I have worked in the RMT or Gold Farming industry for a few years and before that owned a Gaming Center. I have heard a ton of horror stories from customers over the years in reference to the dealings of sites they had been scammed by in the process of buying game currency & power leveling.
The issue is that 99% of the gold selling sites are in China which in turn means they cannot be held accountable for their actions. These sites will do anything to get your money and then if there is an issue take as long as humanly possible to issue a refund in hopes you will give up and let them keep your money. The shady things the sites in this industry pull would fill a book so be very careful.

Here are 10 things you can do to protect yourself from being scammed:


1. Most important of all use Paypal to pay for your transaction. Why? PayPal does not honor Virtual Goods Sales which enables you to open a dispute with PayPal at anytime you feel your being scammed and get your money back 100% of the time.

2. Do not use Bizrate as a method to decide if the site is safe to work with. The Chinese take advantage of the reporting methods they use and load up their ratings with fake feedback. Instead use sites like ripoffreport.com and alexa.com as these sites have not yet been exploited with fake feedback.

3. Visit the site and see if anyone is actually manning the "live chat". If nobody is working the site, it is probably not a reliable site and should not be trusted. If you do get a worker in "live chat" talk to them for a bit and determine weather it is an actual person or an auto responder that just drops "canned" messages. If you find it is a real operator that can properly speak English, the site might be safe to order from.

4. Phone Contact - If the site has a phone number listed that you can call them on or if they actually perform a "Voice Verification" phone call they are safer to go with.

5. Look for a site that is selling more then just currency and power leveling. If a site sells tangible goods too then it's a good sign. This can also offer a way to test them out... if they sell game time cards you can buy one (you'll eventually need it anyway) and see how the transaction goes. If all goes well then you can be pretty sure they are legit and feel safer to order with them.

6. Another way to find out if a site is safe if to ask friends and guild mates for recommendations if they have purchased MMO goods before. People you actually know are going to give the most unbiased feedback.

7. Google the sites name and do some research that way. If a load of stuff comes up when you Google the site name add some negative words to the search, such as scammers or ripoffs. There is no point in adding positive words to a site look-up because all that typically shows you is the sites fake marketing and SEO work.

8. Site Content is a sign of a legit site. If they have an "about us" page, blog or forum associated with the site then they are more likely to be legit. Most fly by night sites do not take the time to build in these social outlets.

9. If you ever share you account info with a site (should only be necessary for power leveling orders), even a trusted one, be sure to change your password when your order is completed. You don't want to risk your account getting pillaged by an ex-employee or the site itself should it ever hit hard times.

10. If it is too good to be true, it is! Any site offering something for next to nothing should not be trusted.

Well I hope this help to insure a safer purchase of virtual goods for anyone who bothered reading all of this