EC Scammer: Gerun/Olympia

[Strifen]

Just to give you guys the heads up if you come across anyone with these names this guy is just trying to scam people in the tunnel.

He requested to buy a Lammy and HBC from me in the EC tunnel, agree to my purchase price of 6k for both. Said he needed the items on that char and he would log over to pay me back, figured alright never had a problem doing that before and the items weren't all too valuable.

Anyhow he never logged over to pay me back and I'm almost certain this guy is going to be scamming others in the coming days.

Sent in petitions and hopefully a staff remember can look into it and ban this scum from the server.

I know It was totally my bad handing him items first, I just never had a problem doing this in the past. Will never do it again that's for sure.

Just a friendly PSA.

Edit: Olympia is not scamming anyone, this is the name Gerun gave to me as his "main" to gain my trust.

[Strifen]

Char Gerun logged back in after ~20 mins. Told him to give me my plat and he logged off. Does server staff do anything to punish players such as this or is its accepted?

[quido]

Wow, IB scum. Hope you work it out man.

[Lanzellot]

when the big chief ambrassator around, you will have luck and he hammer him in the ground GL man

[Champion_Standing]

You fell for the oldest, most easily identifiable method of scamming in EQ.

I know some people just like to be nice guys, and they would rather avoid confronting people in this kind of situation. If someone ever asks you to do this tell them that you will take the money first and give the items on their other char...they should have no reason to object to this as it is essentially the same thing they are requesting of you. I would only go this route because there may actually be the occasional legit request of this type.

[dav]

Highly doubt Oly is scamming anyone lol.

Probably got disconnected, be patient. :)

[Iliilliill]

Any time I'm buying for an alt or having to pay with my mule I always pay up front and then hop over. Run the same risk of getting scammed, so you gotta be careful who you're buying from or selling to in that type of situation.

Sorry to hear about it man, hopefully name & shame will bring justice if it's really a scam instance.

[Aerar]

This is truly the oldest trick in the book, at least 14 years old. You are lucky it was only a 4k item. Seen it done with 60k items. ALWAYS BE THE ONE HOLDING THE GOODS DURING TRANSFER. If he wants to have seperate characters do it, get the money first then give him the goods.

Remember you only are at as much risk as you allow

[Strifen]

Highly doubt Oly is scamming anyone lol.

Probably got disconnected, be patient. :)

Thanks for the Reply Dav, sounds like Olympia is a shaman that is in IB. I doubt that Gerun = Olympia, I asked Gerun who his main char was before I give him the items and he said that it was Olympia. He is most likely supplying this name because it's a well known person in a high end guild lending credibility to the myth that he will pay you for the items.

[Atmas]

If you have no confirmation on a certain toon belonging to someone I would definitely take that name out of your posts and thread title.

[dav]

Thanks for the Reply Dav, sounds like Olympia is a shaman that is in IB. I doubt that Gerun = Olympia, I asked Gerun who his main char was before I give him the items and he said that it was Olympia. He is most likely supplying this name because it's a well known person in a high end guild lending credibility to the myth that he will pay you for the items.

He is a Warrior, and has been on the server/in IB for about 4 years now. Highly doubt he would be scamming someone for 4k, as I've lost more to him on a bad hand in Pokerstars. :)

Gerun most likely used his name to gain your confidence.

[Gaffin']

He is a Warrior, and has been on the server/in IB for about 4 years now. Highly doubt he would be scamming someone for 4k, as I've lost more to him on a bad hand in Pokerstars. :)

Gerun most likely used his name to gain your confidence.

[Brooks2728]

This person must have been doing this for some time now. I don't remember the name of the char who did this to me, but atleast 6 months ago the same thing happened. I got burnt for 10k on a sash of the dragonborn (he did it in reverse from how the OP was scammed - I was buying the sash but gave the money to the char he was on in EC at the time first. He told me that he would be right back on a char named Olympia with the sash). I petitioned also but never heard anything back from it. Just want to give the heads-up to use caution as this person must have been at this scam for some time now.

