Hi there! This article is more in depth about the item switch scam and other trading related scams which I’ve come across to. I use the trading post for hours daily so I’ve met almost every trick available.
Item switch scam
I am sure almost everyone knows how this trick works. The scammer will put in a trade and then remove the trade after a few seconds so you can have a good view of how good the offer is. There are two ways the scammer can do this:
1. Puts up a good trade and cancel it after a few seconds. Then recreate the trade with different look-a-like item
2. Puts up the bad look-a-like trade first and then the good look-a-like trade. In his good trade, he will tells you to trade through his user lookup for whatever lame reason and then cancels the trade after a few seconds. The trade always contains a lot of cheap items to confuse you.
These are the items that are normally used to confuse you:
a) Shadow paint brush & Stone paint brush
b) Staff of nova & Wand of nova
c) Magical plushies & Non-magical plushies
d) Enhanced KIKO squeeze Toy & Non-Magical Blue Kiko Squeeze Toy
e) Battle duck & Rubber Duck (pretty obvious)
f) Jade Scorchstone & Green Scorchstone (Rare)
g) Faerie paint brush & Faerie paint brush plushie
Ive met with a scammer who uses this trick. Ive reported him 3 times but his account is not frozen yet. His username is anti_frozen77 and you can view his trade for an example of how these lame scammers work to get easy nps. He always has that bad trade up and keeps the good item in his inventory. Notice he use the bottle of sands to confuse others.
Promised item scam
The scammer tells you that they will give you something AFTER youve offered rare goods for his trade. Of course you shouldve figured out that they have the choice of not giving it to you after the trade.
These are the lame stories they will tell you:
a) I am not playing neopets anymore so whoever that bids the highest gets my account with 354612nps in it as well. (Yeah right, they need more nps so they can give it to you)
b) Whoever that bids the highest gets my baby paint brush. I am feeling generous today. (Tell them to include into the trade before you offer)
Liar Liar pants on fire scam
These include giving out false info on the item they are trading. Before you trade an Item, make sure you know what the item is worth. Check through the shop wizard, trading post and even the auction before offering. Tell them to wait if you are afraid that youll miss the item. Some scammer will even compare the price for you. Some even say that they are being generous. Whenever someone compares the price in the trade, theres 60% that he/she is lying and when they say they are being generous, theres 80%.
Some examples Ive seen:
a) Golden Ivy Leaves & Earth Faerie Leaves
b) Super U-bend & U-bend great of justice
c) Dino Sapper as a retired petpet
d) 7k = auto! The (item name) alone sells for more than that! (90% scam)
Ive just encountered this scam today. I just put up a trade worth 180k nps and there comes a message within a few seconds telling me that she is going to offer me a mud mixture which is worth 190k into my trade (And she offered after I read the message). Of course, I know the price of the mud mixture by heart because I stock them up in my shop so I just play along and tells her that I will accept the offer after she visited my shop =D . She replies with a Sure followed with a big happy smile thinking I am falling for it. She withdraws her offer after a minute. When someone informs you of the price, theres 50% that its a scam.
Hard to sell items
This is not a scam but Ill include it anyway. Some of us use the trading post to look for good offers (like me) to earn some good nps but do you know that trading with something which are hard to sell not only makes you loses nps but time? Only trade for easy-to-sell items.
Easy-to-sell items:
a) Good famous battle dome items which scores above 5 points in the battlepedia such as Battle duck, Dark battle duck, Hypno Helmet, jade scorchstone etc.
b) Codestones, Faeries, paintbrushes etc.
Hard-to-sell items
a) Battledome items which scores below 5 points in the battlepedia such as sinsis grail, Darigan Skeith Tail Guard etc.
b) T-shirts (some even cost up to millions), rare food, rare plushies, rare petpets etc.
The Chain Scam
This trick just surfaced recently and has a bit to do with the trading post. It is normal to see someone posting a scam in the trading post and I usually explore how the scam works. Recently, I saw a message that tells you to have a view in their user lookup to earn millions of nps and as usual Ill go and have a look around. I am expecting a website address but instead, there is a message that goes like this:
This is a really cool secret. You can earn thousands neopoints in a very short time! This really works and it is not a scam. It does not cheat Neopets or Neopia in any way. I have been scammed before and believe me, it is not fun; a scammer once took my whole account. That is why I am doing this, I’m trying to make Neopia prosperous enough that people will stop running scams. If you would like to know the secret, make me one of your Neofriends and send me any one of the following: a Job Coupon, a Codestone, a map piece, a Faerie , a Paint Brush, a Petpet, a Nerkmid, a Dubloon, Negg or a Scratchcard. Once I receive one of these items from you I will send you the secret. =*My 100% Guarantee*= I guarantee the following: This is NOT a scam. I will send you the secret once I receive your item. I bet you’re asking why I won’t just tell you the secret. Well, I want to help people but, obviously, I’d also like to help myself. And if you find that this is a scam, you could always report me. Why would I risk my account for a couple of items?? Think of it this way; if you send me an item, you will soon be able to get as many of those items as you like by using the secret!
Of course, the first trick that comes into my mind if that when you give him/her the item that they requested, theyll tell you to put this message into your user lookup so others will do the same thing that you just did. The number of people tricked is amazingly increasing. So if youre one of them, please dont wreck your user lookup with that horrible long message. Besides, by posting that message into your user lookup, you are telling everybody that youre dumb enough to be one of the victims to this cheap trick.
The Spam
Put this message in five different lots then go to the faerie book store and she will give you a baby paint brush
What would you do when you see this message in trade? Do what it says and get the baby paint brush? Dont be ridiculous. Theres obviously no such thing. The only thing you can get is making the neopets server slow by wasting their system resource.
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That is all the scams that I usually encounter in the trading post. You can read more about the common trading scam here. If there is anything you want to ask or encounter any new scam, e-mail me at Jasonneo@hotmail.com