Scam Aware Thread!

[somidiloh]

Hi Fiestians! Have you EVER been scammed by mushrooms advertising false goods? These crafty, lying cheats have earned your hardearned gold or silvers by lying in their shop name in an effort to cheat you to make a quick buck.
The community or public might be tired after a hard day's at work and he/she sees an item that is wanted by themselves, therefore, misreads or due to carelessness and buys the item. I say, call for a STOP to this! Why should the genuine sellers or the community suffer for these idiots to rip people off!?

This isn't a very good image for Fiesta as well, because the scams here are so much like in the real world, where con artists prey on the unsuspecting and trusting!

Therefore, in an effort to combat these scams, I would like YOU to do your bit for the community!

How to go about?

1. Simply just take a screenshot and post them here, let fiestians know the difference between fakes and real items!
2.Leave your server name so as to let people know which scams are common on which servers!
3. Cross your fingers and hope a gm sees this and help out the poor victim!

For example,

Epith is facing a huge problem in terms of scammers with Vitality [02] Production skills, therefore as many as 5-6 vendors with the fake goods can be found!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh132/mirukyu/fakevit.jpg
Image of a fake vit2 production scroll. This is actually the cleric's skill scroll that can be bought for like.. 2s?

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh132/mirukyu/REALvit-1.jpg
Image of the real vit2 production scroll. Notice the difference? Reading the description in an item is VERY important therefore I urge everyone to read before they buy!

Server where scam happened : Epith

Please be cautious of any shop claiming to sell cheap goods or at a very huge discount or bargain. Item values do not depreciate in a day or even in weeks. It only sells for so cheap because it MIGHT be a fake! Therefore please be cautious of scams! You never know it might happen to you or your loved ones.

[Shadowic2]

Unfortunately, I don't think this thread will be able to stay open for long.

Even though your intentions are good, this is just simply not allowed on the Forums. It's Blacklisting.

Any and all scams or suspected scams need to be dealt with privately using Fiesta_help. Not publicly on the forums.

[WendaBoogy]

this is a good idea, however, you shouldn't mention their names, that's considered blacklisting and is against the rules :)

[Orchids_Mantis]

yes, please take down the screenshots and blot out the names so the thread isn't closed..but I think it is a good idea to post pics of what the scam item looks like and what the real item looks like -that would greatly benefit the people who don't really know.

[Serric]

I've edited your post to remove names - we do not tolerate or encourage a "name and shame" policy on these forums. You have some very valid points but I would encourage poeple to send their screenshots to Fiesta_Help - NOT post them on the forums.

As a side note, sometimes you will see a lvl 1 shroom selling a lvl 1 gear for 1g, 500 silver, etc. The se goldspammers trying to hide a sale. If you see these, PLEASE get a screenshot and send them, along with the server name, to Fiesta_Help.

[KateeHellen]

I am really tired of this antyblacklisting policy...
Day by day i see how Fiesta became more nad more lawless teritory.
Guild wars have been turned on to street gangs brawl without any rules, scammers run freely because we cannot do ANYTHING to stop them without a risk of prosecution for blacklisting.
Rules about spot/room claiming have been permanent ignored and when you post something about this... boom you are in troubles because you blacklisting:(
I known that GMs and GLs do thier best but let us be honest how so few people can maintain law and order at 4 servers consist thousand players?
Maybe its come time to say farewell to Fiesta for a some time because my level of patience is running now dangerously low.
I known that antyblacklisting rule was put to work whit good intentions but like old sentence say:
"Good intentions are lay at foundaments of hell"

[somidiloh]

-o- my hardwork ;x how about if i edit that [XXX] name out of the picture? because i personally feel screenshots help alot!

I feel that the blacklist policy is too general in that sense.. Society makes laws but in every law there are clauses and exceptions so people won't exploit them or benefit any protection the law itself might unintentionally pass..

In this i think that the law is abit too protective of people we really need to guard ourselves against. Yes, going through the CSR or fiesta_help is the proper channels to go but how many actually bothered to go through, and when players take the effort to, how long will fiesta take action and ban these people. By that time, how many more innocent people would fall prey to those tricksters..

Blacklisting someone for a petty reason or an internal squabble is ridiculous and not cordoned, however, if blacklisting scammers and thieves is wrong.. and its wrong to warn the public about this particular person.. then there might be adjustments to be made.. I cant be online 24/7 shouting in elderine warning about this particular user right?

Therefore I hope fiesta would take a look into this and improve upon their existing rules and regulations, as well as to look into ways to allow blacklisting on a certain extent to help the community be aware of malicious users.

