Note: This article was originally published in Issue 7 on September 26, 2022. Over a year has passed, so it’s likely methods have changed since then (for example, they may have stopped using discord, for now). However, new party finder ads claiming to sell plots have reappeared, and share many of the same qualities from this investigation. Our goal here is to share some of the techniques scammers may use to trick you, and raise awareness that such scams exist.
“Buying & Selling HOUSE PLOTS | Want to upgrade your FC? Need a mentor? Well Join [Redacted]”
If you’ve opened Party Finder this week, you’ve surely seen the above ad. You might have even been a little excited! After all, with the state of the housing market, a good plot is hard to find.
But if you’ve seen this, you may have also seen some of the warnings. “This ad is a scam,” they say, “the housing discord will take all your gil.” Case closed, right? Right. But even something so blatant is worth having the spotlight shown on it.
In the late 1800s through the early 1900s, a man by the name of George C. Parker gained notoriety through an ingeniously devious con. He would find rich investors with only surface level knowledge of New York City and then sell them various landmarks. There was only one problem: He didn’t actually own any of them.
Yet, time and time again, he would convince unsuspecting prey to purchase the Brooklyn Bridge and even the Statue of Liberty, leaving them penniless as he ran off. It’s the classic sales con and, although something like that might seem impossible today, the spirit of it lives on.
At first glance, the housing discord we investigated seems like a robust community of buyers and sellers looking to get a return on their investment, or start a new adventure with a dream home.
Everyone is self-sorted into different data centers, and verified house purchasers even get a unique tag and name color, much like many discord groups.
There are different channels for rules, reviews, guides, and in particular, listings. It has all the markings of a real server, with one key difference: If you do not have a verified house owner or admin tag, you are unable to post anywhere.
For any buyer or seller, this should be an immediate red flag. The how-to explains that to buy a house, you must first open a ticket. This will get you a private thread with the server’s owner who will broker the deal for you.
And this is where my real investigation begins.
Plotless in the Goblet
As a note, I am currently housed and have no actual interest in purchasing a property; this investigation was conducted to get an inside glimpse of the operation.
I began my journey by joining the discord server and looking around. I read the rules, read the rave reviews, and decided that I’d like to see what is being offered.
Being from Jenova, I decided to settle on a property there. After looking through the various offerings (a large in Mist, plot 45, for 460 million gil; a medium in Shirogane, Plot 31, for 290 million gil; and a medium in Goblet, plot 19, for 250 million gil) I decided to stay within my fictional budget of 350 million and go with the Goblet plot.
I’m planning on starting a club venue and will need capital to get the operation going. The house shown in the picture looks alright, but oddly no ward information is given. How can I snoop on my would-be neighbors without knowing the spot?
Well, being from Jenova, it wasn’t too difficult to find out on my own. I hopped over to Goblet and looked up every ward with a Free Company owned plot 19.
The plot location is ideal, located directly in front of the beautiful central Goblet public pool. Perhaps my dreams will come true here! Imagine, a club that can open its doors to allow guests a chance to splash around! I had to find it, but… that’s odd. None of the houses matched the pictures in the listing.
Well, the offer is too good, I must just be missing something. Maybe the current owner changed the exterior - who hasn’t had a decorating crisis, after all? So I open a ticket and prepare to discuss!
After a prompt 15 or so minutes, I’m greeted by the discord owner himself, who calls himself Emet. He sports a very stylish profile picture to go with his chosen name. “How can i help you today?” he asks.
I tell him I’m looking to transfer from my current server over to Jenova. I’d run into some drama and needed to leave my private house there, sadly, but since the state of the market is so impossible to maneuver in, I need to find a new home.
After explaining that I’m interested in the Goblet medium, I ask what ward it’s in. After all, I don’t want to live next to any unusual houses!
He explains that reselling houses is against terms of service and therefore he cannot give out the ward, as a bad actor might be inclined to report. I push the issue further, letting him know that I have a large pool of gil to draw from, but I don’t want it to be wasted on something I’ll be unhappy with. He changes the subject, letting me know that the neighbors are inactive. This is fine, but their buildings will still be up.
I ask him to send more pictures. This is ignored. Clinging to the bit of information I let slip, Emet tries to upsell me. He lets me know that the Shirogane medium is very appealing. I rebut that I wish to open my venue to new players, and they won’t be able to get to the plot with ease.
He relents, then lets me in on a secret: He has a large plot in Mist for a mere 345 million gil. He has a buyer lined up to make the purchase tomorrow, but he’d be willing to sell to me today.
This is the first sign of Emet’s questionable business ethics. If he’s willing to let me take over a plot that is already in the deal process, who knows what else he may be willing to do? From a critical stance, this is also quite the flag.
It has been relayed to me that on the more legitimate side of property sales, large homes typically sell for closer to a billion gil. Interesting, then, that Emet had a large for sale that was not only unlisted, but 100 million less than his other Mist large on the same server, just enough for me to spend all my gil.
