Halloween Hack Update

Howdy all, this is a short follow-up to the Agent Insights that we published earlier in the week. As you may have heard by now, there have been rumors flying around about the game being "hacked" on Halloween and because of that, you should not log on to the game on October 31st.

We are pleased to let you all know that earlier, "AstroSquad", the "hacking" group linked to the rumors about the game being hacked, posted a video admitting that the whole thing was a load of malarkey. There is no "Halloween Hack", your account is perfectly safe, there is no need to refrain from logging into Animal Jam today.

In the future, you should always take these kinds of rumors with a generous pinch of salt. You shouldn't be spreading around gossip that has no basis in the truth, you are just going to cause panic.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

-Danny

Happysmile1132 (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.

Howdy everyone, Danny here with a scammer I came across a few days ago. I saw Happysmile1132 in Jamaa Township advertising that whoever bought something from their shop would get a spike.

Now, many people advertise the gifting of additional items as a bonus for buying from their shop to attract more customers, but offering to give out a spike for buying something is a little out of the ordinary. Spikes (both collars and wristbands) are valuable items that can sell for quite a bit, so it is a bit of a waste to just give them away as a bonus for buying something else. I decided to head to their den to check it out.

Happysmile1132 had a single shop in their den, with only one item in stock - a store-bought necklace for sale for 10 diamonds.

Like I said, rare spikes can sell for a lot of diamonds on their own (the least valuable spikes often go for 35 - 45 diamonds). A necklace is not worth anything, much less 10 diamonds. If you are going to ask someone to buy a worthless store-bought item with the promise of giving them a much more valuable item later, it would be better to just skip the semantics and sell the spike outright. Otherwise, there is no guarantee that the person selling the item is actually going to give you the rare item at the end of the transaction.

Multiple other players were in the den, and all of them seemed to sense that something was up. They made some comments about how it was probably a scam, and Happysmile1132 responded that it definitely was not.

I had a thought that perhaps the spike they planned to give out was not a rare spike, but rather a much less valuable variant, and that they were being intentionally vague to trick people into thinking it was a rare spike. I asked Happysmile1132 what the spike looked like, and they responded that it was the pink wristband on their trade list.

I looked on Happysmile1132's trade list and saw that the item being promised was, in fact, a rare spike - a rare long pink wristband to be specific. This kind of spike could sell for a lot more than 10 diamonds, so I couldn't imagine why they would give it away for that much if they weren't planning on scamming someone.

I remarked that the spike was worth a lot more than 10 diamonds, and at the same time another player rightly asked why Happysmiles1132 didn't just put the spike in their shop.

Despite our question and comment seeming pretty innocuous to someone without malicious intent, they locked all of us out of the den almost immediately after this.

Make sure to report Happysmile1132 for scamming. Stay safe and always trade fairly!

-Danny

icecreamhappygirl (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 everyone! This is Clover with a scammer that was submitted through our report form. The user who submitted this form wishes to remain anonymous.

Several days ago, icecreamhappygirl was asking the submitter if they could dress their pet bear; a very valuable pet, often traded for at least 2 den betas depending on the features. However, icecreamhappygirl did not want anyone in the den to make sure it wasn't a scam. When the submitter invited a friend to icecreamhappygirl's den, they were locked out. This is a big red flag, because if you dress up another player's pet, there's no harm in having someone ensure that no scam took place. Being persistent about nobody else being there to bear witness makes you look suspicious.

Soon after, icecreamhappygirl went into the submitter's den and claimed that their sister was watching to make sure that it wasn't a scam. However, there was no evidence that their sister was watching; their sister never came onto her own account to watch (instead talking through icecreamhappygirl's account), and they still insisted that nobody else should watch. During the rest of the scam, icecreamhappygirl acted as their "sister" by referring to themself in third-person repeatedly.

icecreamhappygirl continued to insist that they should dress up the submitter's pet bear, although the submitter wasn't even that interested in the offer, saying that "she can make it adorable."

Soon after, icecreamhappygirl threatens the submitter, saying "let her dress it or else," so the submitter finally locked them out of their den and blocked them.

Due to the fact that icecreamhappygirl never allowed the submitter to invite a friend, and showed no evidence of actually having a sister watch, as well as insisting that they needed to dress the bear up, it's safe to say that icecreamhappygirl was trying to scam the submitter by leaving the den once receiving their pet. The threat at the very end is just the nail in the coffin.

Fortunately, the submitter never got scammed of their pet bear. Be sure to report icecreamhappygirl for scamming. Remember to stay safe on Animal Jam, and protect your pets!

