Monthly Update - June

Hello everyone! Flint here to tell you about the society updates for June 2021.

First off, we've been doing some internal work restructuring staff duties. This won't change much, except that you might see some staff doing different things. We hope this change will even the workload and reduce burnout.

As always, we also have our monthly events! We just wrapped up a fun game of Race through Jamaa, and are starting Undercover. Guests are welcome to join in, and we highly encourage you to participate. Check out our Discord server for more information!

We're also hiring! If you're interested in being part of our team, check out our Joining page for more info. We don't accept everyone, but it never hurts to send in an application.

And finally, our Report Form is open as well. If you have evidence of a scam taking place, we encourage you to submit it there. If we can turn it into a good post, we will!

That's all for today. Bye!

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.

Monthly Update - February

Hello, everyone! Flint here, to give you the society updates for February!

Firstly, we've done some more outreach on our Discord server. We've joined Disboard, and we've made bridges with some other AJ-related servers. If you want your server to bridge with ours, you can DM Dew for more details.

We're also hiring! If you're interested in joining our team, go to the Joining page for more information. We don't accept every application, but if you're eligible and think you'd enjoy it, we encourage you to submit an application!

If you have evidence of a scammer scamming, and aren't in the society, we encourage you to submit a report form on our Report Scammers page! Remember to look over the evidence requirements listed on that page to make sure we can use your report form. If the images/testimony follow all those guidelines, your form will likely be made into a post!

That's all for this update. Bye for now!

Update Post - January

Hello everyone! Flint here to bring you the society updates for January 2021.

Firstly, we've altered our posting schedule. Scammer posts are now being posted less frequently. If we get an influx of new agents, we might increase scammer posts again, but for now we feel posting less is beneficial.

Secondly, we would like to welcome our new gammas Pluto and Fera! If you're interested in becoming a gamma as well, we encourage you to check out our Joining page and fill out the application. We're currently looking for new members, so now is a great time to join!

We've also fully released Events in our discord! Once a month, either me or Dew will host a text-channel game that anyone on the discord can join. We encourage you to join the discord (linked on the right sidebar) and participate in Events!

That's all I have for today. Goodbye!

Update Post - December

Hello everyone! Flint here to bring you the society updates from December 2020.

Firstly, we have decided to remove Agent Insights from the schedule, and only post them when there is something important we specifically want to say, or when something new comes to light that we want to make sure everyone knows about instead of making a new one every week. Agent Insights will still be a thing, they just won't be posted every Tuesday.

Second, you may have noticed that we have recently added a new page to the blog - the Rare Item Guide. Its purpose is to help people tell the difference between actually valuable items and less-valuable items that look very similar to the valuable ones. We hope this can help you all avoid scams involving scammers trying to convince people that un-glitched items are actually glitched, or that cheap yet similar-looking junk is actually rare. Go check it out!

We have also been working on some internal changes to things like the posting schedule. These decisions are not finalized as of yet, but we will let you know when they are.

We'd like to remind everyone that the Scammer Report Form is highly recommended if you have evidence of a scam and want it made into a post. Just remember to follow all the quality guidelines outlined on the Report Scammers page, and your form will likely be made into a post. We appreciate your contributions!

Finally, we are currently hiring! Just head on over to our Joining page for more details. Former agents who want to rejoin, please use the rehiring form instead of the regular application form.

That's all for now. Happy 2021!

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 58: Intentional Overpricing

 Hello, everyone. Flint here, to talk about another scam I've seen on several occasions, and that you should be aware of.

Intentional overpricing is when items are overpriced in shops with the intention of tricking people into thinking a worthless item is actually worth a lot. Sometimes items are overpriced in this manner because gullible people got scammed with this method and then tried to turn around and sell the item again, but most of the time it's easy to spot someone trying to scam with this method.

