Scammers in Gaia

[Darlingchann]

The Moonlight Densetsu

I wish you good luck. 3nodding
It's a very nice item and the legs or arms would look very nice on your avi 3nodding

Yeah and I know the feeling; it feels a little off just asking for free stuff. I'd probably offer to pay back aswell if I was asking and didn't know it's considered a fishy thing to do

3nodding Thanks. And I know I'll never ask again, it feels so blehhh

[Knight of Britannia]

Yeeeah. This person who had AI'ed this crappy item asked me to trade it for one of my items that I was selling that was somewhat popular/expensive. Not knowing any better, I assumed it was rare because it didn't have any other listings, and she she was charging so much for it, so-- why not? emotion_awesome So I traded it to her, and then later realized it was a piece of crap, and it wasn't rare at all.

The only good thing about it was that normally when I sell/trade things, it's because I'm planning to get rid of it anyway, so I didn't want it. I didn't run away crying after it happened or anything, but it was still like... really? I should have thought about it more before it happened, but it's gross how easily some people lie and cheat others on here without a second thought. So I don't blame people's skepticism. Though it's always such a lovely and pleasant surprise when you run into genuine people!

[Darlingchann]

Knight of Britannia

Yeeeah. This person who had AI'ed this crappy item asked me to trade it for one of my items that I was selling that was somewhat popular/expensive. Not knowing any better, I assumed it was rare because it didn't have any other listings, and she she was charging so much for it, so-- why not? emotion_awesome So I traded it to her, and then later realized it was a piece of crap, and it wasn't rare at all.

The only good thing about it was that normally when I sell/trade things, it's because I'm planning to get rid of it anyway, so I didn't want it. I didn't run away crying after it happened or anything, but it was still like... really? I should have thought about it more before it happened, but it's gross how easily some people lie and cheat others on here without a second thought. So I don't blame people's skepticism. Though it's always such a lovely and pleasant surprise when you run into genuine people!

Wow that sucks. A lot of the danger lies in anonymity I guess. It's not like you will ever know who that person is irl. They can always make a new account and try to scam you again.

Also nooby question- What does AI mean?

[Renaissance]

Flux

Madam Ace

Does anyone remember the infamy of that user Cigarette anymore?

But yeah no, I never been scammed because I never give gold out to random beggars.
I did give a friend a loan once. 6 months later he still didn't pay me back.
(Don't worry, I got my gold back after a bit of a mafia-style shakedown.)

I do, the one that claimed to have brain cancer and got a ton of old MCs and gold and even admitted it. Yet she got away with it as far as I remember, there was even a newgrounds video about it were she got murdered in the end. xd

We set her up with a halo and she got a ton of signed crap from the admins back when they didnt give out signed anything. xp

[Knight of Britannia]

Darlingchann

Knight of Britannia

Yeeeah. This person who had AI'ed this crappy item asked me to trade it for one of my items that I was selling that was somewhat popular/expensive. Not knowing any better, I assumed it was rare because it didn't have any other listings, and she she was charging so much for it, so-- why not? emotion_awesome So I traded it to her, and then later realized it was a piece of crap, and it wasn't rare at all.

The only good thing about it was that normally when I sell/trade things, it's because I'm planning to get rid of it anyway, so I didn't want it. I didn't run away crying after it happened or anything, but it was still like... really? I should have thought about it more before it happened, but it's gross how easily some people lie and cheat others on here without a second thought. So I don't blame people's skepticism. Though it's always such a lovely and pleasant surprise when you run into genuine people!

Wow that sucks. A lot of the danger lies in anonymity I guess. It's not like you will ever know who that person is irl. They can always make a new account and try to scam you again.

Also nooby question- What does AI mean?

AI = Artificial Inflation! This person had taken an item that, had I paid attention at first... had an average buy price that was pretty low, but she had the price for a ridiculous amount on her listing, either in an attempt to inflate it or just trick people like me who were blind and naive and/or didn't know how the market place worked. sweatdrop

[Arya Hghar]

I was given a significant amount of trust from a sweet guy who was selling an item I did not have enough gold to buy. It shocked me. He was on his way out to go to work, so he just gifted me Eurydice's dark eyes and told me I could gift him the items I was trading him later. I don't think I could have been that trusting, so I appreciate it very much. I sent the gift stuff to him right away, because trust is a rare commodity.

