[JRKrause]

it was generally accepted that not honoring your ransoms was a poor choice for two reasons:

1) Word could get around and your 'customers' would stop paying the ransom. Bad for business since the remains of a destroyed ship could be worth substantially less than the ransom.

2) More alarmingly, you could attract the ire of 'honorable' pirates who might just be willing to take time out of their day to make an example out of you. This would likely involve a plurality of suitably armed starships visiting your local space at ...inopportune times.

[simmerup]

By the time I started playing it was more common to ransom & kill than just to ransom.

Repeat custom is a rarity in the pirate business

[setr]

If everyone expects to be killed anyways, then why is anyone paying the ransom?

[simmerup]

Mainly it was only panicking newbies who paid the ransom. Losing stuff in Eve hurts more than most games, so people react in true panic style fashion.

There were a few roleplay corps that built in-game reputations on taking ransoms etc seriously. I'm sure they had better results