Scam

Scam Op

My name is Fractals 4Lyfe, and I am a newbie.  I joined at the beginning of November, and I have already made over 2 billion isk scamming.  I really like scamming, I mean really like it.  It gives me a rush, and I want more of it.  Am I a bad person?  Maybe, but you are too.

My main method of scamming is the recruitment scam.  It's easy to get into, doesn't take any special skill beyond the ability to talk to people, and doesn't take long to pull off.  The goal of this op will be to get you to successfully scam a pubbie for something using the recruitment scam, I don't really care what.  To aid you to that end, I and a number of other scammers more skilled than me will be on hand throughout the day to provide advice, quick price checks, and play *the director*.  We're going to have an op channel on mumble, and we'll all be hanging out in gs_scams on jabber, so get in those channels for quick help.

Step 1:  Finding a mark

The number one question people have asked me is, "Where do you find these people?"  I have a few goto sources, but this by no means an exhaustive list.  As a more veteran scammer, Jack Gates, has said, everyone who isn't blue is a mark, or a friend of a mark.  The places where I find the highest concentration of dumb pubbies, however, are:

1)  The recruitment channel
It's the standard place to find a mark.  Go to your chat window, hit the little text bubble in the upper right, and type in "recruitment" in the box.  Hit enter, and you're in.  The number one thing you have to remember is NEVER TALK IN THE RECRUITMENT CHANNEL.  I don't care if you have a funny response to the inane pubbie chat, I don't care if you're sure your advertisement will draw in a mark, SHUT THE FUCK UP.  At any time, there are probably 10 unseen goons idling in the channel looking for a mark.  You don't know it, but when you talk in the channel, you have made 10 people intensely hate you.

Here's why:  You'll say whatever, and the next fucking pubbie will say, "lol, goon."  Then the next fucking pubbie will say, "Who are goons?"  And the third fucking pubbie will say, "Goons scam.  Don't talk to them."  And congratulations, you have ruined the recruitment chat channel for at least the next hour while the idiots jerk themselves off talking about how shitty we are.  Don't be that person.

Also note, CCP has recently changed the rules to forbid scamming in the recruitment channel.  How this works, I don't know.  To my knowledge, no one has been banned for using the channel to find a mark, only for posting false ads on the channel.  Don't post in it, and just start a private conversation with each mark, and you should be fine.  I have heard some people have been warned, your milage may vary.

PROS
-People posting in the channel are the most stupid of all the pubbies
-Your marks are guaranteed to be online when you find them
-You can keep the channel open in the background and just check on it every once in a while

CONS
-One stupid goon can ruin the channel for hours
-Your marks, upon posting, are being inundated with convo requests from every stupid pubbie corp in the game.  Sometime's it's hard to get their attention.
-You have to listen to the stupidest people on earth post.  Seriously, there are recruitment channel regulars who don't even recruit, and they're retarded.

2)  The recrutiment forums on Eve-O
This is my second go-to for marks.  I like going there when the recruitment channel is slow, or everyone is offline.  Hit your browser button, hit the "forums" button near the top of the screen, and navigate down to Alliances and Corporation Recruitment or something like that.  Inside is a mix of pubbie corps with stupid advertisements for recruits and pubbie recruits with stupid advertisements for corps.  Let's look at an example, shall we?

"Returning 26mil sp pvp pilot lf corp"

"I'm gonna make this short and simple, i just took a 3 month break, I have 25.9mil sp. Looking for lowsec yarring or nullsec pvp...
I am a full time student so i cant make CTAs and **** all the time. I fly alot of ships, mainly gallente, but have cadari cruiser 5 as well. Currently training for Thanatos.

http://eveboard.com/pilot/Eclipse_Nightbane/ships?type=1

Contact me here or in game."

So what you're looking for in these posts is a pilot looking for (lf in pubbie speak) a corp to join.  This pilot has 26 mil sp, or skill points(all of the pubbies really care about this number; it's usually the first thing they will mention), so he or she (he) is probably 2 years old.  The general rule is that you gain about 10-20 million sp in a year.  He's looking for lowsec yarring?  (Probably meant warring, I don't fucking know, he's an idiot who can't write correctly in his own job application) or nullsec pvp.  He flies gallente ships, so we know he's an idiot.  He's training for a Thanatos, which is the gallente carrier.  He doesn't like CTAs, which are calls to arms.  Apparently these are required defense ops in pubbie corps?

So here's a guy who's looking for something like GoonWaffe, and he has a goal we can easily prey on, the chance to get into a Thanatos for cheap.  Good target.  We get his name, go to People and Places, and search for it under characters.  When it pops up, we right click and select "add to contacts."  We set him neutral, and check the box that says alert if online or something like that.  Now he will be on your watch list, and you can see later if he's available to scam.  Also, you should probably right click on his character and hit show info, go to the notes tab, and copy and paste the whole post into it.  That way, when you contact this guy later, you remember what he's looking for.  Take notes after every interaction, so you don't get caught in a lie later on.

PROS
-You can do this whenever, even when there are few players online.
-You get an idea of what they want before you even talk to them, for targeted scamming.
-You're not competing with 10 other people all trying to convo them at the same time.

CONS
-Your mark isn't guaranteed to be online when you find them, necessitating tracking them until they're online.
-Your marks can use the forums to post, meaning they're smarter than at least half the pubbies out there already and may have read about goons.
-You have to read the eve-o forums, consisting of the second most stupid group of people on earth.

