NEWS
And Yet Another Scam Robs Players in Eve Online
Eve Online is known in the MMO gaming community as one of the most difficult to master titles. But Eve isn't notorious just for its learning curve. Not a month goes by without some story about a high-stakes heist or corporate espionage in the complex world of Eve Online, that resulted in some party losing billions in the in-game ISK, which is the equivalent of thousands of dollars of real world money.
The latest in this series of massive digital financial crimes was a simple Ponzi scheme started by "Eddie Lampert" and "Mordor Exuel", two individuals who promised a certain percentage of return on invested ISK (Inter-Stellar Kredits). After running the scheme for eight months, and amassing over 1 trillion in-game ISK, which, they decided to stop the payments, reveal the setup for a scam, and made off with the money.
This is what the dastardly duo had to say:
"After a stunning period of eight months, we decided it's enough. No more new accounts. No more mails. No more payout days. No more ISK. Most likely, this will cause a lot of questions. The most important question will be answered right here, right now. The ISK is gone; you will not see it ever again. You've invested it, got a chance on some profit, but it turned out to be not the best choice you've ever made. That's how investing works. At least, that's how it went for the most of you."
In Eve Online, it is legal to purchase in-game playing time using ISK. So using the conversation rate, the duo actually managed to steal $51,677.50 worth of in-game currency, which will buy them 2,953 months or 246 years, or 123 years of in-game time a-piece. That is a lifetime of Eve Online with enough left-over to buy whatever the hell they wanted to.