Quote Originally Posted by RubyShoes View Post
It can turn out pretty costly to have no doubts.

On June 18th I was in a small (45 member) friendly, happy FC most ppl had joined pre level 5 and most were approaching 50 with a large house in Mist.

On June 19th ALL 45 members had been kicked over night by the FC leader with no reason or communication. He is now the FC's only member and appears to not be playing.

Every single FC member contributed in some way to the house. Players donated Gil, materials, items to be sold to raise gil as well as items used to furnish the house.

Apparently FC leaders scamming players is fine according to SE policy.. so if there is an ability to kick where the player can lose everything expect it to be abused no matter how friendly or secure you *think* your FC is.
I has a similar thing happen. Before transfers opened up I started on a JPN Legacy server. I joined up with an FC called Elite I think it was (they happened to migrate to the same server I did after they opened up). Had friendly and funny people in it seemed like a cool place. One day without any word or warning the leader came online and just started kicking people. Not people that had been gone a long time like cleaning house, anyone. Even members in good standing in mid-conversation with other members got kicked. The leader never said a word and before I left on my own several dozen had been kicked. Some people said he may have been using a bot that ended doing that unintentionally, but I don't know. What I do know is that Ruby is right. Unless you can go and slash someones tires, nowhere is really as safe as you think it is.