Random Saturday Ep 32: Snails!

Hey guys, Cat here. Today we will be taking about pet snails. Yes, you heard me. Pet snails are on Animal Jam PC!

They are cute little pets with a lot of different personalities.

They are full of fun and joy!

They come in a wide variety of colors too! 

This one's pink! When I bought it, it had an interesting personality

of Zany, likes a sweatband for a toy. It also loves sunflower seeds. 

I suggest picking up one of these cuties

in the Diamond Shop today!

They cost only 3 diamonds to purchase. Cat out.

Agent Insights Ep 22: Phishing

Hey everyone. Flint here to talk about phishing, and as it relates to Animal Jam. 

(I know there's an old post from 2017 talking about this, but I'd like to make it an updated Agent Insights, so everyone can find it easier.)

Phishing is when scammers pretend to be legitimate people/websites/companies/whatnot in order to fool people into giving them personal information like passwords or credit card numbers. 

 The most common example is getting an email/text claiming to be from a company you do business with (e.g. Netflix, Apple, etc). Said email/text will say that they have detected suspicious activity on your account/hackers have tried to log into your account. They will then give a link to a place where you can supposedly do something to stop hackers getting into your account, involving entering your password/personal info.

Phishing is a scam. Any links they provide will go to scam sites that will steal your info/give you viruses. However, the point is to look legitimate, so that you trust them enough to enter your info. There's actually a good image that AJHQ provided a while ago, in response to scammers pretending to be AJHQ. It shows the signs of a fake email from scammers. 

Note the following, in case you can't see the image.

• The email is not the official email of AJHQ. The official one is support@animaljam.com. 
• Animal Jam will never ask for your password over email. Clickable links are only sent from the actual Animal Jam site. 
• Spelling errors, or any errors in punctuation, grammar, etc.
• 
  

And, some tips for spotting phishing emails in general.

• Spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors
• Generic, non-personalized greeting. Animal Jam might send you links with Animal Jam Parent, but most sites will address you by your name or username.
• Links that redirect to weird places. If you hover your mouse over a link, and it does not go to a place you'd expect it to go (e.g. instead of animaljam.com, it goes to bit.ly/838383838383.)
• Panicky language, such as demanding you reset your password now, you need to click this link or you will be hacked, etc. If it makes you feel panicked, there's a reason for that. 
• Wrong email addresses. If the address doesn't make sense or it contains errors, it's fake.

Basically, to avoid these, never click on links from emails unless you were expecting the email. If you are concerned, go to a new tab and pull up the site independently, then reset the password or whatever you think needs doing.

That's all, folks. Bye!

Random Saturday Ep 31: Animal Jam Membership Bundles

Hey all, Jade here with the latest Random Saturday! Today, we'll be discussing membership bundles.

Recently, Animal Jam came out with their latest bundle- Rags to Riches. This bundle includes the Pauper and Aristocrat outfits, a lemur, the Ol' Barn, the Princess Castle, and other various den items, and it is available to anyone purchasing a membership in the month of November.

On the Animal Jam site itself, these bundles are described as a way to encourage new people to try member benefits. In the past, Animal Jam has released 19 of these bundles through gift cards (some of these are reoccurring), and 21 bundles through online purchase. These bundles include a variety of items, animals, dens, and other perks, and those who receive them are very lucky indeed! However, there may be some mixed feelings about these bundles in the Animal Jam community, for a few different reasons.

First: If you already have a membership, the majority of these bundles aren't available to you. Why buy another membership when you already have one? The only way to get every bundle would be to buy a monthly membership every time- which is tedious, a waste of money, and won't even guarantee that you could get every bundle, since there have been multiple bundles within one month before! 

Second: For those who don't have any way to get the bundles or a membership at all, this simply adds another layer to the separation between members and non-members. More animals, more dens, and more items that non-members can't get easily or even use.

However, many Jammers who have the opportunity to get these bundles do love them! It adds a bonus to the perks of membership, and it can be a fun surprise to see the mystery den items you receive with the bundle.

Overall, there are a lot of pros and cons to the membership bundle format, and there is no real consensus within the Animal Jam community to whether these are enjoyable or not. What's your opinion on the bundles? Do you enjoy them, or do you think they're unfair? Well, whatever your thoughts on the bundles, stay safe and jam on!

Update Post - October

What's up everyone! I'm here with your update post in the month of October! Without further ado, let's go!

Firstly, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to Gamma Shade, who recently joined the society. Welcome!

Next, Omega Cat has passed the training and is now a Gamma! Congratulations!

