finalhit recently inquired as to how I've operated in the MD community for several years without being scammed once: here is my reply. (Pardon any grammar/spelling issues as this was written while I was rather tired at 2am)
----
Well the first thing you need to do is establish yourself here at MD so people know you are legit and you can clearly prove it. That way people look to you on how the trade/sale is going to be conducted.
Once you feel you have control over the transaction, ask a couple questions:
1. Can you post on my thread so I know who I am speaking with?
Asking this question will weed out many scammers simply because they have no posting rights - either that or their account is in bad standing. Also, if they try and bluff you and post with a bad account, you can simply use the account name they posted with in a search across all forums to see if anyone has interacted with them before and wrote a thread about them being involved in a scam.
The other case is that the will reply with an account that is only a few minutes/hours/days old which clearly indicates they just created the account - probably fishing for people selling/trading accounts who are too eager to sell/trade. Over zealousness will get you scammed. If you are selling an account, expect to spend a week before finding the right buyer. Rather take a week and be confident in a scam-proof transaction than rush into loosing your precious account.
Its been my experience that 90% of scammers I interact with will answer that question with, "Sure" but never actually post a reply. At this point, just terminate the conversation as its clearly a scam.
2. Are you TW verified AND have a verified paypal account?
99% of the time they will completely ignore the "TW" segment of the question immediately saying they are paypal verified. Be sure to ask them again if they are TW verified and if they have indeed posted on your trade/sale thread, then you will clearly know if they are/are not.
Regardless if they are or are not TW verified, they will say they are paypal verified. This you can check by asking them for their paypal verification link (Eg. http://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_account-rep&mrep=1&login_access=1173512912). If they cannot provide you with this link then assume they are not paypal verified and are probably out to scam you.
If for whatever reason you proceed past this point (maybe they are convincing enough for you to continue without them being verified) I always drop this line:
"From my end, you have 0 credibility so the possibility of you being a scammer is very high. To avoid any potential scams, I can show you the character in game, and if you are still happy you may then go ahead and pay for it using Paypal. Once I have received the payment it will take Paypal 3 to 4 days to put that money into my bank account, where I can secure it making it impossible for you to recall the money. At that time, I will then transfer the ownership of the account to you.
If you do not like these terms we will not be able to conduct business."
Or something similar. Following the above trade agreement, you cannot be scammed as at that point, you have the money and can do with it what you want.
This of course, is not bullet proof, but is rigerous enough to prevent every scam attempt I have ever had to deal with. There are a couple loopholes, that if exploited, could lead to a successful scam - but these too can be prevented.
One that you will probably encounter is that the scammer will invoke an "unauthorized payment" action against the transaction. In this case, Paypal will look at the deal as if an intruding party illegally appropriated the funds from the scammer's paypal account to carry out the purchase. To prevent this its best to be as involved with Paypal as possible. If at all possible, upgrade your account to a Business Account so that your word is always greater than the unverified scammer's.
When they open an investigation to the case they will ask for your input as to what happened. Be as concise and honest as possible and word your reply professionally. Be sure to include that you believe the defendant to be a scammer for reason X, Y and Z.
Brief recap:
-- STEP 1: Pay the 5 or 10 dollars to be TrustWho verified. That shows the people trading/buying from you that you are a legit, serious vendor.
-- STEP 2: Take every step to make your Paypal account as strong as possible. At a minimum you want to be a Premier account holder (like me). I'm probably going to upgrade my account to Business shortly.
-- NOTE: If its too good to be true, its a scam. Say you are selling an account and expect no more than $200 for it - perhaps you clearly listed on the thread, "ASKING PRICE: USD$200" - then someone contacts you and offers $400. Its not worth replying. Its a scam.
Some people try and take the upper hand of the trade/sale immediately while chatting by saying, "It is our company policy that you to provide us with the Last Name, SA/SQ, and update the e-mail address on the account in our name before we send any money through Paypal. We will also provide an addition $XX if you include the CD keys."
THIS IS A SCAM. That is not a company. That is a scammer.
If the party involved with the trade/sale is using terrible grammar, spelling and awkward spacing they are:
1. Scamming you - I'm not being racist, this is just a general truth that the majority of scammers I've dealt with are non-native english speakers.
2. Possibly a continental Asian or South Pacific business involved in procuring and selling accounts. If this is the case, then they are going to try and buy your account wholesale, attaining it for a considerably depreciated value: after all, they have to make money on accounts they are going to turn around resell. I recommend staying away from these people. You can -ALWAYS- find a better deal than the low ball figure they supply.
FINALLY
=DO NOT= rent out your account. Whether its a scam or not, its simply not worth it.
Blizzard monitors accounts and specifically the IP address associated with those accounts. An IP address is a unique number assigned to your computer while connected to the internet via your ISP (internet service provider, eg. Cox, Comcast, Verizon, ect...). Each ISP is assigned a group of IP address that they may use - and so each time you connect to the internet you are effectivly borrowing on of theirs. XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX defines an IP address and the first 6 numbers can easily be traced to different ISPs across the world. So say your ISP uses 88.32.xxx.xxx (it will randomly assign each subscriber the last 6 digits). Blizzard will look at that and see that ISP is native to Chicago. The next morning, after you've rented your account, its now being accessed from (again as an example) 212.35.199.245: some shmoe in Taiwan. You're account will be flagged and probably temporarily closed as they investigate why that was. Chances are, you will just get a slap on the wrist, but depending on how often they've temporarily suspended your account, it could be permanent.
