Updated leaderboard

Final score:
616,136,665.53 isk

HALL OF SHAME

1	Bashir Ravenhook	200M
2	Raven Delta	56M
3	ProfessorX	50M
4	Ebinizer	50M
4	Trulina Zett	30M

Day 5 update to come, along with handy hints on how NOT to be scammed!

Congrats to Monassa Reid who was the recipient of my "noob lottery" - I have given my ill gotten gains to her. Please direct all requests for a refund to her.

Day 4

LOL! I just got scammed in a completely legal manner.

LOAN CONTRACTS

I received a communication from Miss Uylear asking if I was genuine. I knew it was a scammer trying it on but regardless I wanted to see how the masters do it.

So anyway we 'connected' and I mentioned I wanted to help more people. As 'security' to check if I was genuine she wanted me to accept what looked like a loan contract with a 60 day duration for 80M now to pay back 100M. To make it even more genuine she pretended she had made a mistake. I sat there with the contract open trying to work out if this was to my advantage before she could cancel it.

In the end I thought "No problem, I can take 80M now and vanish forever".

No.

As loans were not around when I last played I was unaware that the amount of 'interest' is deducted up front. In this case the interest was set at 100M for the privilege of borrowing 80M. Net result is I lost 20M out of the deal, however I will lose another 80M if I complete it.

Thankfully the loss was not enough to get me on the leaderboard but enough to raise a smile. Hats off lady ;)

Before that I had ran the usual scam which net me 60M thanks largely due to one donor. Some notable highlights included my reputation catching up with me in Rens:
Stomp Mongo > toth is a thief. You give him isk. You lose it. No ifs ands or butts. He's a crook.
toth strange > and now the random hate starts
Menod Penter > no, I'm a thief, toth is just a scammer
toth strange > i'll miss this community :'(
Stomp Mongo > Random my ass. I watched you in Tash-Murkon 2 nights ago take a shitload of noobs and trusting people to the cleaners. Fucking thief.

And I heard back from an old friend:
Specialist Brone > thanks for scamming me yesterday, i sent you 3.5 mil
toth strange > http://tothstrange.blogspot.com/
toth strange > should answer any questions
Specialist Brone > pretty good you got my friend to send you a mil
Specialist Brone > and then gave him 5
Specialist Brone > in order to get him to send 10 i guess
Specialist Brone > lol i normally wouldnt fall for that stupid shit but this guy was like woot i just made 50 mil
Specialist Brone > gg

Well DUH. Please people do NOT feed the scammers.

Anyway Miss Ulyear has given me an idea and if it comes off 20M will be a small price to pay. I'll update more at the end of the day....

LEADERBOARD

The story so far:

1	Bashir Ravenhook	200M
2	ProfessorX	50M
3	Ebinizer	50M
4	Trulina Zett	30M
5	Valeryia	25M

Day 3

Wow, this is getting much easier and much tougher at the same time. I'm able to go into local, command the crowds attention, reel in the isk and get out before the have figured out it's a scam. I've also made a number of refinements, like giving my fictitious girlfriend a name.

But the amount this brings in is small fry - the ROI really comes from the large donations. To date over 2/3 of the isk raised is from my top 5 donors. Everything else just keeps the wallet ticking over but mainly softens up the one target which makes it all worthwhile. I feel I have done my job well if they spend the next 30 minutes after I've left arguing in local about whether or not they'd just been had.

Those Nigerians are on to something with email - I have also solicited donations via EVEmail (the in game messaging system) from people who can't believe my offer is true (duh):

you still giving out isk? -------------------- yup. offer is 5:1 - im not gonna drop 250M on someone who cant save 50M -------------------- So just give you some isk and you'll give 5x back? -------------------- yup. my girlfriend doesnt want me gaming any more or she'll leave. im giving it away to make sure i cant come back ;) -------------------- lol heres 50m

PLease send me isk -------------------- not until you prove you can handle it. I refuse to give 250M isk to someone who cant prove they can save 50M -------------------- Good excuse, lame scam. Sorry im reporting you man. -------------------- Go right ahead - I have hundreds of satisfied players all over the game who are very happy. Please stop wasting my time. -------------------- sent you 10 mil

Then there are the negative mails. They range from an indirect question with a direct response:

I am still waiting on the 1.25M I transferred at 1:03 UTC to be quintupled. -------------------- no

i am for my isk -------------------- all ur isk r belong to us

To the ones that can see the funny side:

that was fun. enjoy the isk. fly safe

To the confused who I inadvertantly DID deliver on my promise to because they didnt get greedy:

good luck in life... and thanks for the ISK.Peace be with you,

To the ones that really can't understand irony and to be honest pissed me off:

So that's it, just scam everyone out of their isk? Real mature. You must be in some uneducated third-world country. Or a Christian at least. -------------------- I suggest you ask yourself how you ended up in this situation. I presented an offer that was too good to be true. This is because it wasn't.You however, accepted that offer in the hope of a massive reward which you did not earn. For your own sake please take this lesson with you outside the game.

