Hello everyone, I am the Basilisk, and I am a scammer.
Woah, put the knife down! While I do spend my time trying to cheat hapless children out of their neopoints and items, Im afraid my conscience has been bothering me of late. That, and earning millions this way have become far too easy. So, in a remarkable display of kindness and generosity from someone with such a villainous neoprofession, Im going to tell you why I scam, why others scam, and what you can do to stay out of our little password snares.
First off, why do people scam in the first place? The most obvious reason is, of course, the neopoints. Many n00bs decide that the best thing to do with their pathetic young neolives is to get others to give them their neopoints. But this isnt the only reason to scam. Some scammers are neopets veterans, to whom the game has become bland and unchallenging, despite the new features arriving every day. To those of us who have played the game for awhile, scamming is that new challenge weve been seeking for so long, another way to play the game. I had half a million before I begun to scam, plenty to get by in Neopia. To me, and to many others, the neopoints that come with the job are just an added bonus.
And then, theres the deeper side of scamming, one very few people recognize. If a child gets scammed on neopets and looses all their neopoints, they learn something. In the real world, real criminals set up fake companies to sell bogus stock, get-rich-quick schemes, and fake merchandise to get your credit card number. Better to loose it all online than to loose it all in real life. While this doesnt make scamming something that should be accepted or praised, it does remind us that scamming is a necessary part of Neopia.
But enough of my philosophical pitter-patter, I know why youre here. Youve had your account taken, it hurt, and you want to know how to prevent it from happening again.
First off, heres the big mistake every article Ive read so far on PPT has made: they all SEVERELY underestimate scammers. When Im trying to lure newbies into the clutches of my various scams, I most definitely do not speak as eloquently as I do here. It makes me sound far too professional and unfriendly. Whn im talkin too newbs i. Peak lkie thiz. Misspelling gives scammers an image of innocence and newbish stupidity that can become their greatest weapon. If you dont want to fall for scams, dont give us that weapon. When someone says PLEEEZE BUT THE CHEP CODE STON IN MUY SHOP, dont assume immediately that they are a newbie scammer who cant spell for beans. Thinking of scammers as idiots my boost your ego a bit, but it isnt going to do diddly squat against them getting your password.
Next, and a bit more importantly, is that smart scammers dont put up too-good-to-be-true scams. I sell scam codestones for 2000np, not 1np. Believability is a key aspect of intelligent scams, which makes them very difficult to detect. If you really do want to protect your account, you need to take drastic measures: Never ever EVER log into your account on any screen other than the one reached by pressing the login button on the Neopets sidebar. This will undoubtedly waist you quite a bit of time, but in the end it will pay off for you.
Lastly, when preventing scams, try and stay out of any even slightly suspicious boards. Dont go in and post scam, dont fill in a fake login window with rude words, dont exasperate the scammer. I save the IP addresses of people who send me rude messages, and I will occasionally go to the slight trouble of getting someone who irritates me frozen. Its usually best not to annoy those who lack morals, even if it is amusing.
Oh, heres a tidbit you might be interested in, although it isnt all that necessary in protecting your accounts; there is no such thing as a Neopets hacker. Unless someone swung into the neopets HQ, tied up the neopets staff, fended off the police who would no doubt arrive soon after the commotion begun, and then hacked into Adams computer, there is NO WAY to get someones password without them giving it to you. Many oh-so-1337 newbies like to use the term hacker, since it has far fewer negative connotations than scammer, but honestly these people are just showing off. This little Basilisk has accepted the fact that shes a scammer, stereotypical hatred and all.
Well, that’s it from this little frozen snake. For obvious reasons, I cant give out my neopets account but feel free to leave a comment here if you wish to get in contact with me. – The Basilisk