Official GW Scams Thread (no posting names)

That sucks, truly.

I was selling a superior vigor rune a while back for 32k. Someone says they will, and shows me 32k in trade box. I put in the rune, click submit, accept, then i had a second lag, and i end up with 32gp and they end up with a rune

The person said they would pay me back, but she never did.

That happens very very often, i had that attempted on me numerous times
one time was with a vic's axe. I was selling for 28k or so.. a guy whispered me saying he would buy it, so i opened trade and he popped up 28k then closed. then said "inv. full hang on" so.. i waited for a sec he comes back i put in axe he puts in 28g and hits accept faster than a bat outta hell, but i didnt get scammed! yay! lol
i really dont like scammers, they ruin the game i wish scammers would be kicked from guild wars. maybe im too extreme though maybe just a forced transaction to get items back or sometihng...
well good luck avoiding scams everyone!
~sam

this thread rulz! we need a bump in it

I got "scammed" recently and here's the story. I am currently trying to get Fow armor for my warrior and only need the chest and arms but it seems to be taking ages to save up the ectos/shards and im not gettin any luck with drops, chests.. all rubish. I thought my luck changed when i was in an empty town and this guy with only missing leggins of fow armor says he really needs help fast and says - a friend bet him he could not get full fow armor in 2weeks and if he did he would give him 1000k from ebay. He said tonight was the last night and all he needed was 7 shards and 30k and in return i would get the 1000k. I asked 1000 questions which he answerd without hesitation and he added me to his guild. So 30 min later he says hurry give me stuff but instead i went to fow with him to make sure, and gave him what was needed at the forgemaster being late we both log off and he says hes friend will come online tomorrow. After about 5 days of this he starts conviniently loggin of when i log in. I am now 30k and 7shards down and this guy has full fissure.
I guess now i will never trust anyone in guild wars and solo for everything myself. -.-

This should have tipped you off. Ebay money is dirty money.

loool..i think i had this guy too...he took me out on South droks entance into the grawl area...he claimed that if u drop ecto,shard or greens at some tree another appears in ur inventory....i just watched and lmfao..theni got bored and left...

My advice, do NOT ever trust the chinese farmers to honor any of the terms the stipulate at the commencement of a 2 man UW group. I'm also one of those necros, and after being burnt TWICE out of my own kindness you've just got to go in there with them, every man for himself and agree to nothing. They ONLY say 50/50 so they can scam ecto's out of you if you get one... it's hard to lump them all into this category, but... honestly... i've never heard reports of a honorable one.

I've always been cautious with trading, and only once (I think) had someone attempt to pull the gold-instead-of-platinum trick on me. This was while I was auctioning a zodiac weapon in Kaineng.

In any case, I think the success of this scam could be greatly reduced if the platinum and gold boxes in the trade window weren't right next to each other. That's the reason I'm careful before clicking accept. It's all too easy to just see the number and assume it's in the correct column... and GW is full of scum.

A nice way not to get scammed in UW when your spliting ectos is brag about how you hack anyone who scams you (take everything they have, delete all characters), works like a charm :d

if you do a lot of trading, you'll find that a lot of people try to do the gold switch thing, but some of them aren't even smart enough to put the full amount in the first place. Then they usually call you a noob and put you on ignore, but I like to put them on ignore and say some nice things before they can As far as chinese ecto farmers go, some of them are ok, and even pay for all the runs and do what they're supposed to, but there are as many americans that will try to scam you.

One screenshot and you could be the one losing everything. Wouldn't that be a hoot? :\

I just don't duo with anyone who stipulates 50/50, not unless I know the player.

:Trading:
"Inventory / Gold is Full"
Cancels trade because they are "full" Reopens trade but puts money in the Gold box instead of Platinum Box. If you are buying they will probably switch out the item (read below).

"Similar Item Scam"
EG :
Birthday Presents (mini pets unopened) / Festival Prizes
Weapons with same skin (close to the same stats but (eg) 15 under instead of 15 over)
Sapphires & Ice (http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Ice)
Similar looking items of all types just getting switched.
Picture Example :


"Gold & Other Funny Colors"
On most armors getting that color you want is cheap and easy and this "extremley rare" dye they are trying to pawn off is not "rare" at all (and will not be said color once you apply it to your specific armor most of the time).
Here : Dont fall for that ever again :
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3...omplete3cd.jpg
Not exactly your most expensive scam but one nonetheless. (It is taking advantage of others newness to the game to turn a profit)

"Can I test what this weapon looks like on me / Drop it so i can see the skin"
They WILL try to pick it up and they WILL NOT give it back. Never attempt to "outsmart" them either. To be meanies they might just zone back (without trying to pick it up) and you lose your item anyway.

