Runes of Magic US / AU

It would be nice if GMs banned scammers there used to be a game I played about 15 years ago with no trade windows, that MMO is still around today and still has no trade windows, so suffice it to say scamming ran rampant in the game. There was many many people who relished in the infamy of being a scammer.

The thing about scamming is in some cases the scammer is stealing RL money from the player. If a player uses cash to buy diamonds and gets scammed out of his/her diamonds then that to me constitutes theft and GMs should ban people like that.

Just my two coppers.

Aye nem, I know which player you refer to here. He is quite proud of himself.

Honestly though, if someone is blatantly broadcasting that they are a spammer/scammer and people still choose to do business with this person, it sucks, but they should know better. People like this are what megas and /join world is for. If the community as a whole works together to isolate the scammer, you would be taking the fuel out of the fire. As far as banning people for scamming, thats going to be very difficult to prove unless you figure out a way to unequivocally prove that the scammer truly was ripping someone off and intentionally did it.

Remember, its not up to the offender to prove that he didn't cause damage, its on the offended to prove he/her did.

Use the tools at your disposal and you will rarely get someone that can scam so much to be infamous. Also, just have every single person on the server send them a single link rune once a day, they will never be able to send or receive items/gold through the mail.

Sorry for the rant, but I feel its the communites job to regulate the amount of scamming going on in the virtual world.

-yodased (flame suit on)

Quoted

Is there anything GMs can do if scammers are reported? If players provide screen shots or other proof, will scammers be punished, or GMs intervene, or is this purely a player-player situation?

Yes. If we receive a report, and we find proof that they have scammed someone, then we will take actions up to permanently banning them.

One thing to remember though, it takes time to gather, and present the evidence to make a case to ban someone for scamming, so if you report them, you must be patient and allow us time to handle the situation.

On Artemis Server there is a Character named ****** who has been scamming people..alot of people are angry and he is very proud of himself is there anything the gm's can do about this? if they came onto the server and ask around I am sure that everyone who has been scammed by this person will speak up.

For those who may not have seen the repost and update to the rules, here is the link: http://forum.us.runesofmagic.com/announcement.php?f=269

From the RoM Game Rules concerning Scamming.

Scamming is defined as anyone attempting to gain access to accounts, items or in-game currency in any way, through deception or fraudulent means. ANYONE caught scamming will have their chat and trade rights revoked immediately and permanently upon receipt of proof.

Banning
Anyone caught or reported (with proof) doing any of the above may be banned for a period of time (to be determined at supports discretion) without prior warning. Repeated offenses will result in a permanent ban. This applies to every member of our communities. The above activities in one community can effect your accounts on all of Frogster America's gaming communities.

The thing is though, simply relying on an overworked support team is not enough. Due diligence is needed to handle scam artists, both IRL and online.

Plus, getting hit with the ban hammer isn't going to deter these derelicts, its the thrill of holding someone up that they are after, not necessarily about the items/gold/diamonds what have you. If they are outed at the first sign of something goofy, they will have the proverbial rug pulled out from underneath them.

The community as a whole can make the scammers online life so uncomfortable that the beating isn't worth the risk of scamming someone.

I am one to think that there should be a serverwide blacklist channel, someone makes it and monitors it, write a macro that broadcasts the members names that are proven to scam people. That way, you can simply /join banhammer and blacklist the groups given. And new people will be askin questions, make sure they know about the channel and there you go, public ridicule should be enough to stop the b.s.

just my .02

But, a banhammer channel has one problem. There's no way to prove that the people reporting are reporting real incidents.

Support can track transactions.

I am new to this game, been playing for around two weeks now and (stupidly, I know now) was scammed about a week after I started playing. I bought quite a lot of diamonds, and after buying most of the items I wanted, I had a few hundred left over.
I saw someone ask in zone chat to buy diamonds, at a good price for the server I am on, so I sent a whisper asking how many he wanted.
I quickly googled how to "sell" diamonds and the first forum post I found said people generally send the gift first then the buyer sends the payment.
Then I asked the guy how to do it and he said I "Gift" him with two items he wanted and he sends me the payment in the mail.
So I gifted the guy two items he asked for and .... he logged off (without paying me of course)!
Yes I know it was really dumb, and I don't really have any excuse for being so naive, but anyhow, I reported this matter to "support", showing them a screenshot of the entire conversation I had with this guy, this is the answer I got-

Thank you for your inquiry concerning your account.

Unfortunately, we cannot offer any assistance in this matter as we are unable to fully verify the circumstances under which the trade was agreed upon.

Please make use the trade options provided by the game or only use trades like the one you described with other players whom you trust.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

Your Frogster Team

Well, seriously, what kind of support is that? Don't they have logs? I sent them a screenshot, what more do they need?
So this guy can just continue to prey upon new players and get more and more diamonds and Frogster won't do anything about it?
I'm really dissapointed with the way they handled my issue, I expected more, my diamonds back at least and better still, for this scammer to get banned or warned or the "gifts" taken away from him, anything, not nothing, not getting away with it like he has.