Contracts
Contracts can be a great way to get certain items. Blueprint Copies (BPCs) can only be sold in contracts. Any blueprint on the market is an original. Originals can be sold in contracts. So checking out contracts can be the only way to get the item you want. The problem with contracts is that they don't compare prices very well. Open the market window, check the price on something, then check it out in contracts. The contract is almost always a lot more expensive. Also, be very careful with contracts. These are the primary method of scamming.
Look out for:
Check the location of the contract. You may be in a region that has 0.0 systems in it. If you accept one of these contracts, the odds are that you will be killed trying to collect your item(s).
Pricing. Always check the pricing. If the item cannot be sold on the market, then try to find other contracts with the item in. For instance, set the distance to All Regions. This will show you the price of the item for every contract that it up.
READ everything in the contract window. People will title a contract as Take My Money. But be charging you for the item. You will see these scams, they are very common. The best defense against buying the wrong item, vastly overspending, or any of the other scams, is to simply read the contract.
There are contracts for courier. These contracts are transportation contracts. A player wants someone else to move stuff for them, so they set a pickup and a destination and charge you a collateral to haul their stuff for the "reward" amount. This is a fairly straight forward contract between players. But, as always, there are problems. Nothing is perfect when people are involved, but when people mean to do harm, they always find a way.
Look out for:
Pickup location. I could post a courier contract from my POS to a station 3 jumps away. I could charge 50 million ISK collateral. And pay 25 million ISK for the reward. The problem is, that I could have my POS locked so you cannot get the cargo to deliver it. After the preset time elapses, I keep the collateral. I just made 50 million and I didn't even risk my ship. Make sure pickup locations are NPC owned, or that you are in the same corporation as the person posting. In high sec, making sure it's an NPC station is easy enough.
Destination. As stated above, the destination may be in lawless space, or it could be a locked station. Accept only contracts that deliver to an NPC station.
Route. The route that will be taken to deliver the goods. You set the route, but the game can show you the route based on your settings. The thing you want to be careful of here, is that some players will set up a courier contract. Then kill you while you travel to deliver it. I could ship a shuttle that costs around 9,000 ISK, charge 100 million collateral, then blow you up and make out like a bandit... Well, I guess I'd be a bandit, but... you get my point. Be very careful.
The other player. Unlike most contracts, courier contracts have to be completed in a certain length of time. The player that set up the contract knows when it was accepted, and when it will expire. He/she knows roughly how long it will take you to deliver it. The contracting player knows way too much information for my comfort. the best defense against this is to check if the other player is online before accepting to move their stuff. If someone is offline, they can't kill you.
There are skills that increase the number of contracts you can have open at any given time. I didn't list them because I want you to look for them yourself, and because contracts are not normally a way of business.
-Jesse Collie
Look out for:
Check the location of the contract. You may be in a region that has 0.0 systems in it. If you accept one of these contracts, the odds are that you will be killed trying to collect your item(s).
Pricing. Always check the pricing. If the item cannot be sold on the market, then try to find other contracts with the item in. For instance, set the distance to All Regions. This will show you the price of the item for every contract that it up.
READ everything in the contract window. People will title a contract as Take My Money. But be charging you for the item. You will see these scams, they are very common. The best defense against buying the wrong item, vastly overspending, or any of the other scams, is to simply read the contract.
There are contracts for courier. These contracts are transportation contracts. A player wants someone else to move stuff for them, so they set a pickup and a destination and charge you a collateral to haul their stuff for the "reward" amount. This is a fairly straight forward contract between players. But, as always, there are problems. Nothing is perfect when people are involved, but when people mean to do harm, they always find a way.
Look out for:
Pickup location. I could post a courier contract from my POS to a station 3 jumps away. I could charge 50 million ISK collateral. And pay 25 million ISK for the reward. The problem is, that I could have my POS locked so you cannot get the cargo to deliver it. After the preset time elapses, I keep the collateral. I just made 50 million and I didn't even risk my ship. Make sure pickup locations are NPC owned, or that you are in the same corporation as the person posting. In high sec, making sure it's an NPC station is easy enough.
Destination. As stated above, the destination may be in lawless space, or it could be a locked station. Accept only contracts that deliver to an NPC station.
Route. The route that will be taken to deliver the goods. You set the route, but the game can show you the route based on your settings. The thing you want to be careful of here, is that some players will set up a courier contract. Then kill you while you travel to deliver it. I could ship a shuttle that costs around 9,000 ISK, charge 100 million collateral, then blow you up and make out like a bandit... Well, I guess I'd be a bandit, but... you get my point. Be very careful.
The other player. Unlike most contracts, courier contracts have to be completed in a certain length of time. The player that set up the contract knows when it was accepted, and when it will expire. He/she knows roughly how long it will take you to deliver it. The contracting player knows way too much information for my comfort. the best defense against this is to check if the other player is online before accepting to move their stuff. If someone is offline, they can't kill you.
There are skills that increase the number of contracts you can have open at any given time. I didn't list them because I want you to look for them yourself, and because contracts are not normally a way of business.
-Jesse Collie
Contract Scams
All of these scams were taken from local chat in a trade hub. They are posted here to teach players about some of the scams in the game. The contracts have not been altered. The name of the issuer has not been changed. If you are going to scam, then I don't mind publishing your name with the scam. I have underlined the parts of the contract to pay special attention to. You may notice other info that should be underlined, but based only on what is already underlined, you should not accept these contracts.
This is probably the most common scam in Eve. Spaceship Barbie has made a small change to it, and issues the contract from his corporation.That is why the issuer is Want To Buy. This might trick someone into thinking it is a want to buy contract, even though it is a sell contract. He is selling you 1 Tritanium for 687,421,521.00 ISK. The reason for the odd numbers is to make you think it is legit.
The Case of the Missing Zeros. This scam is all too common. It seems as though the poster simply forgot to type the last 3 zeros on the end. But this is one of the most common scams in the game. The Info by Issuer will usually state that they are paying 390 mil.
The wrong item listed. Notice in the Info by User it says it is a Vigilant, but is actually a Vigil. The reason for all the other junk in the contract is to cause clutter so you might miss the ship and think it is legit.
Here again we have the wrong items listed. If you aren't sure of the items, check them out. This is a contract to sell you all 5 of the +4 implants, but they are all only +1 implants.
This contract promises to sell you 3 PLEX, but only has 1 on it. This is a mark up of 300%. This kind of scam cannot be done in the market, and that is why they spam local with contracts. Ask yourself, why, when so many players use the market for this item, does this player need to make a contract? No skills or standing is required to use the market.
This scam is actually smart. He will sell you a PLEX for a cheap price, but still close to value. On the other hand, he also requires you to give him a PLEX for free in the deal. You will pay is listed twice. First you will pay the 320 mil. Then you will pay a PLEX. All you will get is a PLEX. So your trading a PLEX for a PLEX and paying 320 mil to do it.
This is another over common scam. the description says it is 9 million Mex. At 21 ISK, that would come out to 189 mil. However, they are only selling 900 thousand.