Scam
From Guild Wars Wiki
Scams occur when one player or a group of players deceive other players out of money or goods in-game. The only way to fall victim to a scam is to be unaware of them until they have taken place - they are usually based around an unstable assertion.
[edit] Identifying a scam
In general, any offer that appears to be too good to be true is probably a scam. If you are in doubt as to whether a deal is genuine, ask on a public channel. And, if you catch a scammer in the act, be sure to let everyone around you know what he's up to and report it to Arenanet or PlayNC as soon as possible. To report to PlayNC, follow the instructions below.
[edit] Reporting a scam or policy violation
- Generate proof of the scam. The PlayNC support site recommends that you include the following information about the scam:
- Produce evidence of the scam. This is best done using a screen capture. Press the Chat button (bottom left corner) or the ` key (under Esc). This will bring up the chat log and you can scroll to where the scam took place.
- The name of the player that has committed the scam.
- The area in which the scam took place.
- The time of the scam, including your time zone.
- The character you were playing as at the time.
- Any other information you feel is relevant.
- Proceed to the PlayNC support page (http://www.plaync.com/us/support/)
- Choose your location/language and proceed to the Guild Wars page (http://www.plaync.com/us/support/prod_48.html)
- You need to create an account. Go to the login page and fill in the required information. After submitting you will receive a verification e-mail. After verifying your account you can log in through the same page.
- Fill in the question/report form using the Ask a Question page and submit it to ArenaNet.
[edit] Common scams
There are a few common ways that people can attempt, and often succeed in scamming other players. All of them have hidden, but tell-tale signs that you can, and should, watch out for at all times. The most common scam is the "quicky" scam, which can often go unnoticed for hours after the scam has taken place.
- "Quicky" scams. They rely on distracting your focus and switching the deal without you taking notice. (Detailed below)
- "Report Threats", The scammer will threaten to report you to Anet, if you do not give them gold, or other items of value. Even when you have never dealt with the person before they often just randomly whisper people. Some common text they use are..."I have screenshots as proof", "You jipped me out of gold, give me gold or I will report you." These of course are empty words and you should never give in to them.
- Skill scams. The scammer will use skills such as shadow stepping to take your items. (Detailed below)
- Post Delivery. The scammer will offer to trade you gold post searing for gold pre-searing. Once he has your gold however he may go away. For more details on how to do this safely see the safety guidelines for post delivery.
- Account Scams. (Buying or Selling Guild Wars Accounts) Either you'll give up your password before they pay you, or you'll pay them before they give you full control of the account (which should involve binding the account to a PlayNC account). Not to mention that account reselling, for in-game content (gold or platinum) or real money is against PlayNC policy.
- Amount Scam. When selling high end items that reach the maximum gold trade value. The scammer will offer 100
instead of the maximum 100 
(equal to 100,000 ) in an attempt to have you complete the trade. Double check the trade window before accepting the trade.
- Runner Scams. The scammer will offer to run and want to be paid before the run. After you pay, the runner will leave. To prevent this from happening, ask to see their build in order to see if it is a running build. If unsure, ask how the build works. If they say they don't want to give away their "secret build", it is most likely a scam. Also, try to be able to pay your runner after or during the run (not always possible to pay during it, as is the case when going for masters reward on timed quests) for at least some of what they are asking for.
- Gold-Selling/Third-Party Program account scamming. The scammer will advertise the sale of in-game gold or items for real money(which is a violation of the rules, so don't do it) or even claim to have external programs that give you an "advantage" over other players(Again, third-party programs are a rule violation, so don't use them). The scammer will then advertise a website claiming to have the in-game gold offer or third party program. DO NOT VISIT WEBSITES ADVERTISED BY SCAMMERS FOR ANY REASON. They usually install software on your computer that can record your password when you type it to log on, and then they will most likely use your account to spam the same type of advertisements, so your account may be suspended or banned. Furthermore, gold sellers may take money paid for in-game gold and not give anything in return, so the person buying the in-game gold is losing real money.