Intentional overpricing most often happens when adventure items, Epic Den Shop items, new store items, obscure store items, obscure RIMS, or other uncommon/unknown items are sold for far more than they're worth. Usually they're sold for a minimum of several diamonds, though I've seen some go for up to 200. Really, they can go for any amount. What matters is that none of these items are worth anything. For some items, like adventure items or out-of-stores items, 1 or 2 diamonds is reasonable, but trying to charge 20 diamonds for something you can get in a store or an adventure is a rip-off and the seller is either very uninformed or scamming. 

To avoid this scam, make sure to look up any item you see being sold for a lot of diamonds, especially if you aren't sure what the item is. I recommend the Animal Jam Wiki, since most items that are used in this scam aren't worth enough to be in the Item Worth Wiki. If the item is actually valuable, it can be worth checking the Item Worth Wiki to see if it's super-valuable or just moderately valuable. If it's not actually worth the diamonds it's sold for, don't buy. 

If you see an overpriced item in a store, don't immediately call the owner a scammer. If they persist in saying it's a fair price even after you confront them about it, then they're probably scamming.

That's all for today. Always make sure to look up the relative worth of any item you see being sold for a lot of diamond. Goodbye! 

Agent Insights Ep 56: List Filler Scam

Hello, everyone. Flint here, to talk about a type of scam we haven't covered yet. Someone commented on our blog telling us about it, so we figured we'd talk about it.

This scam occurs two different ways on AJ and AJ Classic. First, I'll talk about the AJ Classic version. This scam occurs when you have something good on your trade, and someone trades you one item that's an overtrade, as well as a bunch of necklaces or similar cheap store-bought junk. If you take the time to look through the list, they will cancel for being 'too slow'. This process will repeat until you aren't actually checking the list and are just trying to accept as fast as possible. Once they have you doing this, they will accept the trade, but the good item will have been removed, leaving you with all the cheap junk and without your rare.

The second version of this scam occurs on AJ/AJPW. This scam occurs when someone will trade you one good item and a bunch of bad items for your good item. They will then remove the good item, and attempt to accept the trade before you notice its absence.

Note that sometimes the list filler items are all the same item, and sometimes it's a variety of cheap store-bought items. It doesn't really matter, except that the items being all the same make them easier to notice. 

This scam can be easily identified by having someone try to trade you one good item and a bunch of bad store-bought items (or RIMS if the item is high-value enough). If someone tries to do this to you, ask them to remove the filler items and only trade you the good item. If they refuse for any reason, they're trying to scam you. 

That's all for today. Remember to be suspicious of any trade that contains tons of filler items. Goodbye!

Agent Insights Ep 54: "Golden" Pet Pigs

 

Hello everyone. Flint here, to talk about a minor point that's still worth bringing up.

Golden pets are usually worth a lot. These gold-colored variants of other pets range in value from only 2 being confirmed in the game in the case of Golden Armadillos to a decent short at minimum for Golden Bunnies.

You may have seen or heard of Gold Pet Pigs before. These pigs are colored gold, and wear a top hat. These are not real gold pets, however, and aren't worth anything. This is because the top hat and the gold color are an accessory that can be obtained by visiting the Pets Only Party or the Play as Your Pet Party. All you have to do to get one is buy a pet pig from the diamond shop, and wait until one of those two parties rolls around. There are no Golden Pet Pigs besides these ones.

Anyone who claims that they have a Golden Pet Pig and that it's worth a lot is lying. Don't trade anything more than what you'd trade for an in-store item. There are no Golden Pet Pigs, only regular pigs with an accessory.

That's all for today. Just remember that Golden Pet Pigs aren't real gold pets and aren't worth anything. Bye!

Agent Insights Ep 52: AJ Outfitters Scam Link

Hello, everyone. Flint here, to talk about something I just heard about, and thought you all should know. 

EDIT: This problem has been fixed by AJHQ. The link no longer leads to a scam site.

Just recently, meaning within the last day, the link to AJ Outfitters that is accessible when you log into Animal Jam Classic on the website got hacked. If you click the image that's supposed to link to AJ Outfitters, it instead links you to a scam site that steals your password. If you click the link and you don't immediately disable your account via parent controls, and then change your password and possibly your parent email/parent email password, you will be hacked.

