Can someone explain this to me?

[Vertexico]

Maybe I'm just tired and I don't understand the bounty system. My wingmate is doing a pirate killing mission, he gets interdicted, I drop out to help him, do a KWS on the Asp that has targeted him. The Asp does some standard pirate banter about 'what we are carrying' scans us both. We fire on him, and then notice he is not wanted, even though he is in a faction called "[SystemName] Crimson Pirates" At this point he's hostile to us and my friend is in a Hauler so I kinda have to take him out, so I do, and then this pops up. So he was not wanted but there was a 30K cred bounty on him? more than that if it's only a wing share. The bounty on him was for a faction in this system, the bounty on me is from a different faction in this system, but not the pirate faction.

I mean I'm not upset, I will just stay away from this system for a week, but I'm just confused. xD

 

[Calvert]

So I think (but am not sure) that it was probably a non controlling faction in your current system that expanded there from another system that put the bounty on him that the KWS picked up. He wasn't actually wanted in the system you were in, even though there was representation from the faction in. Neighbouring system where he was wanted. So you get a wanted tag for yourself but can also claim the bounty all on the same system.

Not necessarily the easiest thing to work out, but the key is, if there is no wanted tag from a normal scan. No matter what you do with the KwS you will get a bounty if you hit him. I tend to wait for them to fire on me first if I'm sure they are a pirate.

 

[Vertexico]

I guess that could be. I don't remember, but I think both the faction that offered the bounty on him and the one that put the bounty on me had the system name in their name, so I assumed that meant they were both based in this system. Also, he had the 'mission target' tag for my friend who was on the pirate-hunting mission. I just don't see how he could be clean from a normal scan if there's a bounty on him from a faction present in that system, unless the clean reading is only related to the leading faction there or something.