-Clover

Agent Insights Ep 62: Hack Rumors

Hello everyone. Flint here, to talk about something I think should be addressed.

Every so often, I see someone claim that a major hack will occur, which makes people very anxious and generally causes panic. For instance, lately, we've been hearing rumors about a supposed "Halloween Hack", where AJ will apparently be "hacked" on Halloween and because of this you should not play the game on Halloween. There have been other rumors in the past about big hacks that affect lots of players, and even a few that happen to have a grain of truth to them. A lot of "big hacks" are just rumors and panic, though, so I thought it'd be important for you to know about how hacks and hackers work.

First off, hackers aren't magic and are only capable of so much. They can't just magic their way into AJHQ and start messing with stuff. They also can't press a button and see everyone's username and password. As a non-hacker and a non-coder, I know very little about how hacking works, but I do know that it takes effort, and hackers can't just wave their magic hacker wands and instantly gain access to the entirety of Animal Jam. If your mind goes to these scenarios when you hear "hack", you should rest assured that they won't happen.

Second off, hacking is difficult. You need to know how to hack stuff, and also know how to bypass all of the security measures that AJ has implemented. Most people do not know how to do this. If they can "hack" at all, they either mean tricking people into entering their password into a phishing website, or running lines of code they found on the internet somewhere that have limited function. Real hackers do of course exist, but, as I will cover in my next point, they don't usually target online children's games.

Thirdly, actually skilled hackers that are able to breach AJ's defenses are few in number. Of those that hack maliciously, most of them are focused on banks, governmental things, stores, and popular games. Hackers who target sites maliciously will usually go for big, juicy targets, and not a children's game that isn't connected to any real money or interesting information. Hacking is also a serious crime, and any hacker that could hack AJ most likely thinks it isn't worth it to risk going to prison.

You may remember the Agent Insights post that was put out about the hacked AJ Outfitters link a few months ago. Hacks like these can occur, but as far as we know, that hack is the only one of its kind that we've had for a long while. Additionally, this hack was resolved within a few hours and players would only be affected by it if they clicked on the link. You may also have heard of people who have gotten "hacked" without entering their password into a generator. While this can occur, usually hackers only bother with famous people, and if your account was compromised otherwise, it's probably because your password was too easy to guess.

In summary, don't worry about baseless fantastical rumors. Hackers that are both able to hack Animal Jam and actually want to hack Animal Jam are exceedingly rare. On the off-chance that there is some great big "hack" that is going to affect the entire game, it is incredibly unlikely that anyone's individual accounts would be at risk. If you have a good password, don't tell it to anyone, and don't enter it in weird places, you should be fine.

cerisehood4 (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.

Howdy everyone, it's Danny with a scammer I found yesterday. I was in Coral Canyons when I saw cerisehood4 advertising that they had a beta arctic hood on their trade list, a very rare item that is valued at approximately 150 black longs.

I checked out cerisehood4's trade list, which contained multiple long spikes and other rare items, but most notably an arctic hood. The hood on their trade, however, is not the highly sought after arctic hood they are claiming it is.

There is one special variety of arctic hood that is no longer available in the game and can only be obtained through trading. The hood in question has a turquoise base color with a green eyelash, while the look-alike on cerisehood4's trade list is turquoise with a black eyelash, worth a few RIMs at most.

Before I could intervene, another player walked up to them and told them it wasn't a beta hood, probably thinking they had simply got scammed. Instead, cerisehood4 immediately left the area. I thought that was suspicious, but didn't have enough evidence to know if they were really scamming, so I went to Jamaa Township of the same server. Sure enough, cerisehood4 was there again, still claiming their hood was beta despite being told otherwise just a few minutes ago. Another player was also telling them it was not beta.

Immediately after being confronted for a second time, cerisehood4 left in a flash (so fast you can even see the other player's chat bubble fading out in the screenshot below).

Make sure to report cerisehood4 for scamming. Stay safe and always make sure you have all the facts before making a trade!

-Danny

Random Saturday Ep 70: Monday Rares

Hey everyone! Sunny here with a random Saturday post. This week we will be talking about Monday rares in Animal Jam Classic. 

Animal Jam Classic has a thing where one item is made into a rare version, that you can't buy any other day than Monday. The first one was on February 6, 2012. The item was a rare glove for 3,000 gems that was available to both non-members and members.

