15.4.2 Scams, impersonating Immortals, and con jobs

Somebody wants to steal your adventurer. Failing in that, he wants to scam you
to take your money, or credits. He'll pretend to be an immortal, guide, or
admin of Achaea, or he'll try to trick you other ways. Read below for
information on keeping your adventurer safe and on avoiding scams.


Things you can do to keep your adventurer safe
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- No Admin or immortal of Achaea will ever ask you for your password.
  We don't need it. We don't want it. It wouldn't do us any good anyway.

- Never tell your password to anyone. Ever. Even if we ask you to.
  Which we won't!

- Make sure whoever you talk to is legitimate, using HELP <name>,
  HELP GODS, HELP ADMINS, HELP GUIDES, or even HONOURS <name>.

- Many immortals have help scrolls. Try HELP SARAPIS, for example,
  or HELP <name> for others.

- Try HELP GODS. The people on that list are proper immortals of Achaea.

- Proper admins are Lathis, Lycon, Meletus, and Anytus. HELP ADMINS.

- Any other immortal will be obvious in HONOURS <name>.


Be careful! If someone claims to be a god, immortal, admin, guide, or staff of
Achaea, check it out first. One impersonator created a new adventurer named
Serapis to try to fool other players into giving away money or credits or
passwords.  Another created Moya. The true immortal names would be Sarapis
or Maya. Watch out! This stuff happens all the time.

Don't give us your password. We don't need it. We won't ask for it.


Credits
-------
Don't hand over your credits to just anybody. Don't transfer credits to
immortals, admins, guides, or any staff of Achaea. If we need your credits,
we'll handle it in a very safe way. You won't have to transfer anything.  When
you are buying artefacts or customisations, don't transfer anything! We'll do
it.

Use the artefact shops or via direct emails to artefacts@achaea.com.


Things you can do to keep your credits, gold, and possessions safe
------------------------------------------------------------------
- Check every single detail in a credit transfer offer.
  Now check them again. Then again. Example:
  
  (Hammer, the Scammer) offers to sell you 1 credits for 350000 gold.
  Type AGREE if you wish to accept this offer.

  Once you AGREE, it is all over. We will not intervene to help you.
  Your gold is gone. Too late.

- If you are transferring your credits TO someone else, then that's
  your responsibility. Make sure the transfer command is correct!
  And check your own credits before and after the transfer. Don't
  believe someone who tells you "it didn't work!"

- Con jobs involving credits (except as above, with credit transfers)
  are illegal! File an ISSUE if you don't get what you paid for.
  * For instance, someone who illusions the message "(x) offers to
    sell you 2 credits..." - that's an illegal scam.
  * For instance, someone illusions "(blah) has transferred 20 credits
    to you." This is also an illegal scam.
  * For instance, somebody says he's a guide, and wants credits for
    something. Doesn't matter what. Don't do it.

- Make absolutely certain when you loan something out that you will
  be getting it back. Because if the person doesn't return it, it
  IS NOT THEFT. It's bad. It's not nice. It's a scam maybe. But it's
  not theft.


Illegal cons/scams
------------------
Illusioning about credits, hypnotising people to give you credits, and
anything similar, will almost certainly result in permanent loss of
your character, through shrubbing or other means. Don't do it!

Con jobs or scams with gold are equally illegal. If Herb, the harvesting fool,
offers you 1000 moss for 30,000 gold, then you hand over the gold, and Herb
laughs and won't hand over the moss, or won't hand over all of it, or gives you
something else instead, then Herb is going to be in a world of hurt. Let us
know right away so we can fix things up for you. We'll all have fun with it.

Our scam protections can only include 100% in-game deals that we can verify. 
We cannot enforce agreements between players that feature OOC goods. This
includes artwork and scripts. We cannot verify the receipt of these items and
so they do not fall under our scam protections.