[Aerar]

This person must have been doing this for some time now. I don't remember the name of the char who did this to me, but atleast 6 months ago the same thing happened. I got burnt for 10k on a sash of the dragonborn (he did it in reverse from how the OP was scammed - I was buying the sash but gave the money to the char he was on in EC at the time first. He told me that he would be right back on a char named Olympia with the sash). I petitioned also but never heard anything back from it. Just want to give the heads-up to use caution as this person must have been at this scam for some time now.

EQ Classic took the stance of - Trading is your OWN RISK, in saying so they made it possible to scam. But they also made it the person trading responsible for their own losses.

While it sucks you got scammed, these have been around for 14 years now and people should be well aware of the, "let me just switch characters" line.

If you ever hear it;

Either A DONT DO THE TRADE
or B Make sure you are the person holding all the cards, never give away anything for something later.

[Loke]

Olympia has been secretly scamming low to mid end items from people in EC for the past 4 years because cheaper items allow him to fly under the radar and avoid detection. However, he clearly didn't count on master sleuth Strifen cracking this case wide open!

You're just lucky all you lost were material goods. He stole my heart a couple years ago in a xfer scam that went sour.

[Gaffin']

I personally dont like him but I sold a 52 planar geared war to him once.

His wizard's name is Kragnus if that helps.

[Aaron]

You probably shouldn't have fallen for this.

Also, this has happened before. Pretty sure it's the same dude using Olympia's name. But mayeb coincidence. (http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=119724)

[Loke]

.

[Wotsirb401]

I hate to see this, doing crap like this for 2 and 4k items really? I never have a problem with anyone in the tunnel. People generally see my FE tag and i list my toons and they accept that i will pay on my mule

[Kohedron]

This doesn't make me feel any better about buying Jboots.

[Relictor]

never do this type of trade unless you know the person is legit(had he actually logged on oly or something in this case)

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

Pretty sure there are numerous reputable entities that offer trade and escrow services for a cut of the purchase price.

Would highly recommend these services for every MQ or situation where you need to forward money. Or better yet you could just request to reverse the transfer where they front the item.

[Langrisserx]

what, the RMT'ers who scam EC on other characters to make people turn to their escrow "business".. those?

be sure to buy Nortons Antivirus too, 100% effective only 39.95 plus tax

[kaev]

what, the RMT'ers who scam EC on other characters to make people turn to their escrow "business".. those?

be sure to buy Nortons Antivirus too, 100% effective only 39.95 plus tax

Wow, that's some heavy-duty tinfoil right there.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

Xploiters gonna xploit. Baby out with the bathwater and all that...

I'd rather be out 6.3k (assumed 5% cut) with something to show for it than 6k with nothing and a black-eyed forum post.

In Bob we trust.

[Sidelle]

Sorry you got scammed. Glad you posted though. Some of us keep track of this kind of thing and keep shit lists..

[Cyrano]

Wow, IB scum. Hope you work it out man.

I laughed.

[skorge]

This could have been easily avoided, as other's have said, by making sure you get your plat the same time you trade your items. Hopefully other's never make this mistake.

I wouldn't even call this a scam because you should never make trades to total strangers without getting your items/plat up front.

On another note, the best scam I've ever seen, and the only scam that has worked on me, was back in early 2000.

Someone was selling Forest Loops. Back then, on my server, Veeshan, they were going for 2k, which isn't a large amount. Anyways I told a guy I would buy his, so I put up 2k in the window and he puts up the Forest Loop (you know how they look because of the unique graphic, it's the only good earring with this graphic). So I clicked trade. A few minutes later I found out he gave me a common vendor item earring that had the same graphic, lol.

The reason I fell for it was because the guy was a genius for coming up with this scam - he knew that most people wouldn't spend the extra few seconds inspecting the graphic because it's just a 2k valued item. He also knew that most people wouldn't blow up over losing 2k, so yea that was probably the best scam I've seen.

[kaev]

That's hardly genius skorge, it was an extremely common type of scam until they added auto-link of items placed in trade window. It replaced the bait & switch bullshit that used to happen before they made the secure trade window. fungi/cloth tunic was probably the most infamous version of it.