Curse

wire dawg · May 28, 2009, 07:07 PM // 19:07

wow i am shocked no one has said this...this is your own friends fault for not making sure it is you which he can do real easy by either checking friends list or guild roster...so only person to blame is your friend

Chicken Ftw · May 28, 2009, 07:13 PM // 19:13

Call me paranoid, but I only make trades in my guild hall. Pretty hard to impersonate someone and hijack a trade when you don't have a guest invite.

Enon · May 28, 2009, 07:17 PM // 19:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by esthetic

Is this scam acceptable behavior?

Did you even bother to read?

Quote:

Originally Posted by esthetic

I understand you need to exercise caution and be carefull in your transactions, but what if someone goes around impersonating you and ripping your friends off? Its not like I can do anything or be carefull to prevent this.

You can. Tullzinski already gave a method to prevent it :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tullzinski

In future go to the guild hall to make the transaction......If the person is not legit then they should not be able to go to the guild hall.

Chaos Theory Pvp · May 28, 2009, 07:18 PM // 19:18

Was it the same friend twice?

esthetic · May 28, 2009, 07:34 PM // 19:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chicken Ftw

Call me paranoid, but I only make trades in my guild hall. Pretty hard to impersonate someone and hijack a trade when you don't have a guest invite.

You know This is a very good idea and I will follow this advise from now on. ^^ thx.

Konker2020 · May 28, 2009, 07:37 PM // 19:37

And considering you are 100% stubborn about believing it may have been a guild member, (which, btw, how exactly were you announcing to one-another for as to what to trade?) I have only 1 word for you...

Keylogger

Haxor · May 28, 2009, 09:08 PM // 21:08

Easy scam prevention: Always do trades (alliance, guild and friends) in your own guildhall. As was previously pointed out, without a guest, this gets a lot harder.

twpool62 · May 28, 2009, 09:21 PM // 21:21

best way to beat it is to dont loan or trade at all

esthetic · May 28, 2009, 09:22 PM // 21:22

Anet's Prompt Response ^^

Hello (Blanked),

That player was reported earlier, investigated, and suspended for defrauding other players. Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards,
GM ApplePython
The Guild Wars Support Team

Well this actually has made me feel a lot better.

bna6789 · May 28, 2009, 09:31 PM // 21:31

Yeah this is just a game and everything, but if you go around with the mindset that "I was taken advantage of... someone else protect me!" you won't get very far. You have to be able to watch out for yourself, even in a online video games.

Oh and don't go get mad at everybody else for essentially laughing at you (and your friend's) failure to recognize a scam, if it was indeed a scam from someone else. Rather take a look at the suggestions that people have posted here and put them to use.

-see if your friends that you trade with will agree to only trade stuff after use of a code word or some definite signal that you both are who you say you are
-watch your guildmate's names to see if you ever see a character with an extremely similar name to either yours or your friends characters in order to do a basic check on your guildmates
-do see if anything does come about from contacting support, but don't be surprised if you never get your stuff back or if it was deleted
-make sure to check visually who you are trading with instead of only watching the chat/trade windows (since when trading w/people they run up to you, take a look at their armor to see if it matches with what you think it was)
-I would assume that if you are high-end trading that you have multiple high-end items that you aren't currently using; use something as collateral so that the trade doesn't just go one way. Doing this would serve many functions: if it is your friend scamming you, it will discourage them from trying to scam you later on since they are also losing something important, the scammer (assuming not your friend) won't be willing or know that you use items as collateral and so when your friends go to "return the loan for a little bit" they will be able to realize easier that they aren't returning the item to you but instead are getting scammed

There are definitely many other ways to help stop it happening, but the fact is that in some way shape or form something like this is going to be attempted; so be proactive to prevent it, not retroactive.

