Avoiding Scams

Avoiding Scams

(Issue 2/6)

In the previous volume of perfect world tribune, I discussed about website scams. But how about scams in game? After all this is an online game.

With this incoming frost patch which includes new mounts, many players will surely sell their present mounts in favor of the new ones. This could result in many scammers wanted to get something for free.

This brings us to trade scamming.

Trade Scam

A trade scam is when a scammer intentionally used the trade function of the game to get something from you without your explicit consent. There are many ways of trade scams and here are some scenarios you should be wary about.

Example Scenario 1:

Victim shouts: "Selling Leopard 2m"
Scammer sends a private message to Victim: "Party po. Buy ko yan"
Victim and Scammer joins in a party. (This is the part where you will need to be careful.) Scammer opens a trade window, Victim drags the leopard into the trade window then suddenly the scammer cancels the trade. Since the victim is already dragging the pet into that window, he will accidentally drop the leopard into the ground. The scammer then picks it up and leaves the party.

In this scenario, be very careful when dealing your items. When you are not in a party, if you accidentally dropped an item, people around you will have to wait for a few seconds before they can pick your item. BUT if you are in a party with another person, any dropped item can be picked by either of you with no time penalty.

Example Scenario 2:

Victim shouts: "Selling Leopard 2m"
Scammer sends a private message to victim: "Ako po buy ko yan"
Scammer opens a trade window and puts 2m, Victim puts the leopard. Scammer cancels the trade and makes up an excuse why he cancelled it. Scammer then opens another trade window. Victim puts the leopard again while scammer puts in some money. When the victim clicks on lock, he wont be able to cancel the trade anymore. So if the victim didn't count the money before he locked the trade, he might be duped into accepting only 200k and not the 2m price.

In this scenario, once you locked the item but you still haven't clicked the button trade, you might want to use Alt+f4 (exit the game) to close the client and login again. Otherwise say bye-bye to your beloved item.

Example Scenario 3:

Scammer shouts: "Selling Indigo Warding Talisman Fist! 1.5m"
Victim, wanting to take advantage of the cheap BG, sends a private message: "Deal po"
Scammer opens a trade window and puts in the holy weapon. Victim puts 1.5m. Scammer cancels the trade window and makes up an excuse why he cancelled it. Scammer then opens another trade window. Scammer puts in a weapon that looks like the holy weapon, Victim puts in 1.5m and then they traded. Once the victim receives the item, he will be the proud new owner of the Vorpal Claw.
In this scenario, the scammer makes use of the similar image icons of the holy weapon and the normal weapon. Many items in this game have similar image icons, so whenever you open a trade window which involves a holy equipment or something that has much value, make sure you are dealing with the correct item.

Indigo Warding Talisman Fist
trade1
Vorpal Claw
trade2

These are some of the common trade scams we have already identified in the game. In truth, scammers often find many ways of exploiting normal game features. We, as players, have to be cautious. In this game, double check the items everytime you're trading or you can find yourself holding trash instead of cash.

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