Same old scam just new Bait.

Ok, for those who have been following the fake links scam they've changed it from rage about the patch to hey I'm quitting the game. Saying you can get 850mil in gil but you have to sign into the forums first to read the instructions. I went to look for another thread about this when it was still about the patch and Covid but it wasn't showing up after going back as far as page 10.

Anyway I felt that people should know what the current language of the scam is.

It's a shame that such an obvious scam is apparently so effective.

I didn't follow the link, but I'm sure there are a lot of people who might fall for that huge amount of gil. I did kind of want to reply to them and say ok bye Felicia, but knew it would be pointless.

I got it as well and reported the person, though I guess that won't stop this madness.

Thanks for posting this. I'd only seen the COVID delay one once but it's always good to get the word out when these things are floating around.

The "I'm quitting come get my gil by clicking this forum link" scam was typically what they used for twitch streams. They also combined that with stolen videos of popular FFXIV streamers that they played on an account made to look like the one it was stolen from.

I got a tell about this too this morning and instantly knew it was a scam, but what almost scared me out of my chair was that they managed to do this while I was in my house?? Like how the heck did they even find me...did they sneak in to tell me about this or did they see me hours earlier or what-how was that even possible..either way, reported them and then locked the door. Lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Batbrat

I got a tell about this too this morning and instantly knew it was a scam, but what almost scared me out of my chair was that they managed to do this while I was in my house?? Like how the heck did they even find me...did they sneak in to tell me about this or did they see me hours earlier or what-how was that even possible..either way, reported them and then locked the door. Lol.

---

They're just using player search then going down the list.

I've noticed that I tend to only ever get messaged by them if I'm close to or in one of the ARR capital cities so that I'm higher up on the list.

They really need to update the reporting system to deal with this, or at least be able to develop better anti-bot and scam software considering this been going on for months.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KageTokage

They're just using player search then going down the list.

I've noticed that I tend to only ever get messaged by them if I'm close to or in one of the ARR capital cities so that I'm higher up on the list.

---

I've always been in a housing district when I get the tells. I imagine they think players are more likely to read them and copy the link if they're not actively doing other content (and they'd probably be right).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GenericMagus

They really need to update the reporting system to deal with this, or at least be able to develop better anti-bot and scam software considering this been going on for months.

---

I would imagine that the reason the message has been getting changed if because SE is auto-blocking messages with certain text strings so the scammers have to find a new message to use. They already do that with the RMT bot spam, which is why you see such crazy ways to decode the website address in the spam.

SE has to be careful that the trigger text strings don't cause normal player communications to get blocked as well.

What would be even better is for players to use a little common sense. Random tells from strangers hyping short term opportunities at a website are going to be a scam. Stay away.

But... this 850mil gil scam is so obvious. How the hell people fall for it? I got 3 tells just today from 3 different stolen accounts.

They were using this bait before they shifted to the whole deal about the "patch controversy", so I wonder if people finally started catching on or something.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shahi

But... this 850mil gil scam is so obvious. How the hell people fall for it? I got 3 tells just today from 3 different stolen accounts.

---

Because it overwhelms them, these scams appeal to people on a more emotional level than a logical one. Like before it relies on people getting outraged, now it relies on the temptation the money has that it causes them to act irrationally.

People aren't machines and will do things that make no sense. Everyone can have lapses in judgement for any reason, regardless of intelligence.

Should probably remove that person's name from the post.

It looks they finally got banned from the .xyz domain they were using previously...though it certainly didn't stop them for long.

I was in a private house and got the gil giveaway tell like Jojoya said. I do seem to recall getting a different spam while by the Limsa Lominsa aetheryte once before.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KageTokage

Should probably remove that person's name from the post.

It looks they finally got banned from the .xyz domain they were using previously...though it certainly didn't stop them for long.

---

Why? It's a name that's part of a meme.

Here's the thing. This is consistently reported and has been going on for nearly a full year now. Unfortunate players fall for this and lose their account, gil, fcs or whatever.

Square legit doesn't care. Why would they. The message is in its 5th iteration of the phishing scam and breaks my heart everytime I see a player account spread that message.

There is info about scams but its oddly a link buried in the information about twitch scams. Who the heck would think to click on that on lodestone?

Got into a discussion with a friend one day. If someone were to take them to court I think square would lose because this is ongoing and their general warning is a link buried in a topic about something not related to in game at all.

