Agent Insights Ep 70: Good and Bad Personal Information

Hello everyone! The AJSASS staff and Agent Galaxy are here to talk about personal information. To be more specific, we'd like to go into detail about what personal information is ok to share with others, and what is not.

You've probably been told before that you shouldn't share personal information on the internet. Generally, you shouldn't, but some information is okay to share. There is even some information that is only ok to share in certain situations. This post was made to provide a general list of types of information and when it's okay to share it. If you're ever in doubt about whether or not you should be sharing a certain type of information, it's always safer to not share it.

Information like your first name, what country you live in, or your pets' names is generally alright to share. This information can't be used to find out personal information about who you are or where you live. Other things like your gender, race, etc. are also very vague, general descriptors that are very unlikely to harm you. Things like the city you live in or the neighborhood you're from are much more questionable. This is because it can be combined with other information you provide to physically pinpoint your location. A specific city or neighborhood is much smaller than say, a country or state. Hence, people with malicious intent will be able to make more use of the information about your city/neighborhood than your country/state.

On a similar note, you shouldn't tell people stuff like the name of the school you go to/used to go to, your last name, phone number, or other stuff that can be used to locate you or personally identify you. In general, you don't want to give information that can be pieced together to find you. Therefore, it is very important to keep track of what you tell others to make sure you don't accidentally reveal too much about yourself. Predators will probably keep a list of what was said so that they can piece together information to form specific deductions. It is your job to make sure that they do not have enough information to piece together.

It should also be noted that some information, such as your first pet's name, your mother's maiden name, and random family members' names can be used in verification questions that appear when you change a password. If you have ever made an account on a website before, you may have been asked to create "security questions" to provide additional protection for your account. These questions are usually along the lines of "what was the name of your first pet?" or "what was the name of your 1st grade teacher?". You should remember what information you've used in such questions and avoid giving it out to strangers. Otherwise, they could use the information to break into your account.

Be wary of posts people share that ask you to combine multiple pieces of info to form a "nickname" of some sort. For example, you have probably seen posts that say something like "your superhero name is the color of the shirt you're wearing right now + the closest object on your left side!". This question is pretty innocuous and is simply a silly joke post. The information it asks for is vague, random, and could not be used to identify you. On the other hand, a question that says something like "your undercover identity is the name of your first pet + your mother's maiden name" is likely not as innocent. People who post those kinds of interactable images that ask for very targeted information are likely attempting to phish for answers to security questions.

Telling people your age is also generally safe, as it cannot be used to personally identify you. That being said, it is not a requirement and it is perfectly fine to not want other internet users to know how old you are. Additionally, be cautious around anyone who pressures you into sharing your age or makes a big deal out of how old you are. If you are hanging out with somebody older than you or whose age you don't know, who continually comments on how "mature" you are for your age or how long it is until you turn 18, it's highly encouraged that you cut contact with them. These tactics are often used by adults preying on teenagers and children. Remember that, if anyone on the internet is making you uncomfortable or simply giving you bad vibes, you DO NOT have to keep talking to them! There's nothing wrong with blocking other users, even if they haven't specifically done anything wrong.

Another thing that should generally be avoided is real-life images of yourself. As mentioned before, don't give online friends a way to track you down. There are ways for people to find out a lot about you from just one image, so don't send it. This also applies to sending images of places near your location. For example, do not send a picture of the outside of your house/other houses in your neighborhood, a landmark near where you live, etc. Most importantly, don't ever feel pressured to send a real image of yourself because the other party did. You do not know if the image they sent is really them. Even if it is, you are never obligated to ignore your boundaries.

Finally, don't give your financial information to anyone that isn't a trustworthy site. This is because people can steal the information given to take money from you, or use your account to pay their bills.

Please note that the list we have here is definitely not exhaustive. However, the general rule of thumb still stands: do not give the other party enough information to be able to track you down or personally identify you.

That's all for this post! Remember to stay safe!

-The SASS staff and Agent Galaxy

Agent Insights Ep 69: WildWorks Mascot Plushie

Howdy everyone! Danny here with a quick Agent Insights for you all in regards to a new item making the rounds. This week, the Rare Item Monday was a den item, which is rare enough in its own right, but to make it even more special, it was an entirely new item rather than just a recolor! Presenting, the WildWorks Mascot Plushie!

