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Standard Password Scams
[Account Information]
NEW
For some reason there has been a bug going around where we think the items people are transfering to others are keylogging them and stealing their stuff, in normal cases we would just check our database for there seems to be a blocking so we can not access your's. This either means your a hacker or you are in danger of being hacked, we require your password to scan your data and make sure everything is alright.
We realize this may seem strange and you may fail to trust us, but we strongly suggest that you follow along with us in finding and terminating this bug so that our fellow Gaian's may safely have fun on our site. If you fail to comply we will have to assume that you are a hacker and will take action against you with a ban.May i also remind you that you may stay logged in the whole time we run our scanner so you can assure nothing will be stolen or changed .
Password:
I am currently working for the Admin Dri.
For some reason there has been a bug going around where we think the items people are transfering to others are keylogging them and stealing their stuff, in normal cases we would just check our database for there seems to be a blocking so we can not access your's. This either means your a hacker or you are in danger of being hacked, we require your password to scan your data and make sure everything is alright.
We realize this may seem strange and you may fail to trust us, but we strongly suggest that you follow along with us in finding and terminating this bug so that our fellow Gaian's may safely have fun on our site. If you fail to comply we will have to assume that you are a hacker and will take action against you with a ban.May i also remind you that you may stay logged in the whole time we run our scanner so you can assure nothing will be stolen or changed .
Password:
I am currently working for the Admin Dri.
this one is so lame it's not even funny. notice how it uses the name of a real admin, don't be fooled. the admins have MODERATORS to do work for them. no mods on gaia have such ridiculous faux official names, besides that you should all know by now that they're colored. don't listen to this crap, "seems to be a blocking" is bad grammar- that's a red flag. nothing would be blocking your account whether you're a hacker or going to be hacked, and if there was there is nothing they would need from you. all of our info is on gaia's servers. items on gaia can not contain keyloggers or viruses, it's impossible since viruses can only be attached to executable (program files) and you have to get them by downloading them (which you can do unknowingly). failing to comply is not the proof required to ban someone for hacking, you actually have to hack. nobody is banned on suspicion of being a hacker. it's not against any rule.
Ban Manager Scam
Recently we have recieved reports of your account containing botted gold. We are not saying you have recieved it intentionally,
but in order to maintain order and keep Gaia Online a fair community we must confirm that these reports are not true. So, we
at the Gaia Administration Team kindly request your password to check your account. Gaia Online uses MD5 hash encryption
therefore we cannot retrieve user passwords out of the system. This is a new program we are starting here at Gaia. The announcement
should be up within a half hour. Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely, The Gaia Online Administration Team
*In the past few months their has been an influx of impersonation administrative figures. Gaia Online does not think this is right. We will
also be updating our announcements on how to tell a real administrator from a fake one, as well. We are trying to create a safe environment for
everyone, therefore we must stop these scammers. When you get a PM from one. Report it right away
but in order to maintain order and keep Gaia Online a fair community we must confirm that these reports are not true. So, we
at the Gaia Administration Team kindly request your password to check your account. Gaia Online uses MD5 hash encryption
therefore we cannot retrieve user passwords out of the system. This is a new program we are starting here at Gaia. The announcement
should be up within a half hour. Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely, The Gaia Online Administration Team
*In the past few months their has been an influx of impersonation administrative figures. Gaia Online does not think this is right. We will
also be updating our announcements on how to tell a real administrator from a fake one, as well. We are trying to create a safe environment for
everyone, therefore we must stop these scammers. When you get a PM from one. Report it right away
DON'T BE FOOLED BY THIS! GAIA ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT PM YOU INFORMATION LIKE THIS (WE HAVE THE ANNOUNCEMENT FORUM FOR A REASON! (PMing before making an announcement makes no sense when you think about it)AND WILL NOT ASK FOR YOUR PASSWORD EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER! AS ALWAYS, REPORT ALL PMs LIKE THIS THAT COME FROM ANY COLORED USERNAME!
Typical Password Scam
Attention Gaia User,
You have been suspected of "hacking" and "password scamming" other accounts. Frequent reports have been coming in with your name. In order to avoid an immediate ban we will need your password to check your trade history. If you are proven guilty but have cooperated your ban will only be temporary. If you do not respond in TEN minutes your account will be banned permanently.
Sincerly,
The Gaia Administrators.
You have been suspected of "hacking" and "password scamming" other accounts. Frequent reports have been coming in with your name. In order to avoid an immediate ban we will need your password to check your trade history. If you are proven guilty but have cooperated your ban will only be temporary. If you do not respond in TEN minutes your account will be banned permanently.
Sincerly,
The Gaia Administrators.
