Common scams/Item scams

<- This article is part of GuildWiki's List of popular scams.

Detailed item scam listing
Item scams exploit traits, name or appearance of items to convince somebody he's getting something he isn't. Examples include:
 * attempting to trade you Bleached Carapaces instead of Bleached Shells, or other similarly named substitutions.
 * attempting to trade a low quality weapon/off-hand item which has the same trade-window appearance as a higher priced item.
 * attempting to trade you an item with a lower grade or different weapon modifier than advertised.

Selling Armor
All armor in Guild Wars is customized to the character that purchased it. This means that, while it can be traded to others, nobody else can actually wear it. The most anybody can do with a piece of armor is to salvage it. The game now offers a warning in the trade window when the item being sold is customized.

Selling Customized Weapons
Whenever you buy a weapon from another player, look at it closely. If you see a line stating that it is customized for that player, you will be unable to equip the weapon if you buy it. You may still wish to buy it to try and salvage weapon upgrades off it. The game now offers a warning in the trade window when the item being sold is customized.

Decustomization
Often, a player attempting a scam with armor or weapons will tell you that a decustomization vendor will remove the old customization, allowing you to equip the armor or weapon and customize it for yourself. This is blatantly false; there is no decustomization vendor, and any customized equipment you buy will be useless.

Unidentified Items
This is not necessarily a scam, but it is definitely worth mentioning. Using an Identification Kit on an unidentified item will show you what properties that item has. If the properties come from a rune or weapon upgrade, this will unlock that rune or upgrade for use on PvP characters. Merely purchasing an already-identified item does not unlock runes or upgrades, so a thriving market in unidentified items exists in Guild Wars.

However, there are some things that traders of unidentified items should know: Note on trading for armors that have runes (ie: "golds"):
 * For weapons and focus items, the mods can be known to players (by equipping them and looking for the mod effects) even if the game still considers them unidentified. Thus, the more desired mods can be filtered out of the market.
 * Be careful with people who want to gamble with unidentfied items, mainly weapons and shields. Most likely they tried the item out, in an attempt to make quick gold. If you do fall for this, no worries - it happens. But under no circumstances, pay to find out how.
 * For unidentified armors, it is generally more efficient to expert-salvage them (extracting an unidentified rune if successful) before trading, as the shape of rune will let players know its type and profession (see Rune).
 * The level of rarity of an item does not directly correspond to its power. A purple isn't necessarily stronger than a blue, and a gold isn't necessarily stronger than a purple. Rarer items just have a higher likelyhood of having more or better mods.
 * Prior to the June 1, 2006 Update, "gold" dropped armors did not indicate the magnitude the rune (Superior/Major/Minor) they contained.  Because of this, be aware that "gold" armors do not necesarily contain a superior rune.  To protect yourself from this, insist upon trading for the expert salvaged (and unidentified) runes instead, or you may find that those "gold" armors actually contain major runes, which are generally nearly worthless, instead of the superior runes you expected.  Salvageable drops now indicate the level of rarity for unidentified armor: a light blue piece will always contain a minor rune, purples will always contain a major rune and golds will always contain superior runes, but only if that salvageable/armor was dropped after the update!  There are still a few of the old unidentified salvageable drops floating around out there, so protect yourself!

Note: With the Faction system (which allows players to earn points to unlock skills and items for PvP) the market for unidentified runes has become significantly smaller.

Althea's Ashes
It is possible to buy Althea's Ashes in Piken Square. It has the same picture as a Pile of Glittering Dust but it is a quest item. Be sure to accept first the quest and then buy the urn; having the urn while accepting the quest may lead to a disappearance of the Urn without having the quest completed. You can, however, put the urn in storage until you have accepted the quest.

Be also aware that there are two quests concerning Althea; you must complete The Duke's Daughter before you can accept Althea's Ashes.

Also, be sure that the item you're receiving is called "Urn of Althea's Ashes". If the item is named "Barradin Family Urn" the scammer is trying to sell you an item that won't complete the quest.

Family Sigil as Celestial Sigil
When trading for a Celestial Sigil, be sure to verify that what you are buying is indeed a Celestial Sigil and not a Family Sigil. Family Sigils are a valueless quest item.

Shimmering Scale Necklace as Amulet of the Mists
When trading for an Amulet of the Mists, be sure to verify that what you are buying is indeed an Amulet of the Mists and not a Shimmering Scale Necklace from the quest If It Weren't for Bad Luck. The two share a strikingly similar appearance.

Enslavement Stone
Some people claim you need Enslavement Stones to get Chains of Enslavement, an enchantment you get after accepting the Summit Slaves quest. This is false.

Selling Account
This scam involves a player "claiming" to be selling an account. They will often state that it's their secondary account, and they want to transfer the money to a new one. The scammer will always insist on cash before you so much as know the e-mail or password and will often block you from PMing them. Note that even if the transaction does take place, and you do receive your new account, selling (or trading) accounts is specifically against ArenaNet's Guild Wars EULA.

