Phase One: Defining The Target

Despite the months it takes to properly infiltrate, defining The Target is most certainly the most arduous task in Corporate Subterfuge. Sifting through the corporation advertisements will not cut it in this business. Defining The Target will take extensive research and a lot of time. You need to use whatever information you can find on a prospect. Check the forums for potential targets and monitor their activity. Gauge how successful they are and put an estimate on how much you can take from them. Find and monitor members either yourself with alts or using your contacts. Get a feel for what members of The Target do, and if at all possible take some notes on their fleet composition and areas of activity.

There are no golden numbers in this business, there is no rule of thumb for how many prospects you should have lined up. Sometimes you'll find fifty promising Targets whilst lurking around EVE communities, and other times you'll stumble into one perfect Target.

Of course, maybe you already have a Target in mind. Maybe some pissant little corporation has garnered the wrong kind of attention, maybe they're a direct competitor, or maybe you just want to empty their wallets just for the sake of being vindictive. That's all fine and dandy, you have already completed Phase One.

However, if you are a career con man odds are you've got no vendettas to see to, you just want to make some money from some chumps in space. If this is the case, here are a few useful tips for finding your quarry:

- Check the forums constantly. Don't just look at that post in the advertising board, scour the entire community for any information on The Target that you can find.

- Thrive in Drama. EVE Online corporations are fraught with drama. People getting pissed, breaking away, stirring up shit. This is the perfect camouflage for a con man. If everyone's attention is going toward some whiny child is spending all night bitching about how a pirate had the audacity to pod him in Low-Sec, you have a lot more room to operate and talk to other people one-on-one without being in the spotlight. Always look for a Target that can't keep its shit together.

- Beware Recruitment Spam. Only two types of corporations spam recruitment advertisements: new corps and dying corps. Either way, they're not going to have very much for you to take.

- The easier it is to infiltrate, the harder it will be to steal from. If a corporation is openly recruiting, they're going to be much less inclined to trust you. Comparatively, if they invite you to join their group they likely already trust you to a certain extent. Pick your Target accordingly.

- Know The Target, know yourself. You're not going to get anywhere in a PvP corporation if your alt is comprised entirely of industrial skills. They may trust you, but they probably won't see you as leadership material. In order to steal from corporations they have to grant you access to the wallets and hangars, and this almost invariably means you need to be a leader among them in some capacity.