Jita is a notorious haven in New Eden for scamming. Being the primary trade hub within New Eden, capsuleers come to Jita with the intention of buying or selling items, and some capsuleers fall foul of varied and crafty scams.
There is the most common form of scam; offering to "double your ISK" by claiming to send you twice the amount you send them. Some scammers will send back double of small amounts of ISK in the hopes that you will send back larger amounts for doubling after your 'test'. Needless to say, larger amounts will undoubtedly not be doubled and sent back.
Other common Jita scams include name changing; a ship offered in a trade window may have been named as a higher valued ship. For example, a Caldari Raven named as a 'Caldari Navy Raven', which the unsuspecting victim purchases at the inflated price only to discover the error after the trade is complete.
An uncommon scam involves courier contracts to unsafe stations; the destination for the courier contract is usually set for those similar to the ones in high security empire space such as the "Caldari Navy Assembly Plant" and they offer a large reward but an even larger collateral. The unsuspecting capsuleer accepts the contract assuming it is a high security courier contract for a large reward, only to find out that the station in question is a capsuleer alliance outpost in 0.0 space, intentionally named after a high security station to lure capsuleers in.
One capsuleer has managed to outwit the architect of the most recent scam and make some ISK out of it.
Capsuleer Kadra explains the latest scam; "These individuals create a sell contract for (usually) obscure tech 2 rigs or other items which are considered useless and thus neither produced nor traded. It is safe to assume that such items in the hands of capsuleers in New Eden number only in the handfuls. They [then] massively overcharge for these items."
The scam typically involves the production of these items for the approximate price of 20M ISK. The scammer then offers these items at a much inflated amount, such as five for 600M ISK. The rarity of these items on the market make it appear as though the capsuleers of New Eden are getting a deal on seldom found items.
To further the illusion, the scammers would then fill the market with inflated buy and sell orders, showing a seemingly distinct margin for good profit by any unsuspecting capsuleer.
Unfortunately, in many cases capsuleers find that they are unable to sell back their recently purchased items for the profit as Kadra explains; "the minimum quantity (an often overlooked attribute) on the market buy order is larger than the volume they are selling in the contract, so the person falling for their scam is unable to sell them back the said items."
Kadra also explained to us how to successfully avoid the scam and make ISK off the back of these scammers; "Once seeing which items the scammers are using to scam with, to go and invent and produce the tech 2 rigs and thus catch them when they are most vulnerable, by filling that buy order they have put up."
There can be many profitable deals to be found in Jita as a capsuleer, however if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
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