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The World of Warcraft PayPal Scam
by Sean McFall
The PayPal email scam has been around for years. Ever since PayPal first came into existence and eBay became the household product and service that it now is, there have been scammers out there actively attempting to take money from others in an open example of identity fraud. It's extremely illegal and punishable with strict fines and even jail time. The scams themselves have only diversified though and today, even World of Warcraft players are at risk of being scammed by a clever PayPal template if they are not careful.
Foremost, these kinds of scams prey on those individuals who attempt to buy gold or items with real money, offline. This activity is bannable and actually considered illegal now by Blizzard so should be avoided anyways, but for those that do not avoid it, it can become a substantial problem in very little time.
The scammers will start by targeting players who have accounts on popular World of Warcraft trading and selling websites. If you have your name or email address on any of these sites, you are a potential target. Next, they will use your AIM or MSN address to contact you and very carefully groom you to believe they are legitimate. The use of a fake eBay account to show they are trustworthy and a different character in the armory will often result in false claims and belief on your part that you are getting a good deal.
After gaining your trust, the scammer will pretend to send you a PayPal payment, something they will never actually do. Utilizing carefully crafted templates, scammers will then send you a false PayPal email - something considered illegal now as PayPal is an FDIC insured bank - showing that they made their payment. You then hand over whatever you were trying to sell and they walk away with your stuff for free and you never get that PayPal payment. They will claim that they do not have a PayPal account and that the money will not clear for a few days and then hope that you send the information anyways. It's a ploy that doesn't work often, but only has to work once.
The key to this scam is that it sounds well planned and foolproof for both sides, but because they are never actually making the payment as promised, you're getting nothing out of the deal. They will quickly create a second character, move the gold from your account to theirs, delete everything and leave your account a husk, with nothing but an empty character.
For those people who actively pursue selling or buying items or accounts with real money, this kind of scam will pop up on you at least once or twice. It's inevitable that you will fall victim to the machinations of a clever scammer if you do not have the right information at hand. The best thing you can do is follow the ToS and not participate in this kind of activity. The second best thing you can do is not to trust any emails sent to you by a third party. Always check your account and wait for money to clear before you ever trust that an item has been paid for.
About the Author
World of Warcraft is rampant with sly little thieves and tricksters who craft scams designed to take the poor unsuspecting few for fools. Learn more aboutWorld of Warcraft Scammers and what you can do to stop them at wowscams.com
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