3)  Pubbies, and friends of pubbies

This is a little more vague.  Some of my targets are friends of existing marks who are so excited about joining goonwaffe that they refer all their friends.  Other times, it's worth it to take an alt and fly through empire looking for pubbie corps and pubbie miners.  Pop into asteroid belts and find some people, and note their corp.  Get a list of corp members in some stupid mining or missioning corp, and just convo each of them.  You find 20 people, surely one stupid pubbie would be interested in joining glorious goonwaffe, right?  Other people will have other special sources of pubbies, I'm sure.

PROS
-Again, you can do this on your own time.
-You're more certain if your target is stupid if you pick them from an obviously stupid corp.
-Volume

CONS
-You have to spend more time looking, since targets might be less concentrated.
-There's no guarantee you'll find the perfect target.
-Pubbies are so fucking stupid; I hate them so much.

Ok, that's where you find them, but what are you looking for?

Honestly, anyone looking for a corp is a potential mark, but some will be more suitable than others.  You're looking for the right mix of desperation, ignorance, and greed.  You want to make them eager to join your corp, while making sure they don't know anything about how goons scam.  My best targets fall into a few categories, but again, this is only a general guideline.  Anyone is a potential target.

1) 10-30 mil sp players looking for something new/0.0
These are players who have probably stayed in high sec for the last 6 months-2 years they've been playing this shitty game.  Predictably, they're bored out of their minds because they have spent the time mining or mission running.  They probably have a decent little nest egg, either isk or ships, but usually not vast riches.

They're looking for something, anything, that will be more fun and justify the money they have spent playing this shitty game.  This might be incursions, worm holes, or null sec.  They may not have the best idea of what these terms mean, they just know they're different, exotic, make money, and often require a certain number of skill points (sp).  You'll see a lot of corp ads with a required sp number, which is just stupid, but it reinforces the idea that these newbies have to wait in high sec until they are allowed to have fun.  Steer them towards the cool pve shit and pvp shit you do.  Emphasize the benefits that goonfleet provides, and you'll have them drooling.

Often, these players are reluctant to part with actual isk, because the money they have has probably been hard earned.  That's okay, because these players are usually the most desperate to get out of high sec, so if you offer free shipping to move their assets to goonspace, they'll often jump on it.  Alternatively, tell them that you're sorry, but if they can't make a deposit, you can't let them in.  Sometimes you'll find out a day later that they bought a plex and are all ready to give you their money.  If they don't have enough money or any valuable assets, consider tossing them back.  If they're stupid enough to get scammed, let some goon take them in a year when they have more money.  Note that they often have a number of friends, buddies from the same corp who are also sick of the bullshit.  Keep that in mind when you set general time limits for applying later on, so you have time to take their friends' stuff, too.

2) 50+ mil sp players looking for "elite" pvp
These guys will either block you as soon as you say goon, or they are ignorant of politics and are good targets.  If you're lucky, they'll be a newbie player with enough money to purchase a tricked out combat guy, at which point you can mostly refer to the category above, as they are probably pretty ignorant.  If not, they've probably spent some time in some worthless npc 0.0 alliance doing shitty pvp and paying for all of it with ratting/missioning.  They like to think they're experienced, and they're usually pretty proud.

Talk shit about the ops you've been on, even if they're just rifter ops.  Mention your experienced main character that flies a tengu/carrier/titan at the same time.  If you need a character to pretend to be your alt, point them to my recently purchased old character, Berious, or someone similar.  I'll confirm whatever stupid evemails I get while I'm online, just send me a little something after.  They're going to want to know about GoonWaffe's pvp program, so play up its benefits, and they'll be eager to join.

They will have large amounts of isk and ships, so it's your call what you want to go for.  If they're unwilling to give up money, pick one of their previous corps at random, and say that they're red to GoonWaffe.  Have either you or a director bitch at them until they understand what a spy risk they are.  Once that's done, offer to ship their stuff, and get them twice.

3)  Industrial-focused characters
These are guys with a hulk, a freighter, several original blueprints, and a dream to have their own pos.  What's a pos?  A player-owned station.  I'm not entirely sure what they do as a newbie myself, but apparently you can do research on them or build stuff or something.  I don't think the pubbies understand what a pos does either, other than that it represents the endgame of industry.

This character's biggest concern is safety and logistics.  You must convince them that it is safe to operate in 0.0 space, and you must convince them that it is not too inconvenient to set up shop here.  Explain our Padded Helmets jump freighter service, and how reliable it is.  Tell them you hardly see any enemies, because the population density of 0.0 is lower.  Tell them that they'll get full shipping support and frequent mining ops.  These guys are guaranteed to have not set foot in any system with a security level less than 0.5, so they don't know if you're bullshitting them about nullsec.

These guys may have a decent store of capital they want to use to build something with.  Instead of a security deposit, mention our supercap bond fund, which pays out at a rate of 5% a month, and in which all new members are encouraged to invest.  Maybe bring in our industry director to have them put a downpayment on a freighter or pos.  Maybe they have an orca, or a hulk, or a freighter that they need to bring down to goonspace, and you're the person to help them bring it down.  If you can, get their blueprints.  They'll be reluctant to part with them, but play up the idea that the safest way to get blueprints to goonspace is through our shipping.  A well-researched bpo can bring in hundreds of millions of isk by itself.  If they have very large assets, like a freighter, that don't fit on jump freighters, you may need to set up special shipping arrangements for them.  These are detailed later on.

4)  The specialist
This person is lf wh, or lf incursion corp.  That is, they want to join a wormhole corporation, or they want to run incursions.  They may be relatively old and sure about what they want.  They might be suspicious that a newbie like you is talking about specialized knowledge.  They may have very specific requirements, and ask odd questions.

Always remember to ask for help if you don't know what they're talking about.  You'll probably have to do some quick research on the fly to keep up with them.  Ask in gs_scams, ask in mumble.  Use the terms they're using, and learn what questions you need to ask them to be believable.  Learn what wormholes are and what they do before talking to them.  Likewise with incursions.

