Avoiding Scams 101 - Don't be suckered!

[WTBcraft]

Scammers rely on the naivete & carelessness of others to profit off their mistakes. Too often, people take others for their word & wind up getting burned over it. Here are some tips that will help you avoid being played by the Feiwongs of FFXI.

1) Familiarize yourself with the way PayPal and Western Union work, even if you never intend to use them yourself. A red flag for any transaction would be misinformation on Paypal's or Western Union's policies or money pick up procedures. As examples, PayPal does -not- "hide" notes until a payment request has been paid, and Western Union does -not- require a MTCN to pick up money transfers. Scammers would have you believe otherwise.

2) Familiarize yourself with SE's practice on password recovery. Scammers may have you believe that you can simply call SE & get your password back because your name is on the account. This isn't the case. SE only honors the credit card holder's requests when it comes to information. All a scammer has to do is change your password & update the payment information before you can contact Square Enix for assistance, and you're out of luck. Don't fall for this.

3) Request specific information for the character, item, or services you are purchasing. Some people scam others with accounts that they do not even own by using screenshots obtained from other sites. Ask for information that is not shown in the provided screenshots (if any), or perhaps meet them in game prior to the exchange if you can create a mule on their current server

4) Research the buyer/seller. Check their previous posts here or on whatever site you see their ad(s). Have they never posted before? Do they have very few posts, all about the same thing for sale/trade/wanted? Are other members posting warnings or unsavory information about the person? Be alert for all these things. While a first time poster isn't necessarily a scammer, it should raise a flag if you find other very similar posts by banned members and/or known scammers. This site has a feedback mod for their boards which assists with that process. Please use it.

5) Use a -neutral- middle man. Be wary of any middle man the seller provides, and be prepared for them to distrust any that you may suggest as well. The best option in this regard is to use a trusted third party middle man here on EGS (View more info about EGS Middleman Service). This site has a reputation to uphold in order to continue to profit, and it would be destroyed over any disreputable activities by it's staff. A few bucks out of pocket to a third party service is a small price to pay in order to insure your purchase goes through without any problems.


And of course there's always the cardinal rule: If something looks too good to be true, it probably is.


Good luck & best wishes on your transactions!

[kendrah1]

I'll add to this:


6.) Obtain a land line phone number from the person and call it to shoot the breeze with the person. This serves two purposes. First you can get a feeling about the person on the other end of the line. Secondly, plug the area code into a search engine and find it's home location.

7.) Ask the other party which state in which they live, but in fairness, tell them the state in which you live as well. This is used for verification purposes. Are they honest? Let's match the state they just gave with the state in which the area code on the phone is listed and see. Are they different? Ask why they are different.

8.) If you communicate via email, pull the IP address from the header. Using three (3) or more IP locator websites, plug this number in and see if the state matches the state they gave you, along with the area code on the phone. If they contact you via PM, insist they send you a test email to your email address so you can recover this information.

9.) Ask them if they have any additional credibilities such as Trustwho, or Ebay ratings, paypal verification, and ask for the email/user handle to actually verify it.


Usually scammers prey on people not willing to put in the effort to verify them. They don't like to reveal any personal information or links which could reveal their true identity if their intent is to scam you. Most people I deal with are generally good people and are legit, and won't mind offering this information. But, if you run into a scammer that thinks you are smarter than they are, they will usually leave you alone.

Another point to make is when verifying people, even people with credibility, rep, trustwho, paypal verified and such, insist on this information as if it was like clockwork. Because they are legit, they should have no reason not to give you this information. If they are legit, if they have the credentials, and they willingly provide the information requested, sometimes you can skip some forms of verification, like the phone call. In this case, verify the states and call it a day. In these specific cases, you are testing the willingness of the other party. Because these individuals have a reputation to protect, they usually can't afford negative comments. This usually indicates the trader is legit.

[Fenrirdeath6]

I will definately keep this in mind, I was recently scammed bad by Yo Mama and he duped me good. These are very helpful tips thank you!

[mranderson2]

very good write up, i think this is the most complete info I have seen posted anywhere... you might also add if someone offers more than your asking it's probably a fake

[dm6515]

I've never tried nor thought about using an IPlocator. Very good tip indeed.

[Mykkol]

Very good information here, I'll keep this in mind whenever im selling/buying stuff. Thanks for the tips^^

[Matkillah]

if i may add, from my experiences scammers are also ALMOST always the people who want to RUSH through everything.. miss steps.. act as if careless on what they do. also it should be KNOWN high paying paypal people are most likely a scammer. if someone offers you 800$ of there HARD EARNED cash for something that is totally NOT worth it to the least.. you should be weary.

remember when dealing a trade / buy / sell with anyone take it ONE step at a time and DONT leave out anything.

also what i like to do ( security wise ) when you first trade an account. DONT immediately go and change info to yours. RECORD all there information. ALL OF it adress name ect.. ALL.

thanks.

[Rudryc]

good write up. There's a few things in there that I didn't think of the first time i sold an accound. Thanksfully nobody has ever tried to scam me.

[tigervol]

Good tips here, anyone think it's ironic though that the original poster of this is a banned user now?

[kujatu]

How come WTBcraft is banned?