Common scams

DISCLAIMER: The information in this article is based on experimental research conducted by the community, and may contain inaccuracies and speculation. While we strive for accuracy in these articles, we make no claims of experimental rigor or unbiased conclusions. Caveat lector.

This article is a list of well known scams. Be aware of them!

Gold scams

Many players will post messages such as "Would someone please lend me XXXX amount of gold, for my (armor, storage account, new weapon, etc.)?" Many of these posters are completely legitimate people in need of money, but the majority of them are simple scammers looking to get extra money easily. Some are even bots. One good indicator is the amount of gift asked for. If someone is asking for 18 gold pieces, it is unlikely he is trying to scam. If, on the other hand, a person is asking for 2k, for a "guild cape," when their cape is clearly displayed, you may want to rethink your generosity.

Item Scams

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 of 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. This is blatantly false; there is no decustomization vendor, and any customized equipment you buy will be useless.

The "I know a secret place" scam

The scammer will announce that he knows an excellent place where there is lots of gold/platinum or where there is excellent loot. Victims who pay him will find out that his secret is for them to do the same to others.

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:

• 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.
• 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 chance of more mods or better mods.
• Regarding the level of rarity for unidentified runes or armor: due to a new update, 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 on salvagable drops.

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.

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.

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 (which generally does not exceed 850 gold). Some mixes of 'gold dye' lack the silver component as well, earning the seller a profit of nearly 3 platinum. 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, usually at around 5 or 10 platinum, or a supposed formula for white dye, which can go for 50 or even 100 platinum. The formula usually involves three silver dyes and a yellow, 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 a 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 of 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 10/10 Furious), and most people are 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 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.

"Rare" Factions Items

Because the Factions campaign was only recently released, item values are not well-known. Many items that are ostensibly common are being advertised as rare items. Because of the breadth of the new campaign, accurately cataloguing which items are rare and which are common will take some time. It is probably unwise to rely on the seller's goodwill in telling you the value of the item at least until some time has passed and the market has stabilized. As most rare/valuable items are added to the GuildWiki as soon as they are noticed, the safest course is to only buy what you can verify here.

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.

Trade Scams

Trade scams involve trading between two or more players. Trade scams all rely on the scammer confusing you into believing him over the game window. Remember this important rule: the game window is always right! Also, do not press Accept on the Trade Window until you have fully read the descriptions of all items in it.

Minipet Scam

This scam involves the sale of the newly released Miniatures. Players who still have presents from Wintersday 2005 may try to sell them as a Miniature Birthday Present. Be sure to check the title of the present, or avoid buying any unopened Birthday Presents.

Running / Getting Run

For those who agree upon a gold transaction for these services, be aware that both the runner and the person being run are highly vulnerable to getting scammed. If a runner demands payment up front, there is nothing to ensure the payer will actually be brought to the destination. Similarly, the runner has no way to compel riders to pay once the run has been completed, and has no way to boot non-paying players while outside of town. To avoid these problems, most runners accept payment some way through the run, usually a zone or two away from the destination, and require riders to open a trade window just after starting the run in order to verify that each rider has the required gold on their person. Few legitimate runners will require any gold before leaving. Beware if a runner demands payment up front. Also beware of payment requests at "cutscene" intervals of missions. These tactics can leave you with unfinished missions and short the money given.

Additionally, watch out for scams perpetrated by riders on other riders. At one of the waypoints indicated by the runner as a payment point, you'll expect a trade window to be opened by the runner in order to collect the fare owed to that point. A scamming rider will quickly open the trade window with you first. Expecting to receive a trade request only from the runner, you unwittingly proceed with the trade, transferring your money to the scamming rider, who then disappears. When the runner finally gets to you, you'll be at a loss for words, and more gold if you decide to pay the fare which the runner rightly deserves. Double check the trade window to verify who is trading with you.

With the new areas in the game, people might try to charge running fees for runs that are not at all difficult. For example, the "run" from The Marketplace to Kaineng City is straight forward and does not even involve a single fight. Only pay for a run if you know the area you are run through does indeed pose any problems.

"I'm bugged!"

The seller will submit nothing on his side of the trade, and when you ask him about it, he'll claim to be "bugged," and that he actually submitted the item you were trying to buy from him. While it is entirely possible to be bugged in trade, it is not possible to be bugged in this way. If the trader claims to be bugged, ask him to relog, and do the same yourself. If he resists or refuses, or if the problem doesn't go away, he is a scammer, and you should not trade with him.