However, if you went to nab one of these guys for yourself last Monday, you may have noticed things were a bit off. To be specific, the item just... didn't show up. It wasn't there. While you could still purchase the plushie, the item itself did not exist. If placed in a den, it could not be selected, deleted, rotated, or moved around. According to one of the admins for the AJ Classic Wiki, it would seem the den item file for the WildWorks Mascot Plushie simply didn't exist. Guess AJHQ was in a bit of a rush this week?

As you can imagine, this has caused a bit of confusion. Many people have been misled into believing that this item is worth way more than it really is due to its elusive nature. People are offering den betas and spikes for this item, even though it is no more valuable than any other Rare Item Monday, with the exception of its price tag. I even saw somebody today selling it in their shop for 450 Diamonds, which was what prompted me to make this post in the first place.

In summary, the WildWorks Mascot Plushie is not "glitched". It was a little buggy on Monday when it came out, but that issue is fixed now. It does not have any special value, and it is most certainly not worth 450 Diamonds. Make sure not to get scammed!

Oh, and also: It is extremely likely that this item is going to be returning on Monday, August 9th. AJHQ never re-releases Rare Item Mondays, but this is a bit of a special case given the confusion caused by the item's buggy nature when it came out this week. According to the game's files, this item is set to be released again for next week's Rare Item Monday. So, if you missed it the first time around, just hold tight a couple more days rather than overtrading.

That's all for now. Stay safe and happy jammin'!

Agent Insights Ep 68: Bot Raids

 Hello, everyone. Flint here to cover a topic that you've likely heard about if you've played Animal Jam recently.

Lately, there have been bot raids occurring, mostly on AJPC. What happens is, mass amounts of AI-controlled accounts appear in Jamaa, spamming certain text phrases and doing things they aren't supposed to be doing. For instance, they'll teleport, flash colors, constantly change their handheld item icons, and be flying without a flying animal. They aren't on AJ all the time, but bot raids happen frequently.

These bots fill up servers and cause large amounts of lag. For some players, they can't even log in during a raid due to the lag and the servers being full. Even if you can get in, you'll see these bots everywhere in public areas and will likely still experience lag.

Another thing these bots are known for is spamming. Besides spamming certain phrases in chat, they also spam buddy requests, JAGs, and game invites. If they're spamming you in these ways, it's very hard to get out of the situation long enough to disable your buddy requests/JAGs/etc. The best thing to do if you're being spammed is just to log off or sit there until the bot raid is over. If you aren't currently being spammed, I'd recommend turning off JAGs, buddy requests, and game requests for the time being.

As far as I know, the bots aren't hacking people's accounts. Some of them might be cracked accounts, but as of now the only thing that's coming of the raids is a lot of lag and annoyed players. Be cautious, but don't worry unnecessarily.

One other thing to note is that a way AJ has tried to combat these bots is by banning anyone who says the phrases they spam. The bots get around this by saying other things, but you shouldn't try to say phrases that the bots are spamming.

That's all for now. If anything major changes regarding the bot raids, we'll likely post again, but for now, that's all we have to say on the matter.

Agent Insights Ep 67: Epic Plushies

Howdy everybody, Danny here with a new Agent Insights. If you're an AJPC player, you have probably heard about the Epic Plushie Scavenger hunt. There are 8 different plushies hidden around Jamaa, and when you find one, you can click on it to open a shop where you can buy that plushie for 1,000 Gems. When placed in a den, the plushies can be clicked on, which will play an animation showing them turning into a little plush ball. Fun!

However, the Epic Plushies are not new to this update, though this is the first time they have been available for gems. A quick history lesson for newer players: from late 2012 until sometime in 2013 or 2014, a series of plushies known as Sidekix were available for purchase from the AJ Outfitters website. The series consisted of 8 plush toys designed after animals from AJPC. The plushies featured a zipper on the torso that could be unzipped to fold the toy inside-out, turning it into a plush ball, just like their in-game equivalents.

Each individual plush came with a code that could be redeemed to get an in-game version of that plush in the form of an Epic Plushie. The Epic Plushies are quite valuable since they have not been available for many years, and because they could only be obtained with purchase of a physical Sidekix toy.

