Common scams

In games such as Guild Wars, there are people who try to get ahead by dishonest means, cheating and stealing from other players. This article aims to arm you with enough knowledge to avoid the well known scams. Be aware of them!

The main article contains hard and fast ways you should act and things you should know to avoid being scammed. See the separate sub-articles for in-depth explanations and less common scams.

Item Scams
Main Article: Item scams (a more detailed listing of the item scams summarized here)

Many scams involve trading or manipulating items in various ways. Keep the following things in mind:
 * You cannot use, wear, un-customize, re-customize or customize-over any item customized for another player, ever. Minipets which are "dedicated" can be used in towns and explorable areas, but cannot be displayed in the Hall of Monuments.
 * All Festival Hats are customized, and the festival hat maker will not make a hat customized for your character from a hat customized by another player.
 * Maximum Damage Req 8 items still drop, and ArenaNet has never removed them from drops in any update.
 * Do not buy unidentified items unless you have read the main item scam article.
 * Before buying a quest item, always look it up on GuildWiki first and make sure that item can in fact be bought and used to complete the quest.
 * Minipets do NOT come from Wintersday Gifts or Winter Gifts. Minipets come from Birthday Presents and other in-game sources.
 * Moa Eggs and Hardened Moa Eggs will not automatically produce a minipet. This quest requires a long scavenger hunt that must be done by a single character, on an account with all four Guild Wars games (see Black Moa Chick for more details).
 * The Mini Asura is being given away free with the May 2007 issue of PC Gamer and other magazines around the world.
 * Beware of the "man-in-the-middle" scam, and always independently verify the value of an item before buying it.
 * Monastery Credits and Battle Commendations are worth at least 100 . Imperial Commendations, Equipment Requisitions, Luxon Totems, Kournan Coins, Ancient Artifacts, and Inscribed Secrets are worth at least 200 . If you sell them for less, you are cheating yourself.
 * 7 Trade Contracts can be traded for a Ruby, Diamond, or Sapphire. Always check the Rare Material Trader for jewel prices before selling your contracts.
 * Before buying dye, read the main article.
 * Gray dye is sold at the merchant for 50, and is not subject to the usual trader supply and demand prices.
 * Beware of people advertising "collectable" or "rare" items (not Collectors items). Often the items may simply come from an expansion other than the one they are being advertised in.
 * Never give hand-outs to beggars. They may give many excuses (i.e. they were scammed, etc) but nevertheless are just being lazy.
 * Thunderfist's Brass Knuckles are a free quest reward in Eye of the North.
 * Tournament Tokens cannot be exchanged for any item.
 * Igneous Summoning Stone from the 2008 upgrade cannot be traded or sold since they are customized for the player.

Trade Scams
Main article: Trade scams (a more detailed listing of the trade scams summarized here)

When trading with other players, it pays to be on your guard. Most players are on the level and will not try to cheat you, but there are bad apples out there, and keeping the following in mind will save you much grief:


 * Always hover your mouse over the items you're receiving in a trade an extra time before hitting accept. Make sure you're getting exactly what you expect. Be especially careful to check if the trade has been modified since it was originally offered.
 * Always make sure the trade window actually reflects the person you want to trade with.
 * Do not trust people who suddenly "get bugged" while trading with you.
 * Never agree to a trade that goes through a third party unless you know and trust that person.
 * Use multiple ecto or Zaishen Keys to trade values in excess of 100k. Do not engage in trades that would require more than one trading session otherwise, as the seller may take your money from the first trade and run.
 * Never trust a player who asks you to drop your items on the ground, unless you are giving that item away. If they cannot open a trade window, they are playing a demo and will be unable to pick up the item anyway. Also, any new Guild Wars account has to be active for a period of 24 hours before they can trade, pick up any dropped items. A common scam is an Assassin at the edge of your aggro. He will use a skill to teleport to you and take your items, also with the Ebon Escape skill people can do this trick without having assassin as 2nd profession.
 * Never believe someone when they tell you the item they are selling you is worth the merchant value shown in trade window. Some people will try to trade you an item that says "value:XXXgold" rather than giving you the gold you are asking for an item.  This is a scam because the item in trade window, if stackable, shows the merchant value of all the whole stack of items that person is holding, not just the one they are trading you.
 * "Item duplication" is always a scam. Many accounts have been permanently banned for even discussing how to duplicate items.
 * If trading for a quest item, make sure you look it up on the wiki first to ascertain the exact name of the item you need.
 * Never accept an item that is supposedly in a "bag". All bags must be empty to be traded.
 * Always remember you cannot buy armor from other players: it's automatically customized.
 * Always remember to check that the weapon isn't customized! Customized weapons cannot be used by anybody other than the player they were customized for.
 * Trading, selling, or buying accounts (player-to-player) is always illegal and both parties involved will have their accounts banned permanently without warning if ArenaNet finds evidence of it in the logs.
 * When selling or buying something, find out about the market price from reliable sources, e.g. guild mates or reputable web forums. Your trade partner may lie about the market price, or may have an accomplice give false price information (possibly with WTB or WTS) in the trade chat in an attempt to scam you.

Account Scams

 * ArenaNet will never, ever ask you for your username or password. Report anyone who does.
 * Don't use the same email address and password when you sign up for forums or teamspeak servers.
 * Trading or selling account keys violates the User Agreement and will result in a ban for both involved parties.
 * Be sure to keep your Access Keys, and to add them to your PlayNC master account, so that you can change your password if your password gets compromised.

Miscellaneous scams
Main article: Miscellaneous scams (a more detailed listing of the miscellaneous scams summarized here)

All the scams that fit none of the other categories. To make your life easier, pay attention:


 * Creating a guild does not require a GM (Game Master, an ArenaNet administrator, also referred to as Global Moderators) to help.
 * Don't fall for the temptation to download "hacks" or other 3rd-party tools such as bots. Using them violates the User Agreement and can get your account banned. They can also be trojan horses that install spyware on your computer, stealing your GW password and more.
 * In general, do not waste time trying to "catch" people who purport to give away free goodies to the first person who can find/touch them. This is not so much a scam as a waste of your time, as there are those that will refuse to give you anything, contrary to their own words. They also may use two accounts and already be in trade mode between them, meaning that even if you do catch them, you will never be able to initiate trade.
 * Do not pay anyone to be taken to a "secret place" or "farming spot". GuildWiki documents all of those better and for free.
 * Do not try to "buy a guild" from someone you do not know and trust, as it may be a scam.
 * Never "buy guild members" as the "seller" may give you names he knows will not join, making you waste gold on inviting them and you will have paid for nothing.
 * Do not buy gold, CD Keys, or items from online stores for real cash. There is no guarantee that you will get your product. It also violates the User Agreement and can get your account banned. (Section 7 of the current EULA)
 * Never promote untrusted members to a Guild Officer, it is a possibility they will kick/demote all your members and then leave the guild, leaving you with no members whatsoever.
 * Careful when helping new guild members, it is a possibility they will claim "Free Guild Member" help and then leave when they've got what they want done, for example crafting new armor.