TheSmartGuy's Scamming Prevention Guide
Hello there, people of Southperry! Welcome to my scamming prevention guide. This was the first Maplestory guide I ever wrote, so it might not be as good as some of my other ones. I hope you still find it helpful, though.
Oh, and PLEASE don't ask me why I ended every situation with the phrase, "You've been had." I have no idea myself.
Introduction
Scammers: One of low down races of Maplestory. I have been scammed (several times, unfortunately) before, and want to prevent YOU from being the next victim. Now, some of you may think that you’re just sooooo freaking smart and won’t give a crap about this thread. If you think you’re just sooooo freaking smart, please leave. Now, for the rest of you, read on.
How to Spot a Scammer
There is no definite way to spot a scammer, though you might want to watch out for their:
-Fame
Many scammers have low or negative fame. However, discriminating ever guy you see on the streets with negative fame is a VERY ineffective way to spot a scammer. They may have been mass defamed, buy defames, or just don’t give a crap. But if a random person with -12 fame invites you to a drop game, you may want to be careful.
-Level
Would you rather have your level 15 account banned for scamming or your level 60 one? Any human with a shred of common sense would choose the first option. Guess what: scammers are humans too (gasp). So be careful if a level 13 wants you to follow him to the Kerning Hospital because he is “dropping free steelys"
The Amazing Item Copier
NOTE: Hazzy has informed me that this scam no longer works. I have not confirmed this yet, but it is fully possible.
Intro
This is the most commonly performed scam in Maple. It is also the one that works the least.
The situation
A person you’ve never seen before requests a trade with you. You accept it. The following conversation:
Random person: Want to copy your best items? There’s this new glitch that allows you to!
You: Really? How does it work?
Random Person: All you have to do is put an item into the trade box and press tab+tab+space+enter. Try it! It works with mesos and scrolled items too.
You: Ok!
You put your 30-attack maple claw in the trade box and press tab+tab+space+enter. Suddenly the trade window disappears and another window pops up that says, “Trade successful. Please check results.” You check your inventory. No maple claw. You’ve been had.
How to Prevent This
Luckily, this is one of the easiest scams to prevent. Click the “cancel” key and report the person for scamming. Or you could mess with the scammer’s mind for a few minutes and then cancel and report. It doesn’t matter to me. Just DON’T tab+tab+space+enter.
Note: Another version of this scam consists of the scammer telling you to press trade but NOT press "yes" on the trade acception window. Instead, they have you type "copy". Do NOT listen. If you do, you will lose the item you put into the trade box. This is because the word "copy" has the letter "y" in it. "Y" stands for "yes", so you will end up accepting the trade. Other words with "y" (Maplestory, etc.) also work. (Credits for this note go to nummynummy and some other random people.)
Drop Game Cheating
Intro
Here’s a lesson kids: Drop games are for suckers.
The situation
A person is spamming, “Drop game in the Kerning Hospital! Dropping free tobis?You follow him into the hospital for a chance of free stars. You are the only person the follows him into the hospital. The following:
Person: Ok, You stand next to the big air vent. I’ll stand next to this hospital booth. I’m going to drop my tobis. You drop something too. If the item is you drop is worth my than my tobis, you can have them. Got it?
You: Yep.
Person: Ok, ready, set, drop!
The person drops his tobis. You drop a set of steelys. Suddenly, someone you didn’t see behind the air pipe (the Kerning Hospital has no mini-map) comes out and picks up your steelys. He then CCs. The person who dropped the tobis CCs too. You’ve lost your steelys. In other words, you have been had.
How to Prevent This
Like I said in the intro, drop games are for suckers. Never play one, no matter how “fun?it seems. If you want to compare items, why not use a TRADE WINDOW? If you just “have?to play a drop game, don’t drop anything too expensive. Drop a clean WG and claim it’s 10 attack or something. How would they find out?
The “Best Friend Forever" Scam
Intro
Do you have a friend? I’m sure we all do. But even a friend can stab you in the back.
The Situation
You need to transfer a 72 attack wagner to your mule on another account. Unfortunately, you only have one computer available for use. You need the weapon RIGHT NOW, so you don’t have time to send it over Bill. Then suddenly an idea pops from your head: friend transfer. You message your best friend.
You: Hey Rob, I need to give my 72 attack wagner to my mule. Can you hold the wagner for me while I log on to him?
Friend: Sure, meet in the FM.
You think this over. Do you want to trust your wagner with him? Sure, why not. He’s been your buddy for nearly a year now and you two have trained together for 50 levels. You meet him in the FM and give him the weapon. You log off and get on your mule. But when you log on, you’re friend isn’t there. “Oh well,?you think to yourself, “I’ll ask him tomorrow? But you’re friend never logs on again. Hours, weeks, a month passes. You realize that your wagner is gone. You’ve been had.
