A new scam is recently happening on our server, and I thought everyone in the FFXI community should know about it, so they do not fall victim to it, as some of my good friends have.
Recently, shouts have been appearing in every city claiming that 'they' will get you Dynamis, Sky, Sea, and other gear and item drops for a gil fee. For instance Byakko's Haidate, Kirin's Osode, and other nice gear can be yours if the price is right. They will ask you for the gil in advance, and tell you meet them at the place they are doing the run, where you will then be invited into the alliance and you will be able to lot on your gear item.
The problem is... They will take your gil or equal value item trade, pass this off to someone else, and logout. There is no party, no alliance, and no invite, where they tell you to meet. Nobody is coming. They just got away with your hard earned gil or gear. Since this gil or gear was already passed off to other characters, and another, and another, etc. it cannot be easily tracked down. By banning the original player that made the promise of gear, it has no effect on the rest of the 'RMT chain' of players involved, since your gil or gear was already passed off to (possibly several) other suspected RMT characters.
A few of my friends have fallen into this scam, and lost millions of gil, only to find - nobody is there.
The GM's say they can't do anything about it, and consider your stuff 'lost.' Even with chat logs of agreements among players, and transactions/trades, the GM's can't really do much - or so they say.
This is an outrage! Isn't that what GM's are for?
Unless you know for sure you are dealing with a reputable linkshell that professionally merc's (mercenary) out their services like this, I strongly advise everyone not to do it. Report them, and put a damper into another suspected RMT tactic of stealing your gil so they can sell it online.
If it sounds too good to be true, it is.