How To Avoid Scammers and "hackers":

written by Kat : violet345

What are scammers?

Scammers are people that will try to steal your account and all your hard earned NP by tricking you with a scam. There are lots of tricks that they will use to steal your account. Below is a guide on how to avoid those scams. Always report scammers to abuse@neopets.com

Tips to avoid being scammed:

• Choose a hard to guess password

  . Do not use something easy like your own username or your neopet's name. Also do not use a word people can guess very easily looking through your interests, for example if you are in our guild, the Charmed Ones Guild, Do not use Charmed, Piper, Phoebe or anything charmed related as/in your password. People can easily guess that.




• Always check the URL in the address bar is neopets.com before you log in

  . Never log in to neopets via links from other websites, always enter the URL yourself or set neopets as a homepage or favourite, even then still check the URL each time before you enter your password.
  - Fake Login pages are most commonly found in people's shops. For example when you are in someones shop and see a faerie for only 100 NP! You first think wow, I found a cheap faerie! But when you click on it, you will be redirected to a neopets login page. Just look at the URL, if it is not http://www.neopets.com It is a scam! Just hit the back button and report the shop immediately! Do not fill in your password under any circumstances.
  - Other fake login pages are outside neopets links that claim that they have a cheat to give you a million NP or other valuable items if you just fill in your username and password. Well, you only will get your account scammed and besides, neopets does nott allow cheat programs, so even if they do work, you would get your account frozen anyway! So just remember this, never fill in your account information in a site outside neopets. It will only cause your account to get stolen!




• Do not ever give out your password to anyone!

  Neopets will NEVER ask you for your password, if someone asks you your password for any reason what so ever, report them immediately! People will normally not just ask you for your password, they mostly will make you believe they need it for something. Some examples:
  - They say they are from the Neopets team and they might even have a name that looks like it is from the neopets team, like theneopetsleader to confuse you. The only account from neopets is theneopetsteam. But they only use that account to tell you you have won the mystery pic or something like that. All other accounts are not from the neopets team. They will most likely send you a mail telling you that there has been a problem with your account and that they need your password for some reason. Do nott believe these people, just report them!
  - Other people claim you have won a prize from a lottery or a guild. You did not even enter this contests, but the prizes are mostly great, like 1 million NP. But you will not get that NP, you only will get your account hacked. They say they need your username, password and mostly some other information in order to give you your prize. They can also add some kind of time limit, to confuse the poor neopians even more. They say that you need to reply in a day or they will give your prize to someone else for example. Do not believe them either, just report them to the neopets team!
  - Another scam that is used a lot lately is they claim they are the neopets team again and that you have been reported for saying rude stuff on the chatboard. Of course you have not done anything wrong, but they claim if you do not send them your password within a couple of days, your account will be frozen! Now you do not want that to happen, so people who do not know any better send their password and lose their account to a silly scam. So instead of sending them your password, just report those dumb scammers to the neopets team ;)
  - Other people post on the chatboard that neopets has super security and that if you post your password on the chat, it will look like this ***** and sometimes someone else (one of their other accounts) will post look ***** it really works. But of course it does not work and if you try it, people will find out your password! Personally I can not believe anyone would fall for this, but it happens, so I am just warning you.
  - Another weird mail I got once was one that asked me if I wanted to work for the neopets team. All I had to do was send them my information, including my password. So I just reported them to the neopets team.
  
  
• There are also several shop scams to watch out for!
  
  - There are the so called shop contests. For example whoever buys the most Bottles of Sand for 1,000 NP wins a faerie paint brush. Do not believe this!
  - Some time ago this was found in a lot off shops:
  "Make Thousands of NP in Less Than 2 Months! I had no idea that making money could be so simple. This really works and this is NOT A SCAM! I have been scammed before and believe me, it is not fun. If you would like to know the secret to making thousands of Neopoints quickly and easily, make me one of your neofriends and send me any one of the following: a Codestone (any), a Faerie (any), a Map Piece (any), or a Paint Brush...You can ask me if I will except anything else. Once I recieve one of these items from you I will send you the secret ASAP (As Soon As Possible, but please be prepared to wait I am not on Neopets 24/7 ...believe me it will be worth the wait). I guarantee the following: You have my promise that this is not a scam. I will send you the secret once I recieve your item."
  - Neopets now freezes people who put this in their shop, so I suggest you do not! If you send them your item, they will just say: copy and paste this in your own shop and you can auction or sell the items you received. Duh! I think most people could figure that out for themselves too! So do not send them any of your items and report them to the neopets team if you see this!
  
  
• There are also people who claim they are selling accounts or pets.
  Do not even think about buying a Neopets accounts. It may not be a scam, the original account holder may really be trying to sell away their accounts, but it is against the Neopets rules and the account will be frozen. So do not bid nor trade items to anyone that is trying to sell away their accounts.