I mentioned that the going was becoming increasingly difficult as it became easier. This is because I will often hear back from the people whose virtual lives I have destroyed. Some take it in good humor:

Bar Barosa > just maid the money back :)
toth strange > woo! awesome!
toth strange > good to see you back on your feet
Bar Barosa > I hope too see you around
toth strange > take care ;)
Bar Barosa > scam safe :D

And others make me question WTF I am doing and why:

Titan darkstar > i see you left local why because there being greedy but any how im a new player to the game and the 5mil is alot for me to lose so i hope your serious about giving 5x back if not i just learned a hard lesson
Titan darkstar > there talking smack about you in local channel
toth strange > yeah there is always a few
toth strange > they seem to question why someone would give them something for nothing
Titan darkstar > is it my turn to recieve yet? and i know how it is the other game i used to play i gave everything away when i quit also
toth strange > i'm sorry to tell you that today will be a hard lesson
toth strange > if it's any consolation the account really is closing on Sunday
toth strange > check back on my bio as i will be posting the full stats and a leaderboard
Titan darkstar > ok and my dad said i shouldnt do it and he had a bad feeling about me giving you money to get some
Titan darkstar > said this game is too adult and i should play somethign else
toth strange > yes this is a ripoff. good rule of thumb is dont give people isk
toth strange > and never open a chat with a scammer. they have had practice in ripping people off
Titan darkstar > would you be nice and let me have my isk back because you have all i got
toth strange > im sorry i cant do that. it would not be a lesson otherwise
toth strange > if i gave back isk to everyone who cried then i would haave none
Titan darkstar > im 12 years old your probally what 30?
toth strange > perhaps im only 13
Titan darkstar > thats og i print screened shotted this as my dad told me to and he said ill get my currency back
toth strange > check the EULA - scams are permitted
toth strange > fly safe and PLEASE dont feed the scammers again

Now this put me in a very difficult position. Maybe he was just a kid, or maybe he was trying to turn it around on me. In the end I decided it didnt matter either way and kept the money.

I'm questioning whether I can make it through the 5 days and what the effect will be on my sanity. For the most part the people I am engaging are lovely and I have learned to make all the right noises to convince them to part with their cash. It's an awful betrayal of trust but I'm beginning to understand how the professional crims make their money - you know the telemarketing/email scammers or the guys like Bernie Madoff running Ponzi schemes.

What I have decided is that I will not post a how to guide for EVE scammers at the end of this as I had originally planned. Instead I will post a few reminders on how not to be scammed in or out of the game.

For what it's worth I've topped the half a billion isk mark - 230M for the day so far but in all honesty I dont care about the isk anymore. I'll try and make it through the last 2 days just to say I have completed my initial goal.

It's also left me with a rather large problem - what to do with my ill gotten gains? I am toying with the idea of dumping it randomly on someone in local somewhere in empire (or as one pilot put it "kind of like a noob lottery").

Day 2

I decided to rinse and repeat from yesterday but now my process had refined. I thought about what would make someone give up the game and how to make the players identify.

After playing Eve for nearly 3 years my girlfriend has given me an ultimatum - it's her or the game. So I'm giving away all my isk and closing my account. Send me isk and I will send 5x that amount back to you. I have 3.3B to give away.


My crowd management had also improved considerably:

Deminos > well instead of isk, bequeath me your stuff in a
toth strange > thank you OZappoBrannigan isk sent
liosh > toth before using my name you should have at least sent me some iskies
toth strange > Deminos stop queue jumping. show you have money and wait in line like everyone else
toth strange > oh great now we have a greedy bastard in local
toth strange > already sent liosh
Deminos > but i've givin all my isk to needy children and starving dogs and other scum of society
liosh > sure sure. its just that ccp lost the transaction in my wallet right?
toth strange > thank you Roarx isk sent
toth strange > no it's just youre being deceitful to cause trouble.
liosh > nice try
pmcunit > shut up guys let him do this

Some in local had an eerily prophetic insight into what was happening:

Hadez411 > this is one of those games where people get more and more ballsy
Hadez411 > then WHAM
Hadez411 > someone loses 500mil

While others remain skeptical. The following pod pilot deserves recognition for his immediate and direct critique of my activities upon entering a local hub:

toth strange > After playing Eve for nearly 3 years my girlfriend has given me an ultimatum - it's her or the game. So I'm giving away all my isk and closing my account. Send me isk and I will send 5x that amount back to you. I have 2.5 B to give away.
Cerebella > get fucked.

