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Scamers

AHH! THEY WANT YOUR GOLD!!

Scams DO happen. There are pathetic people here that will try to get your FAKE gold. There have been hundreds of accounts that have been hacked or scammed, and these poor victims LEAVE! What's up with that? The jerk stays but the nice person leaves? There is something wrong with this picture.

And here we have it, this thread.

Many Gaians have been trying to stamp out these scammers in the Charity Forum, because this is a faker's heaven. However, scammers start to reproduce like mad and we need help catching them all.

Scammers are IDIOTS. You can argue the contrary all you want, but in the end, you're just WRONG. They create threads thinking they can get some quick gold. After all, their 1337 and netspeak is obviously superior to our proper grammar, therefore they MUST be smarter than us. FOOLS.

But then, who is the fool? The one who made the error or the one who contributes? Both, in my personal opinion. Therefore, we have this thread to make sure that you, the potential victim ( xd ) are on your toes.

Not only is this a way to spot charity scams, it's also a mini-guide to show those who are new in the Charity Forum what is not appreciated, thread-wise. 3nodding

BEFORE YOU DONATE TO ANYONE, LOOK AT HIS OR HER JOIN DATE AND AMOUNT OF POSTS!

Opening sentence in this color means HIGH ALERT/MOST LIKELY A SCAM.
Opening sentence in this colormeans LOW ALERT/NOT LIKELY.
THIS IS AN EFFING LEGEND. I'm NOT saying that if you use that color you are a scammer. *I* use dark blue font, thank you very much.


Before I begin, take note that these are speculations of mine when I see something sketchy. By no means you have to abide by them, or take them seriously. I only do this because there have been a lot of people who say they have been scammed. I believe the best method is prevention.

Signs of POSSIBLE scams:
(*note how it says "POSSIBLE"*)

arrow The person begging has few posts. This is probably THE most obvious one of them all. If the person who is begging has one post, and it was made in the charity forum, warning signs should pop up. Normally someone's first post is in the Chatterbox, though it's not the case with everyone. However, I doubt the Charity would be the first place because it's located in the Exchange Forum, and WHY would a newbie go to the Exchange if he/she has nothing to sell and hardly has any gold to buy? This person could really be an oldbie with a new account, and is trying to get more gold to send to the older account in order to get nicer things.
If that's not the case... that person is FRIGGIN' LAZY. GAIA BUM. XO

arrow The person who is begging claims to have been hacked/scammed. Okay. After looking at the join date and such, you safely assume that this person had some valuable stuff and you want to help get it back.
Take a look at this: I joined the first of July, I have 7+K posts. I unequip all my clothes. Do I look any different from the person who was supposedly scammed?
However, for these cases, it's good to look at the history of the person, not JUST the post count. Did this person have a shop? A charity? Things like this often point out that the person is telling the truth. Someone with an honest and successful shop doesn't go around saying he/she was hacked.
To those who were hacked/scammed: This happens all the time. I'm sorry. I would be crushed if my avatar lost all his inventory/gold. However, the most sensible thing to do is start all over. Get a good chunk of those inexpensive items back, then start going for those expensive ones again. You got the items once, there's a good chance that you can get most of it back. True, it takes time, but if it's worth it to you, you'll continue. Also, not to sound accusing, but if you got scammed in a deal, there's a good chance it was your fault. A lot of scams happen in the lottos, and if you participate in them, you must understand the implied risk. I'm not saying that it's okay for that person to scam you, but you have been warned. There's no easy street on Gaia.
Remember that Gaia is not responsible for lost/stolen items. 3nodding Read the Terms of Service. You have no idea how many months we've been bitchin' about getting one. xd Then when we have one, no one reads it.

arrow The beggar is begging on behalf of a "friend." This should be self-explanatory but I'll happily provide more info. In my charity, I do not allow people to beg on behalf of their friend. Why? I have no clue if this money actually goes to this "friend." The majority of people who beg for a friend tend to say "friend"-- not the username. Hmmm. Even if the beggar tells the username, I'm still cautious 'cause I still don't know where that gold goes. Unless this friend posts in the thread, then I'll donate. The gold, though, goes to the friend, not the one begging for the friend. Though, caution, that friend may be the scammer's second account.

