And yet another scammer--this time in a shop

[Morningstar]

I saw a bottled light faerie on the shop wiz for 9 nps. Curious, I went to the shop. It said that in order to see the items, I need to log in with my username and password:



So, I reported it. And, instead of freezing the account, his shop now says that the shop description was removed because it was found to be unsuitable. And, that bottled faerie is now priced at 100,000.

Just when we thought it was safe to venture into a person's shop.

[Sylence]

oh good grief they never give up do they?

[vinylraven]

how awful! people are ridiculous these days. that account should have been iced.

[shapu]

That's the second time I've seen that in a shop - it seems there's a small community of folks who still manage to find ways to scam newbies.

[Xerophyte]

So fake login pages and asking for account information can now be a forgiven thing?

[stampsyne]

I hope that they changed the shop description and not froze the person only until they confirm that it is a scam and not a misplaced joke (like fake item).

[Morningstar]

So fake login pages and asking for account information can now be a forgiven thing?

Unless, the person is even smarter than we think.

My theory: Perhaps they put it in their shop only for a few minutes, then took it out before Neopets had a chance to see it. Then they put "This shop description was found to be unsuitable and has been cleared" in their shop to make the person who reported them think that Neopets has already taken action on it by deleting it. And, then they do this sort of scam periodically. Not often enough to raise any flags, but just often enough to scam an innocent or two.

Neopets never sees the actual shop page and because the account is an old one (over a year old) and appears to be a gallery (everything is priced at 100,000), Neopets thinks that the reporter is making it up/mistaken, etc.

What tipped me off that it must have been the user who put that shop description found unsuitable lingo in and not Neopets is the fact that the bottled light faerie is still in the shop--now priced at 100,000. So, the user had to have changed the price from 9 nps to 100,000 nps. Otherwise, it would have sold the instant that Neopets gotten rid of the shop description.

I wrote Neopets again about it and told them that I had made a screenshot of it (one that shows the person's username on it as well) and offered to send it to them. We'll see if I get any response. And, I am going to be keeping my eye on this person to see if it happens again.

[-Ducky-]

So fake login pages and asking for account information can now be a forgiven thing?

Unless, the person is even smarter than we think.

My theory: Perhaps they put it in their shop only for a few minutes, then took it out before Neopets had a chance to see it. Then they put "This shop description was found to be unsuitable and has been cleared" in their shop to make the person who reported them think that Neopets has already taken action on it by deleting it. And, then they do this sort of scam periodically. Not often enough to raise any flags, but just often enough to scam an innocent or two.

Neopets never sees the actual shop page and because the account is an old one (over a year old) and appears to be a gallery (everything is priced at 100,000), Neopets thinks that the reporter is making it up/mistaken, etc.

What tipped me off that it must have been the user who put that shop description found unsuitable lingo in and not Neopets is the fact that the bottled light faerie is still in the shop--now priced at 100,000. So, the user had to have changed the price from 9 nps to 100,000 nps. Otherwise, it would have sold the instant that Neopets gotten rid of the shop description.

I wrote Neopets again about it and told them that I had made a screenshot of it (one that shows the person's username on it as well) and offered to send it to them. We'll see if I get any response. And, I am going to be keeping my eye on this person to see if it happens again.

i hope yuo actually get a response morning

[AFI_Sorrow]

I can't believe they didn't send in the freezing gnomes on them. Unless your theory is correct. Hmmm. Ridculous. Seems every new safety features Neopets adds is just another doorway for scammers to erm...scam.

[-Ducky-]

I can't believe they didn't send in the freezing gnomes on them. Unless your theory is correct. Hmmm. Ridculous. Seems every new safety features Neopets adds is just another doorway for scammers to erm...scam.

maybe scammers are smarter then we think....

or not

[OmniIcyshelf]

Well, as far as scams go, this one is pretty intricate... Perhaps this is the "Java App" I saw last week?

[-Ducky-]

Well, as far as scams go, this one is pretty intricate... Perhaps this is the "Java App" I saw last week?

are you saying it's a smart scammer?

since when did scammers get smart?

[cipher_text]

wow already 3 topics dedicated to scamming

[Butterflyhornet]

Off topic, but I did see in the jellyworld chat one user made her look-up to be equal to that of the "this account has been disabled" message, so it could be possible that they did some kind of java trick.

[galonski64]

I hate how some shop owner can trick the shop wizard, or somehow hide the real item there selling at 1k. I can't understand why people can't play fairly, lol.