List of known Scamming/Hacking methods employed in DN

[launcelot]

As the title suggests, these are the different known styles of trade scamming and hacking that everyone needs to be aware of. I reduced the scope to a bare minimum due to some schemes being a derivative/improved version of the same traditional scheme.

For Scamming baits, please be reminded that trading outside the TH is not a good practice and it is always best to utilize the TH as a medium of fair trade.


1) The Switcheroo
You and another trading player wishes to open a trade but he fails to complete it and says he accidentally closed it. Reopening the trade, the trader hopes that you have overlooked the trading sequence and has switched the item in question.

Before	After!!! Switched 10pcs with 1 pc

A scammer would attempt to "cancel" it and say "oops" I made a mistake, let's trade again.


On certain occasions, would attempt to "push" you with some messages to put you off your guard.



Take note that saying "Faster" is always a rude remark. Avoid trading with individuals who don't have the time to be patient with you.

[launcelot]

2) The Bailout
There are some items in TH that are said to be worth more than the capped amount (200,000g cap), some individuals prefer to bail out on the first few transactions before disappearing entirely from the deal process.

3) Impersonation
You were trading with a person whom you thought was a famous and reputable person, then disappears without a trace. Then this reputable person had no idea that you were trying to trade him.

In a world where a misspelled name is acceptable, it is different in trading. It is never acceptable. Perfect case of impersonation is someone impersonating to be a credible person.

Previously, it was easy to find someone credible by inspecting their gear, but some scammers have gone so far as to establish themselves before starting to scam. Other players will try as much as trying to come up with ways to make the font or letter look very close to the name.

Sometimes, unknown to you, the scammer would send you private messages to you a whole lot even though you are already next to each other. And somehow a name that looks very close to the famous/reputable character is trading you from nowhere.

Here are some of the tools that an impersonator uses to fool you:

Remote Trading
To trade a player "remotely", just type the command /trade [charactername]. A scammer/impersonator will find ways to trade you from your blind-side, be it a view away from your current camera angle, or from a location far away from you.


A name that resembles another player.

Here's an example:

	What it looks like in the game	What it looks like on Courrier Font
Innocent Player	IShouZhenI	IShouZhenI
Scammer Player	lShouZhenl	lShouZhenl

It would be best to save the name and paste it on a notepad using large fonts and find out if a player is indeed the player you were dealing with.
You can save player names especially when you are sent a private message. All incoming messages have a name where you can double-click and choose "Save Name"



Name impersonations play a trick with your eyes with the use of special characters or double characters.

Victims of such trick appear to fall under the following conditions:

• Victim is used to short abbreviations e.g. text messages with extremely short and bad spellings and thus the mindset for reading and comprehension is very forgiving for bad spellings/abbreviations - leading to easy impersonations.
  • A perfect example would be that the victim does not distinguish the difference between NostrumX and NosturnX
• Victim has poor monitor resolution
• Victim has poor eyesight
• Victim suffers from Dyslexia - unable to read and interpret/transpose information from one medium to another.
• Victim is pressured to perform hasty decisions.

Known Character Switching for Impersonations

Single Character Replacements. Characters that make it look or "sound" the same.

m = n
n = r
r = n
A = 4
o = 0 O
l = I


Cyrillic Character replacements. Note: Recent character names are not allowed to create names with Cyrillic sets. (needs confirmation)

a = â(alt+131) ä(alt+132) à(alt+133) á(alt+160)
e = ê(alt+136) ë(alt+137) è(alt+138) é(alt+130)
i = ï(alt+139) í(alt+161)
o = ó(alt+162)
u = û(alt+150) ù(alt+151) ú(alt+163) ü(alt+129)
n = ñ(alt+164)


Single Character to Double Character Replacement.
Some impersonation attempts to make 2 characters look like other characters. However does not always work for IGN's with full 10-character names.

m = rn
w = vv

As a general rule for naming your characters:

• Name your characters with letters that are hard to replicate using replacement characters
• Make it a point to lovingly name your characters to human recognizable names without making extra characters as a decorative
  • e.g. IlButchII is 4x more likely to be impersonated than ButchDeGaz
• If you plan to add m or w in your name, make sure to maximize the 10 characters to avoid getting impersonated by "single-double" replacement method.
• If you spot a name with an unusual trading scheme and uses a lot of letters that can easily be replaced with alternate shapes, take extra precautions during tradings.
• If a trader's name appears to be mispelled from what you remember from a known player, take extra precautions.

4) Impersonation with GM response
This Impersonation needs to be an entirely different category in itself. There are some individuals who get creative enough to discover the character that causes the DN chat to have a next line - prompting more creative options for scammers.

[Xenocho]

Just to add to this

There is a way to trade from far away, so if you are standing beside the well known person, it does not mean the deal is coming from that person. Just a heads up.

[launcelot]

Hi Xenocho,
I confirmed your story about remote trading from a scammer just now. I'll try to refresh the article. Thanks!

[launcelot]

Finally able to properly describe "remote" trading.