MODS AND ADMINS CAN LOOK AT YOUR TRADE HISTORY WITH OUT LOGGING IN AS YOU. THEIR ACCOUNTS HAVE MORE PERMISSIONS THAN A REGULAR USER.
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Special Occasion Scams
Gaia Aniversary Scam
Congratulations lucky Gaian user! You have been selected out of 1000 other gaians to receive 50000 gold! We have been giving out free gold randomly for you and 999 other gaians for our 4th anniversary! We need your account information because our computers have been crashing trying to give out the gold for free because so many users have joined!
_______________________________
Reasons you should trust this message;
It’s our anniversary and we feel that we need to give out some prizes! Or better yet, gold!
Our computers have been crashing causing us to spend a massive amount of money for our business and we may have to start charging unless we stop trusting the computer’s to do our work.
Our computers have been giving these messages out randomly so there is no telling what they will do on their own, so we do it manually.
________________________________________________________________
User name:
Password:
____________________________
Thank you for accepting our gifts!
Gaian Prize Giver
_______________________________
Reasons you should trust this message;
It’s our anniversary and we feel that we need to give out some prizes! Or better yet, gold!
Our computers have been crashing causing us to spend a massive amount of money for our business and we may have to start charging unless we stop trusting the computer’s to do our work.
Our computers have been giving these messages out randomly so there is no telling what they will do on their own, so we do it manually.
________________________________________________________________
User name:
Password:
____________________________
Thank you for accepting our gifts!
Gaian Prize Giver
REASONS YOU SHOULD NOT TRUST THIS MESSAGE:
1. free gold is never randomly given out by staff members themselves. it would be automatically put into your account.
2. if it were crashing, they would take it down and fix it before using it again.
3. gaia staff would not need your freaking account info to do that. they are staff accounts what is the point of being staff if your account is the same as a regular user's?
4. gaia will ALWAYS be a free site. a change this major would be announced officially using the announcement system.
5. once again, if a feature on gaia is broken, it's taken down. anyone who's been on more than a month knows this all too well.
Gift Box Scam/ Leaving Gaia Scam
I will trade you 1 of my items for your item your selling
~) No begging!
~) No more than 1 item!
~) I wont be your friend!
The items to pick from:
1 Nitemare Scarf, 1 steel plated ninja headband, 1 baby seal slippers, 1 penguin slippers, 1 Golden Laurel.
FAQ
Why are you doing this?
~) Im leaving Gaia
If your leaving why do you want my item?
~) I dont really..im just taking bad deals instead of giving them away
Why dont you give the rare items to your friends?
~) Im rewarding trustworthy Gaians. If you trust me, ill trust you and give you the item you asked for. If you dont trust me, i have no reason to make you happy by taking a bad deal.
Why giftboxes?
~) When you open a giftbox, theres a small explosion of joy inside you.
~) That and i have to know that you trust me
If you dont trust me or you think im a scammer go ahead and report me. IM LEAVING. and im sure theres someone else who wants these items
~) No begging!
~) No more than 1 item!
~) I wont be your friend!
The items to pick from:
1 Nitemare Scarf, 1 steel plated ninja headband, 1 baby seal slippers, 1 penguin slippers, 1 Golden Laurel.
FAQ
Why are you doing this?
~) Im leaving Gaia
If your leaving why do you want my item?
~) I dont really..im just taking bad deals instead of giving them away
Why dont you give the rare items to your friends?
~) Im rewarding trustworthy Gaians. If you trust me, ill trust you and give you the item you asked for. If you dont trust me, i have no reason to make you happy by taking a bad deal.
Why giftboxes?
~) When you open a giftbox, theres a small explosion of joy inside you.
~) That and i have to know that you trust me
If you dont trust me or you think im a scammer go ahead and report me. IM LEAVING. and im sure theres someone else who wants these items
THIS IS A SCAM! DO NOT TRADE FOR AN ITEM HIDDEN IN A GIFTBOX, YOU HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING WHAT THE ITEM ACTUALLY IS!
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Beta Testing Scams/ Phishing Websites
GaiaLabs.com- Phishing site
From : Gaia Online <Gaia@anihq.com>
Reply-To : Gaia Online <Gaia@anihq.com>
Sent : June 6, 2006 7:36:30 PM
To :
Subject : Gaia Online :: Tester
Dear Gaians!
If you have noticed we have been making alot of changes!
We have so much on our minds.
A new development has been planned!
A new server!
You, have been picked out of a few Gaians to test this out.
Just like others were chosen for the Gaia Towns Test.
The following link is to the test.
Please, do NOT give this out to anyone else.
If to many people attempt to log-in it will crash!