A picture of the link that now leads to a scam site

Additionally, we have discovered that clicking this link may affect your whole computer or your non-AJ accounts. One of our agents clicked the scam link, and they reported that their Epic Games account was likely hacked, as when they launched Fortnite, all their currency and many of their items had been transferred out of their account. Their Epic Games account had the same password as their AJ account, but not the same username.

Additionally, this agent's antivirus stopped working. They had to contact the antivirus company in order to get instructions to reboot the antivirus, which likely removed the hack from their computer, as there have been no other signs of hacking. It's not certain that their antivirus and Fortnite account were the result of the AJ Outfitters link, but as both experienced problems only after the scam link was clicked, it's very possible that the link caused the problems.

DO NOT click the link. Even if you try it on an alt, or incognito mode, or whatever, it may affect your other accounts and computer programs too. Clicking on the link out of curiosity is a bad move that may give your computer a virus. To be especially safe, either download AJ from the AJ site and play on that, or refrain from playing AJ for now. This problem will hopefully be fixed soon, but in the event that it isn't, you should know to not click that link. I assume AJ will tell us when the link is fixed.

Logging into Animal Jam won't hack you, just clicking that link will. Be especially careful to not accidentally click that link, but you don't need to avoid playing AJ unless you think you will accidentally click the link.

If you clicked the link, disable your account via Parent Dashboard, and change your password. Also look around for any suspicious activity on other parts of your computer, and try to run a virus scan with your antivirus. This link contains some helpful tips for getting rid of viruses and making them unable to do harm, though it does plug its own program as a good antivirus.

Remember to never click strange links, and keep an eye out for news of hacks such as these. That's all for today. Bye!

Agent Insights Ep 50: Item Worth Manipulation

Hello everyone. Flint here, to talk about a scam/thing to watch out for that I come across occasionally.

This scam occurs anytime someone tries to convince people that items are worth more than they are. It's not much more complicated than that. They can try a couple different methods of convincing you that worthless items are valuable, but it's ultimately a very simple scam.

These sorts of people might drastically overprice items in My Shops, or they might trade one for one of your rares, or they might tell you that one of their items is valuable when it isn't. The items they use will usually be uncommon ones where the worth isn't widely known, like seasonal items, adventure prizes, random items from shops like Jam Mart Furniture, etc.

People may also try to trick you into thinking similar-looking but low-value items are actually rares, such as pretending a non-glitched item is glitched. This is probably a good topic for another AI, but know that you should verify the item you're trading for.

There are several ways to avoid overtrading/overpaying for items. One is to always look up the approximate value of any expensive item you're acquiring. The Item Worth Wiki is helpful for this. Even just looking up the item in general can tell you information about it, like if it's in stores, an adventure prize, a seasonal item, etc. Another way is to be wary of people who try to get you to accept without thinking. If they're rushing you, it's likely that the item they're offering isn't actually worth much. In general, don't accept trades in which you offer lots of currency or your valuables for items where you don't know the worth for certain.

Note that not everyone who overprices items or tries to undertrade you is scamming. Sometimes they genuinely don't know how much their item is worth, or they traded you as a joke and didn't expect you to accept. Only treat them as a scammer if they try very hard to convince you the item is worth a lot, even after you've told them it's not worth much.

Some scams, like the S14/Two Person scam, rely on tricking people into believing worthless items are worth a lot. Watch out for those types of scams.

That's all for today. Bye!

Agent Insights Ep 48: Wiki Scam Comments

Hello everyone. Flint here, to talk about a recent phenomenon that's been affecting the Animal Jam Wiki, and that could affect other wikis.

Recently, there has been an influx of scammers commenting on certain articles on the AJ Wiki. They'll comment on the pages of uncommon or seasonal items, and will say things like "Trading this item for a black long!" or "Looking for this item, will trade a black long for it!" They don't need to be asking for a black long specifically; 'black long' can be replaced with all manner of valuable items.