Sell safely
----
Well the first thing you need to do is establish yourself here at MD so people know you are legit and you can clearly prove it. That way people look to you on how the trade/sale is going to be conducted.
Once you feel you have control over the transaction, ask a couple questions:
1. Can you post on my thread so I know who I am speaking with?
Asking this question will weed out many scammers simply because they have no posting rights - either that or their account is in bad standing. Also, if they try and bluff you and post with a bad account, you can simply use the account name they posted with in a search across all forums to see if anyone has interacted with them before and wrote a thread about them being involved in a scam.
The other case is that the will reply with an account that is only a few minutes/hours/days old which clearly indicates they just created the account - probably fishing for people selling/trading accounts who are too eager to sell/trade. Over zealousness will get you scammed. If you are selling an account, expect to spend a week before finding the right buyer. Rather take a week and be confident in a scam-proof transaction than rush into loosing your precious account.
Its been my experience that 90% of scammers I interact with will answer that question with, "Sure" but never actually post a reply. At this point, just terminate the conversation as its clearly a scam.
2. Are you TW verified AND have a verified paypal account?
99% of the time they will completely ignore the "TW" segment of the question immediately saying they are paypal verified. Be sure to ask them again if they are TW verified and if they have indeed posted on your trade/sale thread, then you will clearly know if they are/are not.
Regardless if they are or are not TW verified, they will say they are paypal verified. This you can check by asking them for their paypal verification link (Eg. http://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_account-rep&mrep=1&login_access=1173512912). If they cannot provide you with this link then assume they are not paypal verified and are probably out to scam you.
If for whatever reason you proceed past this point (maybe they are convincing enough for you to continue without them being verified) I always drop this line:
"From my end, you have 0 credibility so the possibility of you being a scammer is very high. To avoid any potential scams, I can show you the character in game, and if you are still happy you may then go ahead and pay for it using Paypal. Once I have received the payment it will take Paypal 3 to 4 days to put that money into my bank account, where I can secure it making it impossible for you to recall the money. At that time, I will then transfer the ownership of the account to you.
If you do not like these terms we will not be able to conduct business."
Or something similar. Following the above trade agreement, you cannot be scammed as at that point, you have the money and can do with it what you want.
This of course, is not bullet proof, but is rigerous enough to prevent every scam attempt I have ever had to deal with. There are a couple loopholes, that if exploited, could lead to a successful scam - but these too can be prevented.
One that you will probably encounter is that the scammer will invoke an "unauthorized payment" action against the transaction. In this case, Paypal will look at the deal as if an intruding party illegally appropriated the funds from the scammer's paypal account to carry out the purchase. To prevent this its best to be as involved with Paypal as possible. If at all possible, upgrade your account to a Business Account so that your word is always greater than the unverified scammer's.
When they open an investigation to the case they will ask for your input as to what happened. Be as concise and honest as possible and word your reply professionally. Be sure to include that you believe the defendant to be a scammer for reason X, Y and Z.
Brief recap:
-- STEP 1: Pay the 5 or 10 dollars to be TrustWho verified. That shows the people trading/buying from you that you are a legit, serious vendor.
-- STEP 2: Take every step to make your Paypal account as strong as possible. At a minimum you want to be a Premier account holder (like me). I'm probably going to upgrade my account to Business shortly.
-- NOTE: If its too good to be true, its a scam. Say you are selling an account and expect no more than $200 for it - perhaps you clearly listed on the thread, "ASKING PRICE: USD$200" - then someone contacts you and offers $400. Its not worth replying. Its a scam.
Some people try and take the upper hand of the trade/sale immediately while chatting by saying, "It is our company policy that you to provide us with the Last Name, SA/SQ, and update the e-mail address on the account in our name before we send any money through Paypal. We will also provide an addition $XX if you include the CD keys."
THIS IS A SCAM. That is not a company. That is a scammer.
If the party involved with the trade/sale is using terrible grammar, spelling and awkward spacing they are:
1. Scamming you - I'm not being racist, this is just a general truth that the majority of scammers I've dealt with are non-native english speakers.
2. Possibly a continental Asian or South Pacific business involved in procuring and selling accounts. If this is the case, then they are going to try and buy your account wholesale, attaining it for a considerably depreciated value: after all, they have to make money on accounts they are going to turn around resell. I recommend staying away from these people. You can -ALWAYS- find a better deal than the low ball figure they supply.
FINALLY
=DO NOT= rent out your account. Whether its a scam or not, its simply not worth it.
Blizzard monitors accounts and specifically the IP address associated with those accounts. An IP address is a unique number assigned to your computer while connected to the internet via your ISP (internet service provider, eg. Cox, Comcast, Verizon, ect...). Each ISP is assigned a group of IP address that they may use - and so each time you connect to the internet you are effectivly borrowing on of theirs. XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX defines an IP address and the first 6 numbers can easily be traced to different ISPs across the world. So say your ISP uses 88.32.xxx.xxx (it will randomly assign each subscriber the last 6 digits). Blizzard will look at that and see that ISP is native to Chicago. The next morning, after you've rented your account, its now being accessed from (again as an example) 212.35.199.245: some shmoe in Taiwan. You're account will be flagged and probably temporarily closed as they investigate why that was. Chances are, you will just get a slap on the wrist, but depending on how often they've temporarily suspended your account, it could be permanent.
Sell safely