"WTS UNID X"
Testing the properties of items takes less than 10 minutes. If you are hoping to hit the jackpot you wont. They test these items and when they find they have unfavorable stats and mods they pawn them off. Some people genuinley sell UNID items but those are like 1 in every 100.

"Duplicating / Must have X amount of X to use"
You cannot dupe items in GW and no item has a requierment to use except the inheret attribute req. (eg : After 500 hours of play this item will turn into/start doing X )

"Thats OVERPRICED and ONLY worth X" "This is UBER RARE and IS worth this"
Research prices on your items you are going to sell/buy. Easy way to do this is go to the "trading" districts (generally 1 & 2 in LA, Droks, Keineng) and watch what things are selling for. Search Guru for pricelists (take them with a grain of salt) and read auctions. Those people wanting to make money by "buying low / selling high" want to get rich at your expense. (eg : Urgoz Longbow for 30k, sell it to me, not worth 100k).

"Perfect Stats Blue Items For High Prices"
Those are all collector or craftable items. Paying for a collector item is okay, but remember you can get one easily yourself. Guildwiki is your friend.
eg: 20/20 Healing Staff for 15k! (collector outside Port Sledge) / Bronze Shield -5 (20%) +30hp 20k! (craftable in Keineng Center)

-Be smart, take your time accepting offers. Check the item and read description and amount offers carefully everytime. Even if you are in a hurry, or they are hurrying you, theres MANY sellers/buyers in the game. Common tactic by them is to whip you up in a frenzy to force an "accept" click.-

: Services :
"Pay 500g here and 500g when we get there" (Runners!)
Pay 500g here, thanks, bye.
-Never pay upfront for a run, they now have your money and no reason to actually perform said service-

"Ill pay you when you get there in full" (Runnies!)
Enjoy giving someone a free ride.
-Once service is completed they have no reason to pay you-
-beware of low level Mo/Ws that speak "not so good" english-

"Power leveling" (Levelie)
You buy scrolls, give me scrolls, pay for levels you want before I power level you. Free scrolls & money.
-Keep your scrolls, pay at intervals-

"Power leveling" (Leveler)
Ill pay you once I hit LvLX.
-Get paid at agreed intervals, if they get skimpy on the first interval *eject*-

"55 LF SS for UW 50/50"
There is no such thing as 50/50. In all honesty, dont PUG a duo in UW. Even the english speaking ones hardly ever stick to the plan. Make a friend who likes to hunt for sticky pink goo and stick to playing with them (they are generally more forgiving as well when you dont perform like a 24hr UW bot).

"Lottery / Raffle"
Give me 5k and choose a number, what item corresponds to the number, you win! I have Crystalline Swords! Dwarven Axes! Perfect Fellblades!
-Just dont, once again there might have been an individual somewhere who actually was honest... somewhere far far away-

----
Someone somewhere has tried everyone of these on me but I am paranoid by nature so they did not succeed. I did however make it my mission to inform everyone in the district of such person. Every trade I do now I have my finger over the PRNT SCR button so IF they try any of these scams (or a new one) I have them with their hand in the cookie jar. Do report those that try to, and do, scam you.
To report just go to guildwars.com -> support -> ask a question (read guidelines on how to report first).
----
done 4 now
----

Only time I really got scammed was when I did Citadel runs on my monk. Sometimes when I zoned into Spearhead Peak there would be a portal spawn there, so we would die and get resurrected at the Granite Citadel portal. Needless to say a good chunk of people took advantage of that.

I encountered someone the other day trying to sell 250 Jade Wind Orbs for 4k, I thought the Imperial Supplymaster had gome and Dragon Masks were no longer available. I feel sorry for anyone who buys them.

Same happened to me. Someone wanted to sell them for 1k. I whispered him telling him that they are useless now and he should delete them. He whispers back: "I know but some noobs dont." I hate people like that.

I was scammed badly last night. This is more a malicios prank but bare with me. A guy in LA was asking for people with lots of holiday gear to go outside w/ him and let him screenshot their gear on the ground. So I, just trying to help and guy out (though he did offer to pay me), went with him. Once we were outside and i had positioned my gear, he RUNS back into the city after babbling something about the UI and needing to turn it off. Needless to say my gear, including several irreplaceable holiday hats, was deleted. Back inside i tried to ask him wtf, but he immediately logged off. I have reported him and am now waiting for a response.

