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Some people are using VS to scam others.

shootgunshootgun Posts: 321
edited October 2023 in General Discussions
There are players that are using the VS to scam others. They will continuously put items on a vendor with wrong description. I run into them 7-8 times before. It was not a huge problem. Unfortunately, after a double shift and 20+ hours without sleep. I fell a victim. I was so happy to see the VS finally working after a day of not working, but that cost me 100mil.

Would it be possible to filter item descriptions from VS searches? This way other people will not become their victims. Or, is there a way to report these people? By the time I realized what was going on, I already was back at my home and the temporary VS scroll disappeared. So I could not go back to their house and try to report the vendor. 

For those wondering, he put Mytic III as Swordsman III. So I paid 100mils for a Mysticism 3 that I do not need. 

Anyways, is it possible to stop VS from looking at the item descriptions?

Thanks.

Comments

  • Arnold7Arnold7 Posts: 1,448
    Always read the UO generated descriptions really well.  See great deals on desirable items but when you look closely little durability left, shard shields for 26 million but when you read closely they are account bond, and now recall runes to Shogun item vendors selling for 1 million gold plus.  Sorry you where taken.  If the deal looks too good to be true, always read the items real description really closely.  Don’t think UO has the intelligence to understand to understand what the vendor’s description says.  Would be good though if there was a way to report them, but not sure if they are violating any of UO’s rules.
  • shootgunshootgun Posts: 321
    Thanks for the info.

    I follow those steps 99% of the time. This was the 1% where I did not have any sleep for 20+ hours. BTW, the deal was not too good to be true. I think 100m for sword iii is a normal price. I was just too tire and frustrated by the VS being broken for a day. So I did not pay enough attention. 

    > Don’t think UO has the intelligence to understand to understand what the vendor’s description says

    UO does not need to understand them. We just need the option to disable the descriptions on VS, or they should be disabled by default. (That would also save time in the DB lookups for VS items. Seems like a hot topic for the last couple of days. )

  • GrimbeardGrimbeard Posts: 2,391
    Good for them !!
  • PawainPawain Posts: 10,200
    You need to be more specific and show a picture of what you are saying. 

    One issue with removing item descriptions is some items do not show up on VS without them.
    Focus on what you can do, not what you can't.
  • shootgunshootgun Posts: 321
    edited November 2023
    The guy in question updated his store. Here is the picture:
    This item is an item for Wrestling mastery 3. He adds description as "Swordsmanship", so this item shows up on the VS search when you are trying to buy swordsmanship 3 mastery. He has many mislabeled items like that. When they sell, he adds new ones with the same mislabeling. This person has been scamming people with these mislabeled items for two months at least.

    By default any text in the VS search screen is searched in the name field of the items, property field of the items, and the description field of the items. All I am asking @Kyronix is to add a search filter on the search panel to disable the search in Seller's Description, or disable the search in Seller's Description by default. That would also reduce the stress on the VS DB, which does not seem to be doing good in the recent days. as well as stop this kind of abuse on VS.

    Thanks.
  • IvenorIvenor Posts: 1,216
    edited November 2023
    There is another type of Vendor Scam around too

    Some Players "salt" the multiple stuff they sell with 10x or 100x priced items: e.g., they sell many "of the Shogun" Drops for 1.4/1.5 Mils each, inserting in the mass a couple of totally normal Drops priced 15 or even 150 Mils, so if one quickly "serially-buys" their stuff he get seriously burned.

    IMO this kind of behavior falls under the "Abusive Beheviour" ToS violation.

    In any case ALWAYS double-check the price of an Item you "serially-buy" before confiming the purchase!
  • shootgunshootgun Posts: 321
    edited November 2023
    I tried to report this guy's vendor using the "Abusive Beheviour" report on the help section. Turns out, you can't report the vendor. So there is no way to report him. He has been getting away with this for 2+ months. I first run into this scam 2 months ago. I was awake at the moment so I could see it. Few days ago, I had been awake for 20+ hours with no sleep, so I ended up getting scammed.

    BTW, if we all end up using the same scam, then may be it will end up getting more attention? I have been considering doing the same thing with one of my vendors that I am renting from another player. It might be a good way to make couple easy plats until it is fixed, or never fixed.
  • MariahMariah Posts: 3,286Moderator
    Sadly people have been using vendors to scam people as long as there have been vendors in game. Mostly all you can do is be careful when buying. With the best will in the world, the devs can't totally protect you from dishonest players like this.
  • Lord_FrodoLord_Frodo Posts: 2,428
    Scamming in UO is totally LEGAL as long as you do NOT use an exploit to do it, always has been.  If you by a Mastery that someone put a label on it then I am sorry you have no clue to what Masteries are and as for buying stuff that has been salted then you are not paying attention to what you are doing and that is your fault not UOs.  If I sell you a sword bought off an NPC and tell you it is the GREATEST and most LEET sword in all the land and sell it to you for 100M then whos fault is it, surely not mine.  PAY ATTENTION to what you are doing.
  • shootgunshootgun Posts: 321
    edited November 2023
    @Lord_Frodo victim blame much?

    A lot of us have life outside of this game. We only come here for fun and lols. I saw the same scammer many times before and I was awake enough to avoid it. Last time I did not sleep for 20+ hours, so I fell e victim. Devs can chose to make it a bit harder to scam people, or not. Depends on whether they want the money from casual players.
  • Lord_FrodoLord_Frodo Posts: 2,428
    @shootgun you are a victim because of your own stupidly.  Take responsibility for your own actions and stop blaming others for your own mistakes.  Way back when I got scammed and I was telling a DEV (yea they use to play with us all the time) about it alls he did was laugh and I have NEVER been scammed again.  I was not complaining to him I was just telling what stupid thing I did.  Do you really want the DEVs to hold your hand like some of the posters here.  There are no VICTIMS in UO unless an exploit is used.  Do you whine every time you die in Fel or you are killed by a MOB, why not, you're a VICTIM of murder.  VICTIMS are in the real world not UO.  Bottom line stop playing the so called victim and take responsibility for your own actions/mistakes and stop blaming others.
  • PawainPawain Posts: 10,200
    IMO this is a use of game mechanics to do something unintended,  scam in this case. (The picture)

    No scamming is not legal.  They changed the trade window twice because of players scamming using it.