- Impersonation scams. The scammer will impersonate a GM or some other ArenaNet or NCsoft employee and attempt to trick players into providing their user names, passwords, account information or personal information such as name and phone number. Do not believe that anyone works for ArenaNet unless they are able to display a large green sign with the letters "GM" over their head in-game, no matter what they tell you (example image here). ArenaNet and NCSoft will never ask you for personal information (including credit card numbers, real names, serial codes, your username and password, etc.) except through support, which is facilitated via e-mail, not in-game. Even then, they will never close your account or otherwise penalize you for refusing to divulge this information.
Anti-Scammer Mindset:
- Will you be giving the other person money before you receive anything in return? Let them know, and ask for some kind of insurance.
- Does it seem too good to be true? It probably is. Think over all of the details and ask yourself how the other person is profiting from this.
- Always read your final trade before accepting, even if you think you know everything in it. If it is an unusually large trade for you, make it a habit to screenshot the final trade before accepting, even if it is legit.
- They wouldn't need you. If someone actually did come up with a program to cheat at Guild Wars (which you should report right away), they wouldn't need you! They'd use it for themselves. Don't ever be tempted by "duplication", etc.
- Never visit websites that claim to sell in-game gold or offer third-party programs. As mentioned above, they usually contain software that will record your password.
[edit] Quicky scams
The scammer will make a perfectly fair, or even slightly generous offer in exchange for your item(s). You will most likely already have a trade open, and their trade is fair at this point. Then something will happen, be it a real life event, or an in-game excuse, such as "hang on, I need to clear inventory space", or some other distraction. They will modify their trade, including their "extra items", or replacing their items for similar looking fakes, and change the amount of gold or platinum they are paying.
How to prevent:
- Check what the other user is offering in trade to start with, and re-check all of the items, and money, every time the trade is modified.
Watch out for:
- People swapping items sharing the same icon, ex. Lilac Eyes for Rubies or Ice for Sapphires.
- Items such as salvage kits or identification kits being swapped for the same item with less uses left.
- Changing the amount of money by a multiple of 10. E.g.: You are originally offered 10 platinum. After the quick change, you are instead being offered 10 gold, or 1 platinum. This change is subtle and easily overlooked.
Similar Scams:
- "The 10% scam" Someone will say something like, "Quitting Guild Wars, giving 10% of the money you show me", then after you've put up 100k they click accept in hopes that you will be excited about getting 10k and quickly click accept without taking down your 100k.
[edit] Skill scams
In this technique, the scammer will offer you just about anything, and this could even pop up as a "trust test", things of this nature. He will take you to an explorable area, where you will be asked to let a mob kill you. After you die, he will resurrect you with Vengeance, or a similar skill, where the scammer is then able to stop maintaining the skill, thus killing you. The last step is when you are asked to drop the item of value, and the scammer stops maintaining the enchantment, allowing him to walk up to, and take, your item without you being able to resurrect, or otherwise prevent him, from reaching your item.
A different method is to shadow step to you and pick up the item, thus too quickly for you to realize what happened. This can be done using assassin skills, or Ebon Escape.
How to prevent:
- Look out for the signs listed below, and simply never get into a situation where this may occur. The majority of reasons you may be pulled into this scam involve unreasonably impressive offers. These are fakes, guaranteed, all the time! If a scammer really was able to run a program and duplicate, improve, or otherwise modify items, he would be doing it for himself to make money, not risking being caught by involving people who may report him.
Watch out for:
- Trust tests. This scam can easily be disguised as a trust test, where you must "trust" that you will be resurrected, and similarly "trust" that you can drop and pick up your rare items in a zone with the other user.
- People who offer ways to let you "cheat" the system. This includes offers to duplicate items, modify item stats, change the amount of items (or gold) dropped, or other things which are blatantly against the rules. If they are legitimate, you can get permanently banned. If they are simply scammers, you will get cheated out of your items, and possibly marked in the future for attempted cheating. Often scammers will go into technical detail about their supposed "programs" that aid them, including details to make the offer seem legitimate.
- "Proof". The scammer may "prove" to you that you can safely drop your item while he is a large distance away from you. However, regardless of how far away he is from you, he is still able to kill you.
- Assassin profession, even as a secondary. This is where most shadow stepping abilities are. However, Ebon Escape also provides shadow stepping.
[edit] Notes
- When a player changes the items in a trade after the inital offer, a warning notice to check the items carefully is placed over the other player's trade window to discourage quickie scams. (Added in a recent patch.)