Because of the nature of wormhole corps sharing a pos with one corporate hangar, wormhole characters may be more amenable to a straight security deposit.  Likewise with incursions, you don't want one person's fuckup to mess up a whole raid/incursion.  Go for the shipping if you can, these guys will have high quality ships.

5)  The retard
If you're really lucky, you'll come across someone with a pile of isk and ships, with no clue what they're doing.  Maybe their friends started them in the game as their freighter bitch alt, and they are done doing that.  Maybe you found a rich newbie who bought a super-carrier character with plex, and has billions of more isk that he or she doesn't know what to do with.  Maybe you find a literal retard who calls you "my lord"  https://goonfleet.com/index.php?/topic/168214-come-get-scammed-my-lord/

You've run the api, and you realize you're dealing with billions, maybe tens of billions.  Relax.  First thing to do is stay pleasant, mention you've got to go afk for a sec.  Then call for help, right then.  Talk to gs_scams, get your buddies on mumble to give you advice.  You might not be able to take everything at once, especially if the person is a literal retard who had to be walked through making a contract step by fucking step.  Maybe it will take you and a revolving cast of directors and experts to pick away at the pile of isk and ships.

Take your time, and figure out what they want.  Promise them the moon, they're too stupid to tell if you're lying.  Be a mentor figure, and give them advice on what to do with their riches.  Get all your buddies to chip in, and you'll have them feeling so special for having so many people wanting to help.  Then fucking take them for all they're worthaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!


Step 2:  Reeling them in

Okay, so you have a good target, and they're online.  What now?  Right click on their name, and choose "invite to conversation".  You can send them evemails, but nobody's likely to drop everything and give you their money based on a message.  You must talk to them, schmooze them.  Take a deep breath, go over your greeting and whatever info you have once, and hit that start convo button.  I usually open with something like this:

Me:  o7 (this is the salute sign, which only retarded pubbies use.  But, when in Rome...)
Me:  I understand you're looking for a [insert description of what they want here] corp?

maybe I'll add

Me:  What, specifically, are you interested in doing?


Note that none of these questions have mentioned that I'm a goon, and I'm not coming on too strong.  I'm giving the pubbie a chance to talk, which they will like, and it will give me the info I need to start selling GoonWaffe to them.  It sounds professional, and it doesn't sound like I'm begging them to join.

Now they respond.  Whatever they say they want, we have it.  The funny thing is, this is often true.

Oh, you're a pvper/industrialist/newbie?  I think GoonWaffe has a place for you.  This is what we can offer to you:

Note that if they're going to quit, it will be when you mention goons.  Industrialists and elite pvpers especially are likely to quit now.

If they're looking for pvp, be sure to mention our full reimbursement program for ships and t2 fittings, so that when they die, they get paid the full cost to replace their ship.  That way, they can pvp without losing money.  If they are cheap or have been paying for their own pvp in some shitty corp, that will get them drooling.  If they like small gang pvp, tell them we have ops all the time.  We have players in US, Euro, Russian, and Australian time zones, so there's always something going on.  If they like fleet engagements, well, we have those several times a week.  Tell them about our skilled fleet commanders, our mumble server, and our constant, never ending war.

If they're looking for pve, explain that we hold sov over all of Deklein.  This is an excellent 0.0 region with truesec between -0.5 and -1.0.  This means that it has some of the best quality rats, anomolies, and complexes.  Mention that a character in a drake can make between 10-30 mil isk/hour, depending on their missile skills and whether they're working in a group.  A tengu can make 60 mil isk/hour.  These are high numbers, but still believeable and relatively realistic.  Mention that our anoms drop some of the best escalations, like the maze, which can bring in the occasional rainfall of hundreds of millions of isk.  You see, when you finish an anomaly, you have the chance to get a bookmark for an escalation, an even harder anomaly.  If you can't run it, sell it to someone who can for half the loot.  Since loot from an escalation can be hundreds of millions or even billions of isk, you're making a damn fine bonus.  If they're interested in missions, neighboring 0.0 npc region venal has level 3 and 4 missions available, and is pretty quiet.  The rat type in Deklein is Guristas, which do kinetic/explosive damage and are weak to kinetic.  Drakes and tengus are best for ratting, but of course whatever ship they fly is pretty good too, epcecially if it's expensive!

If they're looking for industry, we have secure space with good logistics.  Because we hold the whole region, we can patrol it pretty efficiently, so it's safe to bring out your hulk/freighter/whatever.  We see maye 2-3 enemy gangs per day, and we get early warning on our intelligence channel, so you'll have time to get docked up.  And of course, if they're a miner, we have sole access to blue ice, thanks to our ice interdiction.  Be sure to mention how blue ice prices have already quadrupled, and how we're going to keep up the interdiction.  If they're a producer, mention that we have to import a lot of our stuff from jita, so if you're willing to produce thing's locally, you're probably looking at a 20%-30% markup over jita prices, which should get them slavering.  If their ultimate goal is capital or supercap production, tell them that GoonWaffe has standing orders to purchase their products at jita+10% prices.  If they're a freighter, tell them that we pay 600 isk per m^3, and we have an excellent jump bridge network to cut down travel time.  That means moving a freighter's worth of goods could bring 300-400 mil for an hour of work!

Benefits everyone will appreciate are:  a secure and profitable 0.0 experience, competent leadership, opportunities to be a fleet commander or director if you put some time into it, an enormous alliance with thousands of members on at all times of the day, frequent ops of all kinds (especially their favorite kinds), a comprehensive forums/wiki/voice servers/jabber, and despite the fact that we're so large, our squad system and personal one on one mentors will keep them from getting lost.