Part Two: The beggar is begging on behalf of a charity. I just wonder WHY. This is just too dang obvious. Unless this person states WHAT charity, provides the charity thread, and confirms he/she is an employee/staff member/whatever, then walk away.
(Suggested by Silver Archangel)

arrow Charities run by users who have few posts. NOOO! NOT THE CHARITIES! Okay, when I started the "Every-Other-Day Charity" I was a member for two months and I had about 600 (I know, that's low-ish) posts. I was a member long enough to know how Gaia works. However, there are those who were a member for a day or two, are stark naked, and want to start a charity. Oh, but it gets better, yes it does. They want YOU to donate so they can get started! BZZZT! NO! If you want to start a charity, make sure you have gold for it first, THEN ask for donations.

arrow The beggar uses real life situations in order to get attention/donation. (Something I like to call the "Cigarette Scam" XD) NO! gonk This is so unethical that it has to be a scam! Your personal life should remain as it is, personal. Begging for gold because you are sick, because you have limited internet access, your grandma died so you were too depressed to go online, etc., are terrible excuses to get donations. This has two sides: one) this is a big (FAKE) sob story to get attention, and two) this person will actually stoop as low as using their real life situation to get a donation. WRONG. BAD. DON'T DONATE. Remember, Gaia is NOT about the pixel clothing, it's about the friends you can make. XD

arrow The beggar is an oldbie, but with few posts. It has been a tendency on Gaia to donate to the ones with older accounts/those who have nice items (though this one is debatable). Almost makes no sense, but the reasoning behind it is that we, the donators, would rather have the gold to someone who will use it, not to some schmoe who will leave Gaia in a week. What brought this point about is a case where someone had a very old account, but later created a new one and used it as a main account. The user then switched to the old account when the second one had plenty of clothing and asked for donations.

arrow The beggar said his/her account was deleted. Accounts cannot be deleted on Gaia, with the exception of terminating your account if you don't agree with the Terms of Service. In that case, the person was well aware of his or her actions. I'll find a thread with more info, but for now, you're just going to take my word for it. Either the user did something that was a bannable offense, or the user is lying. Anyway, not a good candidate for your gold.

arrow Beggar has a poorly constructed quest thread. Organization is the key for getting donators. They want something that is neat, nice-looking, and specific (includes, but not limited to: list of donators/bumpers, gold accumulated, offer for the item). If a quest thread has been started and it shows little effort, be it the organization of the thread or the user himself, it's a good indication that the person really doesn't want to work for the item, and wants it handed to him. All gold that goes towards that kind of user is wasted on other items, not the quest item. However, this person might be new to questing, kindly nudge them on how to do it right. If they're just being annoying, you know it's a scam, or the person is an ingrate.
(Suggested by _Dragon_Tamer_. Thank you!!)

arrow Questor is offering a valuable item for highest donator. Expensive items (like older donation items, expensive store items) that are being offered in exchange for a large donation are most likely a scam to try to get the donator to donate as much as possible. Anything can help a questor's offer, but if this questor wants to give you a December letter in exchange for your large donation, RUN AWAY. One, this item should be used for the offer. Two, even if this person HAD a December letter (or any other expensive item) to spare, it's all too easy for the questor to vanish, put you on the ignore list and walk away.
(Suggested by Suzumebachi. Thanks for the tip!)

arrow Questor is asking for more than needed. This applies not so much to donation/rare item as it does to store items. If someone was questing for, say, a pair of fairy wings, then there's no reason to ask for more than the 40K to buy it from the store. Of course, they might be questing for something else aside from the fairy wings, but it's always good to ask. If they can't give you a straight answer, get the heck away. XD
(Suggested by Pepparmynta. Thank you!)


DON'T FORGET--EVERYONE DESERVES THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT!
I have encountered people who, despite the fact that they meet every point of this rant, are really deserving Gaians. 3nodding
This post was not meant to scare people. Not everyone is a scammer, just be smart your gold! I donated piles and piles of gold to those who I think are non-scammers!


*pops this quote in here*



And because people get enough of the bold stuff...
Part Two:
How to Deal with a Potential Scam

So, you come across a scam. The actual BEST way to deal with this is to let the thread sink. However, the author is stubborn enough to try to get some gold. Hey, you want to warn people who didn't read this, so you click on "reply" and should you:
A) Do the chicken dance?
B) Flame mercilessly?
C) Calmly and maturely post your concerns?

A is a good answer but the best answer is C.

arrow Do not flame! Flaming is what makes Gaia worse by the minute. It's also embarassing and completely pointless. Flaming contributes nothing to the matter at hand. Flame wars begin and it's a waste of bandwidth. Let's be NICE to Gaia, okay?

arrow Do not insult the author, even if the author insults or offends you. As much as you (and I) want to insult the twip, DO NOT stoop to his or her level. If you two are in a discussion that involves foul language and insults, resort to PMs. Leave the relevant points in the thread.

arrow Do offer suggestions. Heck, they ARE new, and like they say, people learn at different levels. Just because YOU didn't pull off stupid stunts as a n00b doesn't mean everyone else is the same. Kindly suggest the Chatterbox, OR better still, ask if they can help out at the Charity, like bumping threads and such.

arrow Contact a moderator if the situation is out of hand. Contact Green mods for scams or hacks, and purple mods for anything else. That's what they are there for, after all. Remember, Gaia is a PG-13 site so we should try to keep it as clean as possible. 3nodding

Hope this helps and have fun in the Charity Forum! ^^