sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
Torn City is a notoriously conflicted place, where murder and assault are fine and dandy, yet impersonating someone else is a heinous crime. Here, you may openly sell and take drugs in front of gawping onlookers, but swap a single solitary dollar for outside currency and you'll be heading for the big house never to be heard from again.
These things we already know, but what has never been clarified is the city's position - official or otherwise - on scamming. It seems that the authorities are none too keen to condone fraudulent deception, but nor are there any actual rules in place which strictly prohibit such behaviour. The people themselves also seem unsure of their stance on the matter, with some happy to endure scams as part of Torn life, and others deeming it a crime worthy of heavy punishment.
However, over recent weeks the city's patience for scammers has been sorely tested, with several notable incidents occurring in quick succession since the beginning of the month.
(Pictured: salt)
Over 24 hours beginning on Valentine's Day, Duke (a.k.a. Shirley Calabrese) took $1,286,985,672 from Torn citizens in a loan offer cum charity drive. He initially claimed that citizens could artificially increase their loan limit by sending him 1% of their desired amount along with a special code; however, this was later proven a scam. Duke edited his initial post after most of the donations had already been sent, with the offer now replaced with a promise to deliver this cash to a charity for "kids what won't live too long".
It remains to be seen whether said unfortunate children will see a dime of this money, but either way, Torn's citizens are understandably annoyed. Over 100 people were taken in by Duke's scheme, and a vote taken by Marlonbrando indicates that most respondents would now favour the return of former loan shark Tim, with others preferring to see Duke thrown out of Torn entirely.
But with neither of those things likely, it may be that the third-placed choice proves to be the most damaging to Duke. At the time of writing, 9.32% of the poll's respondents had whittled down the plethora of options offered to say they would stop payments on Duke's loans in response to this charade. Whether this comes to pass and hurts Calabrese's business isn't certain, but what we cannot doubt is that some people in Torn are capable of being fooled once, twice, thrice and then some - so rather than Duke, should the shame be on them?
In September Duke claimed to have access to the city's anonymous mails, offering both senders and receivers a price to keep them secret or reveal their source respectively. At the time he claimed to have made $300,000,000 from this venture, but having spoken to the authorities, it seems only a handful of people actually fell for it, with Duke's boasts proving as empty as his hairline.
However, this latest venture was no fake, in fact it was wildly successful, in no small part thanks to the bizarre actions of Edd, who falsely claimed to have triggered the fake loan deal and even provided doctored screenshots as "proof". And if this wasn't strange enough, it seems that people are still sending money to the Duke despite this ruse having already been exposed.
(Pictured: the fake screenshot used by Edd to convince people of Duke's scam, for which he received $200,000,000)
What the authorities will do about Duke is uncertain, but with scamming on the rise in recent weeks - or at least, complaints about scamming - you have to wonder whether such behaviour is becoming a legitimate part of Torn life. I say this because two other notable incidents of fraud have been exposed over the past week or so, with both MrsDuke and newcomer RichLM both reportedly falling foul of unscrupulous scammers.
RichLM was here just nine days when he says Tirth scammed him after agreeing to do some losses. Tirth had apparently offered $230,000 per loss plus a certain amount of Xanax and SFAK, but in the end, RichLM was given only the former two items as payment, with the $1,600,000 fee still outstanding.
RichLM took to the forums to complain, but in a bizarre turn of events Tirth then claimed that far from being a scam, this whole operation was nothing more than an experiment:
"I suspected the guy of being a multi or a previous owner of an account, so I just wanted to see it in action. He knew way too much working of the game despite being a 12-day old account. Now obviously, I can't prove it so I decided to do this."
"I have billions in game. I have no reason to not pay up a guy 2m or whatever. I sent him enough items to cover it up. He posted a dumb thread in GD complaining of it. I wanted to see the people of Torn's opinions on scammers like this. Many were posted on the thread. I had a good laugh reading about all of them. You can mention it was for a good laugh." - Tirth
Tirth also told me that he fully intended on paying RichLM his requested fees at the outset, but his suspicion that RichLM was a multi led him towards the idea of keeping the money instead. I asked RichLM about his feelings on this matter, and he obviously does not believe Tirth's version of events one bit:
"There is no way it was an experiment he is 100% trying to get out of this. The deal was for him to pay me 200k in cash that's not an experiment. First time getting scammed and I was enraged that's why I leaked his name and posted on forums."
"Scamming is a legitimate part of the game yes but you have to be really low to do that he was lvl +70 and above trying to scam a level 3. I do not think scamming should be allowed in Torn."
