SCAMMERS
Please check back regularly for updates as new scams are uncovered quite often.
DOUBLE
YOUR MONEY
Anyone who asks you to give them your money in one trade and then they will
give you double back in the next trade is a scammer. They may offer to
add you as a buddy or even double a small amount for you at first to tempt you,
but the chances are high that once you give them a larger amount they will kick
you out and remove you as a buddy.
The only time you should accept something like this is if they offer to double
money in the SAME trade, but even this can be risky, as some scammers have ways
of manipulating the trade box.
PHISHING - A FORM OF SCAMMING
Phishing is account stealing.
Phishing messages that claim to be from some legitimate Yoville employee like
"Yoville Administration" are being placed into peoples' mailboxes on
Yoville. They promise a get rich quick scheme - you either have to go to
a website and enter your YoVille username and password, or email a given email
address, again giving your password. They will assure you that it's an
official Zynga site/email address and 100% legitimate. However, no
official email address or website from Zynga, the makers of YoVille, will ever
ask you for your password. The messages have been placed there purely by
scammers to retrieve your account details so that they can then log in as you
and transfer all your belongings to their account.
NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PASSWORD - EVEN TO YOUR FRIENDS!
An example of a phishing website, inviting you to put in your Yoville email and password
TRADING
POPULAR ITEMS FOR SCAMMING DURING TRADES
If you think you're not being traded what you think you agreed to buy, hover
your mouse over the item in the trade window and a box will pop up naming the
item for you. Make sure it is exactly what it says it is.
If they say you can’t see it but it's there then don't trade with them but
refresh first, if it's still not visible then they're probably trying to scam
you. Don’t click agree until you see what you've agreed on! If a trader offers
a cheap free gift along with the main item being traded, and places it into the
trade box first, it means the main item being traded probably is not real.
They put the free gift in so that the automatic scam warning does not come up.
Cancel the trade and ask them to give you the free gift by gifting it to
you. Then trade just the main item. If they refuse, you know they
must be trying to scam you. Also, refuse
to do a trade with someone where they insist that you give them the money first
via the trade box, and then they’ll gift you the item afterwards. This is asking to be scammed.
VIP
VIP will be released soon... probably, but at the minute it is not available.
Anyone offering VIP passes/tickets usually offers you what they claim is a
ticket but by hovering your mouse over the item, it will quickly show it is
not.
The VIP robe was released by accident a bit early and snapped up by a few quick
people, so they have it at the minute but it's not available to buy yet, and
having it doesn’t make you a VIP.
TEAMWORK SCAMMERS
The more accomplished scammers have been working together in some of these
scams, in double your money ones for example one may say "Hey, thanks for
doubling my 5000, I'll see you tomorrow." It makes them look more
credible, and they will more than likely be sharing the profits between
themselves.
YO CASH
This is only available either by paying for it with real cash or by completing
the various offers under the headings on the main Yoville page. Don't give your
money to people in the game who say they will gift it to you or it will be in
your account tomorrow if you pay them first. Also watch out for URLs advertised
in peoples' inboxes that say go to such and such a website for YoCash, they
will put their own reference in there so they get the YoCash instead of
yourself, but you end up paying.
CHEAT CODES
There are no cheat codes and passwords in YoVille, so don’t give your money or
details to anyone who claims they know one.
CLONE ITEMS
Cloning tricks that claim to clone your items, thereby giving you more and more
of any given item. It is possible to clone items in your own home, but after
refreshing the items disappear and you are just left with the original item.
Also if you try to put the cloned items into your inventory they disappear so
are therefore not tradable.
A few people will ask you to loan them items so they can clone it then hand it
back to you - don't give them anything as they will just run off with your
original item.
FAKE FRIENDS URGING YOU TO GIFT THEM
There have been cases where a scammer has taken on the appearance and name
of someone's friend and urged the friend to gift them objects. Just be
vigilant that the people who claim to be your buddies actually are!
WHITEBOARD ART SCAMS
Scammers have been known to go to art shows and copy art from each whiteboard,
then go and put it up in their own art shows as their own work. Then,
when people want to buy it, they put it into their inventory, and trade the
buyer a blank whiteboard. As whiteboards show up blank in the trade
window and in your inventory, the buyer does not know it's blank until they get
home and put it out, but by then it's too late.
LETS MOVE IN TOGETHER
The scammer will suggest that you gift him or her all of your stuff so that
you can move into his or her place with him or her. Obviously, as moving
in with someone can't be done, it just ends up with the scammer getting all
your stuff, and you end up with nothing.
DEVELOPERS/MODERATORS
These people will have a gold/blue/brown badge in front of their names.
Devs have gold, Mods have blue/brown.
These are the only people who officially moderate for Yoville and you shouldn't
trust anyone that says they do but doesn’t have one of these badges in front of
their name, as seen in the rather low quality pic below.
