Scammer Prevention Guides

[mike12king]

I was asked to post my guide here, so I will do so and if your ever in south eastern Arizona, buy me a hamburger because this is gonna save you a ton of money.
- Introduction + Table of Contents

If you need to contact me to alert me to developing news, you can find me at the following:

AIM – mike12king
MSN – [email protected]
Yahoo – azmike12king
E-Mail – [email protected]


Table of Contents


I. FAQ
- Questions List
- Questions and Answers

II. Scam Prevention Guide

III.

IV. Merchant List
- Formating and Example
- Peer to Peer Trading
- Merchant to Peer Trading

V. Trusted Merchants Organized by Capabilities
- Merchant's that buy gold
- Merchant's that sell gold
- Merchant's that sell game cards
- Merchant's that sell time cards
- Merchant's that buy accounts
- Merchant's that sell accounts

VI.

VII. Selling and Buying Account Guides
- 1. Safely selling virtual goods for top dollar
- 2. Selling Safely
- 3. Selling to a Broker
- 4. Safe Buying Practices

VIII.

I. FAQ

Questions List
1. Will this guarantee that it is safe to use these merchants?
2. Can I get banned for buying or selling gold?
3. Who are you? And why should I trust you?
4. What is Peer-to-Peer trading?
5. What is Merchant-To-Peer trading?


Questions and Answers


1. Will this guarantee that it is safe to use these merchants?

No, We have compiled our database by user feedback. We can only relay what we have heard is a safe and trusting merchant.


2. Can I get banned for buying or selling gold?

Yes, there is always the chance you can get banned for buying or selling gold.


3. Who are you? And why should I trust you?

I am Hessinger, A Innerspace forum community member and botter. I only wish to prevent others from being scammed by these fraud and untrusting merchants.


4. What is Peer-to-Peer trading?

Peer-to-Peer trading or also known as gamer to gamer trading. There are places where you can sell or buy game currencies or accounts directly to others instead of using a middle man for the trade. There is a small fee commission fees for some of the peer-to-peer websites. Though your chances of getting suspended/banned are greatly reduced if 100% entirely safe.


5. What is Merchant-To-Peer trading?

Merchant-To-Peer trading is when a middle man is used to organize or resell in-game currencies or accounts.

II. Scam Prevention Guide
Paypal Service
TrustWho Identity Verification service


Knowing who your dealing with is one of the most important key factors in business today. If you don’t know anything about whom your dealing with it is very easy to get burned. Not to mention it’s going to happen multiple times if you don’t learn better business practices.

So in a virtual world, with millions of people using it, how the **** are you going to know who is honest and who is dishonest? Well that is nearly impossible, to be 100% certain on. However, we can take precautions for verifying people’s honesty and trust.

Many transactions are made every day using Paypal. Paypal has provided you with some of the tools to verify that Joe is really Joe. This is the first step to verifying a person or merchant is not a scammer.

If you are a seller, you will find that almost every scam artist uses someone else’s identity to make their purchases. If you get a payment, the first thing you should do is call the person that is purchasing the item from you. Use the number listed on Paypal not the number the person has given you. If you can not contact the owner of the Paypal account, then you should refund the money. If the person does not know what you are even talking about, obviously the person that made the purchase is not who they say they are. You will find this step will eliminate probably 75% of the scammers already trying to purchase or sell goods to you.

You should never give anyone the goods they have purchased unless you can verify them to be who they say they are.

Now time to eliminate another 22 to 24% of the original amount. A little over one year ago, TrustWho started a verification service to identify people for being trusted business people. Purchasing a 5 dollar verification tab, will allow you access a fraud list of people, and allow you to be verified by several businesses and other users as being a trust worthy person. Now, you shouldn’t take TrustWho verifications alone. Continue to do phone verifications, and take the information TrustWho provides and compare that to the ownership of the Paypal account. If it matches, then your good to go, if it doesn’t then your probably about to get scammed.

Now you’re down to 0 to 3% of scammers left. There isn’t much we can do about these few individuals left. These people appear to be average every day people that might possibly take advantage of the system 1 or 2 times. These types of people are hard to catch because of their inconsistency to commit crimes. I hope you can take some of this into thought and help prevent yourself from being scammed.

In the case you do get scammed. Don’t let it bring you down. I had many people scam me when I first started selling gold and accounts. I then learned better business practices. This is not going to happen over night. When you do get scammed, learn from your mistakes. That is the key to being successful. You should also notify others that you had been scammed, and give them as much information as possible to identify these people the next time they try their ways on others.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, sorry that I did not use correct English for the entire piece. English is a second language to me.