So Tirth admits he kept RichLM's money without question, but he claims he is justified in doing so due to his suspicion that RichLM is lying about his identity. Is this fair? Is that a legitimate reason to withhold payment for services rendered? Or is Tirth merely trying to cause drama and make a name for himself?
Intriguingly, a similar situation was exposed on the same day as Duke Calabrese's mass-scamming operation. On the 14th of February MrsDuke - formerly Poison Ivy, and presently a woman with an unfathomable obsession over our city's resident rotund loan shark - claimed via the forums that she had been scammed out of $300million by a citizen known as Nugget.
In her post, she explained how she and Nugget had come to an agreement to jointly purchase an 8* Cruise Line company due to her own inability to pay for it outright, with Nugget investing cash and stock in return for a cut of the profits while MrsDuke took the director's role.
Just before the deal was to go ahead, MrsDuke anticipated a stock being sent over to help purchase the business, but instead, she received a request from Nugget to send a $500million payment to him to prove that she was trustworthy. MrsDuke sent $300million - the entirety of her available cash - but Nugget has yet to return this money despite the Cruise Line having now been purchased by another person.
At first, this seems like a cut and dry case of scamming on Nugget's part and gross naivety on that of MrsDuke; however, as I delved further into the case I found that all was not what it seemed. Nugget has an entirely different understanding of the events between himself and MrsDuke, and on closer inspection, it appears that his version may be corroborated by the Cruise Line seller himself.
Nugget says that Mrs Duke offered him an opportunity to jointly purchase the Cruise Liner, with each party paying $750million due to the business' apparent valuation of $1.5 billion. This offer came out of the blue, with Nugget's interactions with Mrs Duke over the past six weeks consisting of nothing more than mugging. Why did she approach someone she had known for only a matter of months, especially an individual who had been repeatedly mugging her? If someone held you up with a knife and demanded your wallet, would your next step be the proposition of a business venture?
(Pictured: a stock photo of a mugger which hopefully doesn't have a really gruesome backstory)
Understandably suspicious, Nugget says he contacted the seller of the Cruise Line, Frost211, who informed him that the full asking price was $750million. This is something I have confirmed with Frost211, who has now sold the firm for $800million to a third party seller. So rather than being the victim of a scam, was MrsDuke merely a failed scammer herself? Had she artificially inflated the supposed asking price in order to squeeze more money out of Nugget? I asked her, and the reply I received seems somewhat evasive:
"It's an 8* Cruise Liner. They are expensive. I had bought the stocks necessary for the company TGP TCP. They cost me a lot. I wanted to make sure that it was 50/50. Unfortunately, I was robbed before the deal was sealed." - MrsDuke
To me, this seems like tacit agreement on MrsDuke's part that she had indeed overstated the amount required to purchase 50% of the Cruise Liner, but she felt this necessary to recoup some of the outlay she had spent on the stocks required for purchase. Obviously, this is something that the two parties had failed to discuss or agree on, but what confuses me is whether there was ever an intention from either party to do a legitimate deal in the first place.
Nugget informed me that MrsDuke had tried to scam him on a previous occasion over a Private Island, hence why he was extremely wary of the deal she was offering this time. Furthermore, he also made accusations that MrsDuke was a notorious scammer when she held her former alias of Poison Ivy and that her forum post was merely an attempt to hit back at him due to her own failed attempt at fraud.
"She tried scamming me, so when she sent the 300M yeah I kept it, but to teach her a lesson, if I sent her my money it would be me moaning in the forums! Because she got burned, in her own scam, she is most upset because she took a gamble send me 300M and make 450M when I send the 750 to pay my half of the company. I was messaged a few month back warning me." - Nugget
Nugget seems proud of the fact that he has kept MrsDuke's money, and even though this act in itself is a scam, he believes like Tirth that he is justified in his actions, even though he also feels that the act of scamming should not be allowed in Torn:
"Scamming is out of order, I disagree with it, I'm not a scammer. There is always two sides to a coin but the fact she wanted me to buy the whole company and split ownership, in my eyes that's a sneaky move to try and pull. You never forget being scammed, I'm a restart, but I can tell you who scammed me 8 years ago - HT Jallebrew scammed me for an RPG launcher when it was worth 100M. He ruined my whole game play as from that day all I done was gamble to try and recover my losses. So....no, scamming shouldn't be encouraged."
This is one thing that MrsDuke and Nugget seem to agree on:
"I was not the first to be scammed on this game, clearly. However, it was my first time being scammed by Nugget. Aside from outing the scammer I had posted it for a large number of reasons. Firstly, scamming usually takes place quietly; most people who get scammed just keep it within themselves and after a few days quit Torn. Another, there are always new players joining Torn, I wanted to let them know too how it works and to be aware of it. So next time, when they sense they are about to be scammed they can prepare by print screening and saving the chat and messages."