I tell him that as appealing as the offer is, I would not feel right taking advantage of someone like that. I also reiterate the need for seed money to operate my dream venue. He gives in and tells me my best choice is the mysterious Goblet house from ward unknown.
I take a little time to think and decide that, yes, it is time to take things to the next level. We proceed to the next steps with the Goblet house.
To the Marketboard
After some waiting, presumably to get things in order, Emet tells me that all accounts are in place, and requests I come to Malboro. Odd, since the house is in Jenova, but I’m excited about this new purchase and immediately depart from my data center.
I’m told to go to the nearest market board and purchase a Brass Gorget for 250,000,000 gil. Upon looking for the item, sure enough, there it is being sold by a retainer for the agreed amount. Emet tells me I will also have to pay the tax, and that is when a thought occurs.
As a savvy business owner, would I not want to save every gil possible?
I tell Emet my concerns, that it might be easier for me to pay him his commission then deal with the current owner of the FC directly so that we can transfer funds via the FC chest. After all, it’s not like a new member can do much damage to an FC, and if I don’t pay I can be removed from the FC and Emet still gets his commission.
I’m then told that Emet owns the FC through an alt. All the listings are owned by himself and those working on his team. A suspicious claim, to be sure. I push the FC transfer harder, to which I am told there are too many steps involved and that I should just purchase the item on the market board. The situation is getting very tenuous.
Body Snatchers
I tell Emet I need some assurances and ask to join the FC first before making the purchase. He tells me no, it cannot be done that way. I must purchase first, then he’ll log into his alt on Jenova and invite me to the FC. I tell him I’m getting cold feet about the whole thing.
He tells me to just read the reviews.
Though they look much like the fake reviews on some sort of giant conglomerate site, I decide to trust them, but tell Emet I’d like to speak with some of the reviewers. He tells me that’s no problem. I reach out to one from Jenova first.
This reviewer left two reviews for the same purchase, so she must be very excited about it! I tell her I’m looking at a house listed by Emet, and before making the purchase I wanted to see how some other buyers felt.
After a few minutes, she responds: “Hi,” she says, “Is this another attempt to scam me out of my plot? lol.” An unexpected reply, as I made no indication I was interested in purchasing HER home, but I let it slide.
I explain that, no, I’m simply curious about what the process for her was like. I also mention that I love the venue she has listed in her bio (one that I have not been to yet, but will!) and she ignores it. As it would so happen, she joined the venue’s discord at roughly the same time as the housing listings all appeared. What a coincidence!
She also never posted in the venue discord, so it seemed a little strange she would advertise them in her bio. She explains to me that she “just bought an item off the market board from Emet and then got my alt invited within minutes” and that she had been decorating all day.
Loving design, I ask to come see it. She says I can, after she comes back from shopping. I ask for her character name so I can send a friend request. She tells me “later, she is busy” and stops talking.
So I try another reviewer. Silence. Another. And another. Everyone is totally silent, as though they are accounts that are not actually in use, but instead only operated on occasion to provide some appearance that they are individuals.
After a few more tries, I finally get a reply. I tell him I’m looking to buy a house from Emet, I saw he bought one, and I wanted to know what the process was like. After a short time he says, “i am not selling my plot and stop messaging me scammer” and blocks me.
Wrapping Up
I go back to Emet, weary and beaten. The jaws are closing in, and no one wants to open up about their wonderful new plots. Emet explains that all his buyers have been targeted by scammers trying to get their new properties from them.
This doesn’t make sense, but I don’t have a way to convince him of anything. I’ve pushed him into a corner, and he knows he needs to finish the con quickly before the poorly draped saran wrap tumbles down, revealing the shady operation behind it.
In a last ditch effort to see what I can find, I tell him that although I haven’t been able to meet with anyone, I’m still interested. But I do need some assurances, and ask to meet him in person. At first he doesn’t reply, so I decide to sweeten the pot: A client of mine would like to invest with me suddenly (how fortunate!), and with his additional funds I can make the purchase of the large house in Mist for 345 million gil!
Emet responds quickly. He agrees to meet. After all, why would he refuse? He’s about to get even more than he had planned! I tell him I’m waiting by the Malboro marketboard, and after a few seconds he shows up.
He is a Lalafell. He dances for me several times. I tell him thank you for meeting me, and inform him I need to return to my server to get the rest of the funds. It is here that the investigation ends.
We are not Eorzean law services, but we are letting the proper authorities know the identity of the scammers. At this time, we encourage those concerned to report any potential scams they see, as well. Be careful! Reaching out to scammers could result in harassment tickets being filed against you, and while nothing may come from that, it’s still a risk.
We find the actions taken by this so-called Emet and his team (if there is a team - more likely this person manages a large number of separate accounts) to be disgusting and reprehensible. The housing market crisis has been trying for a lot of people, and preying on desperation is despicable to say the least.
Seeing so many in the community work together to warn each other is uplifting, though, and does give this reporter a brief splash of sunshine in all the filth!
