thread starter infinitiate Jul 08 2009
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| I'd like to warn the Basil community about a recent scam I encountered. In the event that you should deem my information unreliable, I will refrain from posting the scammer's username. Should there be enough requests for it, however, I will edit my post later on. For now, let us call the scammer, "P." Let me tell you how the scam worked. P sent me a chat invitation. That's right. The first way in which this scam is different from most others is that, instead of a trade invitation, a chat was sent instead. P proceeded to ask me if I knew who he was, in a friendly and perhaps familiar way. I responded by giving him the username of a Mapler I once knew, who I believed to have quit (I really thought it was him). This was the second key aspect of the scam. Instead of telling you who he actually was, he asks you if you knew who he was, thus giving him a somewhat reliable name to go by, instead of shooting off blanks. P then began his story. Apparently, he was given the account from a Mapler who quit. His so-called friend was only an online friend, and they had never met in real life. He claimed, however, that they were very good online buddies (having a few myself, I found this believable). Furthermore, his friend had also given him a paypal account. This said account was charged with 350 dollars. Being the greedy individual that I am (as I'm sure most of us are), I was hoping he'd share some of his newfound "inheritance" with me. He read me like a book. This is where something finally clicked in my mind. He told me that he could easily share some NX with me, by charging my account. I know. This part of the scam is the most common one around, but the way by which he lead into it is what caught me off guard. After that "something" had finally clicked, I asked him what his real name was. He replied with "Chris." My ex-Mapler buddy's name was John. So there you have it. One of the most elaborate scams I've ever encountered in the Maple Story world. I hope this information has helped you in some way, as the scam had opened my eyes. I had forgotten that there were people infinitely more devious than the obvious scammers that we're all so used to laughing at. Let this be a warning to you all. Thanks for reading. PS. Feel free to discuss other elaborate or not-so-elaborate scams. |