General tips to spot scammers

**Cush** · 09-20-2009

Surprised nobody has made a small list like this, but I thought I'd start it off. I dont mean to toot my own horn but I honestly dont see how people manage to get scammed so much nowadays considering how obvious it is when you use your brain, and how many warnings are given out about it daily.

Its easy to spot a phishing site or a scammer if you use a little bit of common sense and go by a few rules:

1. If its too good to be true, it most likely is...

Most people just dont give things away for free or for very little...Why would some randomer give you a full epic warrior for 2k when he could sell it for $500 or more and buy 50k or a shiny new console? If someone is trying to offer you everything for very little then the chances are they have an ulterior motive.

If someone emails you or IMs you with a 'special promotion' and a link, then it is most certainly a scam, especially if you dont know the person (IE They just added you out of the blue) If you still want to check further, you should never follow someone else's link to a site, and instead check the companies website yourself.

2. Know the limits to hacking -

Unless someone wants to cross the line between legal and illegal, there are only certain things that can be changed in a game, and they depend on the way the game was made.

Take WoW for instance - Its possible to get teleport hacks and the like because your computer handles the data before sending it back, whereas its impossible to change the actual amount of gold you have without gaining access to the server itself and changing it, which is, of course, illegal.

This means that for MOST online games, people cannot hack : Gold, items, levels, experience, stats, health, mana, skills, etc.

These scammers will generally ask you for your password so they can log into you account and 'hack' whatever they are offering, but in reality they will just clear your character out and move onto the next victim (This scam was quite popular with Runescape, often done through phishing sites that stated a 'time limit' before the person could log in again, obviously so the scammer could have enough time to log in and clear the account)

3. NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PASSWORD

This one speaks for itself...Its absolutely amazing how much companies like Valve and Blizzard say things like 'Our employees will NEVER ask you for your username/password', or 'Never give out your password to anyone', yet that just flies over peoples heads and they willingly give their details over to scammers daily.

Its a very simple concept...If you dont want to be scammed - DONT GIVE YOUR PASSWORD AWAY - Obviously if you have a reason to give it to someone such as a friend, you are still taking that risk of them doing a runner with it. Another tip for phishers would be dont log in on any site that someone links to you, and instead only use your own bookmarked links - That way you know for sure that the site you are logging into is the real deal.

**pavaccar** · 10-07-2009

Thanks alot

**Staunton** · 10-10-2009

nice but there is more u could add i will write some later but atm gotta go afk

**god.of.path** · 10-14-2009

Another thing to watch out for, and this would be under the "too good to be true" section. Those free-mounts things. They're clearly fake, but it may help if you report them for spamming. Another thing to look for. Some marketers are using some sort of modding program to kill characters on the floors of a big city like org or SW in the shape of letters spelling out their site. I don't know if this is a scam or not, but odds are the people who are actually selling gold don't want blizzard to see who they are or where they do business.

**~~wig44~~** · 10-16-2009

You could perhpas expand this a little.

**faithzz** · 11-23-2009

Its common sense. For me , but not for everyone , thanks in the name of those.

**Synthelo** · 11-23-2009

Meh, i'd just screw everyone which tries to get information of me, that's how easy it is.

**wowgmgm** · 11-25-2009

never believe he who ask your account info

**Trollblod** · 11-25-2009

Originally Posted by faithzz

Its common sense. For me , but not for everyone , thanks in the name of those.

*facepalm* common sense.

**jer0** · 11-30-2009

pretty much, yeah if a deal is to good to be true, or if they every try to access your account or ask for information that could be used to get into your account, like security questions, then its probrobly going to be a scam and you should avoid that person.

**Darkzeroangel** · 12-01-2009

This guys which do that every day sitting in their homes. Trying to find new methods and new ways to make this happen and actually they make it work..! You could never be sure about something until you see it with your own eyes and the basic rule, don't trust anyone.