Next, the team event, "The Search for Moku'ahi" is currently ongoing. Anyone can participate, even non-society members! Just head over to our discord server if you want to participate.

Finally, we are in the process of revamping our society documents to reflect the current way we do things.

That's all the updates right now. As always, if you want to join our society, head over to the joining tab above and fill the form in!

That's all from me now. Till next post!

-Dew

Agent Insights Ep 21: Generators

Hello, everyone. Flint here to talk about generators. 

Generators are non-Animal Jam sites that claim to be able to give you free stuff. “Stuff” includes memberships, currency (gems/diamonds/etc.), and items. They could possibly promise to give other things. Usually they only want you to enter in your username and password, and they claim they will transfer the items/currency/whatnot directly to your account. 

Generators are always scams. There is no instance in which giving your login information to random people is a good idea. They will take your info, log on to your account, and steal all of your items. Some sites may even give your device viruses/malware that steal all of the info on your computer. Not to mention that they are against AJ’s rules. 

The way to avoid these scams is by not entering your username or password into any site that is not Animal Jam. This Site is Animal Jam. Any site that is not this site is a place that should not have your password. In fact, the only people that should know your password are you and your parents. 

If you come across such a site, you should attempt to report it to either AJ or the platform the site is hosted on (e.g. Blogger, Weebly, Wix, etc.). These sites are scams, and nobody wants scams lying around, including site platforms. 

If you have already entered your password into a generator, change it ASAP. See if you can install an antivirus as well. 

That's all I have now. Bye!

Agent Insights Ep 20: Signs of Scams

Hello, everyone. Flint here, talking about the general signs that what you're involved in could be a scam.

There is little "new" in scammer methods. They usually use the same tricks over and over, with only slight modification. Sometimes, though, it can be a pain to remember them all, or the circumstances can be fuzzy and hard to tell if it's a scam. So, I'll share some general rules for telling scams from non-scams, regardless of type.

1. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. 

This is not a universal rule, but if someone claims you'll get a bunch of very rare items for relatively little in return, this is a warning sign that it's a likely scam. 

2. Does it involve the exchange of items outside of the normal trading system?

If they want you to gift-trade, indirectly trade them something, trade through a third account, or gift them and they'll gift back more, or log onto your account and put stuff on it, it is a scam. Another way to put this is "Do they, at any point, hold or have the potential to hold your items without having given you a fair trade in return?" Also note that all these rules also apply in giveaways.

3. Does it involve trusting the other jammer more than you would a random guy on the street?

You wouldn't trust some random guy to hold your valuables. He might run off with them. Similarly, you should not trust random jammers to hold your valuables, in case they run off with them. This also applies to trusting them not to accept the trade/share your password/etc. This does not mean you're hostile to others. It means you have good boundaries and good sense. 

That's all, folks. Stay safe!

Random Saturday Ep 30: Bittersweets

Hey all, Blue here with another rand Sat!

Today I am going to be talking about Bittersweets, Animal Jam's (PC) seasonal adventure for Halloween.  

Bitter Sweets is an adventure where you play as your pet, and you go around collecting candy by dissipating Proto-Phantoms, which will drop one candy if you touch them. for every different amounts of candy you collect, you can open a chest. the first one is at 100, second at 200, third at 400, fourth at 700 and last at 1000. 

The rewards are various halloween-themed den items.

There are also special pet passages, for clothing items. There is a passage for bees, kittens, bats, peacocks, puppies, tarantulas and probably some others. They give out different clothing items and sometimes clothing betas.

1000 candies seem like a lot? Yeah, it is. However, there is a quick way I have discovered that can finish the adventure for you fast.

Get a group of four people together, and go find one of the candy jackpots, located at the end of each of the maps legs:

Activate the Jackpot by each sitting on a stump, and grab your candy from the chest when it pops out.

Walk away from the jackpot until you can no longer see it, wait 15 seconds, then go back. It should have reset and you can get the candy again!

This strategy made the whole 5 chests take 10 minutes for me. Its quick and easy!

Thats all from me today,

Stay safe, Jam on!

-Blue

Update Post - September

Hey all! Jade here, with the update post for September.

First of all, we've slightly updated the rules for promotion - we will now not allow time spent on leave to contribute to the minimum time requirements for promotion.

Marshmellow was removed from the society due to inactivity. Cat, however, has rejoined us!

Finally, we are beginning a new contest on our Discord server, "The Search for Moku'ahi". If you would like to participate in this or any of the other games we hold from time to time, you can join our Discord through the link in the sidebar!

Well, that's about all for this month. Stay safe and jam on!