- Hessinger

Paypal Service
TrustWho Identity Verification service

IV. Merchant List

Format and Example:

Merchant Name(s): Lavishsoft
Merchant Link(s): http://www.lavishsoft.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: None

Key
GC - Merchant sells Game Cards
TC - Merchant sells Time Cards
SG - Merchant sells Gold
BG - Merchant buys Gold
BA - Merchant buys Accounts
SA - Merchant sells Accounts

Trusted - Reported to be a Trusted Merchant on multiple accounts.
Unknown - Unknown Merchant or only reported once as trusted.
Fraud - Reported to be a Fraud Merchant on multiple accounts.

================================================================================ =================================================

Peer-To-Peer


Merchant Name(s): RPG-Auction
Merchant Link(s): http://rpg-auction.com/
Capabilities: SG, BG, BA, SA


Merchant Name(s): Sparter
Merchant Link(s): http://www.sparter.com
Capabilities: SG, BG

================================================================================ =================================================


Merchant-To-Peer


Merchant Name(s): Accounts Network, The
Merchant Link(s): http://www.accounts.net/
Status: Unknown
Capabilities: BA


Merchant Name(s): Bank of Warcraft
Merchant Link(s): http://www.thebankofwarcraft.com/
Status: Unknown
Capabilities: BA


Merchant Name(s): Belrion
Merchant Link(s): http://www.belrion.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: SG, BG


Merchant Name(s): EZMog
Merchant Link(s): http://www.gamecard4sale.com http://www.ezmog.com
Status: Fraud
Capabilities: GC, TC, SG
Notes: Inactive Merchant



Merchant Name(s): Gamer's Loot
Merchant Link(s): https://gamersloot.net
Status: Unknown
Capabilities: GC, TC


Merchant Name(s): Gold 4 Card
Merchant Link(s): http://www.gold4card.com/
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: GC, TC, BG


Merchant Name(s): IGE
Merchant Link(s): http://www.ige.com
Status: Fraud
Capabilities: BG, SG
Notes: Bad Customer Relations


Merchant Name(s): MightyMe1
Merchant Link(s): http://www.memighty1.com/
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: BA


Merchant Name(s): MMO4Sale
Merchant Link(s): http://www.mmo4sale.com
Status: Unknown
Capabilities: SG


Merchant Name(s): MMOExchange
Merchant Link(s): http://www.mmoexchange.com/
Status: Unknown
Capabilities: SG, BG


Merchant Name(s): MMOInn
Merchant Link(s): http://www.MMOInn.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: SG, BG
Buying Gold: Dangerous
Selling Gold: Dangerous
Notes: Several Player bans have been reported for buying and selling gold from this merchant.


Merchant Name(s): MMOTRUST
Merchant Link(s): http://www.mmotrust.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: BA, BG


Merchant Name(s): Mogs
[Merchant Link(s): http://www.mogs.com/
Status: Unknown
Capabilities: BG, SG


Merchant Name(s): Off-Gamers
[Merchant Link(s): http://www.offgamers.com
Status: Unknown
Capabilities: GC, TC, BG, BA


Merchant Name(s): PlatShop
[Merchant Link(s): http://www.platshop.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: GC, TC, SG, BG


Merchant Name(s): RPG-Reseller
Merchant Link(s): http://rpgreseller.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: BA, SA


Merchant Name(s): Shattered Crystal
Merchant Link(s): http://www.shatteredcrystal.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: GC, TC


Merchant Name(s): SWAG Vault
Merchant Link(s): http://www.swagvault.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: SG


Merchant Name(s): The Honest Sale (THSale)
Merchant Link(s)]: http://www.thsale.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: SG, BG, BA, SA


Merchant Name(s): WoWGoldvip
Merchant Link(s): http://www.wowgoldvip.com
Status: Unknown
Capabilities: SG, BG


Merchant Name(s): WoWMine
Merchant Link(s): http://www.wowmine.com
Status: Trusted
Capabilities: SG

V. Trusted Merchants Organized by Capabilities

Merchant's that buy gold
- Belrion
- Gold 4 Card
- MMOTRUST
- PlatShop
- The Honest Sale

Merchant's that sell gold
- Belrion
- MMO4Sale
- PlatShop
- The Honest Sale
- SWAG Vault
- WoWMine

