Victims and perpetrators detail the biggest scam in MMORPG EVE Online – “He was my best friend in the game”

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In the hard-hitting SF-MMORPG EVE Online, pilots fly valuable ships and trust no one. But a video from August 2022 now tells of a legendary pilot who entrusted his most valuable ship to a scammer. The surprising thing is that this one story in the otherwise heartless MMORPG EVE Online actually has a happy ending.

what is this video

  • PCGamer created a 16-minute video in which those involved look back on a legendary heist in 2017. They detail how the scam came about, why they acted the way they did then, and how they see it today (via PCGamer).
  • Cheating is part of EVE: the space sim does nothing to protect players from cheaters. On the contrary, a clever cheat is something to be respected and celebrated in EVE. Many stories revolve around legendary incidents of deceit and betrayal. But you could already see back then that things were different with the big scam of 2017. Because the fraud lasted 16 months and, in the end, even felt sorry for the fraudster.
  • The scammer himself posted about the incident on reddit at the time: “The 300 billion ISK heist I almost wish I had never committed.”

    • Lost everything he’s built in 14 years of EVE Online in 1 hour

    Pilot and his unique spaceship become legends in EVE Online

    What was the scam about? In EVE Online, the famous pilot TikkTokk Tokkzikk flies: after years of playing, he fulfilled his dream and bought an extremely rare ship, a “Chremoas Frigate”, a special reward for the event “Alliance Tournament XI” in 2013, which were only available in limited numbers in EVE Online.

    The ship is designed with a cloaking device for “small group PvP” and is actually totally overpowered, as even the EVE developers admit.

    Normally, such a ship is so valuable that it is rarely used: because with every fight there is a risk that the ship will be destroyed forever.

    But TikkTokk was such a good player and so good at assessing the risks before each fight that he racked up 400 kills, which reflected on his ship as markers. He accumulated the kills without losing the ship. His Chremoas became legendary.

    The spaceship itself is valuable – but having 400 kill tokens made it unique in the EVE Online universe.

    What was the scam? One player infiltrated the pilot’s group, the Amamake Police, using the character “Samantha Myth” and became part of the elite PvP unit. This is extremely unusual given that the Elite PVP unit won’t let anyone in just like that, and every Elite player in EVE is notoriously paranoid.

    In the video, Samantha Myth also says that it was difficult to even get into the group. Because it would have caused too much suspicion if he had actively sought proximity to the close-knit group of pilots to which TikkTokk belongs. So he just hung around passively for a long time, hoping to be approached by one of the members of the Amamake Police. That finally happened.

    A friend of TikkTokk, Casper24 invited him:

    I met Samantha Myth on an ingame channel where he has linked some pretty cool kills that you can click on and then you can see what ship he used and what he killed. And I was like, okay, he looks like a super nice guy, so we invited him to fly with us. Through this kind of natural encounter, we decide who flies with us. We don’t want to be tricked.

    Casper24

    TikkTokk says: Because Casper flew on the “new guy,” he assumed Samantha Myth was fine — after all, this was a friend of his friend now.

    How a guild invested 10 months to overthrow a massive organization in MMORPG EVE Online

    Scammer becomes later victim’s best friend over 18 months

    Now, over 18 months, Samantha Myth wormed his way into TikkTokk’s trust, becoming his in-game comrade and friend. His tactic was to be a “solid, reliable player” who was always approachable and available for any assignment.

    To prepare for the scam, Samantha Myth even bought her own expensive ship, a “Whiplash”, for lots of ISK, the in-game currency, and then began lending this ship to crew members for free.

    By bringing that “fly my ship this week” thing to the group, he established a new tradition.

    After 18 months, TikkTokk entrusted him with his own ship. By then, it had become the norm to fly friends’ prized possessions and lend out his own.

    There are also legendary stories in other MMORPGs like WoW:

    Virtual Epidemic Almost Destroyed WoW – How Did It Happen?

    Pilot learns from the forum that he has been cheated for months and is bitterly disappointed

    Here’s how TikkTokk found out about the scam: The pilot woke up one morning and thought everything was fine: in a few days his friend would give him back the ship, but friends warned him that he should definitely check the reddit forum.

    This is how TikkTokk read about the scam he fell for on reddit. He knew immediately: This is real, I was betrayed by a friend. Even from his “best friend in the game,” as he says in the video.

    TikkTokk wrote on reddit at the time: Even worse than the loss of the ship weighs the loss of friendship. Because the scammer had become his best friend in the game over the past year and a half. Yes, even more – the way of playing flying with Samantha Ryan at his side had become EVE Online for him.

    To this day, the player behind Samantha Ryan only appears in his game character and remains anonymous.

    Today, TikkTokk explains in the video: After the scam, he seriously considered throwing everything and leaving the MMORPG. At the time he doubted everything:

  • Had the boyfriend lied to him for 18 months?
  • Was nothing real, was everything just played?

    • He even feared that this betrayal could change who he even is. Because until then he had been a trusting person. The betrayal made him question his own beliefs.

    Here is PC Gamer’s full video on cheating in EVE Online:

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    Scammer returns victim’s money to get his ship back

    This is how the story went: The special thing about the story is that Tikktokk’s reaction was so honest and authentic that the otherwise merciless MMORPG community sided with him.

    Normally in EVE “The honest is the stupid – and the cheat is the hero”, but now TikkTokk was seen as the real winner of hearts.

    The swindler was also touched by the victim’s words. Eventually, the scammer turned to TikkTokk and returned his former friend the money he got for selling the ship, and TikkTokk was able to buy back their beloved ship.

    After talking to Samantha Myth on Skype for 2 weeks he asked me if there is anything he can do to repair our friendship. I told him I just wanted my chremoas back and if he could help with that I wouldn’t have bad feelings towards him anymore. Then he sent me 120 billion ISK, the amount he received for selling the ship.

    TikkTokk

    This is how victims and perpetrators see it today: The scammer said he ultimately just wanted to show he could pull off the scam, it wasn’t about the money:

    When it was all over, I was like, Hey, let’s be cool with this. You have to understand that I didn’t do this for the money or to be an ass. I just did this to prove I could do it.

    Samantha Myth

    TikkTokk says today: He actually always knew that the day would come when he would lose the ship.

    What he didn’t expect was the tremendous support from people who sympathized with him. Ultimately, you can never say how people would behave.

    Turning to the scammer, he says, “If we ever meet in real life, you owe me a beer.”

    We at MeinMMO have more stories from the world of EVE Online for you here:

    The tough space tyrant in the MMORPG EVE Online throws everything away: “I’m not the scapegoat of the galaxy”

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