Bait and Switch

Often, scammers will submit an item that is not what you agreed upon. However, this is likely to get the scammer caught, so they will make sure that you're in a hurry first. They will usually do this by repeatedly closing the trade window in the middle of the trade, and claiming he's "glitched", until eventually, you're hitting accept as fast as possible to outrace the "glitch." When he finally submits an item, it's junk that you don't want, and in your unthinking hurry, you hit accept anyway. To increase the chances of you not noticing, the scammer will if possible switch the bait for an item with an identical trade window skin. For example, Malinon's Shield, a green and rare shield, looks exactly like a Shield of the Wing in the trade window.

Another common version of this scam is to advertise an "uberitem" for a very low price as bait, then offer a junk item alongside it and ask you if you want to buy the junk as well - for about ten times what it's worth. When you say no, they will remove the extra item and switch out the bait at the same time. You can spot this form of the scam by watching the number of offered items; if it increases to three or falls to zero, you are almost assuredly being scammed.

The most dangerous forms of this latter scam occur when the total price goes over 100k. Often the scammer will offer a good item worth about 25k for only twice what it's worth. This tempts you to buy because even though you don't want to pay 25k over the odds for the second item you're still saving 10 or 15k on the one you do want. However, this gives the scammer a clear window to make the switch without any chance to observe the change in numbers. He will often offer to trade a piece of 15k armor or a full set of Drok's armor alongside the second item, then give you the other item in a second trade for 10k plus the armor. Even if you catch the trade scam, he's already up 75k or more on the second item - more than enough to replace his armor and still make a healthy profit.

Item Switch

This is a general area of scamming which involves advertising an item, and, when the seller actually puts the item in the trade window, trading something else. This could be offering Silver Dye as Black Dye, offering an item with +2 Energy with health above 50% as being +2 Energy always, or simply advertising a weapon as being max damage when it is a few points under maximum damage. Take note that certain modifies, such as +% Damage, will appear to be "always" if the modifier includes - armor while attacking. Unlike the location of the modifier "while health is", which is located directly adjacent to the bonus, the -armor modifier can be listed lower then other stats.

Many scammers will actually have the advertised item, will show it to you in the Trade Window but then quickly close it (with the excuse of "oops" or showing it to another customer). When the trade window is reopened, the fake item is now in place.

Money Switch

In offering to buy an item, the scammer quickly switches from an offer of platinum to gold, hoping to fool the seller. For example, a scammer may agree to pay 7 platinum for black dye. When the trade window opens he 'mistakenly' offers 8 platinum. Seeing the chance to make an extra piece of platinum, the seller eagerly clicks "accept". The scammer then says something like "Oops, sorry" and changes his offer to 7 gold, hoping that the seller won't notice the change from platinum to gold. Make sure you carefully check the final offer before you accept the trade.

Platinum vs Gold

A possible scam is where an amount for an item is agreed upon and that amount is a decimal in platinum (refered to as "k") is faked. This is done by using the decimal as just gold not the full amount. Such as offering 1.5k for an item but offering 1 platinum and 5 gold which is NOT the same as the agreed 1 platinum and 500 gold. The scammer hopes that the other person is in a hurry and will not catch this. The hope is that the victim will be thinking "1.5k" and won't notice the difference of 495 gold. Remember, 1 platinum = 1000 gold and 0.5 of a platinum = 500 gold.

Also make sure that the amount they offered is placed in the window. Some players will ask to buy a 75k item, but only put 75g into the trade window.

Deferred Trades

This is a broad category of scams, but they all have the same scam element: the scammer will have you trade him an item or money, in return for an item or money he (or some other scammer) will supposedly trade you right back. This often takes the form of the three-way trade. The scammer says "I have Item A, which this guy here wants. I want Item B, which you have. And you want Item C, which this guy here has. So, you give me Item B, I'll give him Item A, and he'll give you Item C." Of course, as soon as you part with your Item B, they both leave or log off.

Another variant of this scam is where one player says something along the lines of "WTB: Ecto 15k". His partner is nearby, deliberatly ignoring him, and advertising "WTS: Ecto 10k". Even though the price of the ecto is too high, there is a 5k profit to be made from trading the ecto between them. If you buy from the first player you'll find yourself in a sticky situation as they both log off suddenly, leaving you several thousand gold down (depending of ecto prices).