Merchant's that sell game cards
- Gold 4 Card
- PlatShop
- Shattered Crystal

Merchant's that sell time cards
- Gold 4 Card
- PlatShop
- Shattered Crystal

Merchant's that buy accounts
- MightyMe1
- MMOTRUST
- RPG-Reseller
- The Honest Sale (THSale)

Merchant's that sell accounts
- RPG-Reseller
- The Honest Sale (THSale)

VII. Buying and Selling Account Guides

I am in no way claiming these guides to be the work of my own. The sources of these guides have been listed under the title, if the author wishes for me to remove their work, please contact me at my e-mail listed in the Introduction - Part 2.

- Hessinger

All Guides are courtesy of

Selling currency, accounts, and services, for gamers and companies.


1. Safely selling virtual goods for top dollar
Source: RPG Seller; http://www.rpgreseller.com/sellingwoweq.html

Rule 1: If you have ANY feedback on playerauctions.com, sell it yourself. If you take a quick offer from a broker, you just lost about 50%. Most people tend to sell accounts when they need fast money, so this might be your only option. It should be a last resort, however. More money is always better. The first part of this guide shows you how to sell on your own.

Rule 2: Information and presentation sells. The first thing you'll need to study is what's important. The fastest way to determine that is to visit a large gaming or auction site where accounts are sold. For this guide, I focus on World of Warcraft.

ige.com
ebay.com
playerauctions.com

World of Warcraft account sales


The first thing a buyer does when shopping is do a search by class and server. (This makes it inportant to have in any auction title.)

After listing auctions that match a class and server, a buyer looks at the titles to compare how advanced each account is. Ambiguous titles are often ignored!

Level 60 Orc shaman, Icecrowne, 6/8 earthshaker

If your game has warring player versus player factions such as World of Warcraft (Alliance vs Horde) - list your race or faction in the title.

If your character is transferable - say so on the auction title. Many buyers will consider buying your account and transferring to the server of their choice. (This has a strong impact on bidding, especially for powerful accounts.)

Additional research:
Log into ebay.com
In the upper right hand corner, click on Advanced Search
Make your search match the example:
before selling a warcraft or everquest account, do some research, learn from the pros.

After obtaining your search results, sort the results by price so the highest prices are at the top.
(you will have to click twice.)
before selling a warcraft or everquest account, do some research, learn from the pros.

The highest priced auctions are the best accounts, but they also have the best information and presentation. You can nolonger sell wow accounts on Ebay, but you could be searching for buttplugs and the same truth will present itself. If you've done online auctions before, you know that the same product can be sold by two people and the way it's presented can make a 50% difference in selling value. Now list by lowest price, you'll see everything that didn't even get bids, or got very low bidding. These are the people that failed. A lot of them failed because they didn't know what they were doing.

Looking at the best and worst selling accounts shows you what to do and what NOT to do.

Rule 3: NEVER sell your account with text alone, or with a few sentences talking about how it's cool, and then a link to a profile. If you did your research, you have learned that these auctions sell very poorly.

Rule 4: ALWAYS have a profile. For World of Warcraft, and any other game which bans you for selling accounts, be sure to anonymize your name. For World of Warcraft users, I recommend using ctprofiles.net (In the future, magelo.com will be supporting WoW.)

Rule 5: Screenshots. I recommend the use of Paintshop Pro or Adobe Photoshop. If you have neither of these, click on your start button, click Run, type mspaint. To take a screenshot, press the 'Print screen' button on your keyboard. Click on the MSpaint window, and press CTRL + V. Remove or blur your name in screenshots. This not only protects your account from banning, it provides anonymity to the buyer. Very important if you were a well known player such as a guild leader.

Rule 5.5: Deguild.

Rule 6: Equipment - a buyer needs to know how well equipped you are, if you followed rule 4, then you are halfway done. You must also use text (or images if possible) to show anything special that your player has. Got a rare sword or epic quest equipment? show it. TELL them why it's special and that only 3 people in the game have it. And... if you have absolutely no epic or special equipment, don't flaunt your average equipment. You'll lose all credibility and devalue your account.

Rule 7: Keywords - anything that a player might search for needs to be not only in the title, but the auction page itself. You will make more money if you include things such as the title of the game. 'wow, world of warcraft, level 60 rogue' - Notice I typed rogue instead of rog. If you abbreviate, you lose customers.