Dye Scams
Gold dye can sell for several platinum, especially in Lion's Arch; however, gold dye barely costs two platinum to mix. It's a simple mix of orange, yellow, and silver dyes. The most expensive component of gold dye is the silver dye. Some mixes of 'gold dye' lack the silver component as well, earning the seller a significant profit. Gold dye does not drop, even though a scammer may try and convince you otherwise. Another way to generate "gold" dye is to mix certain trader-bought dyes with a single remover; which gives the bottle the same appearance as honestly-mixed gold dye. In short, if you want gold dye, brew your own.

Similarly, people will try to sell white dye, or a supposed formula for white dye. The formula usually involves three silver dyes and a yellow dye, which generally looks pretty white. Some armors (especially ranger and monk) look better with this mix than others, however this is no guarantee that the dye will look white on other armors. The same rules apply to other custom dye mixes - gold, teal, etc.

Black dye is very rare and sought-after. Many inexperienced players find it in Pre-Searing and don't know what to do with it, so they sell it cheap. There are players in pre-searing who try to take advantage of this, generating great profits when graduating into post-searing. Though this is not exactly a scam, it is highly unfair towards those who are new in the game. Black dye can be sold post-searing to dye-traders, who will pay several platinum per vial.

IDS/FDS Scam
Though both completely different, the Icy Dragon Sword is more sought after than the Fiery Dragon Swords that may be used to impersonate one in a trade. You cannot make an Icy Dragon Sword by putting blue dye on a Fiery Dragon Sword; that only turns the handle blue. Nor will an Icy Hilt change a Fiery Dragon Sword into an Icy Dragon Sword.

Selling Quest Rewards
Beware of items with blue names and max or near max mods when buying. Although many will think the mod(s) or the item itself is rare, it may well be a quest reward item or collector's item. If this is the case, then the mod(s) cannot be salvaged off the weapon as they are inherent. If you see a very good mod on a blue weapon, the item is almost certainly a quest reward, as blue items never have max mods (i.e. 5/-1 Vampiric or 10% Furious), and most people loathe to put a rare mod on a blue weapon.

Cities of Ascalon
In this scam, a player attempts to sell the -50hp Grim Cesta, which is required for the 55 build, at a ridiculously high price (20k-100k), claiming that the quest Cities of Ascalon has been erased from the game. The monk who has already done the quest and then got rid of the Grim Cesta (being unaware of its usefulness) is the prime target of the scam. This quest has not been removed from the game, and thus the item can either be bought at a reasonable price, or obtained by starting a Prophecies PvE character from scratch. This scam aims to take advantage of the fact that the quest's prerequisites are rather confusing, making it sometimes hard to get.

Monastery Credits/Imperial Commendations Scam
People will try to buy Monastery Credits or Imperial Commendations cheap from new players. While trading them is legit, be aware that there are two "values" that can be attached to these items: First the value of the items they trade in for. For example, 5 Imperial Commendations trade in for 1 Superior Salvage Kit which normally costs 2000 gold. So the value of an Imperial Commendation to a person in need of these Kits is 2000/5=400. But even if you do not need Superior Salvage Kits, they can be sold for 1000 gold each. So everyone can get at least 200 gold out of each Commendation by selling the Kits. A similar situation exists with Monastery Credits and Scrolls of Adventurer's Insight. People buying at lower rates are cheating you out of your money.

Dragon Mask/Pumpkin Helm/Tengu Mask/Horns Of Grenth/Yule Cap Scam
People may try to sell their Special Event Masks. However, Special Event Masks, like all armor pieces, are customized for the player who received it, so once you buy it, it will be useless to you. This scam is quite simple to see through, however: The Trade dialogue pane will ask you to confirm if you actually do want to accept an item customized by someone else.

"Crystalline" skin sword auctions
The Crystalline Sword skin is a very popular and sought-after one, and most of these weapons are amazingly expensive. However, there is a quest in Pre-Searing that gives a Long Sword with the crystalline skin, with the stats 6-9 damage, +5 armor while casting and 5% chance of halving spell casting time. This easily-obtainable, and frankly quite useless, sword is often sold for high amounts of platinum on various auction sites.

New and Old Weapons
In one of the game updates, the sundering mod bonus was increased from 10/10 to 20/20. Weapons with this mod were updated so that only new drops of will receive the 20/20 mod. This means that there are quite a few 10/10 sundering weapons aquired prior to the update still on the market. These old weapons are obviously far less valuable than the newer better ones. Make sure that you are indeed getting the version that you are paying for. This scam can easily be used with the "bait and switch" method (Seller places 20/20 weapon in trade window, then cancels the trade saying it was an accident, and reopens the trade window and offers the 10/10 version, hoping the buyer does not notice).
 * Note: This section refers only to gold, purple and blue items. All green items were upgraded in a prior patch.