It’s like if the other party can back out of a closing deal after you put the money up
1 Like
It doesn’t. They changed the offer, quickly, and confirmed. Then he clicked confirm finalizing the trade.
If he waited for them to go green first and paused a second, he’d see them rapidly changing their offer, realize they’re trying a scam, and cut out. Their “scam” only works if you naively throw your item in and slam the trade button like the guy in the video did.
As others have mentioned, it is avoidable. However, ideally the Blizzard UI should cancel the confirmation button if the deal has changed since you pressed the trade button. Not sure why they haven’t made this simple change to avoid these types of scam.
4 Likes
No… its like if I was in such a rush to sign a contract, I didn’t bother to read the one I’m signing and just assumed it’s the same as an earlier version I saw. When there are large stakes, you take the time to do your diligence…
If you’re trading a 20g enchant whatever… but if you’re trading 1k+ you never just slam that trade button. That’s been basic stuff for 15 years.
The OP didn’t get scammed on green. The deal was changed in the video before EITHER party hit green. You can clearly see that if you pause and slowly go through around the 0:17 mark. The scam is a quick swap while OP and others are focused on hitting the OK button, not noticing the gold has been removed in that half second.
You know that timer that greys the button out? The scammers keep their gold in until the VERY last second, when they know you’re focused more on watching it light up vs their gold or item still being there. They make the swap just as you’re about to hit it, then poof. You go green, they go green on empty, and they win. That’s exactly what happened here. Watch the video again. I saw it plain as day.
5 Likes
Yea and other people have said… Thats why you don’t spam click the trade button when you’re exchanging 1000g with a rando.
Its really really basic stuff. If the guy in the vid had waited just a half second longer instead of mindlessly spamming trade he’d have seen the rando take the gold out and go green, indicating an obvious scammer.
I disagree. There are TWO confirmations and the breakdown is that the deal can be changed between them. Once you click trade that SHOULD lock it in then the confirmation (the one with the cooldown) gives you time to look over it before it goes through.
To reiterate, the TRADE key was clicked. THEN the confirmation window had the terms altered. That is the breakdown in how the scam works, knowingly abusing the timers. It’s an expensive lesson but more of a reason why the mechanic should be changed.
1 Like
I mean, I’ll give you that if the intent is to have a two-step system then the fact that the second confirmation isn’t canceled out kind of defeats the point… but again, its sooo easy to avoid. They literally only catch you if you’re mindlessly spamming the trade button with a rando.
If anything, hopefully they’re lucky and they learned to be a little more cautious when “trading” with rando’s in a low-impact environment like Warcraft rather than in the real world where the stakes are usually much higher.
If you’re falling for WOW scams it’s just a matter of time before someone gets you with a Nigerian Prince, or a fake apartment, or a ponzi scheme…
1 Like
I think there is a general misunderstanding of the trade window mechanics here. When you click the trade button you are telling the server that you have placed the items you want to trade in the trade window and YOUR SIDE of the trade is ready to go. Your UI then waits for confirmation that the other person has done the same, then the trade confirmation popup appears. There is no ‘changed deal’ between the first click and the second because the first click does not represent a deal, only locks in what YOU want to trade.
1 Like
That is not what happens in the video. Both sides place items in the window, the PoV we see has them click “trade” to continue the trade. That is when the trade confirmation pop up and should lock in while the wait time counts down.
What you are saying is that the count down window only pops up if both sides have clicked trade to what they are putting in which is not true since it was altered WHILE THE SECOND CONFIRMATION IS OCCURING. That is the problem.
1 Like
Is this a batching issue??
1 Like
Nope.
The problem is the user.
1 Like
The problem is the scam timing it evades the intended reason for a prompt to agree on the trade.
Not if you look at what you’re actually trading.
In that instance its a split instance, people shouldn’t have to use a faulty trade system that requires to watch for such dobockery
1 Like
People shouldn’t have to look both ways before crossing the street.
Completely different scenario. If you ask the driver thats coming down the street if its ok to cross… and he’s like sure go ahead… then you proceed to cross and he plows right over you… then that would be the correct scenario.
Pretty sure dobockery isnt a thing people say.
Seems like there is exactly one instant they can pull this off. Otherwise, the odds of them correctly guessing exactly when you’re clicking would be incredibly low, and as soon as they guess wrong they’ve given up the game.
The only way they can reliably time it correctly is by watching you go green then assuming you’re going to be mindlessly spamming the trade button until it stops being grayed out and timing based off that. So all you have to do is… not do that. Wait even one second after the trade button changes from gray and you’re basically protected. Its just so easy to avoid…
That said…while its easy to avoid and I don’t personally think Blizzard needs to hold people’s hands in social interactions either way… if the intent is to have a two check system then it does seem like a design flaw to allow people to change the trade between the 1st and 2nd check. In fact, the way it’s implemented with the timed disabling of the 2nd check actually seems to be what enables this scam in the first place.
2 Likes
And yet, completely apt.
If two people enter into an agreement on a trade, then the trader initiates a situation such as this. This is a breach of the agreement.
No different then ninja looting,on an agreed loot rule.
1 Like