"I don't want it to be encouraged. I know how it feels. Anyone who has a kind heart would not scam someone, only someone with greed and no heart would do such a thing." - MrsDuke
Does this expression of sentiment seem genuine to you? I'm not sure, but I do know that I would not trust either party as far as I could throw them. And with my paltry gym stats, that is not very far at all. To attempt to pass judgement on either of these two cases would obviously be futile, with everyone interviewed in this piece almost certainly trying to hide something from me.
So what conclusions can we draw from this? Is scamming wrong? Or is it merely a rite of passage in Torn City? Does the scammer have as legitimate a role to play as the trader, the faction leader and the Oil Rig owner? Or should the authorities do something to clamp down on unfortunate newcomers being stripped of their cash? Is there really any difference between taking someone's money through strength, and taking it through smarts?
(Pictured: the first thing I found when I Googled "brain vs brawn")
There is an argument to be had that scammers are providing a service in Torn, helping naïve individuals to avoid worse scams in the future by taking smaller sums from them early on - like a form of conceptual inoculation, except against fraud. You could even say that Duke performed such a role with his charity loan scam, since the most anyone gave him was $100,000,000, yet MrsDuke lost three times that in one day to Nugget. Would she have taken this risk if she'd already been scammed by Duke or someone else? Probably not.
Whatever your thoughts are on the subject, it seems unlikely we'll ever find unanimous agreement on this issue as a city. It's also improbable that this will be the last time Torn's people are betrayed by either Duke or their fellow citizens, despite the noble attempts of citizen Ninvah to create an anti-scamming guide.
(Pictured: Ninivah's guide to scam avoidance, which can be found here )
MrsDuke told me that she had been scammed several times before, but still, she persists in trusting the untrustable folk of this unscrupulous city. Duke has tricked over a hundred people despite being outed publically as a liar and a thief already, and yet we still have people sending him millions of dollars every day.
The way I see it, those who complain about scammers fall neatly into two distinct camps; those who have been scammed in the past, and those who wish they'd thought of it first. It seems foolish to debate the righteousness or civility of such activity in a place like this, and I think this conclusion is summarised neatly by the quote I shall leave you with, which comes from the man accused of defrauding a newcomer, Tirth:
"It definitely isn't fair, but what would Torn be if it was all fair?"
These things we already know, but what has never been clarified is the city's position - official or otherwise - on scamming. It seems that the authorities are none too keen to condone fraudulent deception, but nor are there any actual rules in place which strictly prohibit such behaviour. The people themselves also seem unsure of their stance on the matter, with some happy to endure scams as part of Torn life, and others deeming it a crime worthy of heavy punishment.
However, over recent weeks the city's patience for scammers has been sorely tested, with several notable incidents occurring in quick succession since the beginning of the month.
(Pictured: salt)
Over 24 hours beginning on Valentine's Day, Duke (a.k.a. Shirley Calabrese) took $1,286,985,672 from Torn citizens in a loan offer cum charity drive. He initially claimed that citizens could artificially increase their loan limit by sending him 1% of their desired amount along with a special code; however, this was later proven a scam. Duke edited his initial post after most of the donations had already been sent, with the offer now replaced with a promise to deliver this cash to a charity for "kids what won't live too long".
It remains to be seen whether said unfortunate children will see a dime of this money, but either way, Torn's citizens are understandably annoyed. Over 100 people were taken in by Duke's scheme, and a vote taken by Marlonbrando indicates that most respondents would now favour the return of former loan shark Tim, with others preferring to see Duke thrown out of Torn entirely.
But with neither of those things likely, it may be that the third-placed choice proves to be the most damaging to Duke. At the time of writing, 9.32% of the poll's respondents had whittled down the plethora of options offered to say they would stop payments on Duke's loans in response to this charade. Whether this comes to pass and hurts Calabrese's business isn't certain, but what we cannot doubt is that some people in Torn are capable of being fooled once, twice, thrice and then some - so rather than Duke, should the shame be on them?
In September Duke claimed to have access to the city's anonymous mails, offering both senders and receivers a price to keep them secret or reveal their source respectively. At the time he claimed to have made $300,000,000 from this venture, but having spoken to the authorities, it seems only a handful of people actually fell for it, with Duke's boasts proving as empty as his hairline.
However, this latest venture was no fake, in fact it was wildly successful, in no small part thanks to the bizarre actions of Edd, who falsely claimed to have triggered the fake loan deal and even provided doctored screenshots as "proof". And if this wasn't strange enough, it seems that people are still sending money to the Duke despite this ruse having already been exposed.
