MMORPG Scams to Watch out For

I've been playing MMOs ever since my uncle bought me a copy of Ultima Online back when I was 10 or 11. Having grown up playing these games, I've grown familiar with many different kinds of scams and tricks. I've even scammed people before in MMORPGs in the past. I'm not particularly proud of my past behavior, but I don't think it was particularly “wrong” either. I had my own code of ethics, as I’ve never stolen accounts or used exploits to deceive my victims. Everything I did was always within the game's mechanics and was permissible as per the game's terms of service (I always confirmed this by asking GMs). Regardless, here are a list of common scams to watch out for in MMOs:

1) Lottery Scam / Mystery boxes
This is probably the oldest scam in the book and usually involves the /roll or /random feature built into many MMORPGs. The scam is really simple, but surprisingly profitable. The scammer simply advertises that he's running a lottery using the /roll 1-100 system. Rolls above 55 win double their money while everything else loses. The problem with these games is that there's no mechanism to enforce honesty. I actually ran this scam in the past back when I played EverQuest. I'd give players double their money on rolls 51 and higher. If someone bet a low amount and won, I'd pay them double their money as promised. If they bet A LOT of money and lost, I'd just tip my hat, thank them, and run off. I'd pay off the smaller wagers to appear more legitimate, especially since no one would bet a huge amount of money from the start. They'd make a few small bets to see if I'm “legit” before placing a big bet. Don't participate in these gambling games in MMORPGs.

A slight variant of this scam exists in World of Warcraft where users can gift-wrap items and sell them off as “mystery boxes”. The scammer in this case advertises that one of the mystery boxes includes a super rare item worth 80k+ gold, but this is usually a lie. Don't buy mystery boxes from anyone, it's almost always a scam.

2) Auction House / Item Scam
This scam can be pulled off in basically any MMORPG and is pretty clever. Here's how it works: The scammer puts up an obscure item for sale in a game's auction house that no one else is currently selling for an insane amount of money; say 50K gold (when the item is only worth maybe 500G). Then the scammer logs into another character and advertises in trade/general chat that he's looking to buy that exact same item and is offering 100K gold. The aim is to get someone to think they can buy the 50K item in the acution house and flip it to the scammer for 100K, when the scammer has no intention of actually buying the item. When someone buys the item, the scammer just needs to say “Sorry, I just bought one from someone!” If anyone asks about the one for sale in the auctionhouse, the scammer just needs to say something like, “I just checked the auction house, it's not there, if it was. I woulda bought it already!” Oftentimes this will make the person who asked think “Damn, maybe someone JUST put it up without knowing that this other dude was willing to pay 2x as much for it. Maybe I should buy it.”

This scam even works in games that don't have an auction house. Just stand in one corner of a busy area and advertising “selling X item 50K gold” and with a second account advertise “Buying X item 100K gold” and hope someone sees both characters and tries to buy from one to sell to the other. I've personally pulled this scam off in Maplestory, World of Warcraft, and even Diablo 2. There's no recourse either because it was an auction house transaction in WoW. Plus, the scammer can always just say “I changed my mind”. Here's a rule of thumb to avoid this scam - If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

3) Steam Trade Scam
This scam can be tricky and involves someone impersonating one of your friends on Steam. Since anyone can change their Steam names/avatars, someone can copy one of your friend's names/avatars then message you impersonating them with the goal of getting you to buy them stuff or trade them items. This scam can easily be avoided though. Always verify the person you're chatting with on Steam is who they say they are, especially before purchasing anything or completing a trade.

4) Social Engineering
This is the so called long-con of the MMO scamming world. The scammer in this case tries to befriend a person or a guild over the course of several months. Upon becoming close, the scammer exploits the friendship for profit by looting the guild bank (Corporate bank in games like Eve Online) or asking to use their friend's account, then proceeding to loot it. The “friendship” developed over the course of several months by the scammer is a sham and only exists to lower their victim’s guard. The only way to avoid this one is to safeguard your account at all times. Don't give anyone your password. It's that simple.

5) Drop Game
This scam is a bit obscure and only applies to a select few MMORPGs, MapleStory and Runescape come to mind. The scam works by asking a player to drop a valuable item on the floor momentarily and quickly picking it back up. The scammer would show off by dropping a valuable item and quickly picking it back up before anyone else can grab it. He'd then ask someone else to participate in the “game”, and even tell other players they can drop their rare items while standing far away from other players, so there would be minimal risk in someone else picking it up. Surely enough, anyone that “participates” will lose their items because the scammer would use a script or a hack to pick the item up from across the screen. This one is super easy to avoid – don't drop valuable items on the floor.

6) Cash shop mounts for gold!
This scam involves someone willing to trade premium cash shop items for in-game gold, usually at extremely favorable prices to the buyer (victim). The way the scam works is quite simple. The scammer uses stolen credit cards to buy cash shop items, usually a rare mount in a game like World of Warcraft, and sells the mount for some in-game currency. The buyer walks away thinking he got a great deal as the mount is legit and he/she can even fly around on it. The problem is once Blizzard finds out that the credit card transaction used to buy the mount was fraudulent, the mount is deleted from the unsuspecting victim's inventory. If a deal seems too good to be true - it probably is.

Did I miss any big scams? Have you ever been scammed? Share your stories in the comments below!