If implemented correctly, i'm for it. Hope that if it gets implemented there would be specifics given regarding specific scenarios. EG; I don't want to be banned for finding a great deal in the FM, but I would LOVE to have those "fast trade" scammers banned.
I like your writing and it sounds like you have a lot of experience and knowledge in the subject, could you write a guide on how to avoid/detect common scams?
If im not mistaken, Scamming was in the ToS less than a year ago so if its been removed I'm quite surprised to find that out now. This is a topic I feel quite passionately about. I actually have found myself working to get a player(s) banned by trying to link certain scammers together in the past. I feel like I had in some small way an influence on the banning of @Haul and Zico/Worker a notorious scammer, @Haul was at the time a very well known and liked person. After some digging around on the forums, and in game, determined he was not only friends with Zico, but knew him IRL who he had over to his fricken house and gamed next to each other on a regular basis. Eventually Haul was perma banned for a laundry list of things, and I absolutely felt vindication. With that said, I have a tough time adding to the already long list of duties Admins have to take care of as it has been stated before. A scam involves at minimum 2 people and can involve a half dozen or more in some extreme circumstances and can end up taking a long time to handle. If @Matt were to bring on more people and eventually promote more people to a position that allowed them to more focus on handling scams, I would then like to see some more focus on handling scamming in and out of game. But for now, while I absolutely detest scammers, I cant in good conscience force a burdensome task like that on the few active Gm's we currently have.
The problem here is that you are assuming that all scams are easy to detect and that they are all dumb and obvious. There are people who are smart enough to scam in a more indirect and complex manner, should then only the smart scammers be banned because their scams are easier to fall into? If it were me I would make close buddies with all the richest people in this server and at some point have them lend me a few of their gear each and run off with it. Not an obvious trap as long as I act well for a few weeks and I end up with like a 100bil. And to say that the people being scammed is at fault as if they should be the ones to be blamed more/instead of the scammer is asanine. Yes they could have prevented it, but they are not the instigators of the event. It's like telling a man that got robbed while walking through a dark alley that it's his fault for getting robbed since he was walking through a dangerous road and thus the police should just leave the robbers alone. In light of your argument on being greedy or gullible, you are right that being those are something not only players but people in general should work on. However just because a person has a flaw it does not justify me to go take advantage of them. Kids, the mentally ill, and less educated people are gullible as hell, does that then justify me to go and scam them and tell them that it's their fault for falling into my obvious trap and then feel good about myself because "I taught them a lesson?" Lastly GM's in general don't act without reasonable proof anyways so there's no real need to be concerned with a bunch of reports without evidence
My perspective on who's at fault in scam situations has already been well articulated by OP and others, so I'll merely offer a suggestion. Under the hypothetical new rule, scam victims shouldn't be compensated. This will reduce false claims, to a degree, and help encourage players to remain vigilant against scams. Of course, scammers shouldn't profit from their unethical behavior. Personally, I'm a fan of permanent ban on the first offense.