Dre · May 28, 2009, 09:42 PM // 21:42

Always watch the guild tag if you're trading with alliance members (or at least people who you think to be alliance members)
They might be able to duplicate the name (in some way) and the tag, but it'll have a different color

Tramp · May 28, 2009, 09:51 PM // 21:51

Do not flame the O.P. This scam has happened to me so many times I can not even begin to tell you. There is a big group of scammers in GTOB international that do this all the time. I have sent in so many screenshots to support to catch them it makes me sick. I can not tell you how many times I have been moving junk around on my storage accounts and all of a sudden the almost identical name opens trade with me. An "n" will be changed to an "m" or an "i" becomes and "l". With support's help we have caught a few of these guys but this scam is old. The thing to do is screen shot IMMEDIATELY and send to support IMMEDIATELY. Because they delete that character and change their names fast to hit up the next pair they see trading, support needs to catch them while they are on and havent logged off. They will usually ask for their stuff back, or a loan, or... and this cracks me up... they take a chance you are a gold seller transferring gold to a buyer and they will say they did not get all the gold they pay for, you own them another 100k. So trying to scam gold sellers! LOL! I finally got so sick of this scam I started to make all the variations of my name just so they could not bother me anymore. Tramp, Tranp, Tremp, Ollin, Oliin, Ollln. What a hassle...

If you want to see this scam in action just open 2 accounts. Park one at storage in GTOB international off to the side a bit so they can see exactly which two characters are trading. Then run up and trade with your other account for a minute or two then leave. Come right back on another one and trade some more. 50% of the time you will get a scammer figuring he has a gold seller making deliveries and try to cut in on the action with an almost identical name. (Early a.m., 6-7am west coast USA time is apparently a great time for scammer to be awake.) Seen this scam far too many times now, but it is kind of hard to scam me when I am just moving mods or unid golds around to storage accounts and have both accounts open on the same computer. LoL.

alluring athena · May 28, 2009, 10:15 PM // 22:15

i wouldn't "loan" my best friend, girlfriend, or even my mom 100 ecto without seeing at least a couple pieces of photo ID first

Tenebrae · May 28, 2009, 10:32 PM // 22:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Konker2020

And considering you are 100% stubborn about believing it may have been a guild member, (which, btw, how exactly were you announcing to one-another for as to what to trade?) I have only 1 word for you...

Keylogger

QFT. There no other choices , your "friend" is the scammer or knows the scammer or is someone that KNEW about the trade. EOF

majikmajikmajik · May 28, 2009, 11:20 PM // 23:20

wooow, so asumuption is that you 2 were gloating in all chat with all this loan bizz and sumone jumped on a come up. it doesnt make it right, but yall really should of been doign this in a more dicret location eg guildhall, empty district, and WHISPER!!

i farm baddies · May 29, 2009, 01:36 AM // 01:36

laugh out loud

esthetic · May 29, 2009, 03:16 AM // 03:16

Well at least two others on this thread have confirmed that this is happening to people so i think it is a problem.

And I guess the two things I wanted to do with this thread has been accomplished 1)to alert people of this scam and 2)affirm that this kind of scam is against EULA and thus a bannable offense.

SO.. I think we can put this topic to rest and "Close".

BTW for those people who need to flame me for this thread. This post was not for you, those who don't have friends or don't have items to loan out it does not affect you ^^

AKB48 · May 29, 2009, 04:48 AM // 04:48

Keep your enemies close, but keep your friends closer.

Your greatest enemy are these closest to you, since they know you front and back. So I'd advise watch out who you make friends, be virtual or real, as they are the ones who can hurt you the most.

Also, trade in Kama, since the chance of you getting the item you wanted at a preferable price is much greater than in GtoB, since there are alot more people.(But also more scams......but at least you're safe from this ^ scam

)

pumpkin pie · May 29, 2009, 04:56 AM // 04:56

esthetic, it is against the EULA to impersonate another person.

Xunlai Guru Agent · May 29, 2009, 10:47 AM // 10:47

This happened to me once before. I had 2 accounts at GTOB transferring my XTH earnings. The minute I logged out the mule account (Xunlai Ninja) I get a PM from the scammer using the name (Xunlai Nlnja) asking me return the gold they gave me or they're going to - and I quote - "sue" me. What surprised me the most that he kept on demanding the return even though I told him that he was impersonating MY ACCOUNT!

Still waiting for that subpoena.