Players at the top end of Fallout 76 on console have been running into a problem: They want to get certain high-level items and are willing to barter with other players to do so since unwanted legendaries can only be sold for caps, but person-to-person trading isn’t possible in the game; players need to either drop items at one another and trust everyone involved is above board or use a real-money marketplace like eBay, listing the item for $0 in the hopes that someone who takes the item doesn’t just run away with it and sells it for real-world cash.
This so-called “gray market” for items has created a lucrative scam economy within the game, thus forcing players to come together and form their own solution: using private worlds to let players trade with reputable couriers as well as assembling and maintaining a list of scammer names.
One of the largest courier services for FO76 players is Couriers 76, which assembles Scam List 76 for Xbox players and Unstoppables for PS players. Players who run these trade services are now finding themselves in an arms race with scammers, as bad actors are trying to find ways to dupe unsuspecting players out of their high-end items by either creating alts to avoid being on a list or masquerading as a trusted courier.
As ingenious as this solution has been, the war of attrition is beginning to take its toll on those who run such services. This is being compounded by the fact that requests to Bethesda to add player trading and missives to Bethesda support about the matter have largely gone unanswered. “At the time we started [the group], we thought we would be doing this for maybe six months just to fill the gap until Bethesda came out with a proper trade system,” said the operator of Couriers 76. “We never would have dreamed almost four years later, we’re still dealing with it.”
