The perfect scam.

[staythirsty, myfriend]

Please note this a hypothetical situation and this is a serious discussion. Thanks!

There are two sythe members, A and B, who wish to trade with one another. They both have average post counts, and neither hold any ranks. A is selling B an account for $50 via PayPal. They will be using an OMM for this trade.

A gives the OMM the account details.

OMM verifies the details and changes the password.

B then sends the money to A via PayPal.

OMM gives the account details to B.

This is where it gets interesting.

B then claims the password does not work and he wants his money back. The OMM again guarantees that the account details are correct and that he is simply trying to scam A out of his money. How this ends, it really doesn't matter. Whether or not he opens a dispute, refunds it, etc.

Meanwhile, the OMM gets a free account because he actually did indeed give B an incorrect password. The OMM, however, hasn't even the slightest suspicion on them because it just seems like a trade gone bad.

Now, obviously if the OMM did this over and over again he'd most likely eventually be caught for scamming. The fact is, what's stopping the OMM from doing this once every so often, or once or twice total? The answer is nothing. There's no proof he did anything wrong, and the OMM's word will obviously be taken over the other two's word.

For the sake of the argument as well, the account could not be recovered, so the seller couldn't even get it back.

I'm not claiming any OMM or staff member is corrupt or would do this, I'm simply wondering how would you stop it from happening in the first place?

Thanks!

 

[Jellito]

There is a massive process someone has to do to become an OMM,
I think you need to do like a whole load of 50 trades.
10 x $50+ trades.
5x $200+ trades.
And other various stuff like that.

10 trades for anything up to $50.
10 trades for anything between $50.00 and $100.
3 trades for anything at or over $100.
2 trades for anything over $200.

 

[Skele]

I'd assume the OMM would do a recovery test, in which case he could simply recover it back and give it to player B.

 

[staythirsty, myfriend]

I'd assume the OMM would do a recovery test, in which case he could simply recover it back and give it to player B.

Like I said before, assume you couldn't recover the account back and both parties were fine with that. Also assume the seller is telling the truth when he couldn't recover it back. What's stopping an OMM from doing the above described scam?

 

[Skele]

Like I said before, assume you couldn't recover the account back and both parties were fine with that. Also assume the seller is telling the truth when he couldn't recover it back. What's stopping an OMM from doing the above described scam?

A responsible OMM would make sure the seller provided enough recovery information to recover the account and would most likely do a recovery test to make sure the information is valid. In that case, both the seller and buyer would be protected if either tries anything fishy.

 

There is a massive process someone has to do to become an OMM,
I think you need to do like a whole load of 50 trades.
10 x $50+ trades.
5x $200+ trades.
And other various stuff like that.

10 trades for anything up to $50.
10 trades for anything between $50.00 and $100.
3 trades for anything at or over $100.
2 trades for anything over $200.

To be exact, it's:

10 trades for up to $50
10 trades from $50-$100
3 trades from $100-$200
2 trades for $200+

Sorry if this counts as spam.

 

[staythirsty, myfriend]

A responsible OMM would make sure the seller provided enough recovery information to recover the account and would most likely do a recovery test to make sure the information is valid. In that case, both the seller and buyer would be protected if either tries anything fishy.

Again, I'm saying how if the seller could not recover the account, and he was indeed telling the truth (this isn't that uncommon of a situation to be honest).

The seller provides passwords, membership details, etc, but doesn't have prior knowledge of the first recovery questions' answers. The recovery questions are also unset at the time of the trade.

EDIT: Another variation of this "perfect scam" would be that the OMM would set recovery questions on the account, and then give the password, etc., to the buyer. The buyer would claim that there's recovery questions set, but the OMM would simply say that the buyer must of set them right when he got the account. The OMM then recovers the account back a day or two later. The buyer claims the seller scammed him, and no heat is put on the OMM even though he is actually the scammer.

 

[staythirsty, myfriend]

When I MM, I tell them that they're responsible for proving that the information doesn't work. If they don't record themselves copying the password into the RS window and trying to login when I give that to them, it's too bad for them if the password doesn't work. Historically, though, the password has always worked and they've never had a problem agreeing to the aforementioned condition.

