I'm going to try and keep this simple. The world needs more love, and I try to keep from hating things, but one of the only things I hate is when people scam other people. I report every scammer I find and at least once a month go on a "scammer hunt." where I go looking for scammers on the post, collect names, and send an email to neopets to report them. Over time, I've collected many common scams, and some not-so-common one's as well. I'll try to update this page as soon as I discover a new scam, so keep checking back. If you know of a scam I do not have listed here, feel free to email it to me at [email protected] or neomail me at Jeredrakes. As always, safe Neopetting. ~Jere

Common Scams

1) Selling neopets or an account on Neopets is a scam. Anyone asking for money or for an unfair trade for their account or neopet is trying to scam you.

2) Sharing accounts is NOT allowed on Neopets. NEVER give your password to anyone, for any reason. Anyone asking for your password is trying to scam you.

3) Hidden Tower items are Hidden Tower items. There is no way (short of someone clicking the wrong button in a trade and accepting your 1np offer) you can get a hidden tower item for 1 np or anything less than what it is worth.

4) Anyone who says they have an extremely rare item (ie. baby paint brush, mystery island paint brush, pirate paint brush, Krawk, zaptwig, etc.) that they will simply GIVE you if you bid incredibly overpriced on their bad item (ie. toy sail boat, volcanic rock, snowball, omelette, bottle of sand, etc) it is a scam. If they had the item and were willing to do a trade like that, they would put it up for the price they are asking.

5) Anyone who asks you to go to their user lookup and give them an item (codestone, faerie, dubloon, map piece, whatever) and they will tell you a big secret to earning tons of neopoints, THAT is a scam. They take your item and tell you to copy and paste what is in their user-lookup to your user-lookup. Then you become a scammer as well.

6) Someone posts or gives you a link that supposedly can earn you millions of neopoints. You click on it and end up at a sign-in page. DO NOT FILL IT OUT. They want your user information so they can take your account. You may click on an object in a store that will take you to a place like that, too. If the address in your browser is not from http://www.neopets.com/, do not fill it out, report the person. Neopets has made this scam harder to duplicate, as they now have two sign in screens, but please, please be aware when signing in.

7) You get a neomail from 'the neopets team' (supposedly) and they ask for your user information because they really need it. Do NOT give it to them. People from Neopets will not contact you through neomail.

8) A new scam going around is in the shops. They tell you to right click on an item, ignore the warning that comes up and (while still holding down the right click button) hold down the enter key for seven seconds. It supposedly gives you paintbrushes or neopoints or whatever the newest version is. It will not. It buys that overpriced item seven times, taking your neopoints and leaving you with a useless item.

9) Shop contests. Buy X amount of items for WAY overpriced and get entered in this contest for a paint brush or codestone or faerie or some such other item. This is a lie to get you to buy overpriced items. SCAM.

10) Sometimes, when you are on a search for an item, the wiz brings up an item that looks great. For example, a codestone for 100np. You click and get to the shop ASAP and click on the codestone. A window pops up asking if you are sure you want to buy the codestone for 10,000 np? SCAM. Many, MANY shops have items like this. ALWAYS look at the pop-up screens and make sure you are buying what you think you are buying, at the price you wished to buy it at.

11) Item Deceit: This is a category all it's own and the most frequently updated. Many items on neopets look like other items, or sound like other, more rare items. I've tried to make a list of the one's I am aware of, but please let me know if there are more.

· Starberry- This does not paint your pet starry. It's food.

· Plushies- Many people will try to say a plushie will change you pet into the plushie species. ONLY MAGICAL PLUSHIES CHANGE YOUR PET! If it does not have the word "Magical" or "Enchanted" it WILL NOT change your pet.

· Essence of Everlasting Apple- This DOES NOT change normal apples of any kind into Everlasting Apples. It is a healing potion.

· Raw Potato- This is NOT a *Battle Potato* it is food worth maybe 10np. Do not be fooled.

· Blizzard Ring- This is NOT a Hidden Tower item. The Tornado Ring greatly resembles the Blizzard ring, but IS a Tower item. Thanks to dis310 for this warning.

· Golden Ivy Leaves- These are also not Hidden Tower items. They are often mistaken for Earth Fairy Leaves, which ARE a Hidden Tower item. Thanks to dis310 for this warning.

· Trilo Bite- This is NOT A PETPET. It's a Tyrannian food.

· Crablett- This is ALSO a tyrannian food, NOT A PETPET. Thank you to Bla_bla_dumbo for this warning.

· Usul Cloud Perfume- This will NOT paint your pet cloud(y). Thank you to Bla_bla_dumbo for this warning.

· Cherry Wish Stick- This does NOTHING. It doesn't grant wishes, it's just an object, like a toy sail boat.

· Lucky Dice- This item WILL NOT make you luckier and WILL NOT give you more neopoints or better items. They are JUST A TOY.

· Fish Eggs- These WILL NOT hatch into fish neggs, DO NOT be fooled. They are food.

· Oak Wish Stick- This does NOTHING. It doesn't grant wishes, it's just an object, like a toy sail boat.