Confusingly enough, though, the Epic Plushies purchasable from the scavenger hunt event are not the same items as the plushies obtained from the Sidekix line. They are identical in terms of appearance and item name, but can be differentiated by the fact that the original Sidekix Epic Plushies now have a rare tag, while the 2021 versions do not. The Rare Tag appears when the item is viewed in an inventory, trade list, or in a player's My Shop.

Pictured below is a comparison of the Epic Fox Plushie for reference.

Since this distinction is not made clear anywhere, it is unfortunately likely that this will cause some initial confusion regarding the value of the original Sidekix Epic Plushies.

 

If you or your friend have any of the original Epic Plushies, don't trade them away! I anticipate that some players may try to scam by attempting to conflate the two items, so be cautious. This information is also posted on our Rare Item Guide page for future reference.

That's all for now. Stay safe and trade fairly!

Agent Insights Ep. 66: Headless Pet Sharks

Hi! Quacc here with your Agent Insights for today. Today's episode will be about the headless shark scams.

Recently, these headless pet sharks have been deemed as valuable when they are actually common items. Scammers will try to say that they are worth a lot and will put them in their shops for outrageous prices. Realistically, they should be put as 1-3 diamonds as a fair price.

The "headless" part of the pet is actually an accessory that can be added on in the Pet Stop. There is a glitch where you can go to the Play-As-Your-Pet-Party or Pets Only Party as an underwater animal. There are tutorials and ways to do it online as well. That way, you can find secret underwater accessories to use for all of your underwater pets (including the accessory option which gets rid of the shark's head and makes it appear "headless").

The glitch still hasn't been patched so it is still working. It only takes a few tries but it should be accessible. Because of this, any pet with these "secret" accessories shouldn't be worth very much. 

Since the trick isn't very well-known, scammers will try and trade the items for a few den betas when a fair trade for them would typically be a Rare Item Monday. If you see somebody asking for rare items in exchange for headless sharks or if you see them priced highly in somebody's shop, don't fall for it.

That's all for today, stay safe!

Agent Insights Ep 65: Two-factor Authentication

What's up everyone! Today, I bring to you the next issue of Agent Insights! Since there was a recent data breach as explained in a previous announcement, I thought it'd be fitting to talk about account security.

Having a strong password isn't the only way you can secure your accounts. Though, having a strong password is still very, very important. You can read more about strong passwords in our previous agent insights here. The method that I'm going to talk about in this agent insights can be used on top of a strong password to add another layer of security on top of it. This method is known as two-factor authentication, or 2fa for short.

2fa can be enabled on many online platforms like Google, and even Discord. Unfortunately, Animal Jam doesn't have the feature (yet, as of writing this post). So, if you have other online accounts aside from AJ, I strongly recommend you to go check if there is an option for 2fa, and enable it if there is.

So, what is 2fa? It essentially is an additional step that people have to do before they can enter their accounts. To set it up, you'd need an authenticator app. One example of such an app is Google Authenticator. What it does is that it generates a six-digit code that refreshes itself periodically. One set of six digits corresponds to one account.

During the setup phase, you must link your account to the authenticator app. Most apps should have the function to use a generated code to link accounts. After logging onto your account and clicking 2fa, there should be instructions to follow. Just follow the steps, and you would be able to enable 2fa for your account.

After 2fa is set up for your account, you need to refer to the app to logon to your account. After keying in your username and password, you would be redirected to another screen. You'd have to key in the six-digit code from your authenticator app that corresponds to your account before it refreshes itself. You can only access your account after you key in a code that exactly matches that in the authenticator app at that point in time.

Since the breach, AJ CEO Clarke Stacey stated that they will be improving their security over time. The whole video may be watched here, with the announcement of new security measures around the 6 minute mark.  I sure hope that 2fa is among these new measures that AJHQ will be using!

With that, I've come to the end of this post. Once again, I'd like to emphazise the importance of 2fa. I also encourage all of you to check through your other online accounts to see if they do allow it, and enable it if they do.

That's all from me today. Stay safe and jam on!

-Dew

Agent Insights Ep 64: Wiki Worth Scam

Hey all, Jade here with your latest Agent Insights! Today, we'll be talking about a pretty rare kind of scam, but one that's also pretty easy to fall for: the wiki worth scam.