To overcome all these scams, hover your mouse over the picture of the item in
the trade box window, so that a little description pops up, telling you what it
is.
Water Balloon Machine
Sellers offer a cloned WBM, but the way to spot it in the trade box is if it's
spelt "Waterballoon Machine" and the picture of the WBM is
bigger. The real one is spelt "Water Balloon Machine" with a
gap between "Water" and "Balloon" and the picture of the
WBM is smaller.
Lava Lamp
Scam sellers offer to sell a big lava lamp but then place a small one in the trade
box. It's hard to tell the size difference just by looking at it.
Koi Pond
Sellers offer koi pond, but put in a mother earth rug as it looks similar.
Blue Pod Chair
As a Hot Tub.
Wooden Coffee Table
As Hardwood Floor.
Blue Ping Pong Tables
Sellers offer a blue ping pong table, but sell a small blue table instead.
Whiteboards Sellers
sometimes put White Borders in the trade box.
Mafia Hats
Sellers offer a rare Mafia hat, but trade an 8 or 10 yocash 50s hat instead.
Mafia Hat 50s Hat
Magic Flying Carpet
When you are trying to buy the Magic Flying Carpet in a trade, people usually
put in other carpets.
Magic Flying Carpet Red Throw Rug Moroccan
Animated Billiard Table
When you trade for the animated billiard table, make sure it’s not the green pool table.
Animated
Billiard Table Green
Pool Table
St. Patricks Day Green Handheld Drink
Sometimes people might try to trick you into thinking that they are trading you
the 2009 Green Drink instead of the 2010 Green Drink.
2009 Green Drink 2010 Green Drink
Pink Retro Specs Scam
The seller might claim they are Pink Retro Specs, but they are actually a pair
of female sunglasses that are available in stores and cost 50 coins.
Pink
Retro Specs Cheap
sunglasses
available for 50 coins
These aren't the only items that are
commonly scammed - so be on your guard!
Fake Coins
During a trade, if you see:
- The agree box is ticked whilst the coin amount is still increasing...
- The money/items all going in at once and the agree box automatically
ticked...
- The coins suddenly jumping up in number after the agree box has been ticked...
- The money pausing for a few seconds then suddenly jumping up in value before
the agree box has been ticked...
- The trader having to refresh and the coins not appearing bit by bit...
THEN YOU ARE PROBABLY BEING TRADED FAKE COINS!
(Fake coins will disappear from your inventory, once you have refreshed or left
YoVille and gone back in)
In order to minimise the likelihood of being traded fake coins, look out for
those preceding points but also:
- Ask the person you're trading with to pause every few seconds when they put
cash in, so you see the money going in bit by bit
- Tell them to pause at the end for a few seconds before clicking agree
- Always make sure the coin box is not checked until the trade is ready to
complete.
- Take a screen shot of the trade as well and send that to Zynga support along
with your profile id if the trade does not work properly
PLEASE NOTE - Some people do use autoclickers which means the money does go in
fast that way, so be aware of that too, but with autoclickers the agree box is
not automatically ticked.
IF IN DOUBT CANCEL THE TRADE, IF THE AUTOMATIC SCAM ALERT TRADE CANCEL HASN'T
DONE SO ALREADY.
Trading "Starter Items"
Sources suggest that some hackers are able to give any object "starter
item" status, which means they can only be used by the person who started
with them, and cannot normally be traded. This means that they have given
starter item status to expensive objects like rare costumes, traded them for
hundreds of thousands or even millions of coins, but they cannot be used by the
person buying them, and are useless. At the moment, there is no way of
telling whether the object/costume etc you are about to buy is a starter item
or not. However, if you make sure, BEFORE YOU BUY, make a note of the
time/event, how much money you lost, and what you were wanting to buy etc, then
if it does turn out to be a starter item, Zynga have said that you may submit a
ticket with the details, and they will give you the item you were cheated
of. Even if you don't make a note of all these things, you may still
submit a ticket and Zynga will check it against their logs, and give you the
item.
Always scroll over items that are put in
the trade box to make sure that the item is what the seller says it is. When
you scroll over the item it will tell you what the item is.
Be careful with your coins, and avoid
anything that sounds suspicious. Even be careful about just accepting free
coins from somebody. If a cheater gives you a lot of coins that Zynga know were
gained by cheating, Zynga support may have to remove all your coins or delete
your entire inventory. Also, be aware of email scams claiming to be from Zynga
Support and asking for your email address and/or password.
PRANKS/SCAMS/UNUSUAL EVENTS THAT SCAMMERS USE
"THE BEST GIFT GETS..." SCAM
There might be some events that might be called 'Best Gift gets Dog' or Best
Gift gets 10k' or something similar to that. This is most likely a scam,
although, very few people tell the truth.