Guild / Guild Hall Scams

Some people try to "sell" their Guilds and Guild Halls. They may be legitimate sellers, but if it can't be put in the trade window, there's no guarantee of receiving it.

100k+ Transactions

If you agree to buy an item from another player for over 100k, several trade sessions are required. Each character can only hold 100k on their person, so between sessions each trader must move money through storage. Some scammers open the first window, take your 100k and vanish. To prevent them from stealing your gold, try asking for their armor or a customized weapon from them. Customized items are only useful as salvage to you (a couple platinum at best) but are worth a lot more to their owner! Give back the armor or weapons when you receive your item. Alternatively, Globs of Ectoplasm are a good trade medium if you intend to buy something for more than 100k.

NCsoft support will permanently ban anyone who tries to scam in this way, but some scammers are willing to trade their dummy low-level accounts for your gold and they will tell you, "I will get banned if I take your money away". Do not trust anyone unless they are not willing to have their account banned for tens of thousands of gold.

Trading Untradeables

You will sometimes see advertisements for goods that are not obtainable in Guild Wars. Examples include: accounts in other MMORPGs such as Runescape, entire Guild Wars or Factions accounts, real world money. Recently there have been some instances of people offering to ascend your character for you at Augury Rock. Almost every single one of these trades are against the EULA or the Code of Conduct that players agree to before playing Guild Wars, not to mention that most of these trades are vectors for abuse. Never "lend" your Guild Wars account to anyone.

Adventuring Scams

These are scams in which players trick other players in certain explorable areas of the game either to gain more loot or off-load some cost onto them. It is most common for non-combat professions will be used for this. Monks are the most common, as they usually remain at the back of the group and can easily run back to grab items. Often players that do this will suddenly disregard their duties and go running for items.

Getting Used in Missions

An emerging scam is to use players wanting to do missions to farm certain areas of these missions. In high level areas, there are certain creatures that players can farm for certain loot. Examples include Jade Armors for Mursaat Hammers or White Mantle for runes. Typically, the farmer cannot get to the desired area on his own, and going with henchmen only lessens his/her chances of getting good loot. So, they join a party doing the mission and then all of a sudden, they just run off and leave the party once they get to their farming point, often jeopardizing the party's chances of successfully completing the mission. There is very little that can be done to predict or prevent such trickery from happening. If you are determined to weed out these scammers, you can keep an eye on the skills they use at the beginning, as many of them have a build that is designed specifically for farming. If you see them using skills that wouldn't help your group or that seem more appropriate for solo farming, they may try to ditch you later. Of course, you cannot be suspicious of everyone. It is best to simply use good judgement on who you group with. Keep in mind that not all missions have "farm" areas.

Drop Stealing

The items that killed monsters drop are automatically assigned to one player, no other player can pick them up. Therefore, you cannot steal drops in Guild Wars. However, the drop assignment will be removed after five minutes.

Sometimes a player will wait until a valuable item drops, then he requests a short break. After the break, the assignment for this item will be gone, and he will try to pick it up. If a valuable item drops for you and you cannot pick it up until its assignment is cleared, inform the other group members to leave this item for you.

If high value item drops are assigned to you it is often best to pick them up as soon as possible. It has been known for a team to leave a party member deceased whilst the assignment is cleared, the living members are then free to pick up the item. This is a highly unfair practice but alas, nothing can be done about it, just be wary of your team.

The Realms of the Gods Entry Fee

In order to gain access to the Realms of the Gods (the Fissure of Woe and the Underworld), a member in the party must pay the avatar of the respective god 1000 gold. This is either done by one member who volunteers to pay for everyone, or the party leader will ask each member to pay up 125 gold to him which divides the cost on all members.

Be careful of the following scams in this situation:

• If you pay and then ask for others to pay you after entry, there is nothing to force them to pay up. If you are keen about being paid up, then collect money before entry.
• Some party leaders will ask party members they deem as newbies to pay an extra bit in private chat.
• Some party members will try to trick new players by telling them that each member has to go pay 1000 gold to the avatar individually.

