How not to get scammed on sythe.org

Hello and welcome to Kfjjjdst's guide on avoiding scammers on sythe.org!

Table of contents:
- What is a scammer?
- How do scammers scam
- How to catch scammers
- How to avoid scammers


1.) What is a scammer?
There are 3 types of scammers:
1a.) The goods scammer:
This type of scammer usually has no money online on the internet, and wants something (say a runescape account, membership), but his / her parents won't allow him/her to purchase anything with their credit card. Therefore this little kid goes and spams all your threads and gets 500 posts along with 9 free training vouches, then requests you to go first, and scams you for a 3usd worth Membership Pin, for example.
1b.) The paypal scammer:
This one is more dangerous, as when dealing with this type of scammer, you have good chances of losing real life money. This person will do the same as the scammer mentioned in 1a, but he will be selling pins or accounts, ask you to send as paypal gift upfront, then disappear (usually they're selling such goods which they indeed do not posses).

2) How do scammers scam?
There are more types of scammers:
2a) Scammer using hacked paypals:
This person will usually offer you to go first at any time, will also give you offers that seem too good to be true (they are INDEED too good to be true), then either disputes the money himself or the original owner of the credit card disputes it when he realizes that his credit card has been used for fraud.
2b) Account sellers:
These scammers will usually sell a lvl 130+ account for 100usd. You may think it's a great deal, but you have no idea what you're up to. These scammers will gladly use a middleman with you, will give the mm fake info (most of the times), then recover the account and walk off with the money you sent through paypal gift, or whatever method.
2c) I've been scammed before:
These scammers will claim that they are new (they are ban evaders 99% of the time), and they will tell you they have been scammed by a trusted members, so they will request you to go first, to make themselves feel safe (this is of course utter bullshit, and they will just go off with whatever they are after).
2d) The mature scammer:
This type of scammer will usually have around 2-3 vouches, have some actual intelligent post, and will try and convince you over msn with pretty god english usage and vocabulary, that they are indeed good traders and you can trust them (well, don't).
2e) I'm in a hurry scammer:
This person will say he or she's got to go soon, and will say a jaw dropping offer and will try to force you into going first for him, which usually indeed works (never fall for this type of scammers, ALWAYS take your time!).

3) How to catch scammers:
When you are after selling or buying any goods, ALWAYS check the following things:
- The other party's email (enter it in 'Search' feature to see if any other banned members have used this email in the past)
- Their offer (if they are offering something too nice but are requesting you to go first, they will turn out to be scammers 95% of the time).
- Their behaviour (if they say they're in a hurry, tell them: Alright, we will trade tomorrow then, if they say you go first, you say you want an mm, and he says he has to go soon, don't even count on this guy anymore; he's just another scammer.
- Their posts:
If a user is selling accounts, go on his name - Public profile - Find all threads started by xyz and check if the person has sold anything like this in the past! (This procedure will save you lots of money, trust me!)

4) Avoiding scammers:
The best you can do:
- ALWAYS use a middleman (trusted mm's with over 20 vouches should usually be perfect, but if you're doing a trade over 100usd, I highly recommend using an Official Middleman!)
- Never go first to anyone! (however trusted or generous they seem, you SHOULD NEVER go first to anyone!)
- I also highly suggest you only buy accounts from Staff members (yes, most members selling accounts are scammers! (roughly 96% of them!) ).
- Always ask for a PM to avoid imposters or fakers who are trying to impersonate themselves OR hackers!

Thank you for reading my guide, hope it helped!

 

Pretty good guide even though it has false percentages (should edit that out).
Also, it's quite ironic that you made a guide on this specific topic considering the TwC.

 

"There are 3 types of scammers"

*Tells us about 2 types of scammers*

:/

 

Decent guide, mostly common sense, 7/10.

 

The dark red font is a bit hard to read with the dark background.

I would recommend color the titles only and keeping the text the same throughout for consistency.

 

Nice guide this should work!
This basics off not getting scammed ; use a MM.

 

First off, this is a decent topic to cover for the community of Sythe, but I think it could have been approached better. For instance, some of your guide doesn't follow some of the topic headings; such as 'There are 3 types of scammers:,' yes you only list two types of scammers. Also, there are more than two, even three ways to scam someone on Sythe.org. I don't think limiting the types of scams to a finite number is a good idea. Another issue is your color choice. Stick to white and only color important sections (and try avoiding dark colors such as the reds).

I know it seems a bit tricky, but you might want to try and incorporate images into the thread. Maybe mocking a few of the common scams with yourself (on two MSN accounts) to show what they look like. It also helps break up giant walls of text. That and there are just a few grammar errors.

 

Feren's right there, ect the colors, a guide like this you made dont have to look so damn good, its the information of the guide that makes it a ''good'' guide. Also theres alot more scam methods, might even be unknown by 90% of the Sythe.Org community well what do i know? but i know that theres a numberus way to scam, mabey people even are making some new ones now? and remember next time you make a guide, dont say you post 3 ways of scams, it might need some more infomation about something, but afterall its a decent guide. 6/10

 

Hey. Your guide is OK, but there are many more guides like yours; even there's a sticky: http://www.sythe.org/showthread.php?t=491850. First of all I'd recomend you to change the dark red color. Then you could add some spacing and add some boldings to remark important words/sentences.

 

pretty nice guide, however I think you should remove/edit the "you should never go first", change it to "you should never go first to someone you don't completely trust" or something like that.

and using middlemans does decrease the chance to get scammed, but it will never make sure money will get claimed back/accounts recovered.

I have personally NEVER used a middleman before, and I only got scammed 2 times. (out of 400+ deals)