Make sure you tailor your spiel to your mark.  A 15 mil newbie is looking to try out 0.0 because it's cool, and he'll want lots of support.  An elite pvper wants to hear about the reimbursement programs and op frequency.  That elite pvper might have a better idea of what's realistic, too, so don't tell him we reimburse every ship, like you might tell the newbie.  Tell him that there are specific ship fittings that we reimburse, and of course his favorite ship is reimbursible.  The industrialist wants to feel warm and safe, so promise him he can still be a carebear in nullsec.


Now, during this whole process, you're not just rattling off a list of bullet points.  You're having a conversation, like a real life job interview.  That means you find out a little bit about who they are, what they like.  Bullshit with them.  Tell them about the cool frig roam you went on.  Tell them the story of how we lost all our sov in one day, then had to get it back.  Ask them when they're on, what's their favorite ship to fly (oh, me too, me too, love that ship).  Did you have a shitty corp in the past?  Oh, sorry to hear that.  Believe me, we're better.  Work the benefits into the conversation.  Oh, you like pvp, what have you done before?  Whaaat?  You had to rat to pay for it, nah, don't worry bro, we've got that covered.  Full reimbursements...  Take some goddamn pride and sell GoonWaffe to them like they were one of your buddies you're trying to inflict EVE onto.  By the end of this stage, you should really believe what you're saying about how awesome we are, so that your mark will see your passion and believe it, too.


Step 3:  The app process

If you've done this part right, they should be pumped about joining, probably working applying back into the conversation.  If you don't think they're eager enough, keep talking them up.  Like the saying goes, no doesn't mean no, it means kiss my neck some more.  Eventually, they'll move on or be interested enough to ask how to apply.

You're going to have them use a fake registration website.  Use http://goonfleet.net  It's run by a goon, Skeith Oumis.  I suggest you send him a donation for successful scams you run.  This site mimic goonfleet.com, and has an apply button, fake forum, fake wiki, and fake killboard.  You can register for it by heading to http://goonfleet.net/admin_reg.php  You'll need your own api key, and then choose your username and password.  You can then access your admin control panel at http://goonfleet.net/admin  Log in with your info.  At the top of the screen will be 4 alphanumeric keys.  Those are your sponsorship keys.  You give the mark one of these keys, then direct him to apply with the key on the site.  The mark puts in their api information, and from the admin section of the site you can see all of their money and assets, to tailor your scam to what they have.  It is an amazing godsend.  There's also a section where you can set the status of their app, from processing to awaiting deposit with a number, to awaiting director, to approved.  The mark can see the status by putting in his application id, which he gets when he fills out an app, into the box in the top right of the main screen.  So you can see the mark's assets, see that he has 800 mil, and decide you'll take him for a 400 mil deposit.  You put that in the status, with "awaiting deposit, 400 mil" and tell the mark to check back.  He sees it, asks what's up, and you move to step 4.  This is how you get the mark to put in the info.

At this point, put on your helpful professional hat.  This part is pretty straightforward and formulaic.  This is the script I use.

-The app process is pretty simple.
-First you head to http://goonfleet.net
-You hit the tab that says apply.
-From there, click the link that says "here" and get your api information.
-Put in your api info, along with this sponsorship code:  blah
-This gets sent to a director, who looks over your account to check the likelihood of you being a spy.
-Assuming that's okay, you'll get your intial acceptance in a few minutes.  At this point, you're fully in the corp, we just have to get you in our auth system.  You can check this yourself by going to that website and entering your application id blah into the box on the upper right part of the main page.
-Within one to two days, an automatic script will run, sending you an evemail with your login info for the forums/wiki. (if you need more time, change the number of days, or maybe our automatic system is down and you're really busy doing everything manually.)
-At that time, you can apply to the corp in game.  Don't apply beforehand, because your name won't be on the list.

Note how this script does a number of things:
-it gets the mark to put in his api information so you can see their assets
-it plants the seed of a security deposit by mentioning the possibility the mark is a spy
-it reassures the mark that they're in the corp right now, and can immediately trust you
-it creates a time delay between the time they apply and the time they're accepted, so they don't get suspicious when nothing happens.
-it sets up an annoying period of time they'll have to wait before they get to move to goon space.  This is the justification for you shipping their items now, rather than when they're in the corp already.  You're trying to have all their stuff waiting for them by the time they get to goon space.

This script kind of developed over time, as I began to understand how I needed to manipulate my mark.  I'm sure everyone has their own script on this, and that's okay.  It should do the same key things above, however.

Now wait a few minutes.  If you're taking them for a deposit, put in how much you want, and change the status to awaiting deposit.  If you're just taking their assets, set the deposit to 0 and change the status to accepted.

Take a break for a sec.  This is your chance.

Okay, so now you tell them the news.  They're accepted, all they need to do is give you isk, or give you ships!


Step 4:  The catch

This is obviously the hardest part of the scam, and there are no hard and fast rules on how to get them to part with their isk and assets.  The best I can do is give you a list of certain things you are forbidden to do by CCP, and a list of strategies that work for me.

YOU CANNOT:
-SCAM BLUES (EX BLUES OKAY)
-PRETEND TO BE AN ALLIANCE DIPLOMAT (DIRECTOR IS OKAY)
-SCAM REAL LIFE ITEMS
-GET THEM TO TRADE OR BUY A CHARACTER
-ASK THEM TO BUY A PLEX

That last one is a bit tricky.  I've had marks mention that they might buy a plex to pay for the deposit.  That's okay, you just cannot encourage them to do so.

