HELLHULK Gaming
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"How to not get scammed" by HellHulk [13 years experience with game trades]
Greetings gamers,
Today I am posting some valuable information that could potentially save you some time, headaches, and money. A little background on me, I am 39 years young hardcore gamer since Atari came out. I have been in the trading scene for online mmos for over 13 years. I have successfully completed over 100 trades/sells for accounts, money, and real world items.
I have been scammed myself over 10 times in the course of my trading adventures. It is one of the worst feelings to log onto your much loved new account to see you no longer have access to the account. You feel a deep sense of betrayal at a level that is like your home was broke into. Seeing that funds have been retracted from your paypal account AND your account is gone is much worse.
One of the biggest scams to me happened over 10+ years ago. I have always had a history of 100% trades/sells on Ebay, Paypal, Egamingsupply.com, and EpicNpc. I had acquired an item in Earth and Beyond that was the only laser on any server. One of a kind UBER drop. Sold it on Ebay for 3600.00 within 4 hours of listing. Gave item ingame to the guy, transferred the money to my checking account, four days later dispute opened and Paypal sided with the other guy as he said his CC was stolen. Quite clear I had been royally scammed. I was unable to use my paypal account for several years due to this. One of the reasons I HATE scammers with a passion.
-Tips to avoid being scammed-
1. Speak via cell whenever possible. In this day in age, almost everyone has a mobile device. This will help you screen some scammers. Most scammers wont even speak on the phone.
2. When on Skype and you want to verbally talk, and they decline with "My mic is broken" but will not speak via cell either. Avoid.
3. When speaking they seem overly anxious to trade. Being anxious is ok, but when it gets to the point that they are almost forcing the trade then that's a clear sign they are a scammer.
4. If they consistently ask for you to go first even when you have 20+ reputation with a website, and they have zero. They are a scammer.
5. If they use "leet" speak in IM's and have no professional bearing whatsoever, then psychologically this denotes a young age with possible low integrity. I am not stating all kids are scammers, but in my experience, younger generations seem to feel that non-tangible items are just a game and only nerds play them. Personally, integrity is what you do when no one is looking in my opinion. I value my time very much. A game may be non-tangible but my time is not to me. Avoid.
6. If they will not provide proof via screen share, or to the degree you feel comfortable with then remove yourself form the conversation and tell them why.
7. When selling an account be sure that YOU request the payment from your paypal as a gift, and that the buyer agrees by paying to not be able to dispute said funds for any reason. it is a gift, and no goods have been exchanged. This will help prevent a paypal dispute, and again, leaves the buyer with ZERO protection. A scammer is not going to follow through with this. They will offer excuses.
8. I have found people to be requesting game time, or offering accounts for game time cards to be higher risk of a scam. WHY you ask? Well lets just be honest, there are children and there are adults. People who play sub games has to pay to play. Adults generally have jobs, children usually have to depend on parents. Now, when a kid's favorite game is unplayable because funding from parents has stopped they become desperate. They will lie, cheat, and scam to get that game time. They will even feel "proud" of themselves for having scammed adult with the idea that they were smarter. They were not smarter, they just lacked morals. Avoid such trades as those accounts will more then likely be reclaimed. They may even trade a frozen account to let you pay time, then reclaim as well. When doing a trade be sure to state account must be active. Period. You will cut your losses I assure you.
9. Research the person your trading with. Require them to post in your thread while on Skype. Impersonations happen often. Look at their profile, see what threads they are currently viewing. if you are patient you can tell what their intentions are sometimes.
EX. Guy sells Wildstar beta account with zero feedback, will not go first even with rep'ed members, then someone buys it. WHY IN THE HELL would he be viewing WTB WILDSTAR threads right after the sell of the ONLY wildtstar account he had? He just got one rep, someone got the account, and he is trying to get a quick sale of 2-3 more people before it is noticed. Be foot smart when dealing with people. Don't be scared to be nosy.
10. Be honest. Whether you get scammed or not, always be true to your own morals and values. Don't let someone else with poor integrity make you a dishonest person. Being honest will pay off down the road. I get offers all the time for great accounts for very low amounts simply due to my feedback.
11. Do repeat business with trusted members of the site. They earned their reputation, and offer solid trades, feedback, and are the backbone of EpicNpc. Add them to friends, and check daily to see what new accounts they have. I myself rotate through accounts daily, at least one a week.
In closing, be honest. Scamming is generally a one shot deal. Why scam when being honest has such a better payout? Reputation gets you better trades and sells.
Don't be rude on Skype, treat all conversations as if you are standing in front of the person. If your not interested say so. Don't say you are then go poof on Skype while it says your online. People wait. I do.
I hope this information is informative and helps some of you avoid scams. If you ever have questions please don't hesitate to call me or contact me on Skype.
If this post helped you, please "like" it.
Also, please support my twitch live stream at
http://www.twitch.tv/hellhulk
Thank you and Game on!
