Scams and Scammers: The Dark Side of Neopia

Most of the citizens of Neopia that you will deal with are decent folk, but Neopia has it's dark side, too. Sadly, there are some users who come to Neopia just to ruin your fun. Learn to protect yourself from them before it is too late. First of all, never give you password to anybody, regardless of how convincing their story. Neopets staff will never need it, and an honest Neopian will never ask for it. Always report scammers to abuse@neopets.com. Here are some other more specific scams:

Fake Random Events This is something you will find in shops. Some are hamless and fun like "Aishas are cool" , some containing wanrnings like the one in my shop, but some are lies promising rare items for buying from that shop. This is the one that I used to have in my shop to warn others:

Random events in shops (like what you see above) are not random!!!! They must be programmed into the shop description. Please do not believe those promising good things will happen if you buy from that shop.

Sharing Accounts Some people will post that they want to share accounts. This is a bad idea from the begining since you should never let anyone know what your password is, especially some stranger who wants to create/share an account with another stranger. Sharing accounts is risky at best. Often what happens is you build up the account and your "partner" either strips and abandons it or locks you out of it. In short, play safe and don't share accounts.

Note: Neopets has officially frowned on account sharing. This was posted on the news page for October 30, 2002: People have been asking for an official clarification on whether sharing accounts is allowed on Neopets. The answer is no. Please do not share your accounts with anybody, or give your password out to anybody else whatsoever. We aren't actively freezing people who share accounts, but may do so in the future.

Fake "Neopets Staff" Neomail/Email/Instant Messenger The only neomail account that the neopets staff uses to contact users is theneopetsteam. And they will never ask for your password or require anything from you to award you with a prize. Also remember that no member of the Neopets staff will ever contact you through any instant messenger service/email.

Pyramid Scams Ocassionally you will find a shop, user profile, or neomail with the promise of a "secret way to earn lots of neopoints". All you have to do is send them an item or buy an overpriced item from their shop and they will send you the information. They almost always include a phrase about being scammed before, so they know how it feels and would never scam anyone else. Don't believe them. The "secret" they tell you is to copy their shop description, user profile information, or neomail and do the same thing they are doing. Never send/buy items in exchange for information. It's never worth the price you pay. Remember, if you need help, tips, or general information either neomail one of us Newbie Guardians or ask in the Newbie Chat or Help Chat.

Neopets listed the Pyramid Scam as a freezable offense on September 4, 2002. From the news page: I have a secret... Anyone who has one of those annoying 'I have a secret to make NP, give me an item and I will tell you' scams will now be frozen immediately. If you have one in your shop, trading post, user lookup, pet lookup, auction, guild etc I suggest you remove it pronto!

Passwords in ********* Some scammers/hackers will post messages boasting about the great/paranoid Neopets security measures. They will say that typing in your password will always show up as stars (********). What they hope you will do is type your password to try it out and then they can swoop in and steal your account. The only place you should ever type in your password is on the login page at: http://www.neopets.com/loginpage.phtml because that is the only secure location.

Pets for sale/trade In these cases, the scammer will offer to sell or trade a pet for np or rare items. You can not sell/trade your pet...the only way you can transfer pets between accounts is to put it up for adoption. There is no guarantee that whoever "buys" it will get there quickly enough to adopt it.

Accounts for sale/trade One of the most popular scams right now is to offer to sell or trade the entire account. The scammer will promise to send you the password once he or she has received your payment. You almost never receive the password. All unwanted accounts should be deleted.

Here is the question/answer from the Neopian Times Editorial, week 3:
There are a lot of people who say that the highest bidder in the Trading Post will get their account, is this true?
Nope, this is another scam to get you to bid thousands of Neopoints for nothing. You may not sell, trade or buy a NeoPets account or Pets for Neopoints, money, NeoPets' Items, or anything else. Plus it doesn't make sense, if they really are getting rid of their account, why would they want thousands of Neopoints? Just report anybody you see doing this to abuse@neopets.com.

This is true for online auction sites like E-Bay, as well. You can sell "real" items online, but you are not allowed to sell the strictly virtual ones.

Here is what the News Page said on October 4, 2002: We have noticed some people selling Neopoints on various auction sites. This is absolutely, completely, utterly, and beyond a shadow of a doubt against the rules. Anybody who buys or sells Neopoints for real money will have all their accounts frozen. Sorry about that, but it just prompts people to cheat others to sell their stuff, and therefore we have chosen to ban it. And this was posted in the Editorial for week 57 of the Neopian Times: Note from the editor Before I start I just want to remind everyone that selling accounts, Neopets or Neopoints on any Auction site is not allowed. If you have bought a plushie, notebook, stickers ect from a shop that is fine, but you can't auction virtual things as that is against our Terms and Conditions.

Free accounts This looks fairly innocent on the surface, but this may be one of the worst scams of all. Once a hacker has stolen an account and stripped it of anything valuable, they will often post the password to it on the chat boards. Often the real owner of the account has no idea his or her account has been given away. When the real owner comes looking for it, the new owner often is pegged as a scammer/hacker while the real scammer/hacker is free to continue.

