How to prevent being scammed. By [Ban Hammer].

[[Ban Hammer]]

So, i thought about actually using this forum like it was meant to be, how to guide people to prevent getting scammed.

I've been scamming for a long time myself, but quitted it a few months ago due to that i didn't bother doing it anymore. Then i teached a few people how to scam, like being a teacher and then i simply quitted it all.

Now i'm back and i'm gonna prevent people getting scammed now instead of showing people how to scam.

Well, less talking and more anti-scam.
The guide contains the following:

1. What is a scam
2. A few thumb rules.
3. How can i avoid being scammed?
4.Common Scams

4.1. Profession Scam
4.2. Assistance Scam
4.3. GM Impersonation Scam
4.4. Email Scam
4.5. Backspace Scam
4.6. Fake WoW Login Phising Scam.
4.7. The Paypal Scam
4.8 The Virtual Money Scam
4.9 The Virtual Account Scam

5. What should I do if I have been scammed?

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1. What is a scam?
As defined by the Game Master department:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Scamming another Player
This category includes:
Acquiring items or any other "possessions" from another player through misinformation, confusion, or fraud (Scamming)
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Source:
http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowgm/?id=agm01726p

Scamming is a fairly prevalent problem with many MMOs. It takes many forms, and there are just as many ways to pull off each unique scam, but the same basic goal remains the same: to acquire a item or possession without delivering proper repayment(*Needs clarification*). Scams are most often pulled for personal gain.

2. A few thumb rules.

Well, there's a few thumb rules that are generally nice to follow to reduce the chance of being scammed GREATLY!

Change your password once every 3rd month. This greatly reduces your chance of getting scammed because if they ever should find out of what password you had some time ago (maybe falled for a phisher trick) you wouldn't have gotten scammed if you changed your password.

NEVER trade your account with someone you don't trust. In most cases it will be a scammer and you're quite doomed. Then you will have to go trought a long of phases with emailing Blizzard and even risk for an account ban.

Always use passwords that are hard to crack. Usually i let Blizzard pick mine (request a new password) because if you got one like "bob123" you will more likely get scammed than if you got one like "xgiu498gjs" or something like that.

NEVER fall for any for any of the youtube movies. It is all false.

3. How can I avoid being scammed?

The majority of scams in WoW have signs that will give away the intentions of scammers. Knowing what each scam looks like and how to spot suspicious activity is the best way to protect yourself. Also following the thumb rules will help you a lot.

4. Common Scams.

4.1. Profession Scams.

A profession scam is a scam where the perpetrator offers to make an item, trade an item, buy or sell an item, or enchant an item but simply walks away with your gold or materials. This a fairly broad ranging scam that is most effective with professions that allow you to create items for others. Many times the scammer will offer to make an item if you supply the materials but simply take the items instead of giving the finished crafted item to you.

There is a variation of this scam that preys on people requiring enchants. They will ask the player to trade the item to them so they can enchant it. After the trade is complete they will usually either disenchant the item or sell it. Items can be enchanted through the “Will not be traded” slot in the trade window. You should not trade an item to someone to get it enchanted.

The "Will not be traded" spot can be used to:
Pick locked boxes
Enchant items
Apply some temporary buffs

Also, you should make sure that the one who you are buying/selling/trading with has the level for doing the proffesion (Like having a 35 enchant your gear quite smells like a scam) - make sure that player is trusted (in a good guild, a friend of yours, have someone who can recommend him and stuff like that)

If you are the victim of a profession scam, you should immediately contact a GM in game. The chances of having your items returned is moderate, but remember that restoration is never guaranteed.

4.2. Assistance Scam.

An assistance scam is either where a player offers assistance with a quest or dungeon in return for gold and never follows through, or where a player offers gold for assistance with a quest of dungeon but refuses to pay upon completion of the task.

This type of scam is probably the one that has the most behavioral warning signs. If they have no intention of following through they will often demand all the gold before beginning. After they receive the gold they will typically put the victim on ignore and log out of the game.

Before entering in to an assistance deal with anyone you should be very clear and concise in what you expect and about payment. Something along the lines of:
“If you assist me with X task(s) I will pay you X gold. Do you agree?”
Not only does this assure there is no confusion over what is being done, it also provides you with a documented record of the agreement should things take a turn for the worst.
The best thing to do if they demand gold beforehand is to say you will pay a small amount for good faith and pay the rest later. Or even offer to pay little by little as you progress. IE: 50s beforehand, 1g 50s for the first boss, and 1g for each boss after.

If you are a victim of this type of scam you should immediately report it to a GM. Unfortunately, due to the situations surrounding this scam, this is the hardest to verify. This means that it is fairly unlikely that you will see any form of repayment. The best thing to do is look for abnormal behavior and cut things off before they get out of your control.

