A 200 billion isk theft in EVE Online
by James Egan 
Oct 21st 2008 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Events, in-game, Forums, Game mechanics, Crafting, News items
Corp theft is a daily occurrence in EVE Online. Unlike most MMOs, stealing from other players or organizations in EVE is permissible, assuming that normal in-game methods were employed to pull it off. Simply stated, corp theft in EVE involves becoming a member of the corp and then stealing from the target corporation's hangar(s). Once a thief has access to assets, they can literally clean the corporation out to whatever extent they are able to, depending on their level of granted access. Sometimes corp theft is premeditated, other times it's a crime of opportunity. There are players who approach these heists as a profession, others may do so out of revenge. Regardless of the reasons behind theft in EVE, it's a part of the game and does help establish New Eden's setting as being a harsh, corporation-dominated galaxy where deception is a style of play.
Most corp thefts that this writer is aware of inflict minor damage, often a few billion isk in losses. Generally this isn't enough to cause serious harm to any solid corporation's future, and the only real impact on the corp is emo rage and a few pages of forum drama, and the offender's name being added to Fitz VonHeise's list "The Thieves of EVE" which should be required reading for corp CEOs and Directors who are involved in recruiting players.
But more serious cases involve a thief having Director-level access to corp assets, both the corporation's "physical" items and the corp's funds themselves, and that's when lasting harm can be inflicted. This was the case with a recent theft against EVE corp Destructive Influence (DICE) of the Band of Brothers alliance. Destructive Influence was hit for an estimated 200 billion isk by a (now-former) member of their corporation, "thelung187", as reported by EVE Tribune's Miyamoto Isoruku:
"Beginning a thoroughly trolled thread on COAD, Viper Shizzle of Pandemic Legion announced that thelung187 had stolen 200 billion worth of ISK and property from Destructive Influence, a member of Band of Brothers, dwarfing the infamous GHSC heist. In these days of ever-escalating heists, this one rates only above average -- by comparison, the EVE bank scam netted 671 billion ISK" (Note that the bank scam referred to did not involve "EVE Bank" but rather "EVE Intergalactic Bank" -- the incident is typically referred to as the EIB scam, perpetrated by a player named Cally who also released a video confession.)
While losses on this scale could be devastating for a newer corporation, Destructive Influence has been a part of EVE for a number of years and the theft is not expected to affect them in any drastic way. In addition, EVE Tribune reports that thelung187 didn't take all of the assets he had access to. "Perhaps feeling some residual twinge of conscience, he chose to leave 150 billion ISK in the corp wallet, and their moon mining operations were left untouched. So although DICE is definitely hurting, they still have significant assets in reserve," Isoruku reports.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Harmen said on 7:44PM 10-21-2008
Hahaha, don't you just love this game!
Reply
Kamokazi said on 8:48PM 10-21-2008
I know, it makes me wish I had time to play it. It reads more like a real world scandal. I wish there was a fantasy MMO similar to EVE.
CrazyKinux said on 10:43AM 10-22-2008
I'm always amused that people who get scammed are as upset as they become once they learn they've been duped.
Always invest what you can lose. Otherwise EVE will be a harsh mistress to you.
Oh, and loved the video by the way. Wasn't aware of it. Nice to put a face to a scam!
CrazyKinux
http://www.crazykinux.com/
Reply
James Egan said on 11:31AM 10-22-2008
Yeah, the EIB scammer -- that's the only time I'm aware of that someone ripped off people in EVE and followed it up with a real-life confession as kind of a slap in the face.
There was some dispute over how much was actually taken with the EIB scam, and iirc the figures stated were exaggerated or inaccurate.
GHSC, while their isk take on the heist was lower, stands as being more significant in a number of ways. First off, it was an elegant crime. The planning, the sheer commitment involved with the undertaking, the PR gloss with the press release/RP angle, and of course the infamous PC Gamer account of it all. It was as close to perfection as it could be. Also, the isk value of the BPOs may not have had such a huge value attached to them by our standards now, but factor in isk inflation over the years since and I'd imagine it's still quite a score.
EIB seemed clumsy by comparison. More of a crime of opportunity. Significant in terms of the raw isk value, yes, but really it still doesn't compare to the Ubiqua Seraph job.
This latest one for est. 200 billion isk, really that's a good haul but it's not so different than any other hangar/division wallet theft, just on a far greater scale given that it's Destructive Influence's assets.
Honestly wonder if they'll wardec anyone who harbors him after this.
possum said on 6:38PM 10-22-2008
Incredibly old news, why was it even posted again?
This does nothing more than reinforce EVE's play as being childish with no consequence.
One thing folks fail to take into account in the thought process is one sided scams have no merit. it takes less than an ants brain (look at the video poster) to gain confidence over the internet behind the protection of a monitor and another thing entirely if your character could actually be meanigfully punished for the crime if caught in the act or folks knew where you lived.
EVE fails at being a serious game for many reasons and is on par with disneys POTC inboth game play and lack of consequence.
Reply
James Egan said on 7:20PM 10-22-2008
Possum, the DICE theft just happened the other day.
I mentioned the EIB scam in the post as an aside, just to clarify what was quoted from EVE Tribune, as "EVE Bank" and "EVE Intergalactic Bank" are two different things. The link to the older post/video confession were just to emphasize this.
I think we've been down this road before in an older post, but there *is* a consequence to being a corp thief, it's just not governed by game mechanics. It's a social consequence. He may have more isk than the Amarrian god, but what good is that if your character won't be accepted by a new corp, or if every corp you join is repeatedly obliterated upon undock for even harboring you?
If you blend real life consequences into the game, ie people knowing where you live, it kind of ceases to be a game at that point. Although with really large amounts of isk, that information is certainly requested from a player to help mitigate the risk.
My view on this is that when you play the game, it's implicit that you can be swindled, betrayed, suicided... the list goes on. It's part of the draw to the game, really. That element of uncertainty or risk. No doubt for some, eating glass would be preferable to playing a game that's like Mos Eisley with a corporate veneer, but it's got its fans... as does Pirates of the Caribbean, I'd imagine. ;)