I Fall for a Scam

The background here: my Jita alt, who mines ice, has been slowly adding industrial skills.  Of recent, my corp has started mining in wspace.  It's not great pay, but it's something to do when we have our system zipped up and don't want to open it.  This is actually fairly common due to the way that 16 hour wormholes work. 

Anyway, because we are mining, I want my Jita alt to be able to perfect refine all ores except for Mercocite (which does not happen in wspace).  And if he trains up the skills needed for ore refining, he can also refine ice with a few hours more training.  Since I mine ice, that would be a useful skill.  So I'll train that too.  But to refine ice in his current station won't work, because he lacks standings with the station owner, Expert Housing Foundry.  And there are no better owners with stations in Otela.  Since I am not leaving Otela, I have decided to grind up my standings with Expert Housing.  Since my Jita alt has no combat skills other than drones, I am going to do courier missions to grind the standings.

And so the story begins.  I have three courier missions headed out into the Forge.  I am my Viator, since none of the loads are very large.  As I enter Olo, there is an industrial wreck just off the gate.  Being curious (and having nothing of value on my blockade runner other than my mission items), I go over to look.  Hmm.  There are some nice blueprints here.  I set my safety to yellow.  Steal now?  No, there are a few people around, one in particular in a Buzzard that does not seem to be leaving.  I expect he is trying to get kills.  So I am not going to steal.  I right-click on a blueprint to show its market value.  Whoa.  The Cyclone one is 500m ISK!

thieves need warp core stabilization

OK, I head into the station where one of my missions sends me anyway.  I drop everything I am carrying, and I refit the Viator with two warp corp stabilizers I always carry for just such situations.  Then I warp out again.  I don't expect anything to be there.  Just like $20 bills on sidewalks.

Stuff is still there (seems fishier and fishier).  Why has this frig not stolen it?  Oh well, you only live once forever.  I slide past the wreck, then just as I am getting to 2500 again, I align to the station I came from. So I am moving back past the wreck the other way.  Quickly, I am aligned.

Now I steal the blueprints, and start warp.  The Buzzard locks me almost instantly, and attempts to warp scramble, but my stabilizers work and zoom! -- I am away.  I dock at the station and get ready to sit for 15 minutes.

the getaway

Only while sitting do I notice the scam.  These are not BPOs.  They are one-run BPCs.  Oops.  A lot of risk for nothing.  Dodged a bullet there.