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 Minimise Your Chances of Being Scammed, Cheated or Hacked
By ladee_sarah
�I�m leaving Neopets so I�m selling my account,� how many times have your heard that? Most people would ignore it as it�s obviously a scam but the odd few unfortunately get caught. By using a little common sense you can minimise your chances of being scammed, cheated or hacked. I�m going to go through a few common scams and point out just how dodgy they are as well as a few things that you can look out for that will help you identify a scam.
Free or Cheap Items
Quite often on the chat boards you�ll see a message along the lines of �Cheap Faerie Paint Brush�, a lot of the time someone is selling their brush and cashing in their investment. But, a lot of the time it is someone offering you a dodgy deal. Look out for people who say buy an item from my shop for 10,000np and then I�ll send you the brush. Once you�ve spent 10,000np of your hard earned items they disappear and you get NOTHING.
To avoid this always make sure you:
A) Directly buy the item you want (99,999np and under)
B) Swap items through the trading post
C) When paying more than 99,999np use the trading post
Selling Accounts
There are a group of people that try to sell their account. They say that they are sick and tierd of playing Neopets and so they are selling their account. The account more often than not has high level and stat pets and you are promised millions of np with the account as well. Once you�ve paid a large sum of neopoints for the account you are given the password (sometimes not even this), then when you log on you find that there is nothing on the account except the pets while they�ve made off with all of your NP.
To avoid this:
Simply do not buy accounts � it�s that simple. If they�re leaving why do they need all your NP?
Buying and Selling Pets
Ads are sometimes placed offering pets to a good home � for a price. Even if they are for real it�s not worth it as any pet over level 1 is quickly snapped up at the Neopian Pound, which is the only way to move a pet from one account to another, so you�re very lucky if you catch it.
People also neomail you asking you to sell your pet, especially if it has a high level, stats and is painted. These people often belong to adoption guilds or are after a strong pet without the bring-them-up and training them part.
Fake items
Some people put fake items in their shops redirecting you to their guild or a fake Neopets log in page. If you end up at either of these go back and report the shop by clicking the link next to the name of the shop, above the shop keeper.
�Change Your E-mail Address�
If someone contacts you promising riches and rare items in return for changing the e-mail address in your user profile DON�T DO IT! If you do this they will be able to get your password e-mailed to the address specified through the Neopets password retrieval system.
Cheat Pages and Programs
If you are directed to a cheat page by all means take a look, we all want to get ahead BUT be very careful! If there is a form on the page and it asks for your username and password it�s a scam, leave the page.
Chain Neomails
Lately there has been a neomail going around supposedly from the Neopets Staff saying that if you forward it on to 10 people then you will receive 5 neggs. Like that�s ever going to happen! The only thing it will do is clog everyone�s inboxes up. The same applies if you receive a neomail about deleting accounts, the Neopets staff have your e-mail if they need to talk to you they�ll use that not neomail!
Choosing Passwords
Don�t choose a password that is related to your username of name it�s far too obvious and these are the first things that a hacker will try. Instead choose something that is ambiguous but that you can still remember.
Most of these things are common sense. If you think about it a bit it is very silly that people get fooled by these things but unfortunately they do.
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