Rule 8: Examine my auctions. I've been doing this for years, the best example I can give you is one of my own at rpgreseller.com. Dont' be scared of HTML. If you look at Ebay, you'll see that even the guy that barely knows it can still make an auction that sells for top dollar. If you can control your text, make links, and include pictures, you know everything necessary to make a top selling auction. (you can learn that in a day.) I recommend Mozilla as an HTML editor.

Rule 9: Tell your friends. Why? Because somebody's going to have your identity and your friends will say hello. What happens if the new owner says, "Hey, cool sword, can I HOLD it?" or "Hey, can you loan me some gold?" - not good.

Rule 10: Read the rest of this page, you cannot buy and sell safely unless you've read ALL of it, including the section on brokers.

Rule 11. Don't use reserve prices, use starting bid prices. When a bidder places a bid and sees, 'reserve not met' - they quickly lose interest in the auction because they know it's probably a rediculous price like $1000 for an account that's only worth $600. Reserve prices are used my amateurs that overvalue their assets. Use a starting bid that matches the minimum amount you will accept for your auction.

Rule 12: Know the Rules
If selling on ebay, you must word your auctions carefully. Ebay is against selling virtual assets, so you must sell hard assets. Saying something like, "Selling world of warcraft installation CDs with manual" can mean your auction of otherwise virtual goods won't get pulled.

Rule 13: Know what your account is worth. 8 out of 10 customers want me to sell their account for a thousand dollars. Realtors have the same problem selling houses. People start out with stars in their eyes. The problem here is that with selling, if you aim for the stars, you don't get the moon, you get less than your property is worth because all the poeple that WERE interested the first time are gone or think you're stupid, or wonder what's wrong with your property that it didn't sell and now the price is lower. (They won't be back.) Find out what it's really worth by finding something just like it that recently sold. Then set your starting price 50% LOWER than the final price. High prices don't attract bidders. Sometimes, the best way to sell a house is to undervalue it and let buyers go nuts. Some of those wildly priced auctions that you looked at earlier... they started at a penny. Think about it.

Notice! If you are going to sell on playerauctions.com - be aware that their instructions haven't been updated for years and half their site doesn't work. Don't bother using the page for setting up your credit card, it doesn't work. You need to contact [email protected] for instructions. In order to register to sell - they will need a scan of your credit card (front and back), ID card, and a bill or banking statement with your address on it. Their customer service is not very good, so you may need to contact them more than once. Once you're registered to sell, it's one of the best resources to sell virtual assets.

Rule 14: Get your CD keys. Dig them out. They increase selling value dramaticly. Note in your auction that you have the CD Keys used to register (open) the account.

2. Selling Safely
Source: RPG Seller; http://www.rpgreseller.com/sellingwoweq.html


1. If a person has low feedback or you cannot verify them, do NOT accept paypal. Have them pay you safely with moneybookers.com, USPS money order, or Western Union. Money orders are not reversible like paypal, and they aren't well known for being hacked either.

2. Verify them. Get some evidence that shows they are whom they claim to be.

Get their landline telephone number and call them on it so you know it's good. 411.com will let you do a reverse search on a telephone number to get the matching address. Now you know you aren't talking to a disposable cellphone, and you also know that a telco company has them on file.

Calling script: "Hello Mr, Sanders, this is Jane Colloway from sellingstuff.com - I'm calling to verify that you have made a paypal purchase for product x, in the amount of Z." - (If they have no idea that they bought something, then alert them to immediately secure the banking and paypal information as well as have their computer checked for infections. It might also be good to check with their family.)



3. If they don't have a landline that's listed, ask for their living address and bring up a mapquest.com map of their city and neighborhood. If they don't really live there, they will have a hard time answering questions like, What is your county and zip code? What are the big crossroads next to where you live? Name a freeway going to town?

At this point, it is also time to obtain their IP address from an email, to check their country and city.


Outlook Express instructions:

Select the message you want to investigate.
Right click.
Select Properties.
Select the Details tab at the top of the message window.

Look for the last block of text that looks like
Received from [67.133.144.53]

That is their IP address. Save it for the next step.

It is necessary to keep the email because it also has other information that is useful in a successful prosecution of internet fraud. If defrauded, copy/paste the information you're looking at and send it to paypal. It will help them know if it's the real user, or a hacker that hijacked their account. If it's the real user, they're busted!