The Monday rares could be for members or non members, and it could either be a den or a clothing item. However, there hasn't been a rare item for den items available in a long time. The first underwater Monday rare was released on February 27, 2012. The item was a rare lionfish fin armor for 300 gems.

One of the rarest rim, the headdress, was released on October 22, 2012, in the Hot Cocoa Hut. You could buy it for 650 gems. It is unobtainable to get unless you trade for it. You can't earn it in adventures.

Unobtainable items are items that you can only get by trading, and obtainable items are things you can get from adventures and trading. 

Anyways, that concludes this week's episode! Remember to buy the Monday rares every Monday, plus, you will never know when they will become rare!

-Sunny

Iamapotatoandiknowit (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.

Howdy everyone, Danny here with a scammer I encountered earlier today. I was in Jamaa Township when I saw Iamapotatoandiknowit advertising that, if you could get the necklace off their trade list, you would win all the other items on their trade. In essence, what they were saying is that if you traded good enough items for the necklace that they accepted, you would then be given everything else separately. They also mentioned that they were recording during this, presumably to make themself seem trustworthy.

Their trade list included the necklace of course, as well as a variety of other rare items, including a red long, a black long, a green long, a sheep cloak, and various promo items. That is certainly a lot to be giving away.

This is nearly always a scam. If this person really wanted to give all the items away to one person, they would be better off trading the lot of items directly for what they want rather than having people trade indirectly for the necklace.

Iamapotatoandiknowit also added that they would accept if somebody traded them a skunk tail, another valuable item.

I tried to ask them why people couldn't just trade for their items directly, but they were in the process of trading with somebody... for a very long time. Their trade bubble disappeared and they suddenly left the area. I checked their trade list to see if the necklace was still there, and sure enough, they had just scammed someone.

After a few minutes, I checked Iamapotatoandiknowit's trade list again to see they had added another necklace to their repertoire and were presumably trying the scam again. I followed them to their new server and saw they were repeating the same advertisement, but they were not getting any trades this time around. I took this opportunity to ask them some questions.

I first asked them why they would not just trade their items directly, and moreover, how we could trust that they would actually give their items and not just run away after accepting. They took a long pause before asking why they would scam somebody while they were recording, to which I responded that there was no way to tell if they were actually recording or if they were just saying that to make themself seem reliable.

After another long pause, they answered that they were on a livestream right now. That's a pretty easy claim to make, one that I do not believe since they made no effort to tell me what the name of their livestream was for evidence and because I had literally watched them scam somebody minutes prior.

I asked when the person whose trade they accepted about 10 minutes ago would get their prizes, adding that I had watched them accept their trade and then leave with all the items still on trade. They said nothing for a good solid minute before exclaiming at me to leave them alone and let me "do their thing".

To emphasize this, they blocked me and left the area.

Make sure to report Iamapotatoandiknowit for scamming. Stay safe and always trade fairly!

-Danny

Falabellafay (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 all! I’m Riptide and here we have another scammer. Their user is Falabellafay, and they were advertising a giveaway for a solid in Jamaa Township.

I decided to check it out. There were two other people with me in their den, and they explained the rules. They wanted us to do a method of trading where we accept the trade twice, and decline the last time. We had to compete by rarity. Whoever traded the rarest items--using their method--would be awarded a solid. 

However, during a trade transaction you can only choose to accept or decline twice. There is no third warning. Therefore, you would be accepting the trade, and be trading away all your rares to some store bought items on their trade list. 

I questioned them on why they were doing this method, and also informed them that there was no way to decline the third time. Their only response was that if I didn’t want to do it I could leave, and they would return to Jamaa Township to get more people to participate. As it was obvious that I wasn’t going to get anymore replies from them, I warned everyone else in the den and informed them that this was a scam, because you cannot decline the third time. I was immediately locked out of their den.

Remember, report Falabellafay for scamming, and never participate in “trust trading” or variants of it, such as this. Stay safe!

-Riptide

Agent Insights Ep 61: Pet Scams

Hey all, Jade here with another Agent Insights! Today, we'll be discussing some of the most common scams that are centered around pets, and how to avoid them.

To start us off, we'll look at the fake golden bunny scam.

In this scam, someone will create a completely yellow bunny pet (worth RIMs at most), and try to pass it off as a golden bunny (worth a decent short collar at minimum) in order to take people's rares. Often, they will use the Pet Wash feature on the bunny, so that it sparkles like a golden bunny does. 