[poolplayermaster]

i msut agree with your the rulelessness of guild wars is pretty annoying

especially with chciken baka guilds that war you thinking oh they are lowlevels and then suprise the high level come out and pwn then they say oh noes and have a frindly guild of theres war you and they have really high levels and pwn you instead so bad that both guilds win and you lose twice or they pay others to outside heal or other bakas othside heal anyways


i remember once i had like 4 people all about the same level some a little lower then me on me at once and i was taking them on going head tohead 1 on 4 with them i was jsut about to kill on of them when this baka cleric comes up out of no where and heals the dude then starts healing the rest im like *** dude its a war get away its 4 on 1 if you should heal anyone it should be me


but nice guide anyways to stay on topic lol

[TheCentrix]

Have you EVER been scammed by mushrooms advertising false goods?

Yes once.

You learn from your mistakes. Just make sure it doesnt happen to you again :)

[Serric]

Editing the screenshots to omit names is fine.

About blacklisting: we didn't always have the policy; it was set in place because people were posting "scam" threads all over the forums to "alert" their neighbors. Unfortunately, as it turned out, only a handful of these suspects were genuine scammers. Many turned out to be players who were upset about a price or had a personal vendetta against another player and this was their way of trying to get even, by making a band name for someone.

As you may recall, weapon enchanting services used to be allowed, and we had a few genuine enhancers. But as the scams became out of control we pulled the ad rights away in hopes that you, the users, would be a little safer. The good enchanters are still out there but they have been impacted by this rule as well.

I know some other places support a “name and shame” policy but we do not. If you feel a genuine scam is taking place, nab some screenshots and report them correctly, by sending the shots and a detailed description to Fiesta_Help. Will they catch them all? No. Will word of mouth on a certain scam circulate through the server? It would be asinine to assume it would not. Are we, the players, becoming more educated in recognizing scams and avoiding them? Yes, we are – and that means the system is working.

We believe in an “innocent until proven guilty” approach here lest everything once again turn into a witch hunt, and to help that is the blacklisting policy.

As for guild wars… I agree there needs to be some calibration on this issue. The common rule of thumb is that if you choose join as warring guild you accept the fact you may be killed at any time. That I can live with… but there is still the issue of guild harassment, interference of game play, etc. and for this I think Dakkon would be one of the highest authorities on the issue. After speaking with him in person over the weekend, I am convinced he really does have the players interests at heart and a sympathetic ear when it comes to issues such as these. He may not be able to make changes immediately but he tends to take player suggestions to heart.

[IcarusFlewTooHigh]

Could you be more specific in telling us how exactly they duped you into buying a fake t2 scroll recipe? I just don't see how that's possible.

[Serric]

I know there was an issue with the skill scrolls and production scrolls looking nearly identical... but I though that was fixed.

[poolplayermaster]

i well i know that if you make a guld that is able to be warred you are responsible for getting warred or if you join a warrable guilds its jsut the way they use there wars

noone really follows the war guidelines i even talking to snakeeyes in a whisper once i beleive about it though it may have been wildfire about someone who was the brother of another guy who warred my guild and was being pwned by me was paying all clerics who would come heal his brother while i was fighting him

i had like 6 clerics healing him and couldn't kill him anymore

but snakeeyes or wildfire whichever it was said though it is disrespectfuly and wrong theres nothing rulewise wrong with it

and i admit i have ahd a stray cleric just walk up to me and heal me whie i ahd a few people on me and they complained and i tryed explaining its not like i asked them to come do it and even told the cleric off but they still stayed and healed i didn't need it too much though it saved me some money i did have a t2 endure a 50%hp sp extender and all t3 scrolls on at the time they warred and with t3 hp pots and stones alike i wasn't having any problem staying alive it was annoying cuz i couldn't prove that.

so maybe a way to make outside healing from somene who is not involved int he war not possible or have a guildwar arena where when warred ou are warped to like a pvp zone

or maybe a skill that is only useable when in a war so that you can warp thereso that those who want to level or are afk won't get involved or attacked

thats the one i hate the most is the afk killers time and time agian i came back from work and saw my shop gone and me standing aroudnh looking stupid

and spawn killing as well maybe a safety zone in proposed arena where you can heal and do what you need before returning to the battle or once you die thats it and you become a spectator iunno just some ideas

though this is really off topic maybe i should send to dakkon as a suggestin


anyways to get on topic they did fix it or so i thaught i thaught they changed the graphic of the skill and production scrollt osolve that problem

[Inorruk]

The Cleric Skill Vitality, and the SKill Scroll Vitality are slightly different, but many people jump on the sight of a vitality t2 production scroll... i myself have fallen for that cheap trick... but you just need to be careful when you read an item, dont buy until you look at theitem closley... the vitality scroll trick issomething that goes on in every server... my other issue is that; fiesta is a community, a family if you will, we should watch out for each other... so shouldn't we be able to let people know the names of the people that try to scam another person... i personally feel we should... shouldn't scammers be shamed?

Clericon- 33 Cleric: Apoline
Sandandstone- 35 Fighter: Apoline

[poolplayermaster]

ahem its a fighter skill but thats what reporting them is for is to take them out of the picture entirely