How to Prevent This
This is the hardest scam to perform. Only the most low-down, rotten, no-hearted scammers will attempt this one. Unfortunately, this is also the hardest scam to prevent. One way to stop this from ever happening is to kick everyone out of your buddy list, quit Maple, and hide under a rock. But most of us are probably not going to do that. A more sensible solution to this scam is to transfer in small portions. If you need to transfer 50 mil, give your friend 5 mil at a time. Losing 5 mil to a scammer is better than losing 50. It’s also a good idea to try to avoid friend transfers altogether. If you only have one computer, send the stuff over Bill. If you have two computers, why are you friend transferring stuff anyway?
“The Gold-Digger" Scam
This is a close version to the previously mentioned scam, but is based around a different kind of relationship between you and the scammer: marriage.
The Situation
You’ve been married with a girl for 3 weeks and give her a wedding present: a set of ilbis. Then, the next day, out of the blue, she divorces from you. You’re devastated, but become enraged the next week when you realize that she’s married another guy. You confront the guy a few weeks later, but he tells you that after taking several mil worth in wedding gifts, divorced from him too. You’ve been had. This time by a “gold-digger?(a girl character in Maple, usually a guy in irl, who marries and breaks up constantly for wedding gifts).
How to Prevent This
There are several different ways to prevent this from ever happening. The way you choose will depend on who you are and the status of your marriage. If you:
- Married for fun : Don’t pay $30 for a computer marriage! If you get married “for the fun of it? let your partner pay for the wedding. When it’s time for wedding gifts, don’t give your 50 attack scarab or your godly scrolled kandayo away; give her/him something like a clean maple staff or a 10 DEX sauna.
- Married your Maple GF : Life’s tough, but people double-cross each other a LOT in the internet. It may be time to get a real girlfriend. If you are a die-hard supporter of MS marriage, it’s ok. Just be careful; don’t trust too much of your stuff with your partner.
- Married your real GF : Your real girlfriend double-crossed you? It’s break-up time!
- Married for APQ : Make it clear to your partner that you married for APQ only. This way, you won’t have to risk anything. If you make sure your partner knows, he/she won’t get mad when you don’t give them a wedding gift, or that you never talk to them.
The “You Can Trust Me" Scam
Intro
Don’t trust people that you’ve only known for 10 minutes, please.
The Situation
A lvl 33 I/L mage is spamming, “Quitting Maple! Dropping everything I own! Follow me to FM 12?You and two other people follow him.
I/L Mage: Ok, here’s how it works: You drop something, then I drop something of equal value and you can pick both of them up. It’s like a drop game, except you always win.
Person #1 drops a Maple Scorpio. The I/L wizard drops a cromi and Person #1 picks both items. He comes out happy. Person #2 drops a lionheart. The wizard drops him a blue chainmail. He comes out happy. You drop a set of steelys; hoping for an extra-big prize. The I/L mage says, “Sorry, but I don’t know anything about thief items L? You get a sap of ancient tree. It’s Person #1’s turn again. He drops a blood slain.
I/L Mage: I SAID, I don’t know anything about thief items. Ok, this is getting dumb.
I/L Mage: Ok, change of rules: To get a good item, you have to actually trade it to me. Then I will retrade you and give you your item and an extra item back. If you’ve got a lot of trust, you’ll get a good prize.
Person #1 seems a bit hesitant, but agrees. Thirty seconds later, he starts jumping around and spamming, “I GOT FREE KUMBIS! I GOT FREE KUMBIS?Person #2 is also hesitant, but is satisfied in the end. You do not hesitate; you’re convinced that this is totally legit. Why wouldn’t you be? Two people have already done it and came out happy! You trade the I/L mage your steelys. Expecting a great prize, you click the trade button. Suddenly, the I/L mage d/ces. You try tracking him for the rest of the day, but he doesn’t log on. It takes you a few hours, but you finally realize you’ve been had.
How to Prevent This
Trust is overrated. Just because a person has been “nice” for the last 15 minutes doesn’t mean you can trust him with your most prized possessions. After you finished reading the article “The Situation” you probably immediately thought, “I’m not that stupid. I could see that scam from a million miles away.” The truth is, you probably can’t. Why? Because of your sense of trust will probably clog up your common sense. Sometimes it helps to look at your actions. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and THINK about what you’re doing. Instincts like trust screw over your thoughts until you can’t realize the stupidity of a situation. If humans followed this advice more, we would find ourselves in a lot fewer dumb situations. In other words: Just be careful and don’t act stupid.
The “Retrade I’m Lagging" Scam
Note: Idea submitted by boombadaboom (I think)
Intro
If something’s too good to be true, it probably is.
The situation
You’re selling tobis for 1 mil in the FM. You know the price is a bit of a stretch, but that’s what merchanting’s about, right? After several minutes of spamming the same old, “S> TOBIS 1MIL? you get tired and start to leave the FM. Suddenly, someone requests to trade with you. You open the box, and-
Random Person: I’ll buy your tobis. But hurry up. My dinner is in 5 minutes. In fact, if you speed things up, I’ll give you 1.1 mil for them.
You: Ok!
