Greedy Goblin

Saturday, February 22, 2014

The moron of the day: me

How to lose 4.1B with some carelessness: The offer was fair, and trade window can't be scammed. So I casually entered the two blueprints, he typed in 4.1B. I pressed OK, then he instantly changed the ISK to 4.1M and - thinking I just misclicked - pressed OK again.

This was simple carelessness from me. Not like it's my biggest loss or something that seriously damages me, but "didn't want that 4.1B anyway" wouldn't be true. Learn from the moron of the day!

What did I do since then? Instead of getting mad (which comes from the feeling of helplessness) I was thinking about a protocol to prevent such things. And it's simple: before pressing OK on the trade interface, count 3. This give you time to recheck everything. Do it when you are trading with your alt too, or your muscle memory will make you click when it's not your alt. Following this protocol, you can never fall for this scam, or any mistakes.

Update: fate is whimsical. Someone tried to scam me with a very clever scam, but because of what happened today, I was extra eager to see scammers everywhere and caught him. Post comes tomorrow with a new undocumented scam.

16 comments:

Art Hornbie said...

lol.
I couldn't help but look at the title of your blog.

Sorry for your loss.

Gevlon said...

Don't be! Someone who can't shake off losses like that CANNOT trade as he is paralyzed from fear of misclicking.

Misclicks happen. Every trader WILL lose ISK over such stupid stuff. And every trader will win ISK over such stupid stuff of other people.

Anonymous said...

Basic rule : Anything above 100M, use contracts. Beginners error.

Anonymous said...

Props for coming forward.

(Unlike the standard somer blink player who magically only seems to win when you talk to them ;P)

Lucas Kell said...

"Someone who can't shake off losses like that CANNOT trade as he is paralyzed from fear of misclicking."
Very true. Just the other day I was doing an awesome deal for a purchase, 100% reprocess then sale that would rake in moderate profit. Went ahead and reprocessed on the wrong character, and lost the entire profit margin plus some of the initial capital in waste and taxes. Whoops.

But it's all just in the cost of being a trader. Mistakes happen eh? :D

Foo said...

I have avoided direct trades in favour of contracts.

Not that I do a lot of either.

Anonymous said...

Props to you for publicizing your error. I once was freightering stuff around, playing some internet game while my freighter was flying in the background and only realized my autopilot took me into low sec when the red flashy had me tackled. That was an embarrassing loss as I was hauling corp goods.

I'm not sure that there's ever a good reason to use the trade window except when you're straight up giving stuff to someone (or swapping things with an alt).

Anyone that wants to trade via the trade window is assumed to be a scammer in my book.

nightgerbil said...

Thanks. Appreciate this. why wont you blog more like this? I could really use the help. Less "Im gonna conquer the world" and more heres how you can be a self sufficent.

Anonymous said...

thanx gevlon,

my stupid cost me a hundred mil. i was buying and selling plex. i was typing in the sell number and hit a five instead of six. an instant 100 mil loss. it was early morning and the light was off next to my computer. i was typing by the screen light. hehe dummy me.

Anonymous said...

The trade window scam is one of the oldest in eve :/

Everyone has made mistakes in one way or another trading, whether with entering the wrong price, buying an overpriced item, or falling for the trade window scam.

Gevlon said...

@Nightgerbil: I've deleted 10+ similar comments but I know you for long, so I answer: this is my blog, I post what I want. Also the "I conquer the world" thing is necessary to give meaning to trading. Or they just say: you made 500B, congrats watching a number grow. I want to tell: "I made difference BECAUSE I had the money"

Gevlon said...

@Nightgerbil: I've deleted 10+ similar comments but I know you for long, so I answer: this is my blog, I post what I want. Also the "I conquer the world" thing is necessary to give meaning to trading. Or they just say: you made 500B, congrats watching a number grow. I want to tell: "I made difference BECAUSE I had the money"

Anonymous said...

Whoops!

Everyone makes mistakes though. Here is an eve business blogger that lost 700m in a similarly stupid manner.

Personally I prefer contracts for almost everything, mainly because it keeps a good record!

Anonymous said...

I have been fortunate, I once bought a 30 mil item thinking it was 30 thousands, that was my biggest mistake. You are 100% correct that errors will be made.

@Nightgerbil: if you look in his archive there is a lot of very useful advice. Of course, read with a critical mind.

LR

daniel said...

i recently ignored your wardec sponsoring.

the moment i clicked jump to jita, i realized, it's primetime.
got stuck on the gate, tackled, puff.
about 2b.


anyway, thx for the content.
:-)

Aher said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9FtEPDT1Q4

Good thing i saw that video long ago .
"Everyone knows the direct trade scam "

Btw , my first loss was because my wcs were in cargo and not fitted (unfitted them then forgot about it ).Oops cannot warp