Curlydog + electricstars (AJPC)

Do not attempt to track down or harass any of the scammers we post. We only ask that you report them, and maybe block them.

Hey gang! Late last night, I found Curlydog advertising for a gifting party at their den. For those of you unaware, a gifting party is where people come to swap gifts with each other. Of course, this just completely opens the doors for people to scam, since you would be free to just not send somebody a gift in return and simply run off with their stuff.

I went to Curlydog's den to check it out, and sure enough, they immediately started asking for people to gift them for a gift in return. Before I could say anything, I could see somebody else asking them to gift first to confirm it wasn't a scam.

I went up to Curlydog and asked why they were gifting instead of using the trading system. They repeatedly dodged my question and told me that I should leave if I didn't like it, even though I was just asking them a straightforward question. I explained to them that you should use the trading system to swap items, since gift swapping opens avenues for scamming, and they immediately got defensive and started proclaiming that they weren't scamming.

They then went silent for a period of time. When I tried to talk to them again, they claimed that they were busy giving people gifts "because they're such a scammer". They repeatedly doubled down on the whole not-being-a-scammer thing, despite me not accusing them of scamming.

I asked them again why they weren't just trading, and they continued to dodge my question before saying that it was because they simply were "not wanting to trade". This doesn't really make any sense, because trading with the trading system and trading with the gift system is more or less the exact same thing, except that the trading system guarantees both players will get items out of the transaction, and gifting does not.

I asked them why they were so opposed to using the trading system, but they didn't really give me a straight answer and instead told me that gift swapping was "a way to get stuff and give stuff back", which is, once again, just how any item swapping system works.

At the same time, electricstars was also advertising for their own gift swapping in the den. It also happens that they work together with Curlydog to host these parties apparently every night, clarifying again that they do not scam.

Now, some justification I have heard for gift swapping is that the fun is supposed to come from not knowing what the other person is going to send back. However, later on in this party, I noticed electricstars had started arguing with another participant, something about "giving a few to make it fair".

What I parsed from their conversation was that the other player (the white arctic wolf) sent electricstars some rare items, but they did not receive something of equal value back and were trying to barter with electricstars to make up for it.
If the fun of gift swapping is supposed to come from the mystery of it all, then why does it matter that both players send something that the other wants? If the gifts you send and receive are supposed to be of equal value, then there is literally no point to gift swapping aside from opening yourself up to potentially getting scammed - this could all be avoided by just using the trading system.

Make sure to report Curlydog and electricstars for scamming. Remember to stay safe and always use the trading system!