Known scams

[TangledSwerve]

Just thought it might be helpful to start a thread that highlights known scams, to help provide a basis of what to be aware of when trading or dealing less than honest players in FT. (Also, please note: All screenshots included are replication examples made by using my own alts - they are not actual scammers)

Please feel free to add to this, as it would be a helpful reference for players wishing not to fall foul of the dishonest minority.

First rule, though: if it sounds too good to be true - it usually is.



+2 Armour/Weapon stack trade scam:

Screenshot_20190923-042735.png (510.3 KiB) Viewed 3474 times

Usually a player either randomly trade spam, making a suggested price (Included in the offer) and wait for you to either reciprocate with the amount or close the trade, etc.

What follows is this:

Screenshot_20190923-041303.png (498.03 KiB) Viewed 3474 times

It is seemingly a stacking glitch associated with +2 weapons and armor that creates this blue ? graphic. DO NOT CONTINUE TRADING, IF YOU SEE THIS.

Not only will you lose whatever you offer in terms of gold or items, you will also not receive ANY item in return.

Instead, screenshot and report this to GMInbox

[TangledSwerve]

Item Untick Swap

Pretty standard but, essentially some highly valuable item is offered and in the process of trading the scammer swaps out their agreed trade with something worthless. Their hope, that the player will confirm the trade before they realise they've been duped.

It may seem like a hard one to fall for, but all to often people have. And in doing so, lost either billions or an item of great value.

The attachment Screenshot_20190923-044713.png is no longer available

[TangledSwerve]

Gold or item beggars.

Probably the most common scam. Low level alts that spam trade and beg for gold or items. You can be guaranteed that 100% of the time it is lazy player seeking to make easy money from the benevolent (And there are many, believe it or not) However, a fair proportion of that time the aforementioned gold/item is funneled to a high lvl alt.

In the past, I have encountered a particularly dishonest player who bragged how they'd made 505m by doing this exact thing.

Screenshot_20190923-205017.png (1.46 MiB) Viewed 3439 times

(FYI: This is an actual player begging my sword, LeChuck. So far, the only exception to my aforementioned statements about screenshots. Also, note: Trade spam from his accomplice)

[SellSword]

Probably the most common scam. Low level alts that spam trade and beg for gold or items.

The Ardesia beggar kid "quest" was actually written with this type of thing in mind.

Common sense though, what level 0-10 character needs 1m gold when they beg?

[TangledSwerve]

[
The Ardesia beggar kid "quest" was actually written with this type of thing in mind.

Common sense though, what level 0-10 character needs 1m gold when they beg?

Well, as I've noted already, this scam works. And it's more because I suspect there are some with more than can ever spend. Common sense has very little to do with it at that point, more complete apathy or sometimes a desire to perhaps as the benevolent player.

Downside is, every else has to endure these wretches trade spamming and often delving into further dishonest behaviours. The individual included in the screen shot, even went so far as to mention his brother (Who I previously encountered running around today and yesterday PM & Trade spamming for gold at the bank, blacksmith and start. A lvl 12 sword who then tried to sell my lvl 55 alt, superior gold leggings)

Screenshot_20190922-235403.png (1.46 MiB) Viewed 3417 times

The sole point of this thread, is to highlight with clear emphasis what sort of dishonest behaviour, and tactics those unitiatied with this game can expect. It is in full of acknowledgement that some (Particularly, young & otherwise naive) players do not always possess common sense.

[LostKnight]

I can't remember who right now, I'll use: "bobbygee" but while fishing yesterday I see:

Code: Select all

bobbygee: 20m

I thought well why not:

Code: Select all

LostKnight: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

never heard back, guess he was happy.

[Grahf]

The ones who private message me asking for gold i give em all the same reply no matter what amount.

Them: "please 100m"
Me: "I'll give you 100m if you give me 101m"

Most don't really like that answer tho but tend to leave me alone afterwards lolll cause like posted above what does a level 20 need 100m for

But least now they cannot spam open the trade window no longer now that was annoying

Another thing is if you sell something to someone for gold always double check the amount of gold cause some people try to be sneaky and put in much lower amount of gold trying to pull a fast one on you (just like how some will swap expensive items for cheap items) i was selling pets and the buyer said he'd buy them for 2.5b each which is 5b for both which in game would be 5000M (5,000,000,000 when you type it out in a trade) but when the trade commenced i put pets in the trade and he had put 5000K (5,000,000) and had hit accept and had hoped i wouldn't realize after i cancelled the trade and told him he was missing some gold on his offer he simply didn't answer and logged out so best advice take your time and double check everything in the trade window when trading with unknown players cause those few extra seconds can potentially save you hours down the road

[Leone]

I've another type of incident that could potentially lead to scamming.

The background is that a couple of days ago, a friend's alt approached my character and said: 'hi, I'm player X's' alt. This was fine as I verified it by sending a pm to my friend's main. He replied to say yes.

No problem - all above board and ok.

The incident it reminded me of was a year or two ago. Someone approached my main and said 'I'm player XYZ's alt. Friend request me'.

So I did exactly that without verifying he was who he said he was first.

Then he started asking for gear and gold.

At this point, I got suspicious and deleted him from my friend list.

I then contacted my friend and asked if the other guy was his alt. His answer? No.

So, I've learnt from that mistake and always verify first!

[LostKnight]

To add to what Grahf said ...

But least now they cannot spam open the trade window no longer now that was annoying

HUGE +1 on that. Although not in all versions of the app. I run the Linux version and I'm, still getting it.

{snip - see above} essentially: 5,000K (5,000,000) is not 5,000M (5,000,000,000) GO SLOW!

You missed another crucial thing here, "check the name of the other person", as a trusted friend and I found out. Some guy slipped a trade in between our transactions and 1b gold went to the wrong person.

1. - TRADE WITH TRUSTED FRIENDS!
2. - If an item can be bought in a shop - sell it to a shop.

[Grahf]

To add to what Grahf said ...

But least now they cannot spam open the trade window no longer now that was annoying

HUGE +1 on that. Although not in all versions of the app. I run the Linux version and I'm, still getting it.

{snip - see above} essentially: 5,000K (5,000,000) is not 5,000M (5,000,000,000) GO SLOW!

You missed another crucial thing here, "check the name of the other person", as a trusted friend and I found out. Some guy slipped a trade in between our transactions and 1b gold went to the wrong person.

1. - TRADE WITH TRUSTED FRIENDS!
2. - If an item can be bought in a shop - sell it to a shop.

Yes agreed its why i only deal with people i don't know very rarely I'll add that this was a little while ago cause the only items i sell for gold are usually pets now a days other items like you said if are buyable in shops i sell in shops much less of a headache the rest of the items that aren't i usually just keep and or give to friends that are in need for free haha cause you never know what you might need down the road for a quest or something