Bad:  Geez, I don't know how I'm going to pay for this...  Why don't you buy a plex!
Good:  Geez, I don't know how I'm going to pay for this, maybe I'll buy a plex...    Well, that would be one way to pay for it.  It's your call.

Beyond making them buy plex or mess with their characters, everything is fair game.  Tell them whatever you think will get them to part with their isk/ships.  The standard excuse is the security deposit.

Because you might be a spy or an awoxer (an awoxer is a person who joins a corp to do the max damage in the shortest amount of time), we do institute a standard security deposit of 300-700 mil isk, depending on your risk of being a spy.  You can check your app on the site to see what the directors decided your deposit should be.  This isn't under my control, I'm just the messenger :)

Assuming nothing bad happens, this is returned to you within 3 days/1 week/1 month.  (As an added bonus, maybe we pay them a 10% interest rate on the deposit, just to say sorry?)  Again, this is something used by almost every major alliance in nullsec, because even a new corp member can just be too damaging.  They know all of our corp bookmarks, know the location of our corp pos, and can listen in on ops.

Sometimes I'll tell them that as their recruiter, I'm responsible if they turn out to be a spy.  Make them feel bad for me, so they pay the deposit.

Another alternative to get isk is not a deposit, but an investment opportunity.  All corp members are encouraged to invest in the GoonWaffe supercap production fund.  Whatever you donate will be converted into a bond with a 5-10% payout per month, redeemable at any time by the owner, so your money isn't tied up.  This really helps us out, and you get a guaranteed income to start out with.  Everybody wins.  Hell, many players have saved up 5-10 bil and invested enough to pay for their plex every month!

If they're an elite pvp or industrial guy, you could also try bringing in a director to discuss building a capital/supercap/freighter for them.  It should take a couple weeks if we start now.  We build the orders as they come in, and we have to accumulate the minerals for each order.  To ensure we're not wasting our time, we require a certain portion of the price to be paid up front.  Yes, I'd recommend you buy now instead of waiting to get into the corp because, like I said, it takes a while to build, and you don't want to wait longer than you have to.  Or maybe you don't take a deposit.  You'll sell it to them right now, for the corp discount.  Pubbies will jump at this, since getting into these big ships is often their endgame goal.

I'm sure every scammer has their own methods for separating marks from isk.  I encourage you to try your own methods.  The key point is to make the story believeable and reasonable.  Explain it step by step until it's obvious that the money you're asking for is legit.  Appealing to greed always helps, whether it's an eagerness to join or an investment opportunity.  The key problem that must be solved with any story is why the mark should give you money now, rather than waiting a few days until they're actually in the corp.

In any case, have the deposit made directly to you, the recruiter.  Enjoy the isk!

The second way to make money off a mark is by appropriating their assets.  The main way to do this is the free shipping scam.

Getting to goon space from empire is hard.  Really hard.  Impossible, even.  There are gates that are camped 24/7, and rapecaged.  Do you know what rapecaged means?  No?  Well, it's when you put 10 interdiction bubbles all around a gate, so that it's completely surrounded in bubbles for 20-40 km away.  Within the bubble, you can't warp.  So you jump into this gate, and you're 15 km out from the gate now.  To get to safety, you either have to fly another 5-25 km out of the bubbles, or fly another 15 km back to the gate.  Either way, you're 100% dead, guaranteed.

Yeah, I know, that sucks.  How do we move stuff around then?  Jump freighters.  They jump between systems, avoiding the gatecamps.  We use a neutral jf corp to ship stuff from jita to our hq, and back.  They're extremely reliable, never lost a package.  In fact, they're singlehandedly responsible for 80% of our logistics.  I use these guys all the time to ship my loot to jita to sell.  Shipping is free for newbies moving in, in fact.

What do you ship, well, this is what I'd recommend.  Bring your main ratting ship and all your mods for it.  Maybe a backup too, just in case you lose the first while you're getting the hang of 0.0.  Don't forget these ships, we use them in our fleet fights, and if you don't want to fly them, sell them for 25%+ jita prices (read every ship they have on their item list).  Bring your hulk, your orca, your freighter, your mothership, your unique titan.  We want them all, and they're all useful, very useful.

What, your orca/freighter/titan is too big to ship to us?  No worry, here's what we do.  We'll bring up one of our titans to jump it straight to hq. Here's the problem though, we can't let you see the titan.  You still could be a spy, and we can't risk billions of isk on that.  Hand it off to one of our capable pilots, who will bring it down for you.

All you have to do on your end is get it to Jita 4-4, caldari navy assembly plant.  That's where our jfs leave from.

Okay, go ahead and contract what you want to ship to this guy, he's a jump freighter alt.  This is the contract you want to set:
type: courier (some pubbies think you can't break a courier contract)
set it to private, your alt's name

Pick the stuff you want to ship (hopefully everything)

For destination, type in vfk, hit search, should come up something like vfk-mittanigrad
Reward 0, collateral 0
2 weeks to accept, 14 days to complete
check to make sure it's set to private to my alt, we don't want some pubbie running off with all your stuff :)

Ok, you got the contract.  Here's what you do.
Get your alt to where the contract was made, hopefully jita 4-4.  Accept the contract.  You should see a package in your items hangar that says something like VFK...
Right click, hit break it, confirm on the warning.  The package pops open, and spills its goodies into your hangar.  At this point, the stuff is yours, and there is nothing the other person can do.
But, make sure you don't manually fail the courier contract. Just let it expire.  If you fail the contract, the pubbie gets a message, but just taking all the stuff doesn't send a warning.  This gives you a little more time to scam him again before he catches on.
Pick through the stuff, and enjoy your spoils.



