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Name
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Type
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What You See
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What You Get
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How It Works
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How To Avoid
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Pyramid Scam
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Chain Letter
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The scammer will tell you that they have a secret to getting lots of NP. They will ask for you to send them an item before they will tell you the secret, however.
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After you send the item, the scammer will simply tell you to do what they did; ask other people for items in exchange for a "secret". You are now minus one item.
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This scam ends up getting spread by greed; victims usually end up becoming scammers themselves, hoping to steal back more than what they originally lost.
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If anyone asks for an item in exchange for any sort of service (or secrets), report them to The Neopets Team IMMEDIATELY.
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Price Jack
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Shop
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The scammer will advertise a shop with items priced unreasonably low, stating that the items are selling really fast.
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You get to the shop as soon as you can, and indeed, it is full of rare buyables, all priced 1 NP. You buy one of them, but after you've made your purchase you notice that a bigger chunk has been taken out of your NP than you thought; more even than the item was really worth.
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The scammer immediately rushes back to their Shop Stock page after they make the announcement of the "sale". They then begin re-pricing all the items that are still left, jacking them up to thousands of NP, hoping to catch a few people and making them pay a lot more than 1 NP for their items. The scammer ends up scamming hundreds of thousands of NP out of these latecomers.
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If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Be cautious of any 1 NP "clearances", "sales", or "account dumps". Also, check the amount on NP on the confirmation popup you get when you click on an item in a shop, to make sure you are not paying more than you think you are.
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Fake Out
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Shop
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Someone claims they are selling a rare item for a very cheap price; for example, a Battle Potato. You are directed to their shop where they have the item up for sale.
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You purchase the item, but then you realize that it's not a Battle Potato, but a regular old Potato!
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Scammers will use background and font color coding to either hide the text that identifies the item as a regular Potato or make a fake label appear that calls it a Battle Potato. Scammers will also play on the fear that someone else will buy the item before you, provoking you to act hastily and buy the item without really knowing what you are buying.
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Do NOT make a rush to buy anything; make sure you know what you are buying first.
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Placebo
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Shop, Trading
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The scammer will announce that they have a cheap item for sale that has a special effect. For example, they are selling a Starberry, claiming that eating the fruit will cause your pet to become Starry.
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You purchase the Starberry from the scammer and feed it to your pet. Nothing happens except that now your pet is a little less hungry. A while later you learn that Starberries normally sell for thousands less than what you bought yours for.
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This scam relies on the ignorance of its victims. Most experienced Neopians know which items have special effects, and which ones do not, while most newbies do not carry this knowledge. Also, most newbies do not know how to check prices on items to find cheaper buys from other players.
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Remember that very few items with special effects are within the buyable price range (100,000 NP). If you come across a cheap sale or trade where the owner claims that their items have a special effect when used, check with other players to make sure that this person is telling the truth. If someone is trying to sell an item for more than it's really worth by lying about its effects, report them to The Neopets Team.
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