[Suggestion] Harsher Punishments for Serial Scammers

They do get punished after a dozen times. A scammer once will probably get warned, a scammer on his dozenth scam will probably get lengthy temp bans. But a slight stepping up of the rules? I can see reason to warrant that.

 

+1 Too many scammers get banned and appeal like crazy. Its annoying.

 

+1 -> took the words out of my mouth

 

+1
accusolHD

 

Agreed,

Sent from my HTC One

 

+1
If you are a repeat... well anything in real life, they tend to give a harsher punishment and I think ECC should do the same.

 

+1

 

Care to elaborate?

 

Sure,

In life, you have people that take advantage of others and scam. 1st offense in real life is anywhere from 4 years to 25 years and even longer but the point is, on every other case I've seen that this is the second offense on a user, the mods drop the hammer harder. This should be the same with scamming.

 

Or not just ban, but how about make them pay their own ecodollars, with giving a due date, everytime when their total charge gets more and more heavier. And if you don't pay certain amount of money to server, you forcely take money out of their balance, and make it minus(negative balance). Something like, Balance: -10,000.... And make it impossible to pay, so blocking them from any economic actions for paying, but just letting them to earn by farming or mining, to recover that minus(-) status...

--------------[Edited more for idea]-------------------
Hey I just got one more idea.. how about you make a huge jail in spawn town? well if there is no space for that, then it doesn't have to be spawn town, but just build the jail town and make portal in spawn town to let visitors see, then you forcefully put serial criminal scammers and make them stay there for certain amount of times.. For example like if certain player got sentenced 3 days of jail time, you have to be in jail for 72 hours, and you must be online for 72 hours total. I you go offline, then drop of your time that's been sentenced, is stopped and you have to continue your jail-time being online later to finish the rest of the hours. And of-course not making them able to chat(and you can make channel "Jail" and make those criminals talk to eachother for mercy). But let them see Global & Auction & Trade & Donator chats. This will give more chance to make scammer changes, because if you let them see those chats you feel isolated from the world more, and desire feeling of "wanting to play" gets deeper, make them think like I shouldn't scam anymore... if you just simply ban them, well for some player it is torture, but some scammers are just totally OK psychologically because they can just simply do other things like other game, other stuff while they are banned.... They can just forget about ECC for while concentrate on other things which isn't really heavy punishment for them, considering their mind status... But if you give them a punishment to serve jail time being online, then maybe that's more psychological torture for them to make them feel what they did was very very wrong. Anybody with me?

 

Alright, I know you mean well for the community; but you have an incredibly heavy personal bias against these players. You are clearly forgetting that scammers are both real people and are trying to have fun on ECC. The goal should not be to force every single player who has a tendency to do these things to outright quit by placing downright crippling punishments on them.

Yes, punishments are needed; but the humane thing to do is to assume good-will and let people show that they have reformed themselves. Vindicating every single action in the most acceptably harsh way possible is one of the most monstrous things a person can do. You are clearing forgetting that there is another person behind the player, and that these "monsters" are really just players trying to figure out how to get by in ECC.

So please, refer to other players as fellow human beings. Taking an oedipian style of thought only serves to hurt the community as a whole.

 

+1 I've been scammed several times and seen some of the users who scammed be being let back on and have scammed again within days of getting back on.

 

I agree.

 

Your not seeing the point. A serial scammer is a player which is true but they are ruining the experience for other players.

 

Although I do not deny they are real people, I do not believe letting them have fun, at the expense of others, is justified. Everyone else manages to have fun without scamming or participating in any illicit activities, why can't they?

This thread was made regarding serial offenders. Those that have scammed, been banned, been un- banned, obliviously not learnt their lesson, and scammed again. They continuously do this only to be banned for a few days longer. They have not changed, they have not learnt, and they continue to scam. Is it justified for them to get away with taking 100s of thousands of EcoDollars from those who have worked hard to get where they were?

I agree people should be given a second chance to change, to reform, but there are only so many chances you can give one person before you must say, enough is enough.

 

knears2000 rockboy2000

Nobody has the right to deem someone a pathological thief that can never change his ways, and that's why we assume good-will. The current system is a very good balance between maintaining order and protecting user rights, and should be left as-is. If someone truly has an issue, than they will face just punishment for that; but are always given the space to reform.

The punishments scale as is, so unless you guys have concrete examples of how these punishments should be made more severe; nothing more needs to be said. This thread feels more like a rant than an actual suggestion to be implemented in my honest opinion, so either re-rail the thread or let it rot.

 

Well, this is going to be a slight essay.

First and foremost my qualifications for responding to this thread. I have been a staff member for almost 7 months and further a supermod for 5 months. That is about 210 days on ECC’s staff team. This means I have seen many, many scammers come and go. I have seen scammers change, and I have seen scammers not change. Further, I have been scammed myself. Before I was on staff I was scammed multiple times and I always failed to get the right evidence.

Now that I am on staff, I have a folder for every deal I do and I handle them accordingly. I have still been scammed. I have been scammed over 100k. You know what though, the players who come back, pay me back, etc. I don’t hold a grudge. Maybe this is just my personal personality but, I believe in second chances. I do not believe in treating a player in an openly negative matter just because they have done something wrong. Don’t get me wrong, being a staff member I know who has done what wrong. I have seen the cases that never make it into the complaints. I have seen/heard about almost every complaint/scam/major grief etc. Yet, I do not actively act negatively to these players.

I do not believe they should be judged. Most of these players are kids. Kids have been proven to not be able to psychologically understand right from wrong and if they can, they do not have impulse control.

This all being said, I feel this thread is becoming a ‘hating on scammers’ thread. It should not be that. The issue is how the staff deal with these ‘criminal’ actions. These players commit criminal actions and the issue is, should we treat them more severely. The answer is yes and no.

Yes is if you want to go off of how the US Government treats criminals. A criminal is in jail for 4 different reasons. 1) Punishment/Retribution. 2) Restoration (to help fix the criminal) 3) To remove them from the community. 4) To make the victim feel better.

That being said, punishing the player more thoroughly will make the victim feel better. It will POSSIBLY deter other players from committing that crime. ALSO, it could simply make these players leave.

This server is run off of Donations. Donations are given by everyone from builders to ecoleaders. And the fact is, there is at least one person in each category who has scammed someone. Builders scam, but, so do Presidents. Builders could be donators. Builders could become resident/mayors/presidents. They could become a part of our community. But, if we punish them too harshly after they have only been on ECC a few days/weeks they are likely too leave and find somewhere else. They will take their possible additions to the community AND their donations with them. Frankly, I can’t blame them. Why?

There are other MC Servers that allow the stuff we punish for. There are other places where these things are acceptable. Therefore, they come here, they do what they think is okay, and then they get a day tempban and lose 1k, 5k, etc. They come online and now they are in the negative. Its one thing to make them pay back the victim, it is a completely other thing to isolate them. Tear them down. Destroy their desire to be on ECC. Destroy any hope of them donating to ECC.

I personally, for all reasons stated above, do not agree with this.

Revanrose6

 

Have you ever heard the saying "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame you. Fool me three times, shame on the both of us." Okay, you fooled me once, my bad that I fell for it. 3 hour temp ban. Fool me twice, shame on you because you did it again. This should now be a 3 day temp ban rather a 3 hour temp ban. Fool me three times. Shame on us. This is where a permanent ban should be placed. Although the punishment may be a 3 day temp ban. 3 strikes and yer out bud. Scammers are getting more chances to scam. They need a harsher punishment to stop what they are doing. I see why you say assume good-will but, when its done repetitively. Theres no going back. They need to be taught a lesson and stop.