4.3. Game Master Impersonation Scam

This is a scam where a player sends a message to another player posing as a Game Master. They will typically ask for you to send all you gold to X character or try to tell you that your account has been compromised and ask you for your account name/password. A Blizzard employee will never ask you for your account name or password. They already have this information.

You can identify this type of scam by trying to reply. When you tap the 'R' key it should pop up with the GMs name in the reply box. Another give away is that the fake GM messages will always follow a message from a player.

Example:

[Billybob] whispers: Want to run ZF?
<GM>[FakeGM] whispers: Hello, I am GM FakeGM. It has come to my attention that your account may be compromised, please tell me your account name, password, and what you would like your new password to be.

Once again, a Blizzard employee will never ask for your account name or password. They already have all the information on hand.
If you suspect a player of impersonating a GM, or any Blizzard employee, you should immediately submit a in game petition. This is a very serious offense.

4.4. Email Scam

There is an email scam currently going around trying to steal accounts. I currently do not have a copy of any of these to demonstrate, but they are fairly easy to spot.

An email scam will typically say something like "Hello, I am XXX from Blizzard Intertainment (Spelling from an actual email). It has come to our attention that your account may be compromised." They will usually then ask you for all the private information concerning your account, including: Email, Account name, name registered to account, secret question answer, current password.
A Blizzard employee will never ask for your password. They do not need it.

Another way to spot these is by looking at the tags. Many times, the email will appear to show up as "[email protected]" but in actuality it was sent from "[email protected]"
All emails sent from Blizzard Entertainment will come from an address ending with @Blizzard.com. Be sure to check the sending address before replying, or make a post on the Customer Service Forum if you are not sure.

If you receive a email impersonating any employee or department of Blizzard Entertainment, you should email them and Be sure to include all the information you can about the false email, or even attach a copy of it. Also again, blizzard will NEVER ask for your password. It is a good way to check if the email is fake aswell.

4.5. Backspace Scam

The back space scam is a scam done through the trade window. Essentially, the perpetrator will change the gold value in the trade window and hit enter in hopes that the victim doesn't notice. Many times, they will pretend that it was a server side error with the trade and that their gold is gone.

To avoid this, make the details of your trade very clear and contact a GM in-game if you think that someone has attempted this scam. Also, make him click accept first and then check the gold to see if he deleted some of the numbers. And if you try to trade but it fails several times, don't trade with him because he is prolly trying to make this scam on you.

4.6. Fake WoW Login Phising Scam.

Fake WoW login scams are attempts to steal your WoW log in information to steal your account. To avoid these, always check the URL. Never log in to the WoW website when redirected from another website.

If you find one of these websites, you can try emailing the hosting company and having the site removed or you can email Blizzard Entertainment.

4.7 The Paypal Scam:

Probably the most common and annoying scam is the Paypal one where people pay you via Paypal then you give them the account details or virtual cash and they go straight to the Buyer Complaint section and start up a complaint, this basically means you risk having the whole payment reversed and you end up with no money; virtual or real!
So, always ask for half first and half in the end to make sure they are legit. And make sure that you know the person you either buy from/sell to so that you know he won't go and scam you.
Also check if their PayPal account is verified and contact PayPal in case you got scammed with proofs (pictures of the MSN log or something like that).

Here is a few things to help you dealing with PayPal in case you actually get scammed:

1. Explain the full situation – Paypal don’t know what happened so explain the full story. They paid you for X and then you stuck to your end of the bargain (provide proof here) but then they logged or said X without even TRYING to sort out the “problem”. Tell them you can’t understand why they have added a complaint because it is so short after the transaction took place and they have not tried to contact you saying there is a problem.

2. Be patient – There is no point in trying to rush the complaint to being finished because you won’t argue your case properly.

3. Be polite – These people are having to deal with the most moronic complaints from a day to day basis, things like “Dear Paypal Customer Support” and “Thank you for taking the time to resolve this situation” are just some of the things that you should make sure you say to make their handling of the complaint a lot more pleasant.

As mentioned before, a picture speaks a thousand words. If you can provide evidence of them logging out before the transaction is complete or even them saying something incriminating then you have practically won, if you are feeling particularly lucky you should even add something like “I apologise that you’ve had to clean this mess up I can’t believe people like them are allowed to use Paypal!” and maybe they could get a punish for scamming you LOL.

4.8 The Virtual Money Scam:

When buying virtual money you can pay the other person with the cash/account/etc. and then when it comes to them giving you the money they simply log off or block you on email and IM.
Same as with the paypal scam, you can't really defend yourself against it, it's just about being careful and make sure the people you buy to/sell from are trusted or good friends of yours.