One very helpful tool to anyone looking to trade on Animal Jam is the Animal Jam Item Worth Wiki, or the AJIWW for short. It has pages for the worths of nearly all rare items and is kept very up to date with various changing worths.

However, since the wiki is collaborative, users can choose to edit pages and add incorrect worths. Sometimes this is done for trolling purposes, but it can also be used to scam. When setting up a trade with someone, a scammer could go to the wiki page for one of the items in the trade and edit it so the worth is incorrect. They could use this to get you to trade more for their item, or to get you to accept less for your item.

Since the worths are from such a reputable source, it's very easy to fall for this scam. However, there's an easy way to avoid being tricked: Go to the wiki yourself and check the page edit history. Pages are regularly edited with updated worth, so you can't be suspicious of every edit you see, but if you see a sudden and large drop/gain in worth, a very recent edit, an edit from a new/inactive account, or any combination of the three, it's likely a scammer trying to trick you into a bad trade.

In the case that you find someone attempting this scam, you should simply undo their edit and then report their account. As long as you take some time to investigate and don't let anyone pressure you into trading without double-checking worths, it's relatively easy to avoid this scam!

Well, that's all for today. If you have any questions about the wiki or this scam, feel free to leave them in the comments. Thanks for reading, everyone- Stay safe and Jam On!

Agent Insights Ep 63: Strong Passwords

Hello, everyone. Flint here, to talk about how to make a strong password.

Often, when we talk about hacking, we say things like 'just make sure your password is strong, don't give it out to anyone, and don't enter it in weird places, and you don't need to worry'. This is good advice, but we haven't covered what counts as a strong password yet, so I figured it'd be a good thing to cover.

First tip is, don't make it really obvious. Having passwords like 'password' or '1234' makes it much more likely that a hacker will guess your password, as those are the first things they will try. Similarly, making it your avatar's name, your online alias, or other specific information known to be relevant to you is a bad idea, because it's easy for people to guess them. One-word passwords are also easy for people to guess. In general, if your password is super common, short, or relevant to you, don't make it your password.

To make a good password, you should make it long. The more characters a password-cracker has to deal with, the harder it'll be for it to hack your account. It's also hard to guess long passwords that are mnemonics, random numbers, or similar. If you don't have a password manager, mnemonics for sentences that you can remember are good ways to make good passwords.

Don't include actual English words. This makes it so that the bot has significantly fewer variables to consider and makes it easier to crack your password.

In general, you should be including numbers, symbols, and punctuation in your passwords. It makes it that much harder to guess when hackers need to account for them. Combining words and letters with symbols is recommended.

Don't make your passwords the same as other passwords on other sites. If a data breach happens on one, the passwords there will be added to password-crackers that brute force hacking by using bots to try many passwords in a short amount of time, and it's much more likely that other accounts that share the same password as the breached account are at risk, since the password-crackers will try the breached passwords.

Password managers are highly recommended. The passwords they generate are nigh-unbreakable, and you don't need to remember each one. I'd recommend looking them up if you're interested in having an especially strong password.

Most hackers aren't going to try to target you specifically. You are one player out of many, and the chances of you being targeted for hacking specifically are low if you aren't very famous. However, these tips apply to passwords for other things too, and it never hurts to be safe.

That's all for today. Remember to make long passwords with at least some degree of randomness to them, and of course to not share this password with anyone. Bye!

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.

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!

Agent Insights Ep 60: Item Lookalike Scam

Hey all! Jade here with today’s Agent Insights. Today, we’ll be talking about the item lookalike scam.

In this scam, a scammer will trade away an unrare item that looks like a very rare item, usually glitched or beta. By getting a fair trade for the rare variant of the item, but actually trading an unrare lookalike, they are scamming whoever they trade out of their items. Often, they'll try to convince you that you're getting a great deal by trading them less than the rare variant is worth, but you're actually trading them more than the un-rare variant is worth.

This scam is relatively easy to avoid if you’re careful with trading and know how to spot commonly used lookalikes. Today, we’ll be going over some of the items that are commonly used for this scam and how to identify the differences! (In each of the sections below, the rare item is shown on the left, while the non-rare item is shown on the right.)

