(S73)emprise

[R287966665]

So, apparently, I just couldn't believe that there are still scammers nowadays. Found on one on the S73 group with the IGN above, a level 45 character. Was supposed to trade him for a crystal mount in exchange for platinum. Unfortunately, after trade, his toon changed instances, logged off, then deleted the character (as the toon is no longer viewable). He probably traded the platinum he got from me with another toon before proceeding to delete (S73)emprise. I am well aware that I should have taken precautions, but how could I know of who are cheaters and who are legit, I have not been in this server group for long. I even had 1 player vouch for this character's authenticity.

Quite saddened by this, its no joke to come up with 70p especially since my main toon is not yet high level/strong enough to farm rare stuff to sell. While I know that the chance by which R2 can return scammed gold/items is close to nil, I would hope it'd be possible for their system/support to track down where the platinum went (which I suppose is a higher level toon). All these so a punishment can be enforced. I hate to think R2 has no way of dealing with stuff like these as trading is an inherent feature of the game. There are supposed to be safeguards against unfortunate events. If R2 can turn a blind eye on this, then just about anyone can try scamming other people and quite easily too.

Seriously, I am not sure how this case will end. Just hope there is something that could be done about it. To my scammer, even if you go unpunished by R2, some form of karma will surely unfold. Enjoy my hard-earned platinum while you can.

Rant over.

[MemoryLane]

It's terrible and I'm sorry it happened to you. The safeguard in place for trades is the trade panel. Whatever both sides agreed to in the trade panel, that's the trade. There is no way to safeguard promise to send trades, and even if you had screenshots of the conversation leading up to giving them gold, you still agreed to give them gold for nothing in the trade panel. R2 can only enforce the trades as agreed to in the trade panel.

It's a hard lesson most of us learn once. The one person who vouched for this low level toon being legit - that's probably a friend of the owner, or the owner, with a slim chance of that being a person they legitimately traded something small with so that when someone asked if the low level toon was legit, they'd have a yes.

You need to take steps to protect yourself when attempting to trade items that cannot be traded through the trade panel.
If a player is offering a cash item, make sure they are also wearing cash items.
Ask chat if the person is legit, but only trust the responses from people you know well.
If a player is lower than the average level for the server, reconsider doing business with them regardless of the first two points.
I would also say, if the person is a mortal, don't trust them at all. Likewise, if they have no honor, don't have upgraded equipment, and all around just look like they aren't played much, they probably aren't going to have spare crystals on hand, and they certainly won't have an issue deleting that toon.
And if you ever find yourself as the one trading the crystal item, always ask for gold or items first, because as hard as it is to lose gold, it's much worse to lose crystals.