If you've read this far, congrats.  This should be all the info you need to get started scamming.  This guide has so far read like a script on what happens when everything goes okay.  But that never happens, so the next half is what to say or do when things go wrong.


General Problems

I can't find anyone to scam!
Yes you can, you just have to look in the right places.  Every day the recruitment forum gets a handful more applications, sometimes more.  Take a look through those, take notes on what they want, and see if any are online.  Even if they aren't, you now have a list you can go down one by one later, which is a great help.  Then, if the recruitment channel is pretty dead, maybe consider doing something else?  Time is money, and if you're going to spend 4 hours of deadtime, might as well be ratting.  That said, if you're set on scamming now, then head to empire space, and check random asteriod belts.  You'll hit upon pubbies mining/ratting.  Take a note of their names, and move on.  Check their shitty corp's member list.  Make a list, and just run through them.  They're probably not ideal candidates, and many won't want to leave their shitty corp, but you can make it up with volume.

I can't scam anyone!
For every one successful scam chat log you see posted on the forums, I guarantee you there are 5-20 "lol scam" responses that that scammer had to sit through.  I would guess my own success rate is about 1/10.  Simply put, not everyone is a retard.  Don't get discouraged, just move on.  It also took me a few days to successfully scam someone at first because I had to get enough experience to work out my method and my excuses for why I needed their money.  Now I'm scamming someone about once per day/once every other day, depending how much time I put into it.  Give it time.  Now, that said, if you've been doing this for a couple weeks and you're getting someone maybe 1% of the time, you probably want to reevaluate your script.  Read some chat logs, figure out what works and why yours isn't working, and make some changes.  Don't be afraid to call in "a director"

I feel too bad to scam random people.
This is how I see the "ethics" of scamming.  I play paintball.  I shoot my friends with balls of paint that hurt quite a bit when they hit.  I don't feel guilty about this, though, because everyone on that paintball range entered it with the understanding that they're going to get shot with balls of paint, and that's just part of the game.  I don't drive around town pegging people on the back of the head with paintballs, however, because random people on the street weren't asking for it.  Now, Eve Online makes it very clear that scamming is an accepted part of the game, so I don't feel bad doing what is CCP-sanctioned behavior.

Doesn't this hurt CCP by driving away subscribers?
Maybe, but how are you paying for your own subscription?  With plex bought from scamming?  Thought so.  Why did you join Eve in the first place?  Was it to watch ships orbit asteroids and click a button every five minutes?  No, you wanted to fuck someone up, and you heard stories about people getting fucked up.  In a way, you are doing precisely what CCP wants you to do.  Large scams are the best advertisement for Eve, because it's that ability to scam that differentiates Eve from WoW or SWTOR or whatever.  Don't feel bad about what you're doing; if CCP really is hurting from your scamming, they'll let you know.

What's the etiquette on splitting the haul?
That's really up to the people running the scam, but I usually ask for a third and give half, because I'm generous like that.  My personal philosophy?  Make it an even split.  But you're all adults here, surely you can work something out without drama.  Just remember that if you're going to do this for a while, you'll build up a reputation.  Don't be a cheapskate, because no one will want to be your director.

How much money should I take from them?
Many people say don't scam for anything less than 500 mil.  There are some good reasons for this.  First, it can often be a poor effort/reward ratio, especially if you're not a newbie and are somewhat established.  Second, it fucks up a potential scam down the road.  If you waited until later, that person might have been scammed by you or someone else for much more money.  Third, it's kind of shitty to ruin the game for a new pubbie that doesn't know any better.  The older pubbies, sure, they should know better, but preying on a new player's ignorance often rubs goons the wrong way.

That said, I'll fucking scam anyone for anything, because I do it for the tears, and I'm a scamming junkie at this point.  I have scammed 4 pubbies for a total of 200 mil isk, which is peanuts compared to even my other scams.  But I fucking love it, because I'm a loser nerd who gets to be an alpha male with the power of my brain and show all those dumb jocks from high school that I'm the real winner no matter how many girls they fucked and how alone I was and


Problems with Step 2:  Reeling them in

They block me as soon as I say goon!
Yeah, it's going to happen.  We do have a well-deserved reputation for being scammers.  If you can get in a couple words before they end the chat, though, try this:

Hey
Before you go, could you do me a favor?
Do you have the names of goons who tried to scam you before?
We have a real problem with people joining, using our name for scamming, and quitting or getting kicked out soon after.
We try to filter out all the shitheads, but it's hard to do when they haven't done anything yet.
If you can get me those names, I'll forward them to our recruitment director, so he can take care of them.

You have to grab their attention quick, then subvert the idea that goons scam.  Goons scam, but only the bad ones!  We're trying to clear our good name, we promise!  Maybe some of the bad goons are spies out to ruin our good name.

Often the mark will be so surprised at this suberversal of their common knowledge that they'll actually start talking to you again.  I have taken one person this way.

They aren't interested in joining GoonWaffe!
Tell them what they want to hear, always.  If they want pvp, we are pvp masters who get full reimbursement.  If they want to rat all day, we have that, etc.  You don't have to tell them the truth, either, as long as it's somewhat believable.  If you're talking to an industry carebear unwilling to relocate and you can't convince them otherwise, tell them about our high sec branch!  If they're looking for incursions or wormholes, tell them that's 90% of what we do.  We have special squads devoted just to these two things.  If they are an Amarr S&M roleplayer, then hell, we have whipping ops on weekends.

