How can you spot a scammer? Well if you have a keen eye and a good instinct then your set. Here are a few ways that I’ve figured out how to spot a scammer.
NAMES: One way you can spot a scammer is by their name. Most of the time a scammer just types in a bunch of letters not even caring how it comes out, (ex. asdlfkjsdfj) Or they type in just a few letters or numbers randomly, (ex. asdf1234). Sometimes they might repeat just one letter or two or three, (ex. fdsfdsfds)…
TROPHYS: Another way to check if they’re a scammer is going to look at all the game that they have played. Most of the time a scammer has first place in almost all the games or they have the same number of score, (ex. 150000) for every game listed. They might not have a trophy for that game but it says that they are in first place on the games list.
NEWBIE/2 YEARS: You can also check how long they have been playing on neopets or when they first joined. If they have tons of trophies, have no pets or maybe one, and they’ve only been on neopets for about a day to a week, they are definitely a scammer.
USER LOOKUPS: Many people don’t look at them but most of the time you can spot a scammer by their description. Some scammer’s put in their description that they have a secret way to earning np or items and they’ll only tell you this secret if you send them a certain item. DON’T SEND THEM THAT ITEM. It’s just a way for scammers to get rare items. once they have your item… they take off leaving you with nothing.
NEOMAILS: If you get an e-mail from someone saying they need you to lend them some np or buy them something and they promise to pay you back, don’t do it, unless you know that person.
SHOPS: Sometimes there is an item that you want or need… this is where you can get scammed easily. If you find a shop that has a really really cheap price for something so expensive, BEWARE. It’s scam. If you click on the item and you come to a page that says.. “you are not logged in” DO NOT LOG IN. It’s just a fake! (Always look at the URL at the top of the screen and make sure it says www.neopets.com, if it doesn’t say that and it’s a different URL DON’T LOG IN!) if you log on to that page your giving the scammer your name, password, practically everything you own and have worked so hard for…
CHAT BOARDS: A lot of the time I see scammer on the chat bored trying to get people to go to these website where they can get a lot of np for doing nothing or for just playing games that are not neopet games! It’s a SCAM! If you play their games or put your name or password in they have a way of getting it. Don’t go to any websites that tell you that you can earn np.
GUILDS: If you own a guild… most of the time you’ll get members just joining for your newbie packs or free items. What to do: Make it hard to get the newbie packs -or- items. Set a goal for them to reach so that they have to be committed to the guild. (ex. 500 posts & must stay with the guild for 3 weeks) A usual scammer won’t even stay a day!
PETS: I’ve noticed that most scammers have either no neopets or just one, (so they can receive items). If you check on that neopet, sometimes it’s HP is very low and it isn’t taken care of. Scammers just create a pet to earn the free 30np for it. 🙁 What a waste.
TRADING POST: If you own a guild and you keep your newbie packs in your trades… BEWARE. Most of the time Scammers bid on these items without joining your guild. Make sure that the person bidding on that newbie pack actually belongs to your guild. I’ve had this happen to me a dozen times and each time I just deny the bid.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
*All scammer just want you to do is give them things so that they can take those things away from you or get you in trouble or banned for something you didn’t do.
*DO NOT give your password to ANYONE!!
*Always be cautious, double check on things to make sure that person is not trying to scam you in anyway.
*CHAIN LETTERS, The most common way to get easily banned for no reason. Most of the time this is a scammers way of having fun. They start a chain letter saying that if you send this letter to a number of people within some time you’ll receive a rare item. DON’T DO IT! You’ll get banned if you do! Just delete it from you box.
*Scammer’s often use cookie grabber’s on their websites. They try to get you to go to their websites and if you do they grab your cookies. (cookies are where you store all your passwords).
*LOG IN PAGE, always double check the URL (address) of the neopets login page. If it doesn’t say www.neopets.com and it says something else, (ex. www.geocities.com/neopetslogin.html) don’t sign in. It’s a scammers trick to get your password and username.
*Sometimes, (not all the time) scammers put a banner in their shop, user lookup, pet page, etc. saying; “I AM NOT A SCAMMER”, If they were not a scammer why would they take the time to put up that banner? What they are trying to do is persuade you thinking otherwise. (thanks: babibluepenguin19 for this info)
HOW TO STAY AWAY FROM SCAMMERS
*If you notice anything above relating to someone… stay away from that individual. Don’t answer their neomails and don’t become their neofriend. Don’t give them any information about you or your account and don’t go to any websites they give you. If you do spot a scammer report them immediately to the neopets staff!
*Change your password constantly, maybe every week or so. Always make it complicated enough to where the scammer cannot guess it correctly, add symbols, capital letters, lower case letters, & numbers within your password. But don’t make it too complicated to where you can’t remember it.
*Put a scammer warning in your guild, shop, user lookup, pets page, etc. Warning other members about scammers. Most of the time scammers avoid those who have scammer warnings and alerts around in their shops, user lookups, etc.
*Raise your security level on neopets to high. It might be a little annoying at first but it’ll be harder for a scammer to get into your stuff!
I hope that this helps out some people out there. There are a lot of scammers but if we know what to look for then we can be a step ahead of them in everything they try to do.