However, this scam is very easy to identify if you look closely at the pets. The fake golden bunny (pictured on the right) is very clearly yellow, has black-colored features, and has no rare tag, while the real golden bunny (on the left) is clearly golden, has no colors other than shades of gold, and has a rare tag. So, if you're attempting to trade for a golden bunny, just take some time to look at the pet and make sure it's real. Don't rush into a trade that you haven't inspected first!

Next, a similar scam- the fake galactic firefly scam.

Sometimes, scammers attempt to pass off regular pet fireflies as galactic fireflies in order to get traded more than their firefly is worth. Regular fireflies are worth a good short collar at minimum, while galactic fireflies are worth 3 black long collars at minimum. 

In order to identify whether a firefly is galactic or not, look at the possible features for each on the Animal Jam Wiki. If you are trading for a supposed galactic fly, but it has features that are only available for regular fireflies, then you're getting scammed. When in doubt, you can also ask the opinions of others around you! Additionally, the pet should be marked as "galactic fly" or "firefly" on the pet certificate if it's on someone's trade list- however, sometimes the pet name shows up instead, so it's better to look at the features.

This next scam is a much more recent method- the "unreleased underwater accessories" pet scam.

Each underwater pet in Animal Jam has a set of "unreleased" accessories that are unobtainable in the normal Pet Stop. These are the same kind of accessories that are available for land pets in the Pets Only or Play-As-Your-Pet parties- however, underwater pets cannot access these parties. Pets with these accessories were originally created through the old pet creation mechanism, which had a random chance of giving you an accessory when you bought a certain pet. After the pet creation method was changed, these accessories became "unreleased", and the pets with them became very rare.

However, a glitch has recently been discovered that allows underwater pets to enter the pet parties and get these accessories without any sort of hacking. Due to that, these accessories are no longer rare or desirable. Some people are still trying to pass them off as "unreleased" or "glitched", in attempts to get good trades. So, if you see anyone attempting to trade an underwater pet with special accessories, don't trade anything too good for it! They're quite easy to get, if you know how.

Now, we'll look at a couple different types of pet code scams.

Sometimes, you'll see someone attempting to trade away a pet code- a way for a user to make a custom rare pet of a certain type. However, there are a couple different ways that people scam using pet codes. One method involves someone telling you that they'll give you a pet code if you give them your rare items first, but never giving you the pet code (or giving you a fake one) after you trade. Alternatively, they could offer rares for your pet code, but ask for you to give them the code first, and then never trade the rares.

To avoid these scams, you should never trade a pet code itself- rather, you should make the custom pet first, then trade for it/trade it away. This way, the person trading for the pet still gets full customizability, but you can still use the trading system and avoid risking anyone's items.

Finally, we'll discuss the pet accessorizing scam.

This scam involves a member saying that they will dress a non-member's pet for them, as non-members can't access the Pet Stop. The member will trade for the pet, then never trade it back. This scam is often used with rare pets, so that the scammer gains worth by keeping it. 

To avoid this scam, simply don't trust anyone with your items. Never trade an item to someone you don't know and expect to get it back. Additionally, remember that even buddies can scam, so it's smartest to not try this with them either. If you really have to get a pet dressed, have the member trade something fair for it, so that they can't just run off with it without losing their items as well.

Well, I hope this has been helpful! If you have any questions about these scams or how to avoid them, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Stay safe, everyone, and Jam On!

Starryskiezz + coolwolfy47 (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 y’all! I’m Pepper, and I’m here with a scammer that was submitted to us through the Scammer Report form by Nova. They saw coolwolfy47 advertising a spike giveaway in their den. This account seemed to be an alt, because they had very few achievements and only one animal. 

Starryskieszz was one of the first people in coolwolfy47’s den. The first giveaway was first persont o send a Jam-A-Gram, which Starryskiezz won. Pretty innocuous, but things only got more fishy from there.

The next round was “troll,” which coolwolfy47 explained was trading, accepting twice, then declining, which is a variant on trust trading. There is only a very small window to cancel your trade after accepting it twice, so most trades done through this method will go through and the scammer will receive the items.

After people started leaving due to the likelihood of the giveaway being a scam, Nova asked why they couldn’t just do a wheel, and coolwolfy47 said it was because the round already started. At this point, there were only a few people left, including Starryskiezz and Nova. Starryskiezz ended up winning the spiked collar, after already having won the first round as well.

The next round started and coolwolfy47 openly said it was trust trading. Nova refused to do it and coolwolfy47 immediately locked their den.

Don’t forget to report Starryskiezz and coolwolfy47 for scamming, and remember to never do trust trading or similar “games” involving the trade system, as they may be scams.

-Pepper