Global No gain for Scammers

[EpicMiner001]

Minecraft username:

EpicMinerXX​

Suggestion:

No gain for Scammers​

Detailed description:
Currently, when a player reports someone as a scammer with evidence, the reported player may get banned. While this punishes the scammer, the victim still loses their items, money, or reputation, and the scammer can eventually return after their ban, sometimes without consequences. This feels unfair to honest players.

I suggest introducing a system that makes scamming completely useless for scammers while protecting victims. The system could include:

1. Warning System: While trading or paying, a notification pops up:
⚠ “This player was punished before for scamming — trade carefully or face severe consequences!”
This discourages potential scammers before they even attempt cheating.


2. Harsher Punishments:

90-day ban if PikaGold is involved.

30–60-day ban for in-game money/items.

Repeat offenders get permanent ban

Reason(s):

Protects honest players and their reputation.​

Encourages reporting of scammers by showing that the victim’s loss will be addressed.​

Prevents repeat offenders from exploiting the server without consequences.​

Improves overall player trust and fairness​

Example(s):

This is real Example-​

I was scammed by player 'X' for a Bubble Key (290 gold).​

He made me wait for over 1.2 hours, trying to stretch the video to 1 hour.​

He eventually refused to pay and abused me.​

I lost 10 gold tax on AH listings during this.​

Due to the over timestamp he is being protected.​

This system would protect players like me, restore my items, and prevent repeat scams.​

 

[EpicMiner001]

If he will get punished and I hope.

 

[Meth0vas]

Yes, I think that is really essential for a good scam punishment. If they add this, the amount of scamming players will reduce, as they know that the scam leads to nothing besides a ban. If this is enforced by the staff members, it is very likely that scamming will reduce.
+1

 

[EA0_2_0_8_]

1. Automatic Compensation: The victim receives the scammed items, gold, or shards from a system fund or admin intervention.

I remember a dev saying before that they won't do compensation for scammed items because it would basically inject extra resources into the economy and cause inflation. So that idea is probably a no-go from the start.

2. Reputation Points: Track player reputation separately. If a player was scammed, their account gets a trusted player boost or a note confirming they were the victim of a verified scam.

I would love to know more details on how this may work. Being a victim of a scam does not mean you are trusted; this is a logical fallacy. If we're gonna have a rep system, it should flag the scammer, not the victim. Like, a warning that pops up when you trade with the previous scammer, saying, "This user has a previous scam offense, be careful trading with them." That would make more sense.

3. Ban Enforcement Transparency: The banned scammer cannot reclaim items or revert the loss they caused. When they return after their ban, the victim’s restored items and reputation remain safe.

I'm not entirely sure what this means in practice. If it means forcibly taking the exact items/gold from the scammer's account and giving it back to the victim, that sounds ideal in theory. But the big problem is: what if the scammer already transferred the items, stashed them in a vault, used them in some way, or sold them? It would be a nightmare to track which specific items are the scammed ones and where they ended up.


Overall, I do agree we need a better system for scam reports. It's pretty demoralizing for a player to go through the whole process of recording a video (which we require) and then get the scammer banned, but still be left with their loss. Something should be done, but the solutions need to be practical from a technical and economic standpoint.

 

[Meth0vas]

But the big problem is: what if the scammer already transferred the items, stashed them in a vault, used them in some way, or sold them? It would be a nightmare to track which specific items are the scammed ones and where they ended up.

Exactly that was what I thought. I understand the suggestion like this: By giving the scammer no point of scamming it should reduce the scams happening. I am also unsure if this is doable. However I know that some items have a special item ID, because once when the server rebooted I had duped stuff that did not work (I was told after selling it). So in my fantasy these items could be made invalid, and if already claimed, taken away somehow via log or developers. Here's the problem with the seasonal keys in EpicMiner's case - Crate keys are stackable and have no special ID (quite sure) in gamemodes with physical keys. And my thought was that if staff is able to do this constantly, the amout of scams will reduce immensely overtime because scammers get scared of gaining nothing with their action.
Was a dream if that's somehow doable.
The problem is 30 days is a good punishment for players unaware of the rules and maybe new. It's clear that this is nothing done unknowingly, but 30 days is not much for a person aware of the risk of getting punished.

Like, a warning that pops up when you trade with the previous scammer, saying, "This user has a previous scam offense, be careful trading with them."

This is the best solution I heard so far. I'd love to have that implemented. Maybe expiring after 90-360 days - and for all accounts on the IP.

 

[EA0_2_0_8_]

Yeah this has been a topic to discuss for a while, however, it seems like there is no feasible solution that may eliminate the loss of the players while not affecting the whole system at place. More ideas about it is always ideal.

 

[EpicMiner001]

It could also be that if the scam involves PikaGold, the punishment should be a direct 90-day ban, while if it involves only in-game money, then a 30-day ban is enough. Even small changes like this can have a good effect.

 

[Surbate]

1. Automatic Compensation: The victim receives the scammed items, gold, or shards from a system fund or admin intervention

This cannot be done, as it would essentially be exploited by people in order to ruin the economy.