The accounts that comment stuff like this are scamming. By offering high-value trades for these items, or by saying they're looking for high-value trades for their item, they are tricking people into thinking an item is worth more than it actually is. This way, when people go look at the Wiki for more information on an item, there will be a bunch of comments saying that the item is worth a lot, which can make people fall for S14/Two-Person scams, or just simple overtrading.

Keep in mind that comments on a page can be easily put there by scammers. Just because the comments say an item is valuable, or has a real glitched variant, or whatever, doesn't mean those comments are true. It's better to get information from the actual article, or from looking at other comments on the article talking about how they saw a scam using this item.

As far as I know, this hasn't been a problem with any other wikis, but you should still keep in mind that comments on an article can easily be put there by scammers. 

That's all for today. Watch out for these sorts of comments. Goodbye!

Agent Insights Ep 45: S14 Revisited

Hello everyone. Flint here, to talk more about the S14/Two Person Scam, as this scam has been growing in popularity recently and has taken on some new twists.

S14 takes place with two scammers, or one scammer with two accounts. Scammer 1 offers a huge overtrade for an uncommon, but worthless item, while Scammer 2 has said uncommon, worthless item, and will try to get people to overtrade for it. Once someone overtrades Scammer 2, both scammers leave.

Usually, this is a fairly uncommon scam, that takes place with the scammers standing in Jamaa Township advertising like they're normal jammers who just want to trade. However, a new variation of this scam has popped up recently.

In this variation, someone will JAG you or personally speak to you about how they will trade you items of very high value in exchange for an uncommon, worthless item (you may not have heard of the item before). If you have the item, they will decline your trades and leave, or they will claim that they want a special glitched variant of the item. If you don't have the item, or the scammer claims they want a glitched version, a second account will contact you. This account will just so happen to have the uncommon item, and will trade it to you in exchange for some of your rares/valuables. If you accept the trade, both scammers will leave, and if you try to trade Scammer 1 the uncommon item, they will decline.

There are several ways to quickly identify this scam. If people are offering a very valuable trade for a very specific item you haven't heard of, or an item you don't know for certain is valuable or not, that person is likely Scammer 1. If another person has the exact item Scammer 1 wants, wants a lot of rares for it, and is conveniently located right next to/met shortly after your encounter with Scammer 1, that's a sign that this person is a Scammer 2.

If you want to check whether the item Scammer 1 is asking for is actually valuable or not, you can try checking the Item Worth Wiki. If the item isn't on there, it's probably not very valuable. (Note that scammers may try to change the values on the Item Worth Wiki right before they go scamming, so watch out for that and possibly check the page's history to see if it's been radically altered recently).

You can also check the Animal Jam Wiki for information on an item's release date, whether the item is in stores or not, how recently the item was obtainable, or whether it has a real glitched variant. (If the glitched variant isn't listed on the Wiki, it probably doesn't exist.)You can also try just searching up 'animal jam [uncommon item]' on a search engine to see if people regularly trade high-value items for this item, or if the person you've encountered has recently attempted many scams with this item.

That's all for now. Watch out for this scam, and make sure you know how valuable the items you're trading for are. Goodbye!

Agent Insights Ep 43: Code Scams

Hello, everyone. Flint here, to talk about various scams in AJ involving codes.

I won't be talking about membership codes here, though some of the scams I'll mention share similarities with membership code scams. I'll be talking about codes for items, currency, and things like that.

A simple code scam occurs when someone says that they will give you a code in exchange for items. They usually either give you a broken code, or take off with your items without giving you anything in return. This can easily be avoided by just ignoring anyone who tries to do it.

A more complex scam occurs when someone will give you a code, that they tell you does not work until you do something to activate it. This something will usually involve entering your information into some non-Animal Jam location, downloading something, or visiting some strange off-site location. 

If they try to get you to visit somewhere or do something off-site in order to activate your code, they are probably lying and trying to scam you. Entering information into non-AJ places will result in said info being stolen, and downloading stuff and visiting strange sites will probably give your computer viruses.

