EVE Online Rocked by 700 Billon ISK Scam

Martin Spamer writes "The space MMOG EVE Online, where mining rock plays a big part of the economy, has recently been hit by a huge in-game scam. The aftermath of the EIB scam... was 700 Billion ISK, which might raise some $119,000 USD if sold on Ebay. (The current conversion rate is 100M ISK to 18 USD.) These events have prompted claims of player deaths, death threats, and speculation about What Would You Do With 700 Billion ISK?"

Obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

What Would You Do With 700 Billion ISK?

Trade it for a frist post, of course.

The guy who ran the scam's video can be found here

[Anonymous Coward]

The guy who ran the scam's video bragging about it can be found here: http://dl.qj.net/index.php?pg=12&fid=9542 [qj.net].

Personally I think this is what makes the game EVE more facinating than others.

I hope the guys running it don't step in, but rather I hope the players can in-game construct an appropriate response to the guy.

It'll be very interesting to see if this springs up new insurance companies in EVE to protect against it -- or perhaps a new type of organization to certify banks -- or, etc. In EVE the possiblities seem endless.

Re:Apparently....

[rokel]

Yeah, making over $100k off a scam in a video game has no place on a site like this. Really. :P

obOfficeSpace

[Rectum2003]

What Would You Do With 700 Billion ISK? Two chicks at the same time. Darn straight. Two chicks at the same time.

Re:Obvious

[ClamIAm]

Two chicks at the same time.

(sorry)

Re:obOfficeSpace

[NsOmNiA91130]

From the thread: "At $12-$15 per 30 day time code, 120 mil isk. Gotta go ask a friend how much prostitutes go for here in Holland. Okay, you can get 2 girls till your done for $150 bucks. So you need 10 GTC's to hook up with two girls at once, that's 1.2 billion isk. With 700 billion isk you could hook up with 1166 girls. If I did my math right"

Not on YouTube

[4D6963]

Not on YouTube yet? Unless my searching skills are to blame, it's a bit surprising. I was about to upload it myself but I don't really care about that whole story...

Should EVE send him an 1099-B?

[Animats]

This could be construed as "income from a barter exchange" by the IRS. EvE should send him a 1099-B form at the end of the year, showing that as income. In the words of the IRS:

The Internet has provided a medium for new growth in the bartering exchange industry. This growth prompts the following reminder: Barter exchanges are required to file Form 1099-B for all transactions unless certain exceptions are met. Refer to Barter Exchanges for additional information on this subject. IRS tax topic "Bartering income [irs.gov]

This is a very real issue, because there are active markets for converting ISK to dollars and back. [gameusd.com] There are buyers, sellers, quotes, and services that track price trends. That's not an "informal exchange of services on a noncommercial basis", which the IRS doesn't tax. That's a non-dollar credit, which the IRS converts to US dollars at prevailing rates and does tax. The numbers here are big enough to attract IRS interest.