Avoid Getting SCAMMED!!!

The Neopets Tip

(originally created by Sunyee)
Last Updated: April 11, 2003 NST

| Password Scams | Fake Login Pages | Chain Letters | Shop Scams | Cheating Guilds |

| Referral Scam | Weird Scams | Account Scam | NeoItem Scam | Adopted Pet Scam |

| Outside Email Addresses |  Scamming vs. Hacking | AOL & Instant Messenger Scams |

| Other User Submitted Tips | Other Avoid Scammers Sites |

| Commentaries from Happy Visitors |

April 11, 2003 News!!!
Elephante77 just completed her monthly update of this scammers guide today. More commentaries from happy visitors has been added!! You may continue to neomail that account if you have a suggestion or advice to give regarding scammers. Elephante77 only checks her neomail once a month to make updates to this site, so please do not expect a reply ASAP if you neomail her. Enjoy and stay safe!

Neopets Staff NEVER asks you for your password.  NEVER give it out!!!  I've heard of people who gave their passwords to their "NEOFRIENDS" and realized that their entire account got stolen.  I've even heard of people giving their password to their family members and they're accounts got looted.  So if you are going to give out your password, then know that you may not see your account again.

Also, below is a screenshot of a tip given by the Chia Security Expert:

If you read my original Opening Page, remember this comment I made??

So beware, scammers main targets are newbies, because they know that newbies are new to the game and are totally innocent and naive to the NeoPets world.  So be really careful!!!  Also there is NO SHAME in being new to a game, it just sucks if your VERY first friendly neomail happens to be from a scammer.

TIP from Voodoodidi - You can give your account name to people (how else will they know about your shop, pets, etc). But never give out your password or the email address you use. Also, never change your email because someone asks you too.  (Thanks Voodoo for the clarification!)

TIP : NEVER set your password the same as your NeoID

TIP : NEVER let your password be something easy like 12345 (like in Spaceballs)

TIP : Always remember your OWN neoid and password!!!!

Here's a Case Study of what to watch out for when you read your neomails.   As you will see, this guy can't even really type nor write.  But either way, always report something like this to abuse@neopets.com .   Give the Neopets Staff the NeoID of the people that send neomails like this.   Or use the NeoPets AutoForm.

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(Section taken from Solsi's Hall of Shame! )

Dishonesty makes me sad. Shame on these bad Neopians!

The Under 500 NP Guild
Despite their claims, they have lots of things over 500 NP. Shame.

The Groovy Guild
Its not "groovy" to join other guilds to spy, and post nasty messages, then return to your guild.
That's what these dishonest guild people do. They also post mean messages about other guilds.

00lilxprincess00
Honest Neopian dragontrainerjillian wrote in to tell us about this girl who was scamming people with dishonest shop contests. She advertised prizes of faeries and codestones, and never delivered. Shame!
 

Battle Dome Cheaters!
Pet name: rulez. Owner name: fallenang3l. Type of Offense: Battledome cheating. Reason for accusation: Person in question was fighting against Grylf in the battledome; said person was reduced to approximately one third of their hit points. Person mysteriously made no moves - for apparently about four hours. When person finally had made a move, although no healing moves were made,the person's hit points had mysteriously been maximized. Probable reason: Wheel of Excitement used until a healing result achieved. Shame!!

The Tablet of Sillies
skelobrain. This little one sent Solsi a hate-mail. Guess Solsi is doing his job. We'd like to thank him for the good laugh he gave us. **still chuckling**

(This Section taken from Solsi's Hall of Shame!  If you want to read more, please visit his page.)

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#6 - Here is something that happened to me and to another fellow O21G member.  We both noticed some unusually HIGH referral activities from our referral links.  We were both happy that we were getting so many referrals and happy with the prizes rolling in too.  But then over one weekend, I received over 30 new referrals.

Well, not too long later, my account was disabled because the Neopets Staff thought I was cheating with their referral system.  Basically a scammer or hacker decided to use my referral link and generated a bunch of FAKE userids.  The Neopets Staff that helped me fix the problem couldn't understand why anyone would want to jeopardize another person's referral ID account. 

But they assured me that I wasn't the only target.  I guess that made me feel better.   However, I was lucky, I explained my situation and got my account back, NOTHING was stolen nor missing.

So the moral of this story is, IF YOU NOTICE some UNUSUAL activity going on, it probably   means something is wrong.   I would just have a neomail ready and be prepared to send it once your account gets disabled.  Or perhaps it's time to change your password.

To this day I am still getting a high number of referrals, despite the fact that I have taken off ALL my referral links.  Oh well, at least I still got my NeoPets account and all the fake ones got closed.

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#7 - I really don't know what to think of this scam but I guess this is a scammers way to try and cheat by using someone else's account to do the dirty work.

Supposedly this girl got her 1st account hacked into.  So she opened up a 2nd account.  She was told through a 3rd party to find a million neopoints cheat code and send it to the 3rd party and to the scammer who is now holding her account hostage.  Once she provides them with the cheat information, her account will be returned to her.

I really don't know what the connection is between this girl and the hacker and the 3rd party guy, but I'm sure there's more to it.  But should anyone have their accounts held up for ransom, just report the whole thing to abuse@neopets.com and have the NeoPets Staff work it out.  Why do I suggest this???  For several reasons :

(1)  Your 2nd account will get frozen if NeoPets Staff finds out your
sending cheat information through your neomail account

(2)  What gurantee would you have of your 1st account being released from the ransom/hostage??

(3)  There is no million neopoints cheat code, if there was one, it probably doesn't work anymore.

(4)  Always remember that NeoPets is just a game.

