Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Hi everyone!

Don't know if anyone else has noticed it or been taken in by it, but there is a scam on Neopets that's been going on since I got there two years ago. It's one that takes advantage particularly of newbies and little kids.

Basically, the trick is this: the perpetrator puts a Baby Paint Brush Plushy (or several) up in a trade (or trades) at the trading post pretending that it is a real Paint Brush and asking for anywhere from 55k to 600k for it.

Right this minute there are several, with wishlists like this:

"BEST" bid in the next 5 min. over 150k, will get it. NO NEOMAILS for offers....If you want to know if I'll accept....then offer it.
or
for the next 5 min. ONLY, I will accept the best bid over 95K. Is that you

The victim sees the trade, and mistakes the plushie for a real paint brush and overpays radically for something they could find on the shop wizard for something between 30 and 40,000 NP. *sigh*

Anyway, while I'm all for personal responsability, this is a scam that works best against young children who already have the hardest time earning the kind of NP that teens and adults do, and newbies who are just learning the ropes and may not realize there even are paint brush plushies.

So I started...

The Paint Brush Plushie Brigade

It's on PeeboPahmoneo's petpage here:

http://www.neopets.com/~peebopahmoneo

Basically, what we do is put a baby paint brush up in trades with a Warning in the wishlist. Mine generally goes like this:

**WARNING: This is a PLUSHIE. It will NOT paint your pet. Lots of people have these up right now with misleading or no wishlists to confuse kids and newbies. PLEASE CHECK FIRST!:)**

I keep the trade up all the time, and refresh it every so often so new people will see it. I started doing this myself a while ago and you have no idea how many kids and adult newbies have written to thank me. It was one of those people that inspired me to start the Brigade.

I'd really love to have more people involved, and thought PPT was a great place to find other ethical neopians who like helping each other. If you want to join the brigade there's a button on Peebo's page (above link). You can use the button if you support the idea, even if you don't have a plushie in your trades, because I'd like to spread the word, but if you do have one you can use that would be great!

Feel free to PM me about this too, or to neomail me if you're taking the button or putting up a trade! My username is jennythegreat too!

Best to everyone, and thanks for your time!

JtG (Jen)