4. Go to dnsstuff.com - look for the column of titled IP Tests, run the IP Information test.


If you run the IP address shown earlier, you get Mt Pleasant, Michigan. If the customer says they're in Utah, but their IP address says New York, he or she is lying.

Last resort, you can also ask for a scan of driver's license, or credit card (with numbers blurred) It's easier to get someone's information online than it is to steal their wallet.

NOTE: Buyers will pay you more if they can buy in confidence. That requires THEM to verify YOU. If any buyer questions your legitimacy, have them verify you by using the same methods. Don't put contact information in your auction pages though... that can be used by gaming companies.

3. Selling to a Broker
Source: RPG Seller; http://www.rpgreseller.com/sellingwoweq.html

1: If you're on recurring billing, stop the recurring billing. You account will remain active for another month from the time you do this. While logged in, change your email address to something fictional. Most brokers never update this and you really do want to be anonymous from the new account owner. If they do something stupid and get banned, you don't want them tracking you down.

2. Be prepared to accept paypal. Brokers use paypal because it gives them about 30 days to yank the payment back. This protects them from people selling the Statue of Liberty. If you want a different payment option, both your assets and your identity need to be verified.

3: If your account is inactive, activate it. Brokers don't buy inactive accounts. That's like buying oceanfront property in Utah. Seeing is believing. I will also sell you the Statue of Liberty for $1000.

4. Have a profile created for every high level character on your account and be prepared to give your login information so they can verify it. (Saying that you have an account doesn't prove you have an account. I really do own the Statue of Liberty!)

5. Be prepared to be verified. They will want to call you on a landline telephone number, know your name, street address, and where your birthmark is. This makes it easy to prosecute you if you try to scam them.

6. Be an informed customer: Get quotes from several brokers, you might be in for a shock when you see how much their offers differ. (It's a LOT!)

memighty1.com
http://www.mmotrust.com
http://www.game-frenzy.com
http://www.warcraftloot.net

7. Don't ask, "Are you going to steal my account." - If they are a thief, they might be a liar too. Think about it. All you've done is insult the person you're trying to do business with.

8. That password that you gave to your friends, family, guildies, girlfriend.... change it. Never give a broker your regular password. They might not change it either, then when bad stuff happens - who do you blame? Each broker that takes a look gets a new temporary password. Then you change it when they're done looking.

9. Do not give your Security Question answer or registration information until the deal is agreed. (Most games don't let you change a password or account information without answering the SQ. SQs are normally something like, "What is your mother's maiden name?" "Where did you grow up?" "who is your childhood hero?"

10. After you and the broker have agreed to make a deal, THEN, give him or her your SQ and other registration info. (Birthdate, address, etc. - all the information that was you when you started the account.) This information is for account recovery.

11. Just incase you ever sell coin... consider breaking transactions into small amounts and waiting. Most hacked accounts don't last more than 72 hours.


4. Safe Buying Practices
Source: RPG Seller; http://www.rpgreseller.com/sellingwoweq.html

Paypal allows you to reverse payments for up to 30 days if you have a dispute with the seller that you paid. They usually require them to provide proof of delivery. Because of this, paypal is pretty safe. As a buyer, you want to avoid sending a moneyorder because you receive no buyer protection.

For the greatest security, use your credit card to fun a paypal transaction. If the seller does not have a paypal box on their site and wants you to log into paypal and pay them - Ask them to just log into paypal THEMSELVES and send an invoice. Responding to invoices or paying through a paypal form on a web page allows you to do the following...

PAY WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD! - Credit card companies can get your money returned up to a full year later if you have a problem or dispute. It's not as easy as filing a paypal dispute, but credit companies employ the best lawyers to deter fraud. Not only will you get your money back, the seller will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

[Saint-Pasdoy]

well for the trade only have to say show me in game and i will log off (i know it)

[wickermanz]

This deserver a STICKY ?

[Shadowlash]

This deserve nothing...most of us are scammer...how a scammer can fall to a scam????????????

[Elt-]

This deserve nothing...most of us are scammer...how a scammer can fall to a scam????????????

agreed

[mike12king]

This deserve nothing...most of us are scammer...how a scammer can fall to a scam????????????

I bet you can learn something from it if you actually try reading it.

[Shadowlash]

I bet you can learn something from it if you actually try reading it.

go in scam section and you will learn how to not be scammed

[mike12king]

go in scam section and you will learn how to not be scammed

This really has nothing do with in-game scams buddy. This has to do with selling your gold and accounts.