With the amount of time people spend at home now, there is a huge need for new games to play online with friends, and Elite Dangerous: Odyssey fills that void nicely. And with the most recent Elite: Dangerous expansion, there are plenty of ways to hang out with friends and meet new people.

Sadly, there are gamers who would want to ruin the fun for everyone else. Recently, a group of Elite: Dangerous players created a "deep-space gulag" with the purpose of taking rare materials from other gamers and exploit them for cheap labor.

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How the scheme worked is that there would be conmen who wait around star systems that typically have a huge number of new players. From there, they would offer to help new gamers buy a better ship if they help them mine for Void Opals in Elite: Dangerous. The scammers would then lead the players to a faraway galaxy lightyears away from other people, forcing them to dig for the precious material at a fraction of the cost or self destruct, which would essentially start their game over.

Part of this scheme's discovery started when an Elite: Dangerous fan was letting his underage kids play the game and noticed strange individuals were approaching them. The children felt that the offer was too good to be true, so they escaped the situation and told their father. Sadly, not every player had a similar instinct, and multiple other commanders fell for the dupe. Some gamers took it well, saying it added to the roleplaying element's allure. Others were furious and quit the game entirely.

Some smart players called for help from in-game player factions called "Fuel Rats," which could be considered the space galaxy's AAA service. However, since this interaction involved enemy commanders who would stop the Fuel Rats from saving the players, the "Hull Seals" player group, who are better equipped for dangerous space exploration in Elite: Dangerous, was also called in to assist with the rescue operations. Together, the two player associations were able to save about a dozen gamers, but they believe that around fifteen more are still trapped.

Frontier Developments, the developers and publishers behind the game, are aware of the situation in the game. The company's public relations and communications manager gave a public statement stating that Frontier Developments does not condone these commanders' action and that it is closely monitoring the situation and are ready to take down accounts of players who violate the community guidelines. Hopefully, this situation can be fixed soon, and gamers everywhere can take extra precautions when playing online.

Elite: Dangerous is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions also in development.

MORE: Elite Dangerous Odyssey Trailer Shows On-Foot Gameplay

Source: Polygon