Avoiding scammers - Some tips
After seeing soo many posts in the Hall of Shame from members who can't show any proof and people mailing me :"Help, I got scammed†I decided to make a little article with tips on how to avoid getting scammed.
People always think it will never happen to them or they know it all so well...
Anyways for those who r not that pretentious, here it is.
1. Research.
If you are offered an account threw pm, do a search on their name or email address and see if anything fishy comes up. Realpoor and Markeedragon both got their search button and ban lists. Try to deal with people who have good reputations, or at the very least who don't have bad reputations. You should try to avoid people who send you emails from a free email accounts,specially with odd names, unless they include a lot of business information that you can check and verify. Using the personal message system in here makes a huge different also as admin/mods can track it.
2. Questions.
Try to ask as many questions of the person who is offering you account. More answers is always an advantage so that you will have written proof if anything goes wrong. The more information you are getting on the person who is offering you, the better chance you have of staying clear of scammers, because often scammers will not give you very much information.
Ingame meets lowers the risk, same fore contact threw phone(land). Don't trust most middleman, most MM 1side offers could be a friend helping the scam progress.
3. Records.
It goes without saying that you need to keep track of your own chat, and everything you are doing. Track what you have done and how much you need to be paid for it or pay for him. Be sure to keep track of when that payment has been received,/ordered/completed. And, if you can, try to keep records of all of the communications that you have with those people, specially screenshots as chats can be edited/deleted/made. Make sure that they are always answering your questions.
4. Instincts.
Feel out a person before you finish with them. Make sure that you are able to trust this person, and that they have given you enough information so that you feel they are trustworthy. You should be able to know if you can really trust someone or not by the time you have chatted with them,mostly...! If you don't trust someone, you shouldn't feel forced to continue by any means from that person. That is just a good rule of thumb to keep in mind.
You need to go into them with your eyes open and your brains working
There is a rule that always works: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
So end conclussion : slow=safe fast=dodgy
Thx for reading,
Ps: this is just a small note, if you want more info/tips or need help, feel free to mail me on realpoor.