I have never been scammed on this account or my original one but it would only be because I tend to be skeptical of many things. Although, I guess it is possible that I have been scammed and I just don't realize it. I have gifted items to those looking to trade for them, and I have accepted some offers on my items to help out a few people. I enjoy sending an unexpected or unsolicited gift to someone because they post something I like or have similar interests to me. The most expensive items I gifted were to two people who weren't even on my friends list. I gave each of them a Wayward Son. Their reactions would more than override ever being scammed. heart

[xx I met my fate xx]

It's common. I have people coming to my charity on multiple mules or changing their usernames and coming again quite frequently.

[Flux]

Renaissance

Flux

Madam Ace

Does anyone remember the infamy of that user Cigarette anymore?

But yeah no, I never been scammed because I never give gold out to random beggars.
I did give a friend a loan once. 6 months later he still didn't pay me back.
(Don't worry, I got my gold back after a bit of a mafia-style shakedown.)

I do, the one that claimed to have brain cancer and got a ton of old MCs and gold and even admitted it. Yet she got away with it as far as I remember, there was even a newgrounds video about it were she got murdered in the end. xd

We set her up with a halo and she got a ton of signed crap from the admins back when they didnt give out signed anything. xp

I remember the engraving system for jewelry (which was glitchy), don't remember item signing though. Care to enlighten me? xd

[Balentay]

I've been scammed before, lol. I was on mobile, browsing, and one of those password menus came up. As I wasn't familiar with the mobile browser at the time I willingly imput my password. I had a few nice items at the time, but it wasn't like they were striking a goldmine.

[Zzyli]

Darlingchann

I guess my general thought was that, there are so many people in the Chatterbox that give away items and gold for free, so I thought maybe they wouldn't mind the risk of trusting someone to give back.

And that suckss. Back when I played on zOMG with friends, we would often trade passwords and items and do all sorts of things to each other's avis as a surprise when they'd log in the next day. blaugh I guess it just depends on who the person is. 3nodding

To be honest, it really suprises me that people do that. I do have one person who knows my password on Gaia; my husband. He's not really a Gaia user as such, but he knows how much I like the site and I can rest easy knowing if anything happened to me meaning I couldn't get online for a while (like when I was hospitalised earlier this year), he'd be able to let people know about it so they wouldn't totally freak out.

Other people knowing my password? Nope. Never. Not happening.

I'm happy to loan items or gold to close friends, and have got loans from friends as well, and sometimes these have been big amounts of gold or big-ticket items, but I just wouldn't feel comfortable letting others have access to my account.

[Soulfulness]

Long story short? Nah, thankfully I haven't.

I mean, I jumped ship to Gaia from a different game that was pretty similar, so I was kinda well-versed in terms of playing the market and being able to tell a lie/scam from the truth. I guess this helped me never fall for any of the lies and whatnot, even from an early age, which is a really good thing I'd assume. XD

[estupe]

there was a scam like that in the GD recently
the OP said they wanted to play a game where you would give them a wishlist item, then send them a trade asking for a certain amount of gold

so they were supposedly putting a lot of trust in YOU to be fair about the gold you asked for, and not get greedy

but obviously they just banned their donators as soon as the gift was sent lol i still can't believe people fell for it

[Meguriuta]

Nope, never been scammed. I'm way too suspicious to believe a random here. People have PM'd me asking for stuff before (mostly game items) and I respond back with a checklist of questions since I don't want my stuff to be dumped into someone who will sell it 3 minutes later.

[King Blackwater]

Be honest its a little rude to just ask for free stuff, your better of making a donations thread in charity or looking for a group that does that sort of thing

Personally I think the average person doesn't want to give stuff away to a person they don't really know.

[Adnama Lavode]

The internet is a "trust no one" sorta place to me, and Gaia is no exception. It takes a long time to earn trust and if a deal is too good to be true, it probably is. I've never been scammed because I'm careful and pretty paranoid. After a while you get a BS sixth sense.