(Pictured: the fake screenshot used by Edd to convince people of Duke's scam, for which he received $200,000,000)
What the authorities will do about Duke is uncertain, but with scamming on the rise in recent weeks - or at least, complaints about scamming - you have to wonder whether such behaviour is becoming a legitimate part of Torn life. I say this because two other notable incidents of fraud have been exposed over the past week or so, with both MrsDuke and newcomer RichLM both reportedly falling foul of unscrupulous scammers.
RichLM was here just nine days when he says Tirth scammed him after agreeing to do some losses. Tirth had apparently offered $230,000 per loss plus a certain amount of Xanax and SFAK, but in the end, RichLM was given only the former two items as payment, with the $1,600,000 fee still outstanding.
RichLM took to the forums to complain, but in a bizarre turn of events Tirth then claimed that far from being a scam, this whole operation was nothing more than an experiment:
"I suspected the guy of being a multi or a previous owner of an account, so I just wanted to see it in action. He knew way too much working of the game despite being a 12-day old account. Now obviously, I can't prove it so I decided to do this."
"I have billions in game. I have no reason to not pay up a guy 2m or whatever. I sent him enough items to cover it up. He posted a dumb thread in GD complaining of it. I wanted to see the people of Torn's opinions on scammers like this. Many were posted on the thread. I had a good laugh reading about all of them. You can mention it was for a good laugh." - Tirth
Tirth also told me that he fully intended on paying RichLM his requested fees at the outset, but his suspicion that RichLM was a multi led him towards the idea of keeping the money instead. I asked RichLM about his feelings on this matter, and he obviously does not believe Tirth's version of events one bit:
"There is no way it was an experiment he is 100% trying to get out of this. The deal was for him to pay me 200k in cash that's not an experiment. First time getting scammed and I was enraged that's why I leaked his name and posted on forums."
"Scamming is a legitimate part of the game yes but you have to be really low to do that he was lvl +70 and above trying to scam a level 3. I do not think scamming should be allowed in Torn."
So Tirth admits he kept RichLM's money without question, but he claims he is justified in doing so due to his suspicion that RichLM is lying about his identity. Is this fair? Is that a legitimate reason to withhold payment for services rendered? Or is Tirth merely trying to cause drama and make a name for himself?
Intriguingly, a similar situation was exposed on the same day as Duke Calabrese's mass-scamming operation. On the 14th of February MrsDuke - formerly Poison Ivy, and presently a woman with an unfathomable obsession over our city's resident rotund loan shark - claimed via the forums that she had been scammed out of $300million by a citizen known as Nugget.
In her post, she explained how she and Nugget had come to an agreement to jointly purchase an 8* Cruise Line company due to her own inability to pay for it outright, with Nugget investing cash and stock in return for a cut of the profits while MrsDuke took the director's role.
Just before the deal was to go ahead, MrsDuke anticipated a stock being sent over to help purchase the business, but instead, she received a request from Nugget to send a $500million payment to him to prove that she was trustworthy. MrsDuke sent $300million - the entirety of her available cash - but Nugget has yet to return this money despite the Cruise Line having now been purchased by another person.
At first, this seems like a cut and dry case of scamming on Nugget's part and gross naivety on that of MrsDuke; however, as I delved further into the case I found that all was not what it seemed. Nugget has an entirely different understanding of the events between himself and MrsDuke, and on closer inspection, it appears that his version may be corroborated by the Cruise Line seller himself.
Nugget says that Mrs Duke offered him an opportunity to jointly purchase the Cruise Liner, with each party paying $750million due to the business' apparent valuation of $1.5 billion. This offer came out of the blue, with Nugget's interactions with Mrs Duke over the past six weeks consisting of nothing more than mugging. Why did she approach someone she had known for only a matter of months, especially an individual who had been repeatedly mugging her? If someone held you up with a knife and demanded your wallet, would your next step be the proposition of a business venture?
(Pictured: a stock photo of a mugger which hopefully doesn't have a really gruesome backstory)
Understandably suspicious, Nugget says he contacted the seller of the Cruise Line, Frost211, who informed him that the full asking price was $750million. This is something I have confirmed with Frost211, who has now sold the firm for $800million to a third party seller. So rather than being the victim of a scam, was MrsDuke merely a failed scammer herself? Had she artificially inflated the supposed asking price in order to squeeze more money out of Nugget? I asked her, and the reply I received seems somewhat evasive:
"It's an 8* Cruise Liner. They are expensive. I had bought the stocks necessary for the company TGP TCP. They cost me a lot. I wanted to make sure that it was 50/50. Unfortunately, I was robbed before the deal was sealed." - MrsDuke
To me, this seems like tacit agreement on MrsDuke's part that she had indeed overstated the amount required to purchase 50% of the Cruise Liner, but she felt this necessary to recoup some of the outlay she had spent on the stocks required for purchase. Obviously, this is something that the two parties had failed to discuss or agree on, but what confuses me is whether there was ever an intention from either party to do a legitimate deal in the first place.