2. Reputation Points: Track player reputation separately. If a player was scammed, their account gets a trusted player boost or a note confirming they were the victim of a verified scam.

This could easily be abused by getting friends/alt accounts to boost such a statistic.

3. Ban Enforcement Transparency: The banned scammer cannot reclaim items or revert the loss they caused. When they return after their ban, the victim’s restored items and reputation remain safe.

It's not possible to track the scammed goods, especially if it's being transferred across multiple accounts. Doing this for each scamming case is effort and time we simply cannot put into the problem.

 

[EpicMiner001]

This cannot be done, as it would essentially be exploited by people in order to ruin the economy.

This could easily be abused by getting friends/alt accounts to boost such a statistic.

It's not possible to track the scammed goods, especially if it's being transferred across multiple accounts. Doing this for each scamming case is effort and time we simply cannot put into the problem.

I see your point and I agree with it. Tracking scammed goods across multiple accounts or preventing stat abuse would definitely be too complicated and exploitable. Your explanation makes sense why this system can’t really be added without harming the economy or staff workload.
Ig there is no way

 

[FaroukUN1]

+1
but theres no way your waiting pika to accept such a suggestion that will make their victims get their gold for free instead of buying it
no point of suggesting

 

[Meth0vas]

I see your point and I agree with it. Tracking scammed goods across multiple accounts or preventing stat abuse would definitely be too complicated and exploitable. Your explanation makes sense why this system can’t really be added without harming the economy or staff workload.
Ig there is no way

I still think there is a way like I said above, to only affect the scammer negatively

 

[EA0_2_0_8_]

If you were to emphasize the basis that no items should be lost due to scamming, then there's no really feasible way to implement it. If you were to emphasize how to prevent these scammers from further scamming, this may be the more feasible topic to discuss on.

 

[EpicMiner001]

If you were to emphasize the basis that no items should be lost due to scamming, then there's no really feasible way to implement it. If you were to emphasize how to prevent these scammers from further scamming, this may be the more feasible topic to discuss on.

Yeah, I understand now that refunds or compensation can’t really work without hurting the economy or being abused. But I still feel like the focus should be on making scamming useless for the scammer.

Some ideas that might be more realistic:

Warning System: When you trade or /pay someone who has a past scam record, a message pops up like “⚠ This player was punished before for scamming, trade carefully.”

Harsher Punishments: For example, 90 days if PikaGold is involved, 30–60 days for in-game money/items. Repeat offenders could get longer bans.

Account Linking: Punishment should extend to alts under the same IP/device, so scammers can’t just switch accounts to keep scamming.

Even if victims can’t get their items back, at least scammers will have no real reason to scam if they know it won’t profit them and their account will be flagged for others to see.

 

[EA0_2_0_8_]

Warning System: When you trade or /pay someone who has a past scam record, a message pops up like “⚠ This player was punished before for scamming, trade carefully.”

Yes, that would work, but just one issue where if it'sthe first offense, no one would receive this alert, you could not fully prevent it just by this alert alone.

Harsher Punishments: For example, 90 days if PikaGold is involved, 30–60 days for in-game money/items. Repeat offenders could get longer bans

That may work, but what about seasonal keys, seasonal items, permanent commands etc... Its a never ending fight on where a scammed list of items should be categorize in.

Account Linking: Punishment should extend to alts under the same IP/device, so scammers can’t just switch accounts to keep scamming.

It is already a thing.



Look i am not just saying no to all of your suggestions, but I am just explaining why something that may not work even if it may sound very ideal to you.

 

[Meth0vas]

Yes, that would work, but just one issue where if it'sthe first offense, no one would receive this alert, you could not fully prevent it just by this alert alone.

But if players are aware of the consequences it might get them think if it's actually a good idea to scam.

 

[EA0_2_0_8_]

But if players are aware of the consequences it might get them think if it's actually a good idea to scam.

No, he means that once the player got punished for scamming, everyone who trade with him onwards will recieve a caution notice. So what I was saying is that, what if it is the player's first offense, you will not receive this alert.

 

[EpicMiner001]

Yeah focusing on punishing scammers,like showing an alert whenever we will trade as if he had scammed someone before

 

[Meth0vas]

No, he means that once the player got punished for scamming, everyone who trade with him onwards will recieve a caution notice. So what I was saying is that, what if it is the player's first offense, you will not receive this alert.

I understand that and I'm saying that if the potential scammer knows what happens if he scams, he might not do it the first time. Because he knows that there will be this warning for other players in the future...

 

[EpicMiner001]

I understand that and I'm saying that if the potential scammer knows what happens if he scams, he might not do it the first time. Because he knows that there will be this warning for other players in the future...

Yeah exactly That’s the whole point — if scammers know the consequences, they’ll think twice

 

[EA0_2_0_8_]

So like, there will be a warning regardless and just says that "Scamming will lead to a severe punishment up to a permanent IP ban"?