They are looking for a wh (wormhole) corp, and I don't know what that is!
Take this advice with a grain of salt, because I've only seen a wormhole once and everything I know about it has come from jabber and the wiki.  Wormholes are connections between two different systems, and within the connection is a special wormhole system.  Within the wormhole are a variety of money making opportunities, like rats that drop components to make tech 3 stuff like the tengu, which is obviously pretty valuable.  The best wormholes are stable wormholes, and they come in 6 classes, C1 through C6, C6 being the toughest and the best.  Wormhole corps will set up a pos (player owned station) within the wormhole as their base of operations.  Warfare in wormholes is apparently pretty different because capital ships cannot pass through a wormhole, and wormholes have size restrictions and can suddenly collapse, cutting off a fleet.  Thus, life in wormholes is significantly different from empire or 0.0 space.

Because wormholes are so tough, wormhole corp members must work together much more closely, and so they must all be tanking the same way, either armor or shield.  A smart question to ask someone looking for a wh corp is what ships they fly and what they tank.  Whatever they fly, and whatever they tank, that's what our squad uses, too.  You should note that wh corp members do not have access to an npc station, just a pos, so they all keep their ships in a common corporate hanger.  Because of the theft risk this represents, security deposits are especially important, you see.

They are looking for an incursion corp, and I don't know what that is!
Again take this advice with a grain of salt, because I am a newbie and I know nothing firsthand.  Incursions are like WoW raids.  They are done with set groups of people (10), they make a lot of money, and they are really gay.  But they make the best money, so pubbies want to do them.  Tell them we have a dedicated incursion squad.  Again like wormholes, ask them what they fly and what they tank.  Whatever it is, we want them.  Incursions move, I think, so maybe you can offer to ship their stuff to where we know we are going next?  I don't know, I've never scammed an incursion guy before.

They say null-sec is too dangerous!
I think pubbies have this idea we're space cowboys, dodging enemy attacks literally all the time as we hop from belt to belt ratting.  Here's the thing.  There are so few people out here in 0.0, that enemies are few and far between.  In addition, GoonWaffe holds all of Deklein, so it's easier to keep it secure.  We have dedicated intel channels, so we're never surprised.  We see maybe two or three enemy gangs move through our territory each day, and you'll get advance warning on our intel channels.  Just dock up when you hear the warning, and you'll never get attacked.

In addition, we still have access to all the luxuries of empire space.  Our local market in VFK is well stocked, with prices about 25% higher than Jita.  It's a bit expensive, sure, but you'll be making double the money here!  And, if you want to buy from Jita, our jump freighter service will ship it to you safely, securely, and relatively cheaply (this is a good time to mention free shipping for all new members!).

They are suspicious that I'm so new!  Why am I recruiting?
Well, you might be a dedicated recruitment alt for a director.  Here's my real character, blah.  If you like, you can add Berious to your watchlist.  He's an old character that I bought who was in GoonWaffe.  If I'm online, I'll cover for you.  Alternatively, if they really seem upset at how young you are, you might have to bring in an official recruitment director to calm them down and get them special treatment.  There was one guy for whom I was brought in as the director, using my old character.  Didn't get his money, but we did find out he has an alt who's spying on some random corp and getting ready to steal all their assets.  I attempted to sell this valuable info to the CEO, but he blocked me for being a goon.  His loss, I guess.

They are an industrial character and asking very specific questions!
Industrial characters are either miners, freighters, or manufacturers.

If they're miners, tell them we have frequent mining ops with full orca/rorqual support.  We'll buy what you mine at Jita prices right there, without them having to ship anything.  These ops occur in secure systems, and to your knowledge, no one has ever been ganked.  Also, be sure to mention our ice interdiction program!  Now that GoonWaffe controls access to all Gallente blue ice, the price of oxygen isotopes, the product of blue ice mining, has quadrupled from 400 to 1600 isk per.

Minors will pilot mining barges and possibly orcas.  The best mining barge is the hulk.  An orca is a support ship that has a large cargo hold and gives bonuses to other mining ships in its fleet.  Orcas are very valuable to a mining corp, and if they tell you they have one, be surprised and pleased.  The biggest ship they would have is a Rorqual.  It's essentially the mining capital ship, and is like a bigger orca that can jump.  A hulk can be shipped on a jump freighter, but the other two are much larger ships that cannot be shipped.  You will have to convince them to let you titan jump them to goonspace.  See that scenario under problems with step 4.

Freighters will want to know how much they get paid per trip.  Tell them specific routes pay a specific amount of isk per m^3.  Generally, take whatever Padded Helmets costs and double it.  I like telling them that they make 600 isk per m^3.  Since their freighter can carry 700k m^3 or so, they're making 400 mil isk per run!  And because we have an extensive jump bridge network, everything is within 20 jumps or so from each other.  So you're making at least 400 mil/hour!  And of course we'll reimburse you if you lose yoru ship.

Freighters will pilot a variety of ships.  Simple freighters carry the most of any ship, cannot fit anything, and go through gates like regular ships.  Jump freighters can carry about half as much as a freighter, about 350k m^3.  However, they can jump, avoiding gatecamps.  Thus, they are the main way to ship stuff in 0.0.  Lesser ships include blockade runners and deep space transports, which are tech 2 versions of the regular industrial ships.

Industrialists want to get minerals and use their blueprints to turn them into ships and shit.  Thus, they are going to ask questions about logistics and material availability.  The answer is our logistics our great.  Look at our jf service (work in free shipping again)!  They will want to know if they can have or have access to a pos.  They will use this pos to research or produce things.  The answer is yes.  As many as you like.  We have so many moons, that if you can run a pos, you're welcome to have it.  Our logistics guys can set you up, let me connect them to you and they can give you the details...  Their goal is probably to build capitals/supercaps.  Tell them our corp has standing buy orders for whatever they produce, so they can get paid right away, and at good prices too.  If you need price checks for anything you're talking about, ask in gs_scams or thetasquad in jabber.