This still doesn't prove anything, unless they've been recording the entire trade the whole time. The OMM can simply claim that the buyer changed the password and is now claiming it doesn't work.

EDIT: You can also safely say almost no one will record everything because they don't assume the OMM will try anything sneaky on them. So that pretty much voids any chance of the OMM actually getting caught red handed.

 

[Plznate]

Scam could work I imagine.

However I doubt someone would go through the process of becoming an OMM simply to possibly lose it over something as trivial as an account.

 

[staythirsty, myfriend]

Scam could work I imagine.

However I doubt someone would go through the process of becoming an OMM simply to possibly lose it over something as trivial as an account.

The point of this entire "perfect scam" though is to scam without getting caught. In all honesty, this could easily be pulled off without getting caught for scamming. You aren't risking anything when there's literally a 0.001% chance of getting caught in the first place.

 

[cosrob97]

They won't claim the buyer changed the password as when most middle man's verify the account they change the password. I think it would be stupid not to do that, so then the blame has to lay on the omm. Now to clear the omm's name they have to recover the account and see which ip was on it last.

 

[staythirsty, myfriend]

They won't claim the buyer changed the password as when most middle man's verify the account they change the password. I think it would be stupid not to do that, so then the blame has to lay on the omm. Now to clear the omm's name they have to recover the account and see which ip was on it last.

The OMM can easily give the buyer an incorrect password, and simply claim the buyer is trying to scam the account and get his money back by saying it doesn't work. The OMM's word will easily be taken over some random average Sythe user.

EDIT: Secondly, I already said assume the account was unrecoverable.

 

[iPhone_3G]

Scam could work I imagine.

However I doubt someone would go through the process of becoming an OMM simply to possibly lose it over something as trivial as an account.

some people will if they know they can't get caught and if the acount is worth alot of money

 

[Chriscross23]

Idk if this has been said but let me correct something because that is NOT how OMM's work.


When player A gives you the password you CHANGE the password ensuring you are the only one with it.

And most OMM's screenshot everything. I really don't understand what you're saying here.

 

[Kristian4th]

Scam could work I imagine.

However I doubt someone would go through the process of becoming an OMM simply to possibly lose it over something as trivial as an account.

Depends entirely on the account, if it contained a certain number of bils I could see why they would steal it..

 

Scam could work, but if the OMM could recover, so could person A.

I was really hoping that this came from an old user, was disappoint. no offense.

 

[staythirsty, myfriend]

Idk if this has been said but let me correct something because that is NOT how OMM's work.


When player A gives you the password you CHANGE the password ensuring you are the only one with it.

And most OMM's screenshot everything. I really don't understand what you're saying here.

I'm not denying that the OMM changed the original password, and even if they SS it, they can easily change it again afterward. What I'm saying is that the OMM gives the buyer a password (not the correct one). The buyer will then obviously complain about it not working and the OMM will simply claim that the member is attempting to keep the account AND get his money back (scam).

There's no way to prove that the member didn't get the account and change the password himself, and then claim the password the OMM doesn't work. The OMM's word would obviously be believed over some random member's word about how this OMM planned an elaborate scam.

 

[wombakage]

OR the seller would just tell the other guy the correct password and it woulld be over. Circumvent the MM in that situation

 

[staythirsty, myfriend]

OR the seller would just tell the other guy the correct password and it woulld be over. Circumvent the MM in that situation

The seller obviously wouldn't know the correct password if the OMM changed the original one. Secondly, to the seller, OMM, and everyone else, the buyer is simply trying to scam.

 

[staythirsty, myfriend]

I only posted this thread because I wanted to see what the responses would be from Sythe members, and see if they are really as naive as I think they are on here.

The funny thing is that this scam has been pulled off here numerous times by several different people. All OMMs or staff members at one point or another.

I personally did something similiar to this over 10 times while being an OMM here during my several year reign. Most people don't even try to report you because they know they have a slim chance of actually getting you banned, much less themselves banned for accusing a member of scamming with no proof.

If you haven't figured it out by now this is Dorito. I, along with several others, have probably pulled this between 25-30 times (that's only counting the ones I was actually in on or knew about at the time). Staff and MMs aren't above scamming, nor is it very hard to get away with it, especially if you have trust and respect on your side.

Peace out.