Also virtual money is quite a difficult one to do safely. Asking for some proof the seller is legitimate is a good start; get a screenshot of the money from them and make sure it looks real.

They should be able to give some proof that they are a good seller, ask for maybe an ebay user ID or their username on another forum.
The main tip I can give is to only trade HALF of the virtual money, then the other person gives you the real cash and then the trade is completed.

4.9 The Virtual Accounts scam:

There are many ways that virtual accounts are scammed. The main one is where you pay for the account and then they give you the wrong username/password or simply log out.

A more annoying scam is where you pay, receive the username and password then using the recovery question(s) the seller takes back the account.

And same as 4.8 and 4.7 - BE AWARE! and make sure they are trusted. Also get half of payment first or pay half of the payment first, then get/give information and then rest of the payment.
Also take screenshots! These will be very useful in several situations, mainly for Paypal but also to prove to others that the seller is not legitimate.

Screenshots are incredibly easy to take.
Open up Paint or Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop
Go to the Window/page you wish to screenshot and press the Print screen button (sometimes labelled PrntScrn)
Go into Paint/Pro/Photoshop and press Ctrl + V or go to the edit menu and PASTE. The screenshot will appear and you can save it.
Screenshot stuff like IM conversations and take a few of the account when you manage to log in.

Screenshots are especially important to sellers, screenshot giving the details (they can be blacked out) and when the seller accepts the trade/says thanks etc. if they log straight off after you give the screenshots make sure you screenshot this; they are probably off to start a buyer complaint and by taking a screenshot of it you can prove that they never said thanks for the account or even tried to sort the “problem” out with you.

3. What should I do if I have been scammed?

If you suspect you have been scammed you should submit an in-game ticket with as much information as possible. The quicker you do it the better.

To submit a petition:
Click the red "?" at the bottom of your screen, click "Open a ticket" in the window that pops up, then click "Issues that GMs can assist with," then, finally, select either character or item. Hit submit when you are done filling it out.

Also, if you are offer for an email scam/phisher either email Blizzard Entertainment or call them and provide as much information as possible (first and last name, email, last time you logged into the account, ID, CD-keys, SQ/A).

Last notes:

ALWAYS TAKE PICTURES! IT WILL HELP YOU GREATLY IN PROVING THAT YOU GOT SCAMMED!

Sites used:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=101801290&sid=1
http://www.gamerzplanet.net/forums/virtual-item-s/24467-tips-to-avoid-being-scammed.html
This guide is mainly a compilation of the 2 websites AND a lot of my own experiences with scamming. Hopefully this will help you all preventing getting scammed, thanks for reading.

[omfgwtflolmfao]

Wall of text crits me for over 9000

[linkkid]

Lol you would think people using a SCAMMING section of the forums would know the scams out there.

[[Ban Hammer]]

Well, people are getting scammed, logs into the MMOwned scamming section to seek advice, and all they find is people who are showing others how to scam. That's why i made this thread because i think it's sad.

[linkkid]

Well, people are getting scammed, logs into the MMOwned scamming section to seek advice, and all they find is people who are showing others how to scam. That's why i made this thread because i think it's sad.

Nothing against it, but most people who are dumb enough in the first place to fall for them deserve it +Rep anyhow.

[da_bizkit]

The best protection against being scammed is having a brain xDD

[[Ban Hammer]]

True true, but people gets manipulated and you can always play smart when it haven't hit you yet, but people who got scammed might find this useful

[Syncness]

Wall of text crits me for over 9000

Moo, your post was good, but this guy has a point.

[[Ban Hammer]]

I can only agree haha xD But i think it's a nice thread to prevent people getting scammed :>

[vuth]

Wall of text crits me for over 9000

hailo [Ban Hammer], great post...but /\ that /\ also happened to me .

[Teryon]

GMs don't accept screenshots as evidence for anything because they are so easy to fake.

[[Ban Hammer]]

Well, the screenshot part was more for emailing Blizzard. Ofcourse GM's aint gonna take screenshots. But if you tell them what happened detailed they can give you your lost stuff back.

[[Ban Hammer]]

;< Loads of views and few comments, cmon guys - just leave some feedback or summat!

[burton992]

Hehe not bad, +Rep for the effort

[ViND_]

Wall of text crits Walter for over 9000.
Walter survives.
Walter heals himself for over 9000.
Walter gives +Rep to Ban Hammer.
Walter says that whoever would write such a wall of text that will crit you for over 9000 deserves a cookie.
Walter says he doesn't like being called Jimei.