Trading without the Trading Post Three words: don't do it. Scammers will come up with convincing stories about how their computer somehow will not work with the Trading Post. You will notice that the scammer always wants you to trade first because he or she has "been scammed too many times before". If you send the item first, you will not receice anything back. Play it safe and always use the Trading Post.

Items in exchange for information All legitmate information is available for free somewhere on the site. If you can't find it, either neomail one of us Newbie Guardians or ask in the Newbie Chat or Help Chat. Never send/buy items in exchange for information. It's never worth the price you pay...

"Leaving Neopets sales" Recently there have been several shops that say "I'm leaving neopets, so buy my stuff." Most of the time they have some sort of sad story to go with it. The prices are always high. Don't fall for it. If they are leaving, why do they need to charge so much? Some of them will tell you they want to donate the money to the Money Tree. If they were really leaving, they could just donate the items themselves.

Neositting/shop stocking For this scam, they will ask for someone to either look after their pets or take care of their shop while they are gone. They will want your password before they give you their password, so they "can be sure you want try to take the account." Remember rule number one: Never give out your password to anyone. Always use the Neolodge.

NP/Item Generators These scammers will actually try to make you believe they have this magical program to put np in your bank account or items in your safety deposit box. They claim they will need your password to make it work, or they will tell you that you have to change your e-mail to the one on their site. There are NO np/item generators or "special codes".

Fake items in shops Sometimes great items will be listed at really cheap prices, but when you click on them, a fake log-in page appears. Never log-in to a site that does not have http://www.neopets.com/loginpage.phtml as the URL. Fortunately most of them are so poorly done that they are easy to spot...

Contests All contests have been banned. This includes both shops and guilds. Don't participate in them and don't buy from shops that have them.

The following is from the Neopets Help Section: I am afraid we cannot allow any contests anywhere on Neopets. There is no way to make sure that the contests are legitimate. The majority of contest winners are just friends of the shop owner, or fake accounts. We know a few people did award prizes to real winners, but there is no way for us to check this so we have no choice but to ban them completely.

Chain Letters These usually start out with either really good or really bad news that "it is very important you share." They promise rewards if you forward it to several people and they claim to be from the neopets team. The news they want you to pass on is not true, and you will not receive anything for forwarding it to anyone. Forwarding these neomails really slows down the servers. If neopets needed to neomail everyone, they could do it on the system or just put it in the news section. They don't need your help.

Neopets has repeatedly said that such posts either on chats or through neomail will NOT get you anything other than slower servers.

Referral scams These ads promise that clicking on the link and creating a new account will automatically put thousands in the bank account and/or all sorts of special items in the safety deposit box. Neopets will freeze any account they find participating in this scam. You will not receive anything extra for signing up, but the username at the end of that address will get the referral credit for the account you create. See the news for July 10, 2001

For those of you interested in Neopets policy concerning multiple accounts, the following is from news page for January 12, 2002

Just a quick warning, we are getting VERY strict with multiple accounts. We will freeze anybody who creates multiple accounts in order to gain a financial (

neopoint

) advantage over others. Basically, if you have a couple of extra accounts to store neopets, or items, or a guild that is fine. However, if you log into multiple accounts on a daily basis and use the shrine, tombola etc.. to get neopoints... then wave bye-bye to ALL your accounts.

Just to re-iterate, creating multiple accounts to gain extra neopoints with is NOT allowed. It is unfair to people who play by the rules, and heavily scorned upon by the Neopets Team. Please don't do it, and when your accounts are frozen please dont email us asking for them back, because they will never be unfrozen.

Thanks for playing Neopets, and we hope you understand that we make these rules to make Neopia a fairer, and a more exciting place for everybody!

Wall of Shame - Don't be fooled! Get the latest reports of scammers and cheaters on Neopets so you can protect yourself against them!

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Password Protection

When was the last time you changed your password? To change your password or any of your NeoPet Preferences, such as your e-mail address and name, click here.

"This is a Scurrilous Charlatan's Abhorrent Machination." -quoted from my_hero about some of the scammers posting on the newbie chat board. Thanks, I couldn't have said it better myself. Click here to view his anti-scamming site.

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Accounts for sale/trade	Chain Letters	Contests	Fake items
Fake "Neopets Staff"	Fake Random Events	Giving Away Accounts	Hidden Areas
Items in exchange for information	"Leaving Neopets sales"	Neopets Password Help	Neopets Wall of Shame
Neositting	NP/Item Generators	Passwords in *'s	Pets for sale/trade
Pyramid Scams	Referrals	Sharing Accounts	Trading without the Trading Post

Something has happened!!!
	Jenny945 says ' Remember folks, there are NO np/item generators or "special codes". Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to scam/hack you and, never change your e-mail at another users request. It will give them access to your account, since they can request it to be mailed to that (their) email address. '