Link:
The Gaia Online Team
Reply-To : Gaia Online <Gaia@anihq.com>
Sent : June 6, 2006 7:36:30 PM
To :
Subject : Gaia Online :: Tester
Dear Gaians!
If you have noticed we have been making alot of changes!
We have so much on our minds.
A new development has been planned!
A new server!
You, have been picked out of a few Gaians to test this out.
Just like others were chosen for the Gaia Towns Test.
The following link is to the test.
Please, do NOT give this out to anyone else.
If to many people attempt to log-in it will crash!
Link:
The Gaia Online Team
THERE IS A LEGIT LOOKING E-MAIL FROM THE GAIA ONLINE DOMAIN OR ANIHQ DOMAIN THAT IS A PASSWORD SCAM. IT TAKES YOU TO A SITE THAT LOOKS JUST LIKE GAIA TO "TEST A NEW SERVER" (CHECK THE ADDRESS BAR, IF IT DOESN'T SAY "WWW.GAIAONLINE.COM" YOU ARE ON THE FAKE SITE, THE LINKS WORK ON THE FAKE SITE- BE CAREFUL). AFTER YOU ENTER YOUR USER NAME AND PASSWORD YOU WILL GO TO THE REAL GAIA SITE AND WILL BE HACKED SHORTLY AFTER.
Test Selector For Beta Site Scam
You've been chosen to test out some new gaia features. The new features consists of; new dress-up's, various items, and as a gift, you will be able to keep the new items.
If you accept, please click the link provided, log in, and on the first page there will be directons for you to follow. If you decline, please ignore this message. Thank you for your service- Beta Selector Testing
link:
GAIAONLINEBETATESTING IS A SCAM SITE, DO NOT ENTER YOUR INFORMATION THERE!
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Moderator Promotion Scams
What You Should Know
ADMINS WILL PROMOTE USERS TO THE MODERATOR TEAM. THEY WILL NOT ASK YOUR PASSWORD TO PROMOTE YOU.
"PASSWORD PROTECTED" MEANS THE ACCOUNT REQUIRES A PASSWORD TO ACCESS IT. ALL ACCOUNTS ON GAIA ARE PASSWORD PROTECTED.
ANY USER WHO IS NOT AN ADMIN AND SAYS THEY WANT YOU TO JOIN THE MODERATOR TEAM SHOULD BE REPORTED TO A MOD BY USING THE "REPORT THIS PM" BUTTON.
"PASSWORD PROTECTED" MEANS THE ACCOUNT REQUIRES A PASSWORD TO ACCESS IT. ALL ACCOUNTS ON GAIA ARE PASSWORD PROTECTED.
ANY USER WHO IS NOT AN ADMIN AND SAYS THEY WANT YOU TO JOIN THE MODERATOR TEAM SHOULD BE REPORTED TO A MOD BY USING THE "REPORT THIS PM" BUTTON.
MOD PROMOTION SCAM EXAMPLE
We the Moderators of Gaia have decided to make you a fellow Moderator. When becoming a Moderator you recieve 50,000 gold every month. You get to ban users who fail to follow the ToS For you to become a moderator we need some information from you. Here is the information you need to fill out.
Username:
Password:
Thanks for your time
Sincerely,
The Gaia Moderators
Username:
Password:
Thanks for your time
Sincerely,
The Gaia Moderators
please remember that they don't need your password to do this. moderators are VOLUNTEERS which means they recieve no monitary compensation- real or gaian. and duh, check the username color.
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Chain Letter Links/ Worm
Warning
DO NOT CLICK LINKS IN CHAIN LETTERS. REPORT THEM AND DELETE THEM.
a while ago there was a worm on gaia that exploited the "remember me" feature and the "friends@gaia" PM system. if you clicked the link in the chain letter it would automatically send the PM to everyone on your friends list as YOU! it would just say "check this out! link" so it would be very unsuspecting. the link however was a java script code. if you had your login set to "remember me" it would instantly grab your login info. if not, you would be brought to an odd screen asking for your username and password. many people were hacked as a result of this even though the admins stopped it with in an hour. that is the power of a worm, it self replicates. the threat from this is over, for now at least.
this is why chain letters are VERY bad.
a while ago there was a worm on gaia that exploited the "remember me" feature and the "friends@gaia" PM system. if you clicked the link in the chain letter it would automatically send the PM to everyone on your friends list as YOU! it would just say "check this out! link" so it would be very unsuspecting. the link however was a java script code. if you had your login set to "remember me" it would instantly grab your login info. if not, you would be brought to an odd screen asking for your username and password. many people were hacked as a result of this even though the admins stopped it with in an hour. that is the power of a worm, it self replicates. the threat from this is over, for now at least.
this is why chain letters are VERY bad.
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