/trade [charactername]

Updated the article.

[launcelot]

5) Trade/Gifting
We are not totally against gifting, especially with people who you trust completely. But there are some nefarious players who play along with this gimmick until it is too late. They would tell you to trade with him/her a certain amount of gold before they gift you with any item from the Cash shop. Please take note that anyone can just sell items on TH by just buying from the Cash Shop and put it on sale in TH for a certain amount of gold instead of just gifting. Do not take the excuse that you wish to be gifted to keep a TH:1 status on your purchased items and decide to trade with a total stranger through this method.


6) Trading a non-DN item for gold
Anything that does not involve the Trading House is prone to scamming. Please ensure that you don't trade items such as non-DN (e.g. Cellphone Top-Up/Load, DOT@ items and other non-ED games).
[Screenshot coming soon!!]

[launcelot]

Social Engineering Hacking
1) The player who socializes with you and hopes to gain some information from you while outside the game

This type of scamming is executed using 4 steps:

1 - Establish the victim's trust.
"Hi, I'm a girl and I want to know about you"
"Hi, I'm lonely, can you be my friend?"
"Hi, I'm quitting DN"
"Hi, This is your Guild Master using a different account"
"Hi, This is <insert name that you are a friend of>"
"SINO DITO MALAKAS SA PVP"


2 - Open a private conversation where no one can interrupt the scammer and victim
"Let's talk in Facebook, here's my FB link"
"Let's talk in Facebook, I'm <insert feminine name>"
"Let's talk in discord, here's my discord name"
<Continues conversation in PM even when you're next to each other>

3 - Scammer will tell victim of a good deal offer
"Do you want Top up? I can give you for free since I'm quitting already"
"Do you want EYET? I can give you for free since I'm quitting"
"I can offer to pilot your account for a certain fee"
"We invite you to an exclusive PVP match with Genesis Accessories as prizes at stake"

4 - Provides you a condition that will lead you open to hacking/scamming
"Click this link to proceed"
"Send me your username and password" "Believe me it's not a hack/scam"
"Fill in the form on this link about your IGN, and supply the details including username and password"










2) Inviting you to a website to register for a game event.








Keyloggers from Unsecured PC's
The use of keyloggers to record all keystrokes is one of the oldest trick in the book. Always ensure that you have a secured PC before you log in to a Dragon Nest client.

I can't give a detailed guide to securing your PC. Remember that we have different uses for our PC's. Some people are developers and programmers themselves and leaves a lot of experimental software, applications and tools left around in their PC. Others have a dorm PC which is shared with roommates/dormmates. While others share their social media accounts.

The general consensus in keeping your PC's secured is :

1. Do not share your accounts with anyone. Additional emphasis for those who borrow / lend phones with links to social media.
2. Do not use pirated software. This includes software that has software cracks. It is often a known tactic that some software cracks have trojans hidden in their code to steal information from your pc. Buy and support legitimate software. I have seen countless occasions where people brag about their top-of-the-line PC hardware but own nothing but pirated software.
3. Do not share your PC with anyone. Do not share them with your Dad, Mom, brother, sister, sexy girlfriend, or that naked girl from next door or anyone else not on my list. If you still have to share them, ensure that you practice good PC housekeeping by performing regular PC scans and manual PC maintenance.
   1. If you need to share your PC with anyone, you need to remind them about good PC security practices. Do not trust anyone until they acknowledge that any breaches in the system, everyone is totally responsible.
4. When you make changes to your PC, like install new stuff, run an foreign tool, plug in your friend's USB drive, make sure to scan your PC. Always update your PC to the latest Windows update. It is not an excuse to skip Windows Update simply because it crashes a lot.
5. Never click links recommended to you on email that you did not trigger.
6. I normally do not recommend the use of computer shops as a means to play DN. But this is often an unavoidable scenario for some. Regularly check if the computer shop that you are playing on, practices the right kind of good PC housekeeping. Up to date PCs with the latest AntiVirus software.
7. Do not share your email with anyone in-game, as the email you use is also your username in DN. Sharing it with a complete stranger is already providing them the first layer of towards gaining access to your account.

Note that most of these so-called "hacks" are actually a means to "outsmart" you into releasing all your precious information. Information that can lead to strangers gaining access to your account. There are no hollywood-style hacking involved here.


This Article will be further updated with additional content if any form of scamming has not fallen in any of the categories that has been provided.
Other Side notes, as this article was written on a rush, I failed to erase a few individuals who helped me capture some photos. If you think that I should remove them for privacy issues, please let me know.

[launcelot]

Update: Service sharks
Scammers and impersonators tend to pull you into charging you for service that you were looking for. Blue bird announcements of services tend to attract scammers into their midst and hope to convince buyers of their service. Ensure that you pay to the right person who deliver such service and not on characters that don't seem to be in their full gear or questionable reputation.

Here's a snapshot of a place where a RUDN HC service is being organized. The actual organizer of the RUDN HC run is located in the back of the crowd, but take a look at who's mixing in with the group:



When somebody asks "Where to pay for the service?", the scammer aggressively approaches any gullible player and asks for trade.