• E-mail scams! There are people who will ask you to change your e-mail address in something else (their own e-mail address or something else you they don’t have access to) Why? Well, they might promise you cool items or a cool newsletter. So you are not giving them your password, right? Well, if you change your e-mail address you will get scammed. This is how it works, once you have changed your e-mail address they will ask you to mail them you have done that. When they receive your mail. They just fill in your username at the forget password box and they get your password e-mailed to their e-mail address and there goes your account, even though you did not directly give them your password!

• Neositting: Neopets does not allow neositting and besides neopets do not die and there is always the neolodge. Don’t give out your password to other people!

• Do not share accounts with anyone! If someone offers you to share an account, just say no! Keep these scams in mind and always follow these rules:
  - Neopets will never ask you for your passsword, so do not give out your password to anyone, not even to your friends! Real friends do not ask for your password!
  - Change your password regularly!
  - Have a hard password, that is not easy to guess!
  - Never change your e-mail address to one belonging to someone else!
  
  - Do not log in on non-neopets sites!
  ------------------------------

  Below are some examples of scam mails that I received during my time on neopets, they are just to give you an idea what a scam mail is like ;):

  from cooper_2002
  "hey congradulations you have won the million np draw in order to give you your 1 million nps we will need you username and pass word and we'll via e-mail you in 2 hours if you dont hear from us by via e-mail you'll have to contact curtis@neopets.com but thats very unlikely because you were our first with drawer that means you were the first picked from the hat just fill the form below and also please include your d.o.b that means your date of birth and you real name so we know that we are giving the 1 million nps to you and not another account you know mistakes happen
  username=
  pass word=
  real name=
  d.o.b=
  thankyou also a warning if you dont fulfil this aplication form in 24 hrs you'll be disqualifyed and we will have to draw out another entry
  thankyou for your time
  the neopetsteam
  p.s please dont tell anyone that you have won as the winners havent been announced yet. the winners will be announced in the neopian times so keep reading and you'll see your name in there.
  thankyou
  The NeoPets™ Team"

  This is definatly one of the scams where they claim you have one something and need your password. My first scam mail ever, I was happy to report him ;)

  

  from the_neo_pets_leader:
  "there was a problem. we lost some pasword data so we need certain people to neomail their paswords back to us.... you are one of those people. sorry for any inconvience!"

  Definatly a fake staff member (just look at the name)

  

  from johny1524:
  "dear neopets user,
  we found a left over orn and har codestone and wondering if its belong to you and a snow flame nobody claimed it so your the last neopets user we asked. may we asked you to give your
  favorite hobby=
  birth=
  male/female=
  screename=
  pa$$word=
  
  thankyou for your cooperation

  p.s we'll send it to you right away"

  Haha, this must be one of the dumbest scams I ever received and really his English is even worse than mine. lol I don't think the neopets team will ever hire people who don't even speak English well.

  

  I got this from one of my neofriends whose account got scammed. this was the mail I received from the scammer:
  "Trust me it is not a scam! I try it! would you like to interest in having a news letter It was such a fantastic news letter that give you stock tips, list of cheapest shop in neopia. It also tells you restock times, how to get stuff from the money tree, how to become a millionare and etc. Best of all is FREE!! If you subscribe today, we will also include cheat from the hardest games. We have a script that sends the letter to everyone who’s email is NEOPETSNEWS_2001@YAHOO.CA All you have to do is click on HELP, on your left side section, than go to preferences and change your email address to neopetsnews_2001@yahoo.ca . As a sign bonus, you will receive a random faerie or codestone for FREE. This is not a scam! So why not try it and see if is true ? Make sure you mail me back ! If you want a news letter! Thanks !"

  So this is an example of the change e-mail address, you won't get a newsletter, but your account stolen, ask my friend! So don't let it happen to you and report this kind of neomails to abuse@neopets.com

  

  from shine_skint222:
  "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE WON 50,000 NEOPOINTS FROM THE SHANKS GUILD!
  FOR THIS WE WILL NEED YOUR P WORD... WE ARE NOT HACKERS! IF WE HACK YOU CAN GET MY ACCOUNT FROZEN THANK YOU
  PLEASE REPLY IMMEDIATLY
  SHANKS GUILD"

  I mean I am not even in that guild, how could I win something from them? I mean that person wasn't even in that guild. And scammers rarely use their main account to send scam mails to others, they just create a new account or use on of someone else, they don't care wheter it gets frozen. And scammers always say they are not scammers, funny huh? If someone expresses he is not a scam, he most likely is :P

  

  from Tekiah2001:
  "You gotta try this Shrine: URL !
  THE BEST SHRINE ON THE WEB! In 12 hours you win 50 000 np !!! try it now ! (This is NO LIE ! I tried it myself! )"

  The URL was one not from neopets where you had to fill in your account information. I have not included the URL, cause I don't like promoting these sites. Besides, I don't even know this person, why would he want to help me?

  ------------------------------

  So that are a couple of examples of scam mails that you can get, to give you an idea. If you receive similar mails, report them to the neopets team! So that's about it, I hope this helps you.