Many of you high sec dwellers may have heard of the small four member corporation “Phaser Inc.” It’s two main members, Eddie Lampert and Mordor Exuel, could, up until today, be seen routinely in Jita and other high sec market hubs touting their immensely profitable investment bank in local (“Deposit an investment at Phaser Inc and receive 5% interest on weekly basis. Check www.phaserinc.com for all the details and to register for an account!”). Those days, however, have ended:

Haters gonna hate
Today is the day many expected to come.
Today, the 12th of August 2011, is the day where it all comes together.
Phaser Inc. is done, over, finished.

After a stunning period of eight months, we decided it’s enough.

No more new accounts.
No more mails.
No more payout days.
No more ISK.

No more Phaser Inc.

Most likely, this will cause a lot of questions. The most important question will be answered right here, right now. The ISK is gone; you will not see it ever again. You’ve invested it, got a chance on some profit, but it turned out to be not the best choice you’ve ever made. That’s how investing works. At least, that’s how it went for the most of you.

Read more About the Biggest Ponzi Scheme in EVE Online Ever at EVENews24.com.

Heared about this in Teamspeak.

Bet you they RMT'd all that ISK :P

thought i recognised the name.. must admit i thought at the time it was probably just some kind of scam.. but fools and their money (isk) are easily parted.. or as another saying goes.. you can't cheat an honest man...  most cons rely on peoples greed to pull off their scams.. well.. i'd say some players will have learned a valuable.. if expensive lesson from this..

nice one

Originally posted by Adam1902

Heared about this in Teamspeak.

Bet you they RMT'd all that ISK :P

You have to be rather naive to think they can RMT any of it.  All large transactions are tracked and especially these investment schemes.  They have a lot of isk that they really cannot spend.  While it might be cool at first, when reality sets in it will not be as great as they thought it would be.

noobs treating a game like real life thats what they get :)

I'm not sure that they can't spend the ISK. EVE doesn't have a policy against scammers.

Thats why their noobs

They can spend as much of it as they like within the game, and trust me there are PLENTY of ways to launder large amounts of ISK like that to turn into $$$. Such as buying a v.high skilled character on the trade board and RMTing the account for example.

Not sure I should be discussing this here, but their are indeed ways to launder mass ISK.

Yeah, well anyone that didnt understand this to end up like a scam deserves it.

How are they to pay out weekly with interest in EVE? Its not like they can lend out money at a higher return rate. Lending out money in EVE is so risky, mostly cause you have little way of getting the money back if the loaner wont pay you back. Especially if they also decide to quit the game.

Hence there is little profit for banking and loans that should give a sensible 5% return.

Hahaha, I'm laughing all the way to the bank :)

Heh.   Bout time they are gone got tired of their spamming in local.    Anyone stupid enough to fall for tat deserves it.

There were a couple of accounts that had 30+ billion isk invested.

"Hey buddy, here's my life savings. You're going to give me money later, right?"

"Yup!"

*shakes hand*

"Alrighty, everything seems to be in order."

Things never change, people do.

A fool and his / her money...

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Originally posted by Adam1902

Heared about this in Teamspeak.

Bet you they RMT'd all that ISK :P

You have to be rather naive to think they can RMT any of it.  All large transactions are tracked and especially these investment schemes.  They have a lot of isk that they really cannot spend.  While it might be cool at first, when reality sets in it will not be as great as they thought it would be.

ACTUALLY it IS as good as they thought it would be. Those were "Fall" characters, they were 2nd accounts used PRIMARILY for that scam.

All they'll do now is transfer it ALL to their main characters and spend it like it's 1945. Seriously, they'll probably heavily invest it into throwaway suicide-tengus or something :P.

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Originally posted by Adam1902

Heared about this in Teamspeak.

Bet you they RMT'd all that ISK :P

You have to be rather naive to think they can RMT any of it.  All large transactions are tracked and especially these investment schemes.  They have a lot of isk that they really cannot spend.  While it might be cool at first, when reality sets in it will not be as great as they thought it would be.

 

ACTUALLY it IS as good as they thought it would be. Those were "Fall" characters, they were 2nd accounts used PRIMARILY for that scam.

All they'll do now is transfer it ALL to their main characters and spend it like it's 1945. Seriously, they'll probably heavily invest it into throwaway suicide-tengus or something :P.

 

It wouldn't surpise me if the guys are alts from one of the corps with ambition, i smell war being planned. And still, looking at the game, they did exzactly what CCP says the game should be "A sandbox, where every desission you make is of consiquence" (sorry for my spelling) so you gotta hand it to them, thumbs up for even trying AND pulling it off.

I just don't agree what they did though :P

amazing that anyone falls for this, but happens in RL too so I shouldn't be surprised

In real life there are laws against stuff like this. The fact that no such laws exist in the EVE universe means that EVE is actually lawless.

I can't see this as being anything other than a black mark against EVE, at least where the non-hardcore player is concerned.

Last time I checked CCP didn't care even the slightest about con games, just so long as nobody cheats the Eve game itself. (No hacks, mods, etc.)  

Every time in the past I've seen someone talk someone else into giving them ISK through sweet talk and lies, then ran off with it laughing all the way, CCP just admonished the victim for being stupid and suggested they don't do anything that dumb again.

Will those guys get away with the money, and maybe even turn it into real world cash?  Easily, CCP doesn't care since they didn't hack the game, they just bilked the gullible.

Will this ever happen again?  Let's put it this way, I'd bet there are at least 3 or 4 other scams running right now, even if they aren't as ambitious as "Phaser Inc" was.

In a game where the only repurcusion to stealing is to be badmouthed, there are going to be a lot of thieves and con artists.  Don't trust anyone with your account, money, or property.

This why Eve is the great game that it is. It is not for the faint hearted. CCP provided the game field. Players make the rules. As it was said in Mad Max...welcome to Thunderdome, 2 men enter, one man leaves. Those are the only rules.

Originally posted by Xondar123

In real life there are laws against stuff like this. The fact that no such laws exist in the EVE universe means that EVE is actually lawless.

I can't see this as being anything other than a black mark against EVE, at least where the non-hardcore player is concerned.

 of course EvE is lawless, it's like the friken wild west in space. always been.

i'm sorry but nobody else is to blame here except those poor sods that gave their isks away without any concrete collateral. just too damn funny.