For industrialists, they'll probably have some ships from the other two.  But, make sure that you can talk them out of their blueprints, that's key.


Problems with Step 3:  Applying

Most of the problems you'll see with the application process are going to be due to pubbies being retarded and not able to navigate a very simple webpage.  Sometimes I wonder how these people managed to sign up to Eve in the first place, as the skills involved with filling out an application are nothing more than logging in and copying and pasting.

The best thing you can do to help yourself is to familiarize yourself with the application process.  With http://goonfleet.net, the mark enters the page to a recruitment video and some generic text talking about what we do and how awesome we are.  There are a few separate tabs at the top of the page, Apply, Forums, Wiki, and Killboard.  Forums goes nowhere, and wiki and killboard mimic our actual GoonWaffe services on http://goonfleet.com.  On apply, there are 3 boxes, and one link.  The link takes them to the exact login page they need for their api key.  They don't have to press any other buttons, they just need to login, name their new api key, and hit enter.  This will take them to a page with a list of all their active api keys.  They need to copy and paste the one at the top into goonfleet.net.  The first box takes the key id, which is that short series of numbers, first on the left.  The second box takes the verification key, which is the long alphanumeric string.  The final box takes the sponsorship key.  If you read the section on the site above, you know that the sponsorship key is something you give him from your admin control panel.

Once the mark has put all those things in, he is given another alphanumberic key, the application id.  He can now check on the "status" of his application by putting that key into the box on the upper right hand corner of the main http://goonfleet.net page.  On your admin panel, you will see the names of all the mark's alts, his api id, verification key, and app id.  You can also search for a specific mark using the search button on your admin panel, upper right.  If you click on the name of a character, you will get a character control panel.  Here, you can see both their liquid isk and an estimation of the worth of their assets.  Click the estimation, and you will get a list of everything they have.  Very handy.  Beneath these two are a section where you can set the application status, the size of their deposit, and a space to take notes on how your scam is going.  Beneath is another place to post logs, for your convenience.  When the mark puts his app id to check on his app, he will see portraits of his characters, his status, his deposit, and, optionally, to whom to pay it.  He does not see your admin panel or any of your notes.

If your mark cannot figure out how to do it, link him the imgur picture found on your admin control panel.  It's a step by step walkthrough, and it means that you don't have to spend more time talking to a retard.  It might take a while, but they'll figure it out.

I have yet to have anyone question the legitimacy of the website, due to its excellent construction.  If anyone were to question it, I would personally just take offense that they dissed my corp.  Let them backtrack, and keep going.


Problems with Step 4:  The catch

Obviously, the biggest problem is going to be building their trust.  If you've done your job right in step 2, they should be drooling and eager to join.  They should be thinking of the isk they're about to make, not the isk they'll use.  Some, however, will still be sceptical.

Why do you need a security deposit?
For a newbie:  Have you heard of awoxing?  No?  Well, it's when a player joins a corp to do the most damage in the shortest period of time.  They'll attack ships, steal stuff, whatever they can do.  Or, maybe they're sneaking in as a spy, to listen in on our ops, find out where are titans are kept, and feed intelligence back to our enemies.  You know we're contstantly at war?  Yeah, we have a lot of enemies.  I'm sorry, I know it's a hardship, but it's only for the short term (3 days/1 week/1 month).  And we do pay you interest for the time your deposit is held, since we use it for our capital fund.  5% extra when you get it back.  What's that about our capital fund?  Well, let me tell you about an investment opportunity...

For someone less clueless:  You know there are awoxers and spies out there.  We're a big corp, in a major, if not THE major alliance.  I'm on the hook, as your recruiter, if you turn out to be a spy.  It's for the short term, and it's not like you can't pay it.  And we do pay you interest for the time your deposit is held, since we use it for our capital fund.  5% extra when you get it back.  What's that about our capital fund?  Well, let me tell you about an investment opportunity...

No, I'm sorry, I can't do anything about it.  This is straight from the directors, and is standard corp policy.  Well, hold on, I guess I'll get a hold of someone...  Now get a director to come in and chew you out for letting in spies, and try again.


I'm a little worried about shipping my ships with no collateral.
The group that ships your stuff is responsible for 80% of all of our logistics between our hq and jita.  They simply do not have the money to pay for everyone's collateral, they're shipping too much stuff.  Look, these guys have been doing this for years, they're good at what they do.  I use them all the time.  They have never lost a shipment.  All the shipping, in fact, is done by one guy who multiboxes everything.  Isn't that cool?  Let's bullshit for a little while and take your mind off that worry you had.

Note how I'm kind of not answering the question.  The question implied that I might run off with the ships, but instead I'm talking about the security of the ships as they are shipped.  That's because I'm so trustworthy that I literally cannot conceive of running off with the mark's stuff.

Okay, I have some stuff that's too big to ship (freighters, orcas, etc)
Alright, here's what we have to do.  We're going to have to bring them down to the edge of high sec, then pop them over into a null sec system on the border.  From there, we will jump them through to our hq.  Here's the problem though.  As eager as we are to have you in GoonWaffe, we cannot let you near a titan.  They're worth tens of billions of isk, and we can't risk it.  Contract your ships to us, and we will have our industry director personally fly them down for you.  He's never lost a ship, and he's good at what he does.

No, I'm sorry, I can't pay you collateral for the ships.  We're already risking too much moving these ships.  We have to bring our titan out, pay for the fuel, pay for some guys to escort it, and, most importantly, risk a ship worth tens of billions of dollars in open space.  Look, we want you, we'd love to have you, but I'm not paying more than I already am for you.  Look, the best I can tell you is that we're both risking a lot, and we're going to have to trust each other.