collateral guide //
voucher guide //
avatar scams
OH LOOK AT THAT SCAM GO! :O
001. The Double Trade Scam:
The double trade scam is so easy to spot, and yet so many people fall for it simply because they are greedy. Usually it will be if the person borrowing only has pure NeoPoints as collateral as only 800,000 pure can be bidded on a trade, but people can also call it something to do with 'good faith' or 'trust'. They will ask you to bid a certain amount of collateral on something which is worth absolutely nothing eg they will lend you MSPP {or something} if you bid 800k on their pile of dung, they will send it to you when the trust has been established
or bid 800k on the item you would be borrowing and the remaining amount on something worth nothing. They simply accept the trade on the item with nothing, don't accept the trade on the item, and run off with the profits. Isn't that easy to avoid?
Only bid on the item you are borrowing, do not bid masses of NeoPoints on junk thinking that you will be rewarded by being lent for full or low collateral, the chances are you will be scammed.
002. The Amazing Main, Poor Side Account Scam:
This is also easy to spot and easy to avoid, no one need fall for it, but people do, I've yet to find out why. Someone can claim any account on Neopets is their main account but if their 'main' looks like the kind of account which would have full collateral that should set off alarm bells. If you would lend their main for free and are thinking of lending them,
ask them to Neomail you or post from their main account to be sure. This will not guarantee that they are not a scammer but if you want to lend them, this is a basic check.
I personally advise to not lend anyone anything for less than full collateral.
003. The 'Let me log in and get it for you!' scam:
First off, you should never let anyone who is not yourself log in to your Neopets account, or tell them your secret word, or anything. TNT said that themselves. People do this to get eachother game avatars as well - don't be dragged down. They are cheaters. You should not be.
:)
Apart from that small rant, this is also very easy to spot, very easy to avoid, just don't let anyone else ever log in to your account. If anyone asks for your word, don't give it to them. Voila.
004. The 'Lend me free/low' scam:
There are so many obvious problems here. First off, anyone can say they are trustworthy, someone intending to scam would say the exact same thing, as they wouldn't come out and say 'I'm not trustworthy', they try and trick people, so the whole trustworthy/never steal is useless.
Second, vouchers are completely useless. 99.9% of the time a voucher will not pay back what is stolen, and if they wont pay back what is stolen, what is the point of them being there? Random people vouch for people they don't know at all, plenty of people add their side accounts to it, and scammers can use huge vouchers lists of people who they've never even met to make themselves more 'trustworthy'. Remember, there is no avatar for being 'trustworthy', so it's all pointless. Unless someone gives over 100% of the collateral there is no guarantee.
The voucher page which was really good has been changed and is now gone, so I made my own one. It may not be quite the same, but it should help explain stuff :* Check it out
here!
Absolutely anyone can act friendly, absolutely anyone can reach 200 or whatever avatars.
I advise never lending for less than 100% collateral, unless you do not mind losing the item.
005. The 'HTS Collateral' scam:
This one is a bit harder, because the people with HTS collateral may not be trying to scam. The fact is that HTS collateral wont be accepted by any lender who is careful, because while certain items are listed as say, 3 million on the Trading Post, they may not actually sell for anywhere near that price.
This is why the best collateral is ETS, in high demand. See, the scam with HTS collat is they run off and sell the avatar item for what it's worth, and the items they used as collateral cant be sold for anywhere near that, so the lender loses out on lots of nps. D:
005a. The Item Worth Scam:
Right, this isn't necessarily a lie, but do always look up items people are offering as collateral on both the trading post and the shop wizard. The items could be falsely inflated (ie actually worth 6k on the shop wizard, but people are lying and putting it for 900k on the trading post) especially if they're not commonly used as collateral or if you haven't heard of them. Try to always look up the prices yourself to be sure of what they're worth, and don't forget the shop wizard as well, especially if the item is unfamiliar to you. Most people will try and give you estimate prices just to be helpful - they're not trying to scam you just because they are giving you prices - but check these prices aren't a lie. I have added this as an extension to the HTS collateral scam as it is along the same lines, and people often do this with HTS items.
006. Hidden Tower Lending:
I'll lend you 570k for the hidden tower avatar, you supply 30k and buy the baby paintbrush and send it to me or the other way around!
The thing with Hidden Tower lending is there's a lot of scams in both directions with it, and a lot of people have said that it's against the rules because the people are making profit
even if they sell it for the same amount they lent and I have seen people get suspended for lending HT in a perfectly non-scammy way. My advice would be to avoid it entirely and if you're trying for the avatar maybe buy the Squezy Tombola Guy Toy for just over 100k if you don't want to save up 600k - more of a loss but much less risk of getting scammed.
007. Tipping, Combining Collateral, and Guild Tills:
That is an example of a tip, and it is against the rules for two reasons.