He will try to convince you that you are a part of the service and he's just collecting payment, and he claims that he is a partner with the organizer nearby.

He will even try to ask if you have gold to prove. Do not fall for this trick and "show off" your gold. Any mistake in trading and your gold becomes open to trading (and eventually the scammer gets your gold).

[launcelot]

Section moved to Impersonation.

[Chelly]

Honestly anybody who falls for this deserved to be scammed like no shit bruv, your greed brought your demise.

[Chelly]

i know, im joking haha, but to be fair, this has been repeatedly reminded to players and STILL we have players being scammed by such a cheap trick.

[Wiiwoo]

Sadly, most of the people being scammed don't read forums. :/

[launcelot]

There can be two types of people.
1) Reading it before encountering the scam
2) Encountering the scam then reading it.

[BananaCredits]

How to prevent get scammed?

Step 1: Have common sense
Step 2: Be paranoid

[Chrissch]

this is actually a good advise, they should take note of this

[NearLawlet]

Anyone who fall for those tricks is either too young to play the game or too naive to have common sense, and it frightens me to think that those who possess both traits are even more numerous.

Eh, I'd say there's plenty of warnings against such conduct. Let those who got scammed learn their lesson, it should serve as a reminder to never forget to exercise some caution.

[launcelot]

This thread is meant to inform. Not to say, in front of their face, "you are an idiot". Naivity is cured by being informed. Stupidity is cured by giving the right way forward.

[NearLawlet]

Don't get me wrong, I never said your thread is far from useful. You have my respect and gratitude for sharing your information with us.

That being said, the game has given plenty of warning against phishing websites, trading cash items outside of TH, etc. Players who got duped have only themselves to blame for ignoring those warnings, and I highly doubt those kind of ignorant players would bother checking the forum for your thread since they skip on reading Privacy Policy/Abuse Policy when signing up to this game.

[Xenocho]

Probably some players are the type who will come here and search their creativity to outdo these methods too. Lol. Thus is the nature. Nevertheless, your efforts are beneficial to the community launcelot. It is unfortunate many do not browse the forums.

[Illumina007]

I laughed a fair bit at some of the methods listed here but I am painfully aware that such scams does exist. While these methods might seem obviously scammy to us, always take into account that children or kids might also be playing and to them, it is not their fault for not being experienced in such matters. Calling them stupid or naive is not going to help, always educate instead.

[NearLawlet]

Unfortunately, it is still their fault because Privacy Policy section 1. Information Practices Concerning Children has made it clear that:

"Our Services are not directed to children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, please stop using our Services"

[Illumina007]

I understand that it is technically their fault but it does not mean that we should turn a blind eye to them and not educate them on such issues. It is also partially the fault of ED for not implementing the policy strictly on the player base. What i am merely stating are facts. There ARE children in the game regardless of what the policy states and such guides will be helpful to them.

So either ED enforce their own policies on children using their services, or we try to educate them on it.

[Verbena]

Regardless of the arguments about having common sense, this is a good thread.

[launcelot]

Updated the thread on recent scamming techniques.

[SadisticEin]

They'll do anything, huh :0

[Chrissch]

they are leeching off hardworking players who lets themselves get scammed, life cycle of a newbie in DN

[SadisticEin]

Recently lots of people imitate legit svcers' IGNs. Maybe you could add this suggestion for those who plan to buy service to certain sellers and unsure if it's the legit one especially those with small L or capital i in their IGNs:

1. Save name of the seller's IGN
2. Paste it on a word program (E.g. Microsoft word, OpenOffice)
3. Enlarge and/or change the font of the IGN

Example: (I'm using my sub's IGN in this one)

[launcelot]

This scam method has been going along for months already. Who knows if we haven’t caught the longest running scammer who runs an imposter modus and tries its best to copy the gears that were crafted from stolen gold.

[BananaCredits]

Mr.Shovels If you read several thread about impersonating scammer, you will know. Their main target is those newbies which is still not familiar with the game, nor with the services. Scammer first search for an AFK geared, then find the victim. When victim found, they will ask the victim to the AFK post of the geared, and use an impersonating IGN to PM the victim. The victim will surely inspect the AFK geared and start trusting the scammer.

[Mr.Shovels]

hmm... that is a very skilled way of fooling someone ingame... amazing indeed...

i mean it is still not a good deed to do but... amazing...

[[GM] LIME]

Refrain from racism please, thank you.

[launcelot]

Updated Impersonation section on how to detect a possible scammer.

[Mr.Shovels]

you should include a method of scamming that includes the use of social media websites such as facebook, and any links that is sent to players should not be opened up even if said safe, there are malicious links that could steal their information if any saved credentials or any open social media accounts are present on the browser

[launcelot]

that's called a social engineering hack. already mentioned

[launcelot]

Mr.Shovels, I elaborated the social engineering hack. Thanks for your suggestion