I am not the oldest Neopian, not the newest, but nowadays I suppose Id be considered a veteran. Not one of those cranky ones who are protective over every single point they earn. I have a modest amount and some modest pets.
You see, I have seen a lot of the troubles of Neopets, and fallen victim to quite a few myself. I am, admittedly, gullible. Scams, cheats, and hacks, you name it, I probably have fallen to it. Then there are the stupid things Ive done.
Those fake log-in pages First ones I fell for. Got an e-mail from an AOL account that did not exist, saying they wanted to give me a Starry Paint Brush. That was in my second month on Neopets, and I wanted to paint my Kiko. So, naturally, I went and made a trade offer without a second thought. Boom. Ten minutes later, I went to check if Id gotten the paint brush, and my account was frozen. That quick. I made another account and worked on getting my first unfrozen.
It took three months, but I got it back. By then, Id made peace with loosing my first beloved pets and had a new set which I cared for. Id even begun to save for the lab map, and had around five pieces. I was a real idiot then. I went to the General Chat one day when I was bored, and made a lovely post. The title was something along the lines of AIMAIMAIMAIMAIM! and the message was my old AIM account: AdruGolden. I was proud, Id just gotten it. I found myself flooded with messages. Someone asked for my e-mail. I gave them it without thinking.
That was really, really stupid. They signed off about ten minutes later, and a new person sent me a message. Whats your zip code? Yeah, what harm could a question like that do? No one knew my name. Wrong. I had forgotten my zip code was my password for everything then. Yeah, really stupid.
Of course, within the hour, I had lost my Neopets accounts, e-mail address, and AIM account. I was absolutely stunned. But I still chugged on along, and made a new e-mail, a new AIM, and worked on getting my Neopets account back again.
Only a month and Id gotten my accounts back, along with a warning letter from Neopets. The same person had unfrozen it this time, and told me to be careful. Oh, I knew now! I wasnt going to be dumb again or so I thought.
I was clean for six months, but then I got my mutant Chia. Oh, I loved him. I drew him until I had perfected it down to the last mediocre line I was just about thirteen and still had no artistic talent. Then I entered the Beauty Contest. Every spare minute I advertised. I checked the votes I had this was before they took down the ability to see how many you had. I was one vote from second place in the Chia category! Being totally excited, I wondered what would happen if I voted for myself.
Big mistake again. I voted for myself on all seventeen accounts I had accumulated. It was like an addiction, I couldnt stop. Then, the day before the contest ended, all my accounts were frozen. I lost everything, and no doubt I was pretty upset. I knew I wasnt going to get them back this time I had broken multiple rules without even knowing it.
So I started over on an account left over from when I had gotten my cat. It was Crazy4CallieCatz. Oh, I worked! I got a mutant Blumaroo, Mutant Shoyru, and a Mutant Techo. I worked on making my Cybunny faerie to offset the rest. I was at least remotely smart by then, so I chatted in the Fan Clubs. I made some mistake I still do not know, and a painful 20k from my goal, I was frozen.
Powered by the prospect that I had done nothing to get frozen, I e-mailed the Neopets Team. It wasnt even a week before I got a response. The staff member who responded was so nasty, so cruel I nearly cried I was in the emotional stage of a thirteen year old.
So I wasnt getting it back. Time to start over again! I found another old account which had been spared and got smart.
Oh, the worst part? I left out about half of the scams I fell for – Aqua_Squee