#1 People used it to scam like in the example above, that would tempt a lender to lend to the person for 800k, and then the person would run off with the Meowclops and make a very large profit.
#2 Lenders would demand very high tips (eg an 800k tip for borrowing a Faerie Queen Doll) in return for being lent their items. I think this one is a little less bad because people could just buy their own items but yeah.
For more information on tipping, visit
here,
here, and
here and find the question on tips.
An artist may NOT request or accept a payment, tip, or "gift" in exchange for their artwork, and those seeking artwork may not offer payment, tips, or "gifts" for the service either. No profit can be made on any service like this, whether it be art trades, graphic or lookup making, avatar item lending , etc.
This was recently clarified as item pooling in an editorial
here.
Two or more people cannot combine collateral. This is considered pooling and is against the rules comes directly from that editorial. It makes it pretty plain that it is against the rules, and item pools are against the rules because they are often scams so that one person gets all the items. Very simple.
{Avatar Guild Name Here} lending FQD, ZDAP and saving for a BGC! Guild Till: 1,646,852 donate in the donation shop!
There is an editorial where someone asks if a guild till is allowed for an Avatar Lending Library and the answer is NO. If your guild does this I'd be careful of it, it's
here if you want to see it, and it says this:
Question: Last week you said "item pools," where people collect money to purchase avatar items, are illegal. I understand this and your reasons for disallowing it. My question: Is a Guild Avatar Item Lending Library considered an item pool? Our guild's Lending Library is stocked by direct item donations from guild members and by items purchased with funds collected by selling overpriced items at the guild's store. If this is not allowed, let us know and we'll stop! We all want to follow the rules here!
Answer:
No, this is not allowed. Items pools are item pools, regardless if it is a group of strangers, friends, or guildmates doing it. We're very sorry, but please discontinue this practice! (It's not the answer you wanted, we're sure, but thank you for checking to make sure you were following the rules!)
YES, guild accounts and YES guild tills are allowed but they are not allowed to buy items. There is an editorial where TNT confirms this and suggests the only thing they can think of a guild till being used for that wouldn't break the rules would be a noticeboard advert -
this editorial is here!
008. Item Tricks:
Okay this one's kind of tricky, the person will make a board saying something like 'AVATAR PINATA IN SHOP FOR 50k' and it is not a real avatar pinata (there are various furnature pinatas which, while pretty, will not get you an avatar and are pretty worthless). They rely on everyone rushing to get it and just buying it without looking. They do it with
ALL SORTS OF ITEMS; anything that looks vaguely like it etc. Sometimes they post the link so you just have to click that item.
ALWAYS CHECK WHAT YOU ARE BUYING IS WHAT YOU THINK IT IS BEFORE YOU BUY IT and
ALWAYS LOOK AT THE PRICE and
IF IN DOUBT, ASK SOMEONE either a neofriend, or make a board on the AC asking people, etc etc.
Tricking people to pay more for a worthless item by telling them it's something it's not IS a scam and though it's a bit harder to avoid please always check.
For a more extensive list on all scams please visit
this page! It's fabulous, and this page only covers very specific scams to do with borrowing and lending, there are plenty of other scams out there.
*my opinion
I've noticed some people think I'm against free lending .. I'm not.
I only want people to be
aware of all those scams and how to avoid them.
If they still wish to take those risks to help people out I just think that's nice - but I don't want them to be tricked. There is a huge difference.
I am not 'anti-free-lending' and I don't think free lending is a bad thing at all - it's really nice of people to do that if they know that the item will probably get stolen at some point if they lend free a lot and choose to anyway.
I don't think people should go around calling anyone who asks for things free a scammer, because I highly doubt everyone is, or even a majority, in fact. The main reason I am against
lend me free boards is because they help scammers blend in with the majority so they don't stand out, and people generally just sit there typing 'bump' and just wait for someone to come along rather than making any kind of saving effort themselves, it seems people could do both but generally only choose one. I think it's also nicer if those sorts of favours are offered rather than asked for - but that is personal opinion.
I'm
not trying to dictate how people should borrow and lend their items.
I'm
not trying to stop people lending free.
I'm
not dictating what boards people can and can not make.
I
don't think everyone who makes boards I don't like is a 'rude person'.
I
don't think people cant deserve an avatar without full collateral.
I just
do want people to know how to avoid being scammed over avatars.
That's it.
If you don't like the page I don't mind that, but most of the mail I've been get which has been negative about this page has been because of the above things - people thinking that I'm saying something I'm not .. or something. :s
Like I said, if you do want to 'flame' me for ruining your chances of getting lent or whatever, please send the neomail to my side account,
meanietaye. I wont reply either way and I don't want you clogging up my inbox.
Link back?
big banner :* thankyou!
smaller banner :* thankyou!
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