(5)  Might as well report every party that's involved in this hostage situation and see what happens from there.  Cause obviously there's a very good chance if you send the cheat information, you'll never see your 1st account anyway.   So might as well let the NeoPets Staff handle this and who knows, you just might get your account back.  ^_^

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Here's another weird scam! LOL!!  Thanks Butterfly for your submission.   This was an alert post made by babycub about people looking for hackers!!!  I would avoid doing what this says!!!

"My friend said there's a way to get rid of hackers for good! Report them to searchforhackers@yahoo.com Give them your Username and Password and the Hackers username!! "

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Here's another scam sent to me by a concerned Neopets user:

I was in a shop and it said that I had 2 select and item to buy right click button. When I was going to buy a codestone for 3,000 with my 12,000 neopoints, but as soon as i clicked the right button there was a crying Chia and a laughing sloth and in writing below them it said,"Your acount can only be saved if you give me your [Im not allowed to say the word in neomail] or your acount will be disabled, signed the the staff"I put it in and my user and the chia and sloth were laughing and saying your acount is gone hahahahaha. I know your not going to give me any money, but please worn other people about this.

Neopets user,
big_dog_jak

Don't be intimitated when you get sent to a website outside of Neopets. It's nearly impossible for you to lose your account if you simply click on an item in someone's shop to buy it. The only way is if you get tricked into giving them your password. So just don't be intimitated and you'll be fine. Always report any scammer shop to the Neopets Staff.

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1)  Ebay Auctions, Yahoo Auctions, NeoPets Auctions, or ANY auctions
2)  NeoPets Trading Posts
3)  Neo-Shop

Be aware!  It is against NeoPets Terms of Service to sell or trade away a NeoPets Accounts in exchange for items or money.  Do NOT fall for these.  Don't even think about buying a NeoPets accounts.  It may not be a scam, the original account holder may really be trying to sell away their accounts, but it is against the NeoPets rules and the account will be frozen.  So don't bid nor trade items to anyone that is trying to sell away their accounts.

I believe it is ok to GIVE away an account completely (with no strings attached).  I know lots of people who no longer wish to care for their pets GIVE AWAY their accounts to their trusted friends and family members.  But NEVER buy an account from someone. 

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"At the trading post there is this item called the Magic Fish.  Its a toy but  some  people are trying to trade it off for a lot claiming that this toy gives out fish neggs.  I know the magic fish doesnt give out fish neggs, but there will be someone out there that will believe this." ~ Kibby

I believe Kibby has made an EXCELLENT point here.  Be aware of what you purchase!  Know what the neoitem really does before investing hundres of thousands into it.   Of course, this only applies if you are trying to purchase something that is overpriced because the person promises that it can do something special.

This neoitem scam does not apply to just buying a neoitem for fun.  I often buy neoitems and don't know what it does.   Why would I do that??   Well, I do it for fun.  After all, it's only neopoints.  I randomly buy a neoitem to experiment with it.  I often spend lots of neopoints buy neggs and battledome weapons just to see what they do.  I NEVER blame the shopkeeper if the item isn't up to my expectations. 

However if the shopkeeper overprices an neoitem and promises in his or her shop descripition that the neoitem is supposed to have some special properties, then I would always question it.

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Poor little fish neggs scam submitted by Butterfly

"Most of them (referring to Neoitem scams) however involve fish neggs (cooking pot recipes for fish neggs, water petpets and/or fish related toy that will generate fish neggs, etc etc). Since so many scams involve that poor lill Negg, I thought it would be a good idea to mention there is no recipe for it, nor items generating it".

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Faerie Totem SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
submitted by Buttefly as well ^_^

Also, still on the items of scams, there is a scam that recently came out, saying basically the following : "Did you know, that if you have the faerie totem with you all the time, every time you go to the healing springs, the faerie will at least restore all your neopets hit points! "

The trick, of course, does not work, never did, never will. The intend of this ingenious scam is to raise the value of faerie totems (I guess someone piled up a big stock in a corner, or something). At this point, faerie totems are retired, but still very affordable in the shop wizard (under 4000np).

However, if everyone carries a faerie totem with them "all the time", the only thing that is going to happen is... yes, you guessed it... the devil pant/grundo leader will snatch them. Each victim of this scam is 1 less faerie totem in neopia. Since the item is retired, they are lost forever. If this scam manages to propagate, this adorable (and affordable) purdy looking item will become a rare and expensive unbuyable.

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#10 - Adopted Pet SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
submitted by Sunyee 11/20/2001

I was sickened by this email from simon rosenberg (sim272333)  This was the neomail he sent to me the instant I adopted a pet from a VERY good friend of mine in Neopets : "Please take good care of my butterfly_spirit. Did I leave the petpet with it? If i did could i please have it back because i really need it. You are very lucky to have butterfly-spirit...it is a great pet"

#1 - I know EXACTLY where my butterfly_spirit came from.  He is a very beautiful pet that was given to me from a very good friend who no longer wished to play Neopets.  My friend butterflysoul had played neopets for a very long time but he no longer could play.  So he gave me his beautiful butterfly_spirit.

#2 - It is SICK and disgusting that someone would dare to neomail me CLAIMING that butterfly_spirit onced belonged to him!!! 

#3 - Simon's account is only 1 month old, how could HE possibly have a neopet that is at Level 48???

#4 - PLEASE beware of scammers that send you neomail asking you to RETURN a pet or a petpet to them!  DO NOT give your pet away. 

But there is an exception to this rule.  There are lots of adoption agencies in Neopets.   If someone is adopting a neopets to another, and you somehow got in the middle of the adoption, you can easily tell by looking at your pet description.  Generally in your pet description, it'll say WHAT adoption agency the pet is coming from, and WHO is should end up going to.  If by reading that pet description and you realize that pet should have gone to someone else, then contact that person or contact the adoption agency.   They will be more than happy to work something out with you.

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