[Krados]

Hello everyone, a recent thought has come to mind and it involves the profitability difference between those who scam and those who don't. So basically, will people earn more through their legitimacy or will they earn more by scamming other users on the site.

The first part of this topic I would like to discuss is regarding scammers. Before we begin to evaluate a scammer and what they do, I would first like to define one. "One who does everything in his/her power to steal from another, usually by means of trickery, deceit, and force." So basically, their main objective is to cheat other users to earn some kind of currency where that be an in game currency or an in real currency it doesn't matter. A scammer on this site usually does anything from impersonating, taking advantage of people going first in transactions or just gains trust and uses that to exploit other peoples weaknesses and trust. When we use the word scammer it can also be related to the phrase, "quick profit". Quick profit in this context, is earning a lot of currency in a small amount of time. This may be the case in some circumstances but in a lot of others, it can not be considered much profit.

The famous quote, "The money's the same, whether you earn it or scam it" by Bobby Heenan is extremely controversial if you decide to apply its meaning into the topic I am discussing. The money may be the same in terms of amount, quantity or currency that it may be in but the value of the money in the eyes of a sociologist will decrease. The money that has been made in society as the outcome of hard work and strong dedication could be considered "clean" or "safe" as there was not fraudulent activities being used to obtain the money. On the other hand, if you decide to exploit someone and take their "clean" money for your own, the value of that money turns straight to "dirty", "illegitimate" or "unclean". The reason being is because of how the money was obtained from the other party in a transaction not the actual money itself being dirty or clean. So if you decide to scam a certain amount of value from a user, it should be in-printed into your heads that the money is not really yours and should make you feel guilty but this is not the case for most scammers. When I say "this won't be the case for most scammers" is because the reason people start scamming is probably because they may be located somewhere on the sociopath spectrum so obviously do not care for the consequences thus hard for them to have a "guilty conscience". In addition, they would also be greedy so the fact that the money may be clean or dirty might not really make much difference to them and is probably why these type of people don't stop.

I obviously went a bit off topic with the certain psychological values that money may hold but my next point is for legitimate marketplace users. Legitimate marketplace users could in some respects be earning more money than those who result in scamming. The reason being is the time they spend in the marketplace. An average legitimate user would spend most of their time in the marketplace doing successful deals and earning reputation in what they focus in which is great and should be done by all, in the idealistic world. Doing legitimate deals CAN be more profitable because over time they will be making a lot of money in comparison to some scammers. (Now I know this isn't the case to all in regards to people who scam a lot of items from people) but it can be the case to most deal disputes as they will be doing more deals and will never be labelled as a scammer.

I am finding it really hard to put into words so I will just make a scenario for it;

A scammer.

1. Creates a Reality profile and explores the Marketplace.
   
   
2. Starts doing some deals to gain reputation.
   
   
3. Finds a deal in which they will be earning $100 and the other user will be going first.
   
   
4. The user pays them the $100 and the new "scammer" leaves, reputation destroyed and will never be able to deal again.
   

A legitimate marketplace user.

1. Creates a Reality profile and explores the Marketplace.
   
   
2. Stars doing some deals to gain reputation
   
   
3. Carries on creating deals and is currently making $25 a day from buying and selling items.
   
   
4. After 4 days, they make $100 and now are equivalent with the scammer who left with $100.
   
   
5. The user continues to do deals and is now increasing the amount they earn, learning new skills and earning much more whilst keeping their legitimate reputation.
   

As you can see, the legitimate user "won" in this situation making much more than the scammer had done with one simple deal. The difference between them is the scammer will never be able to trade again unless they multi account in which they will just be banned. And the legitimate user will gain a reputation, go far in the forums and earn much more than the scammer would at a faster rate.

I know the scenario doesn't apply to every situation out there but I can tell you it applies to most. Before you start your marketplace career, I want you to consider this and actually learn that being legitimate over a long period of time will be easier to profit than scamming one simple deal. The fast "profiting" scammer is not always the case and is a road no-one should be going down.

To sum up;

• You will earn much more over a period of time being legitimate to a scammer.
  
  
• Never result to scamming as you will not be able to turn back and will lose everything.
  
  
• Stay legitimate and go far in these forums knowing you are making clean money and easy money to say the least.
  

Thanks for reading, I know I didn't explain it the best but I felt like I should write something like this out. 

However, if this thread was in the wrong section then please tell me ASAP!
Cheers, 
Forgotten.