How To Avoid Being Scammed

[Veracity]

How to Avoid Being Scammed

Remember, the best way to not be scammed is to be well informed!

With this in mind, I've created a list of the most common ways people are scammed (both in and out of game). I can't stress how important it is to follow these guidelines. Often times, if you lose your items, you cannot get them back. You can never be careful enough! When in doubt, follow the "it's better to be safe than sorry" policy.

The basic things every player should know:

1.) Never give your username or password to ANYONE. No GM will ever ask you for your password! Even when the administration is providing you with support, they will only ask you for your account name, NEVER your password.

2.) Never lend out your items. Chances are, you will not get them back even if you think that person is your friend. The staff of ForsakenRO strongly discourages any lending or sharing of items of any kind. We understand you trust your friends, but the best policy is to never lend out your items! If you do, and you are scammed, we are not liable.

3.) If someone asks to try on your items, see the item's stats or description, or anything remotely like that, do not trade them. This is a common way for players to scam others.

4.) Never trade someone who offers to duplicate your items. This is the number one excuse scammers use. Item duping is not possible on ForsakenRO. If anyone says this to you, take a screenshot and report them immediately on the forums here.

5.) This goes without saying, but when you make a deal with someone, make sure that you receive the item(s) at the same time the other player receives your payment. Do not pay in advance: if you do, chances are you will never get your item AND you will have lost those coupons/zeny/etc. you were trading for it.

6.) Always be sure to check the item the player is trading you EVERY time you make the deal. Often times, players will deal you a card (eg. Tao Gunka Card), then disconnect. They come back, deal you again, but instead of putting up the card you wanted (Tao Gunka), they'll switch it for another card that isn't worth as much, e.g. Poring Card. To prevent this and other similar methods of scamming, always be sure to check and double check what items are being traded before accepting the deal!

7.) It's a good idea to take screenshots every time you make a deal with another player so you have documented proof of the trade. Even if you trust them, believe me, it's better to be safe than sorry!


Regarding out of game scamming:

Forward: Recently, there has been an increase in scams via MSN/AIM/yahoo. Almost every case has been of a person imitating Relinquish and contacting a player offering them a position on the staff.

No matter how convincing they may seem, NEVER give your password to anyone claiming to be a staff member of ForsakenRO.

Please remember:
- The staff will never ask you for your password.
- We will never contact you privately about applying for GM. When we're hiring, there will be a public announcement on the forums with the ONLY email you should send your application to.
- The staff will always use official ForsakenRO emails. (eg. [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]) We will never have emails at hotmail, yahoo, or any other email provider.

There has also been an increase in people impersonating other players using ASCII characters (e.g. using [alt+255] or [alt+0610] instead of spaces). Though we discourage lending out items, if you do decide to, check with your friend to make sure it's really them. You could ask them a question only they would be able to answer, or follow these suggestions by Wish:

1. Create a codeword so that your friends will know it's really you. It's a bit cheesy, but effective nonetheless.
2. Add the friends who you would lend your items to (if you must lend your items out) to your friend list. If someone comes asking you for items or for any account info, you could check your friend list. If your friend isn't online, then you know it's a scammer. If they are online, you can PM them and see if you get a response to double-check.
3. Avoid making characters with spaces in the name.
4. If you have a character with a space in the name, also make the other character that could be used for impersonation. (I.e. Your current character: word(regular space)word. Also make: word(alt+255)word and word(alt+0160)word.) This would be rather tedious, but safer. Yes, I know that some people use multiple spaces.


Credits
Thank you to Wish for helping me with this.

If anyone has been scammed another way than the ones mentioned here, let me know so I can include something about it. Edited August 18, 2010 by Veracity

[bankai`]

Lmao wow Welll said nice guide

[nines]

Should be pinned.

[Ethereal]

Pin worthy, great job. :)

[Rayray]

pin worthy indeed. The most common case I see is the one where they cancel the trade and retrade again. Pamii tried that and imma report her since I got screenies. :p

[Cirrus]

Some people pretend to be a person well-known or trusted, then ask for an item, like what happened the other day.

This guy "Drax~" PMs me and asks if he can borrow my Emp cause he's going to check something. So I ask him, why'd you need my Emp for, you have a lot of yours? He replies he's been hacked, and he made a new account because the hacker changed his password. I ask him to go on MSN and talk to me there about the details. I waited for the real Drax to go on MSN but he never did, so I just continued to play this guy. I asked him to make a ticket, and had a GM check so because he said he did. There isn't any ticket from Drax, so that's strike 2. Then I finally ask him to come over and deal me, and revealed, why, a novice! Nevertheless he's banned for player impersonation & attempted scamming. The real Drax had a laugh hearing about it too.

So yeah... heads up with these kinds of people. I've heard someone try & scam my friend, pretended to be me and said that I don't have my F.Sets because my gf has them. LOL.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Cirrus

[Adamxd]

Naive kids.

[bankai`]

Yea I was scam the other day some dude on a novice wanted to trade my f boot for f cloak and he was acting like he was in a rush so he traded me and I looked at item and he cancel it and traded me again and I push okay without looking and item was a false f cloak never they new they had items that look like that...

[Lex Divinia]

How about a how-to-not-get-hacked guide, since vets seem to get hacked a lot lol.

[Hannah]

Niiiiiiiice guide.

Btw, I just have to say something. On the basic things every player should know list, there are two #6's. If you could change the 2nd #6 to #7, that would be awesome, thanks. :biggrin:

[Veracity]

Fixed, thanks everyone! (:

[Aurora]

Awesome guide. Nice work! ;D Edited August 18, 2010 by Aurora

[Annie]

How to avoid being scammed:

Brain.exe

Nice guide. :3

Edited August 18, 2010 by Annie

[Tom & Jerry]

Actually, for someone who has been scammed 7 times, I will have to comment of the most easy way to be scammed.

The easiest way to be scammed is, someone will get to know you for a few weeks, you will then learn to trust them, they will then lend a valuable item to you after they think you trust he/she, now you will think he/she is trustable, then you will lend a valuable item of yours to this player, chances are, this guy will sell your items, so unless you have a gm right by your side preparing to get him banned, with legit evidence, don't do this. Also, yes indeed this player may be a previous scammer, so make a ticket, and genesis will check his IP, if he is in fact a scammer, he will be banned.

Don't fall for these tricks like I used to. ;3 and you'll be safe with your beloved items. :3

Reason for Edit: "duh"

Edited August 19, 2010 by Tom & Jerry

[veg]

pin.. since it will help the new player..

[bankai`]

Well if they delete there character you can do nothing about it..