You put your stars up and the random person puts 1,111,111 mesos in to the trade box. It’s an awkward number, but you don’t have time for questions. The trade button is hit?and then the other guy cancels the trade. You message him and ask him why he did this, and he answered, “Sorry, I’m really laggy in the FM. Retrade?So you retrade the person, do the same thing all over, and?he cancels again. So you keep on trying. Cancel, cancel, cancel. Tired of the person wasting your time, you start clicking the trade icon as fast as you can. Half of the time, you don’t even look at the screen! Then, after 8 or so retrades, the “Trade Succesful?window finally pops up. You rejoice and check your inventory. But something’s wrong. You’ve barely received 100k! Then you realize what happened. In your rush get a trade, the random guy secretly inserted 111,111 mesos instead of 1,111,111 mesos in the trade box. You’ve been had.
How to Prevent This
When Fming, take things slooooow. Rushing will not help you and it’ll occasionally hurt you. If someone is in a rush to receive your items, its ok to speed things up, but watch what you’re doing. And lastly, like what I said in the intro, if something’s too good to be true, it probably is.
The "Buy High Sell Higher" Scam
Note: I resubmitted this part of the guide. If you think you were the one who gave me the idea, notify me please.
Intro
Just like the previously described scam, this scam also happens in the FM. And once again, if it's too good to be true, it probably is (some people just never learn)
The Situation
You need a new pair of work gloves, so you take with yourself 4 mil and walk to the FM. While passing through, you notice a guy spamming, "B>CLEAN RED HEART EARRINGS 2 MIL!". You think to yourself, "2 mil? What a great deal!" Too bad you don't have any red heart earrings. You keep on walking. Suddenly, you see another person spamming, "S> CLEAN RED HEART EARRINGS 1.5 MIL!" You remember the guy you saw earlier, and automatically trade the person selling the earrings. The person accepts the trade, puts in the heart earrings, and then you pay him. The trade is successful and you walk over to the other side where you last saw the guy buying red hearts. But he's gone. You've been had (either that or you're really unlucky).
How to Prevent This
Man, this is getting really tiring. If it's too good to be true, IT PROBABLY IS. Geez. And that's pretty much all you need to know to prevent yourself from being screwed by this scam.
The “Account Giveaway Sweepstakes” Scam
Intro
See all those “giving away account” threads over there in the General Maplestory section? Many of them aren’t as innocent as they seem…
The Situation
You’re browsing through the General MS section. You see a thread titled “I’m Quitting MapleStory”. You decided to check it out. It turns out to become sob story about how the TS’s friends have quit… blah blah blah… how the MS community sucks…. blah blah blah… how he’s giving his level 90 crusader away to random poster . Your eyes spring at those words. You could totally use a level 90 crusader! So you post on the thread. A day later, you receive a PM from the TS. He gives you his account’s username, passwords, and PIN. You log on immediately. The account’s been stripped, but you don’t really care. Of course, you realize that the account could easily be hacked. So you limit funds flowing into the account for several weeks. Six weeks later… nothing’s happened. You’re pretty sure it’s all clear, so you start funding the account. To start it up, you buy a 105 ATK Devil’s Sunrise. A week later, you get your crusader a 2 ATK 10 STR PAC. By the end of the month, you’ve even gotten a Z-helm. The next day, you turn on Maplestory and type in your account’s info. It doesn’t work. After 5 tries, it still doesn’t work. You realize that the person who “gave” you the account was simply working a scam. You’ve been hacked; the password’s been changed. 110 mil down the drain.
How to Prevent This
People rarely ever give their accounts away to random players for “free”. I mean, if you’re not getting paid, who would you rather give your account to: a close friend or some random person you’ve never met in real life? I thought so. If someone DOES offer you an account, don’t accept it UNLESS they give you the account’s email and answer to Secret Question #2 along with the basic info. This way, you can change the account’s password and recover the pin.
The "I'm Your Friend" Scam
This one probably needed to be retyped... but whatever. XD
The "Click Faster" ScamOriginally Posted by KoLIdiot
A Basic Overview
A lot of the scams that I just mentioned SEEM very easy to spy and prevent. But this is because the style of writing I used in “The Situation?was stuck to the fact that “that random guy?was always the scammer. Most random guys aren’t scammers, and scams are actually really hard to detect. So don’t make smart remarks like, “Omg I’m so pro there’s no way I can get scammed because I have so much common sense and pro-ness and blah blah blah...? because when YOU get scammed, don’t come crying to me. Happy Mapling!
Constructive Critism
If you don’t like this guide give me some suggestions. If you know of a scam that I haven’t included in here, write it in this format so I can just copy paste it instead of re-type it word for word:
Name of Scam
Intro
The Situation (present tense please)
How to Prevent This
Legal Crap and Stuff
Don’t copy this without giving me credit. It’s that simple.
My Other Guides :D
The Comprehensive Training Guide
Smartguy's Guide on How to Make Mesos
Smartguy's Guide On Guildmaking (screwed up for some reason)
Smartguy's Guide on Making Guides (NEW!)
Smartguy's Comprehensive Bandit Training Guide (NEW!)
Everything a Newbie Needs To Know (NEW!)
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