You actually beleived him

I might start scamming now, if there's someone out there who can fall for something as blatent as this then I recon there's someone I could scam for a few k for 1 peace of wood or something

How utterly cruel... I love it

Actually that guy was a dick, I don't see why anyone would waste time to do that when they would gain nothing of it.

That was purely malicious -- nothing else.

There was a guy in Frontier Gate yesterday advertising "Pumpkin hats for sale -- 2K each" (I could have the price wrong). When I countered his ad with "pumpkin crowns are customized thus non-usable to anyone else" in the Trade channel, he informed me that no one likes a boyscout except for their dirty little masters (shouldn've reported him) in Local. I told him that no one likes a scammer.

I don't listen to anyone that requests anything of my possession. Scamming has been going on for so long.

How does a player, by now, not know to not trust strangers?

When I used to chest run I sold a couple req 8 GPB unided for 45k, which were in fact garbage. Also sold a req 8 Plat bow for 20k. I did feel a little guilty about totally ripping these guys off, but they chose to take the risk so... I don't see how this qualifies as a scam. I kinda expected to get a whisper like "WTF I WANT A REFUND" but never heard from them again lol.

I never buy unid items, except for generic ones for 1k each for the wisdom title. Once IDed, you can merch them and get some money back.

Lesson learned from the portal prank, never put pieces of armor or anything of any value on the ground in an explorable area. No matter what. Never agree to screen shots with items on the ground.

What I've seen is not so much a scam, but people trying to sell Transmogrifer Tonics for 3k. I think that price is too much. It's especially lame doing it in Piken Square, trying to make money off of new gamers who don't have much money and haven't reached Lions Arch or have Nightfall. Since I farmed so many of the Halloween Items, I can counter this by offering for a much lower price. Besides I have enough to last me and my friends for a whole year and I'm not planning on making a fortune with my supply.

This one happened to me a few months ago so since i just saw this threead i figured i would post it.

I bought a used proficies account about 4 months ago for 100k. the tranaction went smoothly and i began playing the account (i bought it specifically to farm UW on european server). Anyways I build up a necro and get all the needed thing for uw farming plus start working on a tank and monk. I tranfer about 200k and items to the account from my original acount. Start farming uw and have about 400-500k worth of items, ectos blah blah blah. So One day I try to log on and it says that the email (username) is invalid. I quickly go to anet to ask whats going on. I get a reply saying that this account was returned to the original user because they have proof of purchase. They suggest that I do not buy accounts online and that the trade for the account in game does not make the game mine. So by anet giving the account back to the original user they are supporting a scammer. I lost about 700k due to this ands anet is partially responsible in my opinion. Long story short dont buy accounts in game at all and dont expect anet to do what is right.

It's against the rules to buy or sell accounts anywhere,so both of you's were in the wrong and Anet were right to take away the account and give it back.

ok it was wrong for me to buy the account but i didnt find that out till anet told me, and if its wrong to sell an account why did they give it back to the guy? They let him scam in otherwords actually they helped him scam by GIVING THE ACCOUNT BACK TO HIM

Uh, it's not Anet's fault you didn't read the License Agreement that you push "I Accept" to the first time you start playing...

But selling an account is also not allowed, so not only was the account returned to the original owner, shouldn't it be banned also?

exactly my point this guy probly sold the account again and did the same thing to someone else.

Also, dont get all high and mighty with the license agreement. Im sure 98% of people that have played this game have broke it just by swearing in chat

how about 98% of people haven't read it and just click on accept....make that 99% of people lol

Ok, I realise me being scammed here was my stupid fault and I'm pretty embarrased about it but will put it up so others my not be as unfortunate.

Been playing for about a year but just got into the trading market, been doing some good bussynes lately (bought crystalline 100k, sold 100k + 10e etc) So recently I bought a Mini Bone Dragon for 100 + 10e hoping to make some ecto prophit off of it. Having seen only after current prices on them I was fairly happy to see someone offer me 100k + 11e for it. Get into the trade window, check everything very well and he was offering the correct ammount for it, I click accept, then he cancles the trade.
He openes it up again, said something like 'Darn Lag' and put the 11e back in trade window again, this time I just scanned the trade window briefly and hit ok, only this time he put in 100g instead of 100k which in a brief scan could easily be mistaken since they are right next to eachother. Didn't notice and hit ok :-(

PM'd him again and told me he'd sell it back to me for 50k + 11 ecto which I did to minimalise my losses (50k instead of 100k if I find buyer for some price) but yeah, big booboo by me and I learned my lesson about checking the trade window well.