Nugget informed me that MrsDuke had tried to scam him on a previous occasion over a Private Island, hence why he was extremely wary of the deal she was offering this time. Furthermore, he also made accusations that MrsDuke was a notorious scammer when she held her former alias of Poison Ivy and that her forum post was merely an attempt to hit back at him due to her own failed attempt at fraud.
"She tried scamming me, so when she sent the 300M yeah I kept it, but to teach her a lesson, if I sent her my money it would be me moaning in the forums! Because she got burned, in her own scam, she is most upset because she took a gamble send me 300M and make 450M when I send the 750 to pay my half of the company. I was messaged a few month back warning me." - Nugget
Nugget seems proud of the fact that he has kept MrsDuke's money, and even though this act in itself is a scam, he believes like Tirth that he is justified in his actions, even though he also feels that the act of scamming should not be allowed in Torn:
"Scamming is out of order, I disagree with it, I'm not a scammer. There is always two sides to a coin but the fact she wanted me to buy the whole company and split ownership, in my eyes that's a sneaky move to try and pull. You never forget being scammed, I'm a restart, but I can tell you who scammed me 8 years ago - HT Jallebrew scammed me for an RPG launcher when it was worth 100M. He ruined my whole game play as from that day all I done was gamble to try and recover my losses. So....no, scamming shouldn't be encouraged."
This is one thing that MrsDuke and Nugget seem to agree on:
"I was not the first to be scammed on this game, clearly. However, it was my first time being scammed by Nugget. Aside from outing the scammer I had posted it for a large number of reasons. Firstly, scamming usually takes place quietly; most people who get scammed just keep it within themselves and after a few days quit Torn. Another, there are always new players joining Torn, I wanted to let them know too how it works and to be aware of it. So next time, when they sense they are about to be scammed they can prepare by print screening and saving the chat and messages."
"I don't want it to be encouraged. I know how it feels. Anyone who has a kind heart would not scam someone, only someone with greed and no heart would do such a thing." - MrsDuke
Does this expression of sentiment seem genuine to you? I'm not sure, but I do know that I would not trust either party as far as I could throw them. And with my paltry gym stats, that is not very far at all. To attempt to pass judgement on either of these two cases would obviously be futile, with everyone interviewed in this piece almost certainly trying to hide something from me.
So what conclusions can we draw from this? Is scamming wrong? Or is it merely a rite of passage in Torn City? Does the scammer have as legitimate a role to play as the trader, the faction leader and the Oil Rig owner? Or should the authorities do something to clamp down on unfortunate newcomers being stripped of their cash? Is there really any difference between taking someone's money through strength, and taking it through smarts?
(Pictured: the first thing I found when I Googled "brain vs brawn")
There is an argument to be had that scammers are providing a service in Torn, helping naïve individuals to avoid worse scams in the future by taking smaller sums from them early on - like a form of conceptual inoculation, except against fraud. You could even say that Duke performed such a role with his charity loan scam, since the most anyone gave him was $100,000,000, yet MrsDuke lost three times that in one day to Nugget. Would she have taken this risk if she'd already been scammed by Duke or someone else? Probably not.
Whatever your thoughts are on the subject, it seems unlikely we'll ever find unanimous agreement on this issue as a city. It's also improbable that this will be the last time Torn's people are betrayed by either Duke or their fellow citizens, despite the noble attempts of citizen Ninvah to create an anti-scamming guide.
(Pictured: Ninivah's guide to scam avoidance, which can be found here )
MrsDuke told me that she had been scammed several times before, but still, she persists in trusting the untrustable folk of this unscrupulous city. Duke has tricked over a hundred people despite being outed publically as a liar and a thief already, and yet we still have people sending him millions of dollars every day.
The way I see it, those who complain about scammers fall neatly into two distinct camps; those who have been scammed in the past, and those who wish they'd thought of it first. It seems foolish to debate the righteousness or civility of such activity in a place like this, and I think this conclusion is summarised neatly by the quote I shall leave you with, which comes from the man accused of defrauding a newcomer, Tirth:
"It definitely isn't fair, but what would Torn be if it was all fair?"
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