06/23/2013 - 20:16

Fdliyerz

Ecto Drops are worth a lot.

Ecto Drops are worth a lot. In fact, I paid 1,000 CR for one earlier today.

What the hell was I thinking?

Sun, 06/23/2013 - 23:49

Hexzyle

The reason they have to "investigate" is because you didn't file a scam report which saves the chat log for easy access. A support request doesn't do this so the GMs much manually sift through chat and activity logs to find your specific trade.

Mon, 06/24/2013 - 03:26

Voza-Il

To prevent this (idk why you

To prevent this (idk why you trusted some random SK guy in the first place), ask for items as collateral of equal or greater value than what you are trading. That way, either side would be relatively content if the other bails, because at least you have something of equal value to what you lost.

IMO, only lend out IG currency like that to trusted vendors (the ones in the bazaar, with the threads with tons of items and transactions, or to guildies (if you know them well enough).

Hope it wasn't CE for a 5* item, because that just sucks..

Mon, 06/24/2013 - 05:01

Klockworx

What i do

I do a half and half thing. Like give half of the energy or etc for them to unbind and then give them the rest after the deed is done. Did this last night for a plague needle, (thanks again Windpathy). But yeah find a way that only gives them half of what they wanted so that doesnt happen.

Also the other ideas listed above are great ways to do this as well, you should also chat with your current trade partner before you trade too. This will give you a kind of insight as to wether or not their serious about trading.

Mon, 06/24/2013 - 07:39

Worknplay

Hi; Had the same issue a

Hi;
Had the same issue a couple weeks ago on the same situation. Sent a report in-game, which was certainly not considered at all (7 days and no sign of reply). I only started getting feedback when I sent a support request from the browser. Here's the deal though: I had my unbind fee refund; but I also had this great sign of GM's unsupportiveness, quoting:
"Please be aware that when you make a trade with someone you are agreeing to the trade you see in the trade window. While we will take action if someone scams another person, we are generally unable to provide a refund. That's why you'll want to avoid any trades where you expect to receive something later rather than within the same trade window. This means that the person selling the item will need to pay for the unbind themselves. We have decided to make a one time exception here since this is the first time it has happened to you and provide you with a refund."
There it is. Vyse is possibly the easiest way for players to scam others. This issue is just being plainly ignored; providing unbind fee upfront is just something that isn't supported safely by Spiral Knights, and it's one of the most recurrent trade endgame players will make. Hope you get a one time exception like I did.

Mon, 06/24/2013 - 11:23

Mlkl

Remember, GM's can't go up to issues as people.

The GM's are investigating because they can't tell if the issue is that you really got scammed, or if you just gave that stuff to him and then reported him.
Intention is harder than diamond to figure out on the internet, and easier than twiddling your thumbs to fake. They started ignoring this stuff because they couldn't tell if you were telling the complete and total truth, and because it keeps happening even though they told you exactly what happens when you agree to a trade , like lemmings running off a cliff.
When GM's don't investigate and just give out refunds all willy nilly, stupidity like like this happens. Remember that, everyone does NOT have good intentions, and that people who do will have to discern from who is trying to rip you off for their own profit, and those who actually, truly did get thrown off.
Honestly, how in the world did you guys forget when Njthug got all those tickets from OOO? I thought we didn't want something like THAT happening?

Mon, 06/24/2013 - 14:23

Worknplay

Njthug leeching hundreds of

Njthug leeching hundreds of UV tickets is a completely different situation; the update was announced (even though he had those crystal bombs he received this completely ridiculous compensation for way before the update was ever announced - "lucky" him). We're talking about an issue that every player eventually gets confronted to and that doesn't represent initially an exploit of the management but rather an exploit of the other players.

Even if this is a bit out of context, what you're showing here is THE biggest abuse to OOO, and thanks for digging it. It's just not so relevant IMO.

P.S. : I will NEVER forget. There were others; however they were smart enough not to show it off and rub it in us "peasants' " face.

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Questions about scam/theft management by GMs