XaNaToS
Greetings gamers,
Today I am posting some valuable information that could potentially save you some time, headaches, and money. A little background on me, I am 39 years young hardcore gamer since Atari came out. I have been in the trading scene for online mmos for over 13 years. I have successfully completed over 100 trades/sells for accounts, money, and real world items.
I have been scammed myself over 10 times in the course of my trading adventures. It is one of the worst feelings to log onto your much loved new account to see you no longer have access to the account. You feel a deep sense of betrayal at a level that is like your home was broke into. Seeing that funds have been retracted from your paypal account AND your account is gone is much worse.
One of the biggest scams to me happened over 10+ years ago. I have always had a history of 100% trades/sells on Ebay, Paypal, Egamingsupply.com, and EpicNpc. I had acquired an item in Earth and Beyond that was the only laser on any server. One of a kind UBER drop. Sold it on Ebay for 3600.00 within 4 hours of listing. Gave item ingame to the guy, transferred the money to my checking account, four days later dispute opened and Paypal sided with the other guy as he said his CC was stolen. Quite clear I had been royally scammed. I was unable to use my paypal account for several years due to this. One of the reasons I HATE scammers with a passion.
-Tips to avoid being scammed-
1. Speak via cell whenever possible. In this day in age, almost everyone has a mobile device. This will help you screen some scammers. Most scammers wont even speak on the phone.
2. When on Skype and you want to verbally talk, and they decline with "My mic is broken" but will not speak via cell either. Avoid.
3. When speaking they seem overly anxious to trade. Being anxious is ok, but when it gets to the point that they are almost forcing the trade then that's a clear sign they are a scammer.
4. If they consistently ask for you to go first even when you have 20+ reputation with a website, and they have zero. They are a scammer.
5. If they use "leet" speak in IM's and have no professional bearing whatsoever, then psychologically this denotes a young age with possible low integrity. I am not stating all kids are scammers, but in my experience, younger generations seem to feel that non-tangible items are just a game and only nerds play them. Personally, integrity is what you do when no one is looking in my opinion. I value my time very much. A game may be non-tangible but my time is not to me. Avoid.
6. If they will not provide proof via screen share, or to the degree you feel comfortable with then remove yourself form the conversation and tell them why.
7. When selling an account be sure that YOU request the payment from your paypal as a gift, and that the buyer agrees by paying to not be able to dispute said funds for any reason. it is a gift, and no goods have been exchanged. This will help prevent a paypal dispute, and again, leaves the buyer with ZERO protection. A scammer is not going to follow through with this. They will offer excuses.
8. I have found people to be requesting game time, or offering accounts for game time cards to be higher risk of a scam. WHY you ask? Well lets just be honest, there are children and there are adults. People who play sub games has to pay to play. Adults generally have jobs, children usually have to depend on parents. Now, when a kid's favorite game is unplayable because funding from parents has stopped they become desperate. They will lie, cheat, and scam to get that game time. They will even feel "proud" of themselves for having scammed adult with the idea that they were smarter. They were not smarter, they just lacked morals. Avoid such trades as those accounts will more then likely be reclaimed. They may even trade a frozen account to let you pay time, then reclaim as well. When doing a trade be sure to state account must be active. Period. You will cut your losses I assure you.
9. Research the person your trading with. Require them to post in your thread while on Skype. Impersonations happen often. Look at their profile, see what threads they are currently viewing. if you are patient you can tell what their intentions are sometimes.
EX. Guy sells Wildstar beta account with zero feedback, will not go first even with rep'ed members, then someone buys it. WHY IN THE HELL would he be viewing WTB WILDSTAR threads right after the sell of the ONLY wildtstar account he had? He just got one rep, someone got the account, and he is trying to get a quick sale of 2-3 more people before it is noticed. Be foot smart when dealing with people. Don't be scared to be nosy.
10. Be honest. Whether you get scammed or not, always be true to your own morals and values. Don't let someone else with poor integrity make you a dishonest person. Being honest will pay off down the road. I get offers all the time for great accounts for very low amounts simply due to my feedback.
11. Do repeat business with trusted members of the site. They earned their reputation, and offer solid trades, feedback, and are the backbone of EpicNpc. Add them to friends, and check daily to see what new accounts they have. I myself rotate through accounts daily, at least one a week.
In closing, be honest. Scamming is generally a one shot deal. Why scam when being honest has such a better payout? Reputation gets you better trades and sells.
Don't be rude on Skype, treat all conversations as if you are standing in front of the person. If your not interested say so. Don't say you are then go poof on Skype while it says your online. People wait. I do.
I hope this information is informative and helps some of you avoid scams. If you ever have questions please don't hesitate to call me or contact me on Skype.
If this post helped you, please "like" it.
Also, please support my twitch live stream at
http://www.twitch.tv/hellhulk
Thank you and Game on!
XaNaToS
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