· Turkey and Potato Dinner- This IS NOT a rare Meridell food... It's a cheap food that you can buy for about 500np on any given day.

· Goodie Bags- These DO NOT give out high-priced items. If you are lucky you get maybe 200np worth or items, not 200,000np. Thanks to Iamherenowthanks for this tip.

· Stockings- Same as the goodie bags- They DO NOT give out high priced items, you will get maybe 200np worth of junk items. Thanks to iamherenowthanks for this tip.

· Paint Brush Plushies- Please be aware that there are now plushies that resemble the rare paint brushes of Neopia. They are NOT worth what the actual paint brushes are worth but they CAN be used to scam people into bidding on them, thinking they are real paint brushes. Thanks to gluepy2 for this tip.

12) People will put up trades like dubloons, cheap petpets, cheap scorchstones, faeries, orb of the fire faerie, circlet of the air faerie, wand of the earth faerie and so on. In the wishlist they type in all caps or put many *** and shout that they will trade you this item for ONLY ONE CODESTONE or two codestones or two faeries or whatever they are asking that appears to be a good price. More often than not you could go and buy the item for a LOT cheaper than what they are asking. Always ALWAYS check the Wiz before bidding on ANYTHING.

13) Information should always be given freely. Anyone asking you to give them something before they tell you some huge 'secret' is trying to scam you.

14) People offering to tell you where certain secret, hidden places are in return for you bidding outrageous things on their crap items are trying to scam you. There is no Dark Faerie cave, Queen Faerie Cave, or anything else of the like save for the Hidden Tower. There is now a Jelly World that you can visit. Anyone telling you otherwise, unless they can actually give you a LINK... is trying to scam you.

15) People will often post trades that appear really great. People will often buy items that resemble hidden tower items, or expensive Battledome items. People will post these items in the hopes that you won't quite remember the name of the more expensive and better items, and will bid unfair prices on their lot. Don't let it happen. ALWAYS check prices before you bid. Thank you to dis310 for submitting this scam.

16) Many, many people prey on the good-hearted with scams saying they have lost all their neopoints or just never had any neopoints. They will ask you to donate items and neopoints to help them out. They may be telling the truth or they may be scamming hundreds of good samaritans out of thousands of neopoints every day. Please be careful who you give neopoints or items to in your attempts to help.

17) Not much of a scam, but one that happens often. People will put up a dumb item like a toy sail boat or a volcanic rock and ask you to dump your junk with them. While this may be good in theory, and is all right if you don't want to go through the trouble of selling your items, it gets people a lot more money than you would think, and after awhile your 'junk' can add up... in someone else's bank, if you let it.

18) Some people at the trading post will post a wishlist that contains something along the lines of "Copy and paste this to your wishlist and go to the lost desert paint brush stall and you will find a paintbrush on the floor. This has worked with everyone who has tried it!" or "this truly works! post this message on 10 differant trades and go to faerieland and you will find a baby paintbrush +1000000np" It's not actually scamming you for anything, but it's dumb and does not work. It only makes you look foolish.

19) I am putting this item scam apart from the others because it is somewhat of an unsolved mystery with the BLUE UNI PLUSHIE. There are TWO DIFFERENT images for them. The plushie facing to the right is worth 50K (50,000) and the plushie facing to the left is worth 2K (2,000). The only notable difference is the picture and the description once the item is bought. Thanks to iamherenowthanks for this tip, odd as it was, it's good to know!

20) Many people will post a magical plushie for a great price, but when you bid will reject your offer. They neomail you afterwards, saying it was a mistake, could you re-bid. In the haste to rebid for the item(s) it's easy to ignore that fact that the item is not the one you originally bid upon but one very similar and much, much cheaper. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS! Check ALL items carefully before bidding! Thanks to Iamherenowthanks for this tip!

Some scams which are slightly more rare

1) Treasure, Spooky, Underwater, and space maps are all ONE TIME USE items. You can find the spooky treasure ONCE, the real treasure ONCE, and so on. Only the lab map will allow you to go back to the lab ray every day without having to buy an entire new map. After you use the map, it will disappear and you will not be able to use it for anything else. If you want to buy more than one map you can find the treasures more than once, however, I have found it to be senseless because the maps cost more than the treasures give you.

2) Someone tells you they can give you neopoints (i.e. 100K, 500K, 1 million np, ect). They refer you to another name to neomail, and you are asked for your username and password so they can put the neopoints into you account. This is a SCAM. Do NOT EVER give out your password to ANYONE for ANY reason. Thank you to adidasjsd7 for the tip-off to this scam.

3) Someone bids a low-price item on your expensive item (ie a common book for a rare paint brush). Another person neomails you saying they will buy the low-priced item from you for what the paintbrush is worth. Do not be fooled! It is very likely the two people are in fact the same person, and that person is looking to scam you out of your expensive item. Thanks to gluepy2 for this tip.

Please be wary of offers that are too good to be true. Always check the wiz before bidding in auctions or on trades at the trading post- don't let yourself be an easy target for scammers. Never give your password or any other information to anyone you don't know in real life.