Piracy shouldn't be about money, it should be done for sport so both sides enjoy the encounters. Create a rewards thread where pirates (or, better yet - the traders on their behalf) can submit creative encounters logs, and then get exceptional rewards by staff. Forget money, the mechanics do not work and will never work so long as player list exists.
Reward the roleplay aspect, not try to hurt traders even more which is gonna make them more likely to log off.