In the end I learned to judge the right time to leave before the people were on to me. This led to others still defending me in local and some more donations even after I had left the system. I also started spamming the lonely systems in between trade hubs. This allowed me to connect with my people on a one to one level:

Valeryia > so i'm new to even.. 3 months. if u can spare more cash.. i would be in your debt man.. and do u have any advice for noob ?
toth strange > dont overdiversify your skills
toth strange > mission running or invention is good to pay the bills
toth strange > and trust no-one
Valeryia > good advice man
toth strange > and i can spare more cash but i only give it out on a 5:1 basis
Valeryia > so why the 5:1?
toth strange > so i know that someone knows how to hankdle their isk rather than blow it all on some noob
Valeryia > ahhhh so i send u 10 mil and u hook me up with 50?
toth strange > ;)
Valeryia > that is awesome
Valeryia > but u said trust no one :)
Valeryia > i learn quick
toth strange > LOL!
Valeryia > how abot 10:1 and u make my week?
toth strange > sure, still got plenty left
Valeryia > ok boss - here it comes .. and this is a major investment for me :)
Valeryia > but u seem cool and i appreciate it
* toth strange facepalms
toth strange > what was my advice?
Valeryia > trust no one ..its ok :)


At the end of the day I made 240M thanks largely to a single 200M donation solicited in a backwater system. However I had learned two important things: it's good to leave before the crowd turns ugly and one on one time makes it easier to scam larger amounts. It also amazed me that a lot of them knew deep down that it was a scam but were prepared to give it a go anyway.

Day 1

First stop Amarr.

toth strange > After playing for nearly 3 years I've had enough. I'm giving away all my isk and closing my account. Send me isk and I will send 5x that amount back to you. I have 3.3B to give away.


Initially I was met with some scepticism:

Wei Hong > Typical cookie-cutter scam.
SupaMegaFugly > hmmmm.... cookies
Darren Joste > Wow. How 'bout this sir. You send me a chunk of ISK to prove you are legit and I'll take you up on your offer.


But paying out on the small amounts kept everyone at bay long enough for others to give me large amounts.

toth strange > thank you Wei Hong isk sent
Nuram > omg was that a alt that got isk :P
Darren Joste > Hmm. Wai Hong, would you be willing to confirm that for us? And somehow verify you aren't an alt?
Wei Hong > Naw. They really do send back isk for a short while. As long as the sums are low.
Wei Hong > You can actually make some cash off this as long as you don't overpay. :3
toth strange > thank you Lily Savagez isk sent
Wei Hong > Hey, toth, you aint a bot by any chance so I could milk you dry and send a petition? :3
toth strange > nope
Wei Hong > Damn. :P
Lily Savagez > wow thanx toth :)


Lily's exuberance is because she gave me 100K and I paid out 5M by mistake (which ended up costing me a net loss for the system). No wonder she is happy. Eventually though my unsophisticated ruse was over, the money had stopped and they were all on to me. Leaving was a little nerve wracking:

Wei Hong > Nice pod, toth. :3
Leaping Tortoise > what
Leaping Tortoise > toth is flying about in a pod
Wei Hong > Yeap.
Leaping Tortoise > how fast would concord respond ?



I spent the rest of my day refining my technique in Oursulert and Rens, growing in confidence and knowing when to give back and when to stop. Total take was about 40M

A very special offer...

CCP kindly sent me an email offering to reactivate a very old account for 5 days free. I had only played the game for a month but I thought I would log in and take a look.

The character had less skills than a starting toon and no isk. If I was going to be able to make a bit of cash out of this I would have to be creative...

I decided to try my luck with a basic scam I had seen in Jita - a variation on "I'm leaving the game, send me isk and I will send back n times". I wondered if this really would work and how much you could make out of it. Obviously Jita seemed a little noisy to try this out but I thought I would give it a go around the other hubs.

I will publish a how-to guide and a 'leaderboard' (or should that be a 'hall of shame'?) at the end of this exercise.