    That should be something that would get a flag on that account.

    Adding a zero or 2 could be a misclick, that one should not be flagged. 


    Focus on what you can do, not what you can't.
  • IvenorIvenor Posts: 1,216
    edited November 2023
    Pawain said:
    (...)

    Adding a zero or 2 could be a misclick, that one should not be flagged. 



    When the same Player does it repeatedly in time and for more than one Container at a time, it is intentional. 

    And what is squalid in this type of Scam is that it isn't made through a targeted face-to-face "con" with another Player (still a jerk beheaviour, but at least one that *IS* RPGing and that can backfire for the Scammer), but it is "left in the wild", ready to snare the first one it can.

    Same thing as a Grocery Store that puts rotten produce/fruits in the middle of a pile of good ones (that, BTW, IRL is a fraud punishable by Law).
  • Arnold7Arnold7 Posts: 1,448
    edited November 2023
    I find the seller’s description quite useful sometimes for selling what’s on my vendor.  And, I think many players use it to label bags that contain like kind items for sale.  I’ve never seen anything quite like the example you posted, but have seen close to it.  Don’t think it is an illegal add though.  If it said swordsmanship mastery iii, it might very well be, but all it says is swordsmanship which does make much sense to me regarding what is for sale, but don’t think that in itself is against the rules.  Know it says what it does so it comes when you search using the term swordsmanship, but think that just reflects the U O culture of old.
  • Lord_FrodoLord_Frodo Posts: 2,428
    Pawain said:
    IMO this is a use of game mechanics to do something unintended,  scam in this case. (The picture)

    No scamming is not legal.  They changed the trade window twice because of players scamming using it.

    That should be something that would get a flag on that account.

    Adding a zero or 2 could be a misclick, that one should not be flagged. 


    Really, tell me ONE person that has ever been banned for scamming unless they used an exploit to do it, you can not..  Scamming had nothing to do with the , in the trade windows that was a QoL for the aging player base.  @Kyronix is scamming still legal in UO as long as no exploit is used?
  • PawainPawain Posts: 10,200
    They made it so you can not change the gold amounts during a trade, by making the player with the Gold amount click first.  That was a scam fix. 
    Focus on what you can do, not what you can't.
  • Lord_FrodoLord_Frodo Posts: 2,428
    @Pawain if what people are posting as scams then why has not ONE vendor been removed and the house that it was at and the owner of the vendor not have actions taken against them, why, because it is NOT ILLRGAL.  Go report them.  What a joke.
  • GrimbeardGrimbeard Posts: 2,391
    Not only that but sometimes they kill me and take my things!! UO  has always been and should remain BUYER BEWARE... this sort of whining killed thieves...
  • shootgunshootgun Posts: 321
    @ shootgun you are a victim because of your own stupidly.  Take responsibility for your own actions and stop blaming others for your own mistakes.  Way back when I got scammed and I was telling a DEV (yea they use to play with us all the time) about it alls he did was laugh and I have NEVER been scammed again.  I was not complaining to him I was just telling what stupid thing I did.  Do you really want the DEVs to hold your hand like some of the posters here.  There are no VICTIMS in UO unless an exploit is used.  Do you whine every time you die in Fel or you are killed by a MOB, why not, you're a VICTIM of murder.  VICTIMS are in the real world not UO.  Bottom line stop playing the so called victim and take responsibility for your own actions/mistakes and stop blaming others.

    Trolololol :D

  • Garth_GreyGarth_Grey Posts: 1,459
    Ivenor said:
    There is another type of Vendor Scam around too

    Some Players "salt" the multiple stuff they sell with 10x or 100x priced items: e.g., they sell many "of the Shogun" Drops for 1.4/1.5 Mils each, inserting in the mass a couple of totally normal Drops priced 15 or even 150 Mils, so if one quickly "serially-buys" their stuff he get seriously burned.

    IMO this kind of behavior falls under the "Abusive Beheviour" ToS violation.

    In any case ALWAYS double-check the price of an Item you "serially-buy" before confiming the purchase!

    Always buy items through VS in the Enhanced Client, that way you'll never get burned by items that are all stacked on top of each other, with the lowest priced one hidden. It's not hidden from the EC.
    You and Several Others like this.


    Please make the Grizzled Mare a 5 slot mount, it's incredibly rare and deserves it. Some of us have been waiting a long time for this simple addition.
  • IvenorIvenor Posts: 1,216
    Garth_Grey said:
    Ivenor said:
    There is another type of Vendor Scam around too

    Some Players "salt" the multiple stuff they sell with 10x or 100x priced items: e.g., they sell many "of the Shogun" Drops for 1.4/1.5 Mils each, inserting in the mass a couple of totally normal Drops priced 15 or even 150 Mils, so if one quickly "serially-buys" their stuff he get seriously burned.

    IMO this kind of behavior falls under the "Abusive Beheviour" ToS violation.

    In any case ALWAYS double-check the price of an Item you "serially-buy" before confiming the purchase!

    Always buy items through VS in the Enhanced Client, that way you'll never get burned by items that are all stacked on top of each other, with the lowest priced one hidden. It's not hidden from the EC.

    Wise advise.
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