Scammers – a Neopian’s ememy. They are everywhere, and when you least expect them to be there – they are.
Scammers have one job in mind, to take your account, to mess you up, to make you upset. Do not let them do this to you.
You decide to go to the neoboards, and you see a board titled “Quitting Neopets” or something of that sort. As you wonder about the board and enter it, you see that it says something like, “Quitting Neopets! I have painted pets, paintbrushes, and 1,000,000 neopoints! Tell me if you want it!” Once you see this, click the link that says report this board. This is a scammer. If you go for it, they will ask for your password to ‘check out’ your account to see if you are ‘suitable for such an account’. Then, like what once happened to me, your account is out of your hands and into the scammers.
There are also easy ways for scammers to get you. One way is borrowing rare items for avatars. There are two ways to be scammed- if you are lending the item, or if you are borrowing the item. If you are lending and you do not know the person in reality and lend it for free or for a cheap price, you could get ripped off by the borrower not returning the item. For borrowing, you may pay an outrageous price that you get back when you give back the item’. Well, if you pay an extremely high price, chances are you will not get back the neopoints, and the item you borrowed is cheaper than the price you paid to borrow. Either way is a way to be scammed- be on the look out!
Another way is that there is a board on the neoboards. To attend a “major shop sale” you pay 5,000 neopoints. Say that you pay the price, and you get to attend the sale. You buy wonderful items, and you add up the total of the items you bought, and find out you did not even save 5,000 neopoints. The scammer may have meant for this to be intentional, or they may not have. Either way, it is still a way that you get ripped off.
Suddenly, you get an idea to create a guild with some one. You advertise on the boards saying you want a partner. You have no idea, but a scammer responds. “Sure, I want to help. I know an easy way to work together, give me your password so I can get on your account and help.” Do NOT go for it. Here are your options: report the response or you can say, “I know an easier way. I will create the guild and you join. I will give you complete access to the guild, that way I will not have to give away my password.” If they get upset, report their message. If not, carry on.
You’ve become great “friends” with a neofriend. They decide that they want to ‘help you out’ and you help them out. They suggest exchanging passwords. You do not want to risk being scammed, and ask for them to send their password first. They report your message, making you look like the bad guy, and there you go – bye bye account. OR –
After the suggest exchanging passwords, you do not want to be risked being scammed. They tell you that’s all right, they trust you and they’ll give you ‘their password’ first. Once you see it pop up on the screen, you give them yours. They tell you; let’s switch now. You go to their account, type in the password they gave you and, hmm, it doesn’t seem to work. ‘Maybe that was their old password and they forgot they changed it..’ You thing and decide to go back to your account. You type in your password- it doesn’t work. You realize you’ve been scammed- a fake password for a real one.
Another avatar related scam; you ask for help in the boards- the avatar help board. Some one replies, saying, “I can help you get that! Just let me on your account and I’ll do it for you.” Report the message. Otherwise, your account, just like all of the other ways, will be gone.
Those are the basic and most well known ways. BUT- there are ones that you would never dream of- until it happened to you.
As you get on the computer at school, you decide to go on Neopets. However, when you’re done, you forget to log out- it’s a habit of staying logged in, because that’s the way you do it on your own computer. Well, it’s the next person’s turn; and they see you’re logged in. They quickly send your neopoints and items to their account. Maybe even pound a couple of your pets. Your account is then shut down (will be frozen) or left as an empty shell for an upset person who loved Neopets.
Neopets recommends not giving your password to friends, and at first, I did not believe that. After some careful consideration after my sister gave her best friend the password and it ended up shut down and frozen the next day, I decided that Neopets was right. I could not believe such a good friend would do that to her- that’s what every one would think- no, I trust them enough. Keep this in mind though, the friend trusted most by her, FROZE her account. If your friend does that to you, then what if they do not have an account for you to report?? Well, sorry, but you’re kind of stuck unless you try to recover your account through Neopets help.
If this does not help you realize that scammers are out every day; then I don’t know what will. What I do know is this; when my account was hacked, and then retrieved, you suddenly feel like doing the same to another person. Do not do that, I did not, thank goodness. It’s not a lovely feeling to know some one is ruining your account. I’m going to conclude with a special word to remember:
If your account is hacked, immediately try going to the log in page and go to the bottom, type in your user name in the box that will send you your password. You should be able to retrieve your password. If not, immediately go to contact us at the bottom of each page. Make sure you know your birthday, a few items you had, and past message boards, or things like that.
Stay safe while using Neopets, and if a scammer gets your account, stay calm, think logically, and win your account back! – Allyson Marie