yep goonies been at it for quite some time. been there when bob fell. it was very sad to see them go like that, i ran with an indy corp that produced goods for them. as for never playing eve because of that...you have to realize ccp actually WANTS and encourages this behaviour. The scamming, looting, pirating, spying, corp/alliance takeovers,hijacking of big expensive stuff...its all part of the game
you have to take risks, you have to learn the hard way what to do and what to avoid. as for safe space? read on....
theres a new faction gaining some ground called CODE. these guys are like a real life mafia, charging people for 'licenses' to mine and run goods thru certain choke points in eve. They love to gank new people that didnt 'buy a license' to mine or fly a freighter through their 'territory' (again, hi-sec choke points with slow response times from Concordokkens). very annoying and they actively spam any channels they can get anyone to listen to with their propaganda. and honestly, i dont think paying them (ive witnessed some people actually doing it) even matters. and then they get all excited and show off their shiny new killmails of some 2 day old pilot mining in a noobship. problem is every time they 'enforce' their code, concord police responds in kind with their own justice hammers and blow them out of the sky. And now they are starting to target the incursion runners, especially when they are transporting their ships to the next incursion area...those guys run multiple 2-5bil isk ships ( i have several as well) and its a bit of a nag having these guys camping out the hisec choke points
right now, the safest space is null sec. join an aliance that lives in null, and run with them. trust me. its a LOT more fun (and rewarding) than dealing with the constant drama going on in hisec. at least you know who your friends are