It is not advisable to enter in strange codes that others give you. Most of the time entering the codes themselves won't do much, but the codes likely won't work and getting them to work will get you scammed. I've heard of instances where entering codes will give people access to your account, but I do not know the validity of these claims. If you're concerned about that, don't go to the dens of or enter any codes given by people who promise free codes. Just report them for scamming and move on. You can always look up codes people advertise to see if they're legit or not.

In summary, people that promise to give you codes in exchange for items are lying. People that promise to give you free codes in exchange for you giving them your info or doing something off-site are lying. Don't give people items without having received a fair trade for them, don't click on sketchy links, and don't give anyone your info.

That's all for today. Goodbye!

Agent Insights Ep 42: The Accept, Accept, Decline Scam

Hello, everyone. Flint here, to talk about a type of scam that's grown in popularity recently.

The Accept, Accept, Decline scam often happens when someone will claim that they want to trust/troll trade. They will claim that you can do this safely and without risk by accepting twice and declining on the last round; this is as opposed to normal trust trading where there is lots of risk that the person you're trusting with will run off with your items. Sometimes they just try to get you to accept-accept-decline without claiming anything. Really, this scam occurs any time someone claims that you can accept twice and decline on a trade.

However, trading only has two stages. If you follow the scammer's instructions, you will accept twice, and find that you can't cancel the trade. The scammer will accept, and you will have lost your items. There is technically a small window to decline after accepting twice, but the scammer is prepared to accept at lightning speed, and you have a very low and almost nonexistent chance of declining the trade. This is just flash trading, but updated for the new trading system. Anyone trying to do it is trying to scam you.

This scam can easily be avoided by remembering that trading has two stages, and ignoring anyone who says otherwise. Most scams of this sort can just be avoided by only trading when you intend to accept the trade and perform no further trades.

That's all for today. Bye!

Agent Insights Ep 39: Reporting

Hello, everyone. Flint here, to talk about the Animal Jam reporting function and how it actually works.

As I'm sure you know, Animal Jam has a reporting function in-game. You can click on someone's name, click on the report button, send in a report for a variety of reasons, and then the report gets sent.

Reporting can sometimes feel like it doesn't really do anything. However, if many people report someone for the same reason, that someone will be suspended. AJHQ can tell if someone is scamming/rule-breaking or not (they have access to chat histories/JAG histories/etc.)

One person reporting doesn't do anything, but many people reporting does. This is why we always recommend that you report scammers you see in-game, as well as scammers you see posted here. If enough people report them, they can get suspended. This goes for all the things you can get reported for. Whether someone is scamming, being inappropriate, being mean, or whatever, reporting them and asking other people to do the same is helpful and can lead to appropriate action being taken against that user.

If a bunch of jammers decide to mass-report some random person they don't like, said random person won't get banned. AJ will look at their account, determine that they didn't actually do anything, and nothing will happen. So, you don't need to worry about report-spam falsely banning you.

In summary, please report the scammers that we post here. If enough people report, those scammers will be banned.

That's all for today. Make sure to always report people breaking the rules, and goodbye!

Agent Insights Ep 37: Lies Scammers Tell

Hello everyone. Flint here to talk about some common lies that scammers tell.

These lies are the sort that are scam accessories. I'm not talking about, say, them saying they'll decline the trust trade when they won't, because that's obvious and part of the definition of being a scammer.

"I can't use the trading system because..."

If they say it's disabled, AJ only disables trading and gifting at the same time. It should also be noted that people who say their trading is glitched or otherwise unworkable are lying to try to avoid using the trading system.

"If you don't go away/give me stuff, I'll report you and you'll be suspended!"

That's not how reporting works. Generally, when someone is reported AJ will go over their chat logs to see if they ever said anything suspicious, and if they did they'll get suspended. If someone reports someone else for no reason, nothing will happen.

"If you don't do what I say, I'll get you suspended/steal your items because my mom works for AJHQ!"