The Bandits of the Underworld

Beware of small farming teams in the Underworld. These are teams made up of 2-3 members that go farming in this very difficult area based on certain builds (Invincible Monk and Spiteful Spirit necromancers for example). Some times these teams will resort to scams to increase their profit margin. Some of their scams include:

• Since the "Invinci-monk" is the key to the success of the team, he will ask the new member to pay for the team. But as soon as the party goes in, the monk (usually with another cohort) will lure a group of the fearsome Bladed Aatxes to the new member and have him killed. Then they refuse to resurrect this dead member. The dead member is "used" to pay the entry fee and then discarded. Although this is possible to do, the 55 monk will require other team mates to deal the damage otherwise the 55 monk will be tanking for hours, which has smaller profit gain!
• Sometimes these bandits will not discard a member right away, instead they will use his skills until a Glob of Ectoplasm is dropped for this member. Then the monk will again lure monsters toward the new member, get him killed, refuse to resurrect him, and take the Ecto after the player leaves angrily or several minutes have passed and the Ecto is available for all.
• In a 2-man SS-55 build. Beware of monks who try to hijack the run after the Aatxe are killed. The easiest way to tell this is if the 55 monk has Zealot's Fire and Shield of Judgment (instead of Spell Breaker). These are offensive skills that enable the 55 monk to kill the Smite Crawlers, but are very slow in killing the Aatxe. Typically, the 55 monk will tank as usual until the last group of Aatxe before the Smite Crawlers and then rush in and leave the SS necromancer stuck behind the Aatxe. When going with one of them, an SS necro can tell right away by the fact that they will not use Spell Breaker when facing the Dying Nightmares. A safeguard against this scam is to only pay the 500 gold share of the entry fee once inside the UW and Spell Breaker is used. Unfortunately, honest 55 monks will find this request odd if not shady.

Impersonation Scams

Impersonation scams are scams in which the scammers act as ArenaNet staff. NOTE: ArenaNet staff will never ask you for your username/password or demand free items. So if you do get asked for one of these and they claim to be a staff member, just ignore them. You should also report anyone impersonating ArenaNet staff to ArenaNet. Also note that on the rare occasion that ArenaNet staff are in game, their chat text appears in a special color in the conversation window, usually green or purple.

Username/Password Requests

ArenaNet will never ask for your username and password - not through e-mail, not through a whisper, never. Therefore, do not respond to any requests for your password or username and try to report them if possible.

Sigil Status

This is targeted at EverQuest players, who needed to have GMs approve their guild creation in a chat room. In this game, all guild management is taken care of in-game, so the scam has no basis in fact. Essentially, a scammer will say that, to get a Celestial Sigil, you must pay a GM gold, and he will transfer the status onto you, allowing you to buy a Guild Hall. This is untrue: Sigils can only be purchased from other players or the Sigil Trader, or earned in the Hall of Heroes.

Duplicate Item Scams

Some people claim to be able to duplicate items. One method is a monk using the Unyielding Aura Elite Skill which resurrects a dead ally as long as they maintain the enchantment. They will ask you to go out side into a combat area with them and get yourself killed. They will then resurrect you with Unyielding Aura and proceed to walk a fair distance away to make you feel that when you drop your item to be duplicated they won't scam you by picking it up and leaving. Once you drop your item, they stop maintaining Unyielding Aura leaving you to watch as they come and take your dropped item.

Gold Chest Scams

An unopened chest can contain gold or purple items, but once opened, it will produce the same color for everyone. Scammers who don't want to risk wasting a key opening a "purple chest" will drop a gold item next to the chest and say, "Hey, a gold chest!" and wait for someone else to open it. Once that person opens it, if a gold item pops out, the scammer knows it's safe to use his own key. Remember that the game notes when someone drops an item, so this scam is relatively easy to spot.

Other Scams

Some "scams" aren't even part of the game, and some not only threaten your privacy, but also break the law.

Downloadable "Hacks"

While it's not really a scam, it is definitely something to watch out for. Lately, some players have been advertising about hacks on a certain site (URL not given here), claiming them to be fully malware-free and 100% working. Using a virus scanner, you find them to contain a trojan, which could allow an outsider to take control over your computer, or log your keypresses to find out your passwords. Not only to Guild Wars, but also to anything else you sign on. If you see someone advertising about hacks, Do not download anything from their specified page, but contact ArenaNet support and report the person in question, stating when it occured and who.

If you find a helpful tool you would like to use, always scan it with a virus scanner or online scanner before executing. If you fail to do this, you jeopardize not only your account, but also your privacy. Even if your virus scanner gives a clean report, you should remain suspicious and try to take steps to mitigate damage, such as running the tool as a different user or on a different computer or operating system, if possible.

Hoaxes

• Terror Shield