Common scams

In games such as Guild Wars, there are many 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:
 * The Mini Asura is being given away free with the May 2007 issue of PC Gamer and other magazines around the world.
 * Minipets do NOT come from Wintersday Gifts or Winter Gifts. Minipets come from Birthday Presents and other non-gift sources.
 * Globs of Frozen Ectoplasm are not Globs of Ectoplasm and cannot be turned into Globs of Ectoplasm.
 * You cannot use another player's armor, ever.
 * You cannot use an item customized for another player, ever.
 * You cannot un-customize or customize over armor and weapons, ever.
 * With the introduction of the festival hat maker players have the ability to craft multiple hats. All Festival Hats are customized.
 * You cannot use the festival hat maker to make you a hat using another player's hat.
 * 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.
 * Before buying dye, read the main article.
 * 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.
 * Gray dye is sold at the merchant for 50 . It is also the standard color of newly crafted armor. It is not subject to the usual trader supply and demand prices.
 * There is currently no known use for Diamonds.
 * Some scammers try to sell a Stone of the Elements as a Stygian Gemstone in the Gate of Anguish. The two items look identical. Beware.
 * Diamond Keys, Ruby Keys and Sapphire Keys are from the Dasha Vestibule mission and have no use outside that mission. They do not open any real chests.
 * Watch out for the The Captured Son letter scam at Seitung Harbor. Instead of buying Letter for Jatoro's Mother (the quest item for The Captured Son quest) scammers sell you the similar sounding Letter to Mom instead.
 * Be careful when you buy Crystalline Swords. Due to their rarity, scammers may try to sell the sword rewarded at the end of the Pre-Searing quest The Prize Moa Bird, which happens to have the same skin.
 * Don't pay a high price for barbed sword hilts - they can be salvaged from the Ascalon Razor obtained from collector Louise Haup in Piken Square (Prophecies).
 * Always check the sell price of an item at the merchant before trading. People will sometimes try to buy for less.

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, ever agree to a trade that goes through a third party unless you know and trust that person.
 * Use ecto or black dye to trade values in excess of 100k. Do not engage in trades that would require more than one trading session.
 * Never, ever trust a player who asks you to drop your items on the ground. There is simply no need, just open the trade window. Especially watch out for assassins; they can use their teleport skill to appear right next to you and pick up your item.
 * 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! Also, if buying weapons check to see if they are customized!
 * Always watch out for people that try to sell Mursaat Tokens as Globs of Ectoplasm, as they look quite similar.
 * Don't pay a lot for a weapon or offhand just because someone says it has a popular or rare skin. If the item's stats are bad, it isn't worth much, regardless of its skin. There are only a couple of very rare exceptions to this; check a pricing guide before making any large transactions.
 * Watch out for people selling accounts from other games. Runescape is a game often used for this, so be very careful!
 * Watch out for people that try to sell off gold as platinums. Often, say, if you're selling an item for a round thousand number such as 4,000 gold (4k), people will attempt to give you 4 gold instead of 4k. ArenaNet recently changed the display in the trade window, though, to thousands of gold and not platinums.

Adventuring Scams
Main article: Adventuring scams (a more detailed listing of the adventuring scams summarized here)

Various forms of nefarious acts can take place outside of the realm of trading. To avoid getting burned, follow this simple advice:


 * Do not pay up-front fees for running.
 * If you are running another player, they will sometimes say they are going AFK (away from keyboard), and will not return until the run is over. This enables a free run to their desired location. It is recommended that if the person you are running decides to go AFK, they pay all/half of the running fee before they do.
 * Pick up item drops assigned to you as soon as there's a break in fighting. Item assignments last for 10 minutes only, after which it may be picked up by anyone.
 * Entry into FoW (Fissure of Woe) and Underworld costs 1000 per party, not per person.
 * Before going to FoW, Underworld, or other high level farming areas, first read the main adventuring scam article (link above).
 * Don't pay for "Ferrying" to Lion's Arch. Consult the Lion's Arch article and look under "Getting there" for a description on how to arrive in LA.

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:


 * ArenaNet will never, ever ask you for your username or password. Report anyone who does.
 * Creating a guild does not require a GM (Game Master, an ArenaNet administrator) to help.
 * "Item duplication" is always a scam. Do not let your greed get the best of you.
 * 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.
 * Do not respond to beggars. If no one does, they'll usually stop begging. Much of the time these people are not poor and are looking for someone gullible enough to "lend" them money.
 * 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 many will refuse to give you anything, contrary to their own words.
 * 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.
 * Don't ever buy an account or an access key from someone you don't know or trust, as the majority of the time it is a scam. Trading or selling account keys also violates the User Agreement.
 * Never "buy guild members" as the "seller" will give you names he knows will not join, making you waste gold on inviting them and you will have paid for nothing.
 * Some scammers claim that an item's value is more/less than it really is, trying to gain an advantage when trading. They back up their claim by referring to GuildWiki. GuildWiki does not document item values, but the false information has been put in an article by the scammer. Such information is usually quickly reverted. Check fansite forums such as GWG and GWO.
 * 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)