They are almost certainly not related to anyone who works for AJHQ. Even if they were, nobody who works for such a company would listen to their young child whine about how he wants to suspend someone who didn't give him their spikes. These people especially should be ignored.

"If you don't do what I say, I'll hack you/mess with your account!"

This is almost certainly a lie. If they were actually capable of hacking you, A. They would probably be going after famous jammers or people who are well known for having tons of rares, and wouldn't go after random people, and B. They could just hack you anyway without telling you. The only reason people would try to intimidate you with threats of hacking is if they can't hack you and just want to intimidate you into giving them items.

Don't believe these lies, and don't believe scammers in general. They're almost always lying in order to get you to give them stuff. Bye!

Agent Insights Ep 36: My Shop High-Value Item Scam

Hello, everyone. Flint here, to talk about a certain scam involving the My Shop den item, henceforth referred to as a shop.

When you set the price of an item in these shops, the upper limit of diamonds is 500. So, you can't price an item at above 500 diamonds. The limit is higher for gems, but gems are not used often, especially for high-value items, like the ones I'll be talking about. 

Sometimes, people want to sell items at above the 500 diamond limit. One way they go about doing this is to ask the person they're selling the pricey item to to first buy a necklace or similar item for several hundred diamonds, to make up the difference. Then, they say, they will put the high-value item in the shop for 500 diamonds, at which point you can buy it.

This is often a scam. They will wait until you buy the necklace, and then either take the high-value item off the shop or never put it on. In this way, you have just bought a necklace for hundreds of diamonds and have not gotten anything in return for it.

You can avoid this scam by not agreeing to buy something for over the limit. Either trade for it, buy it at 500, buy the necklace after the main item, or don't get it at all. 

That's all for today's post. Bye!

Agent Insights Ep 34: What counts as a scam?

Hello everyone. Flint here, to talk about what counts as a scam.

I often see people who call things scams that we don't really consider to be scams. Things like claiming it's your birthday, advertising for mailtimes, etc. are some of these things. Today, I thought I'd make a list of things that make a scam a scam.

Deceptive

A scam must be deceptive. There must be lying, misleading, or taking advantage of someone's lack of knowledge in order for a scam to be a scam. In most scams, they promise something in return for your things, but never give it. Or they say if you don't do something, they'll harm you, when they really can't. Or they pretend to be someone they're not. Either way, some deception must be involved. 

Someone who just says "give me your spikes", takes the spikes, and leaves wasn't scamming anyone. He just left with the spikes, he never promised anything in return. If you want to give away your spikes to someone for nothing in return, then regret it, that's not a scam.

Intent counts here too. Someone making bad trades with newer jammers who don't know any better is still scamming, even if he knows that his items aren't worth anything, since the other person didn't know.

Theft

A scam must involve something being taken from you. Whether it's items, currency, your password, etc. doesn't matter, so long as something was taken.

If an event was deceptive, but nothing was taken from anyone at any point, it's not a scam. Trolling, joking, and the like are not scams. They're annoying, but there's no harm done.

If there is no deception and/or theft, it's not a scam. There are, however, some tricky cases that are still scam-ish, but aren't really scams. These include:

- Lying about what they wanted free items for, but with no pretense of giving anything in return. We do not consider these scams, or not 'full' scams anyways. It's impossible to verify if these claims are true or not, and you already knew you'd be giving away your items for free. You were never forced/coerced into giving them away, and there's no expectation of you giving them valuable items. (Examples: birthday claims, mailtime advertisements, "I'm poor give me stuff"s, etc.)

- Hacking/harassment/legit threats and the like. People who harass you until you give them stuff aren't scamming you, but they're still breaking rules and being mean. We consider them in the same category of behavior standards.

- People pretending to be famous jammers are still considered scammers, since it's easy to verify that they aren't famous, and pretending to be a famous jammer comes with the expectation of giving valuable items

We still post about threats/harassment/hacking, but we will not post about birthday-claim type stuff, nor will we post about trades you regret. Bottom line is, a scam must be someone deceiving you into giving up your items. 

That's all. Goodbye!