THE NAKED LAMP SCAM
You may or may not have seen a lamp, that the seller claims that when you next go
to it, your avatar is naked. If someone tries to sell you it, do NOT buy it. It
is a scam. It is actually about 20-25 lamps stored on top of one another. The
scammer might just give you one. Therefore, if you want it, you can buy the
lamps at the furniture store much more cheaply, instead of paying more in a
trade.
THE YOVILLE CARD SCAM
A scammer will say: "If you give me such-and-such, I will give you the Pin
Code for 50 Yocash." Not only is it
a likely scam, it is also against the Zynga Terms of Service, as Zynga does
sell Game Cards, but not in this way. Even if they do give you a code after you pay
them, it is probably fake.
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY
The scammer claims it's their birthday, and extorts gifts from people using bullying/emotional blackmail etc..
FREE STUFF/I'M LEAVING YOVILLE
Once in their apartment, the original owner may be nowhere to be found, the
event may say go into the kitchen and I'll give you X amount of cash, in the
case of the latter, blocking off access to it with furniture. They will
probably be hiding in the room and may even be recording it for a laugh.
Sometimes they put artwork or arrange furniture into an offensive gesture or
language so be aware of this too.
BUY COINS/YOCASH THROUGH A PLAYER
Some players claim that they can sell you coins and/or yocash, if you give them
you credit card or paypal details. They usually offer better deals than
you can get with Zynga, but you will be testing your luck if you accepted their
offers and gave them your details. There may be genuine sellers around,
but you'll never know for sure until it's too late. The safest way to buy
coins or yocash is through the Zynga channels. If you see anyone offering
these sorts of deals, the best thing to do is report them, warn others, take a
screenshot and try and get their player id number, then get out of there!
PAGEANTS
There are fees for participating (10, 25, 100 coins or even more). Participants
beware, that the host could have a friend in the room that may have been
selected as the winner ahead of time.
NEW USERS ONLY EVENTS
New YoVillians are sometimes lured into these events thinking that they will be
given useful information, tips or instructions about the game. The owner will
try to sell VIP tickets, double your coins or sell cheat codes and Yocash.
I HAVE A PINK/GREEN MONKEY!
This is an old, old prank that someone started about having a monkey that
throws bananas/coconuts. There aren't actually any in the game.It's harmless enough unless the owner starts asking for cash up front, if they
do then report them.
50 PEOPLE IN YOUR APARTMENT, AND GET 5000 COINS
There is no reward for having “x” amount of people in your apartment. It
has been tried a lot by various people.
GIFT FOR GIFT
Although some of these are genuine there are quite a lot around where once you
give the owner a gift they will kick you out and close the event - be warned! It's better to trade rather than employing gift for gift.
THE BEFRIENDING SCAM
This works in the following way: Scammer befriends an unwary victim. They
act like a friend for days, weeks, even months. One day, they ask the
unwary victim if they can borrow some coins, or an expensive costume or
item. They'll give it back of course, because they're friends! The
unwary victim gives them the coins or item or costume, and the scammer goes,
and unbuddies the unwary victim, leaving them forever.
RATE FOR XXX AMOUNT OF COINS
These are held quite often where they say, for instance, if you're the 100th
rater you get 1000 coins.
Firstly there is no way of identifying who could be the 100th rater, especially
if there's a few of you in the room.
And secondly if the prize is unusually high then they will more than likely
kick everyone out or run off once they get the desired rating. Only If the
prize is a modest one are they more likely to pay up.
FIGHTING BACK AGAINST SCAMMERS
Make sure to report anyone you see scamming or attempting to, and to warn
others if they will listen! To report a player, left click on them and click
"Report Player". If enough people do this they will be
suspended from the game for a few minutes.
If it is a more serious scam, you can send screenshots to Zynga's support site
for them to investigate. Include screenshots where possible too. For
information on how to obtain screenshots, see HOW TO...
Just remember the Golden Rules:
- If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Walk away.
- Never, ever, ever give or email your password to anyone, or enter it into a
website that has been brought to your attention by any player. Keep it
secret. Keep it safe.
- If you're not sure it's legit, then walk away.
- Treat your YoMoney like real money - you wouldn't give it to a stranger on
the street to double, so don't in YoVille.
- Hover your mouse over pictures of items in the trade window to check the
description.
- If in any doubt over trades, cancel quickly.
- Change your password weekly/monthly and change the email linked with your
account if you have been hacked before.
- Make a strong password with numbers, letters (upper and lowercase) and
symbols.
- Don’t give your email address that you use in game to anyone. If you want to
add neighbours or crew then give them your name, state or country you live in
and what your avatar on Facebook or MySpace looks like, or contact them through
the Yoville Forum.