First up, cupid wings. There are two types of cupid wings in Animal Jam- glossy and non-glossy. During the first release of the item, it had a bright shine, but on its second release, the old versions were replaced with ones with a duller shine. Glossy cupid wings are worth anywhere from one black long to 70-75 black longs, depending on color. In contrast, non-glossy wings are only worth a den beta each. To tell the differences, look at the color of the shine on the wings. If the shine is white (or light grey in the case of black wings), they’re glossy. If the shine is tinted in the color of the wings (or dark grey in the case of black), they’re non-glossy. 

Next, the beta homemade wings. This item is a lighter coloration of the homemade wings in stores, and the two are very difficult to tell apart. Beta wings are worth two black longs at minimum, while the regular wings can be bought in stores and are therefore worth next to nothing. The difference between the wings is in the color of the green section- beta wings are a lighter and more yellow shade than the storebought ones. However, as it is so difficult to tell the variants apart, it's advisable to simply not trade for this item.

The next item is beta arctic hoods. The beta hood was sold during the beta period of Animal Jam, and not re-released with the rest of the set. Its fake variant is the light blue coloration. The beta hood is worth around 150 black longs, while the light blue is worth only a few RIMs. To tell the difference between these two items, look at the color of the hood fabric. The beta version should have a much more turquoise color, while the fake hood is clearly blue. 

Next, glitched rings. There are three different glitched rings, but the one most commonly used to scam is the second variant. The second glitched ring is worth 3 black longs, while the storebought ring used to stand in for it is available in stores. The difference between the items is that the glitched ring has dark spots on its sides, while the storebought ring has light spots. 

Now, the beta and pearly tiaras. The beta tiara is worth 18 black long collars, and the pearly tiara is priceless- both were sold during the beta testing period. Both look very similar to a storebought variant of the tiara- green with a red gem and white with a blue gem, respectively. To identify the correct versions, look at the gem colors. The true beta tiara will have a purple gem, while the storebought version will have a red gem. The true pearly tiara should have a purple gem, while the storebought one will have a blue gem. Additionally, be very suspicious of any pearly tiaras you see for trade- there are less than five known copies of the item in game, so it’s very unlikely that you'll ever see someone trading one away.

Next up, the beta blanket. This item is worth 25 black longs, while the variant used to stand in for it can be bought in stores. The beta blanket has a light green body with slightly darker patches, while the storebought variant has a dark green body with lighter green patches. 

Next, the yeti face. The glitched yeti face is worth a good short collar, while the blue yeti face is worth a good long wrist. The two look very similar, but the glitched version has a slightly lighter coloration. Since they're relatively close in rarity, it wouldn't be the end of the world to trade for the wrong one, but it's still good to avoid trading for one, since it's so difficult to tell the two variants apart.

The next item is the ornament earrings. The glitched ornament earrings are worth a decent to good long collar, while the regular variant is an annually returning item and only worth a few RIMs. The glitched version has a slightly more blue-tinted left earring, but the colors are still very hard to tell apart, so it's best to not trade for this item.

Next, the jamaaliday branch antlers. The glitched item is worth at least two good long collars, while the regular brown coloration is worth only a few RIMs. The difference in the two can be found in the veins of the branches- the glitched version has a slightly lighter color, while the regular antlers have a more red tint to the veins. This is another item where the variants are very hard to tell apart, so again, it's likely best to not trade for it.

Finally, the surfboard. There is a variant of the original surfboard that is red with bubbles, and is worth two good long collars. The item used to stand in for it is nearly identical, but it is storebought and worth very little. The storebought version has a large bite mark in it, while the rare version is completely whole.

Well, I hope this guide has helped! If you have any questions about how to tell the difference between versions or suggestions for an item that should be added, feel free to put them in the comments! Stay safe out there, everyone, and jam on!

Agent Insights Ep 59: Reporting Item Generators

Howdy all, Danny here to talk a little bit about something we have covered before in this series - item generators.

Item generators are sites that claim to be able to generate rare items onto your account if you submit your username and password to the site. In reality, this only results in the person or people in charge of the website going into your account and taking all your stuff. There is no reliable way to "generate" items into someone's account, and even if there was, giving out your password on a random website is never a good idea.

While you may know not to fall for them, there are many players out there who might not, so today we will be discussing how you can effectively take action to get these item generators taken down altogether.