There are an abundance of posts in this section of people claiming to sell one OG tag or another. To minimise tags, I made this thread. Hopefully somebody reads it and comes to realisation that they need to deal carefully when it comes to gamertags, as people love to scam. They always have, and they always will.
First off, if somebody offers you an amazing gamertag for a low price, BE CAUTIOUS. The gamertag may be jacked (stolen), phished, or commonly used to scam (called back). Ask people about its history, find out how many consoles the gamertag is on, find out all info about the tag's past and current condition as you can, prior to purchase. If you do purchase a jacked gamertag, ensure that it was inactive for a reasonable period of time, and that it wasn't jacked within the past month. Both of these are something you wish to aim for.
Secondly, prior to buying a gamertag, send a message to the gamertag via a new xbox account and get the seller to read it back to you. You CAN send messages from a banned gamertag via the mobile version of xbox.com, so don't trust sent messages, only trust ones you've sent to determine whether a gamertag is truly unbanned.
Third, check this site:
http://xboxgamertag.com and search the gamertag you're buying. The danger signs are if the bio/name are "Code of Conduct" (meaning it's either banned or defaced, or had the bio changed from mobile version, which is unlikely), or if it has the original xbox avatar (white background, green X) and no avatar, which means it's a v1 gamertag and DOES NOT EXIST ON THE 360 PLATFORM. Also check when it was last seen online, if that was > 6 months, ENSURE YOU GET THEM TO READ A MESSAGE BACK TO YOU, as it's likely that they're lying to you and do not actually own the tag. Spaced versions of v1 tags CAN exist on the 360 platform, and reserve the original version of the tag once the v1 resets. If anybody claims that the spaced tag they are selling you will have its unspaced form reset soon, THEY ARE LYING. There is NO WAY TO DETERMINE RESET DATES at the present time. For example - V1 = Hi. Spaced = H i. Once the v1 is reset, the owner of H i could change it to Hi.
Fourthly, ensure you use a trusted middleman for gamertag trades. They won't protect you in the case of the seller calling Microsoft and filing an Unauthorized Access claim against the account, but they will ensure you are handed the tag at some point, which gives you a much fairer playing field. PM me if you want me to MM any GT sales over $75, which I'll gladly do for free to prevent scams. Ensure your middleman is trusted, and try to use one that you suggest where possible, as I've seen many scams occur because the seller has suggested their friend as the middleman who helped with the scam.
Fifthly, once you have the gamertag in your possession, change ALL info on the account. This includes the login email if you're able to, the name on the account, the date of birth, the zip code, the password of course, alternative emails, phone numbers, all billing info, everything. Write down both the info the tag had when you originally obtained it, as well as all the info you changed it to. Also write down the Unique ID of the account, found in the account overview tab at the bottom. Go to My Account on xbox.com and then go down to profile protection, and require profile download on ALL consoles. This ensures that the seller cannot continue to use the tag without your permission.
Finally, if you do wish to swap the gamertag to another account, wait several weeks prior to doing so. Also, tell NOBODY but those you trust IMPLICITLY about the transfer of the name, or you'll soon find unwanted turboers begin to lurk in the shadows. If you do switch it, which is definitely recommended unless it's a high-profile tag, ensure that you have a friend you trust turboing the tag along side you (a turboer is a program that searches the availability of a gamertag hundreds of times a second, and claims the tag as soon as it is available) to maximise your chances of success. Transferring a tag to a main account is very risky, as you cannot turbo a gamertag onto a main, only onto a fresh silver account, so be cautious.
Hopefully this minimises the chances of people being scammed. The main rule is listen to your common sense, if somebody seems sketchy, they most likely are.
Reported Post by johng1208