Its a case of the game getting too big and them not caring at all about their playerbase. Heck I remember when bots used to be able to pm. They knew about it but it didn't change till yoshi p got a pm one day

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ravenblade1979

Here's the thing. This is consistently reported and has been going on for nearly a full year now. Unfortunate players fall for this and lose their account, gil, fcs or whatever.

Square legit doesn't care. Why would they. The message is in its 5th iteration of the phishing scam and breaks my heart everytime I see a player account spread that message.

There is info about scams but its oddly a link buried in the information about twitch scams. Who the heck would think to click on that on lodestone?

Got into a discussion with a friend one day. If someone were to take them to court I think square would lose because this is ongoing and their general warning is a link buried in a topic about something not related to in game at all.

Its a case of the game getting too big and them not caring at all about their playerbase. Heck I remember when bots used to be able to pm. They knew about it but it didn't change till yoshi p got a pm one day

---

Just stop right there
The account security is your own responsibility because it is impossible to stop scammers.
Please do take sometime with google and search online security, it will offers tips on how to identify scammers.

I actually stupidly looked at the link and had to reset my password plus when you look it up on the forums and all it actually sends one to your friends saying you are quitting the game also done it to a friend of mine as well, sent my name with the same dang message. Hopefully FFXIV Staff with deal with this pain in the necks. It would be nice to be able to report them as well in game the moment it happens. I am sure the DM's would contact you directly about it as one did when I was being harassed in game while hunting crafting items.

Link for the one sent to my friend: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...44/unknown.png

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ravenblade1979

Here's the thing. This is consistently reported and has been going on for nearly a full year now. Unfortunate players fall for this and lose their account, gil, fcs or whatever.

Square legit doesn't care. Why would they. The message is in its 5th iteration of the phishing scam and breaks my heart everytime I see a player account spread that message.

There is info about scams but its oddly a link buried in the information about twitch scams. Who the heck would think to click on that on lodestone?

Got into a discussion with a friend one day. If someone were to take them to court I think square would lose because this is ongoing and their general warning is a link buried in a topic about something not related to in game at all.

Its a case of the game getting too big and them not caring at all about their playerbase. Heck I remember when bots used to be able to pm. They knew about it but it didn't change till yoshi p got a pm one day

---

please spend a single day watching a corporate IT person sending out their "are our employees able to not fall for a blatant phishing email" before you say that it's possible to keep people from clicking on blatant phishing links. My friend gets 10% login attempts and 15% clicks every time she sends them, and these are to people who have as part of their employment "securing your account" training. Security is always on their back foot against scammers, it's no vast "oh, Square doesn't care" conspiracy, they're just fighting an uphill battle.

A little bit of a necro, but I guess they felt like the I'm quitting bait wasn't working so they're back to the SE don't release this content at such a sensitive time bait. With and I Quote " Square Enix Should not Remove This Content At Such A Sensitive Time, Please Vote Against it On the FFXIV Forum Post Before they Ruin the Game." So I guess we know which threads they're latching on to.?

Holy crap. There are two groups having similar scams. I just got on that's for Discord. It says " You're invited to our clan's final giveaway of 850m gil starting in 45mins! Visit our discord for the location of the giveaway." They then give a discord link. Be safe in game folks.

I'm sorry but it is obvious it is a scam if you've spent even one day on the internet in the past 10 years. In the first place, the link is obviously fake because it doesn't end in .com.. but even if it did, how dumb do you have to be to fall for the oldest scam on the internet? If you are falling for that scam then, I'm sorry to say, you deserve what you get.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Veliaire

I'm sorry but it is obvious it is a scam if you've spent even one day on the internet in the past 10 years. In the first place, the link is obviously fake because it doesn't end in .com.. but even if it did, how dumb do you have to be to fall for the oldest scam on the internet? If you are falling for that scam then, I'm sorry to say, you deserve what you get.

---

I'm not. Also what might be obvious to some might not be to others. No one deserves to have their account hacked just because they didn't pay attention to the tell they received from someone. There's also a lot of new people playing the game. It's different when they do their messages via say and shout as many can and will ignore not see such things. It's totally different for when many get one via pm. Also since a lot of FCs and or clubs love to hold end of the year parties and coordinate via discord and such the 2nd one might catch more. That and telling someone they could win almost max gil a character can hold at one time might be too tempting for some.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Veliaire

I'm sorry but it is obvious it is a scam if you've spent even one day on the internet in the past 10 years. In the first place, the link is obviously fake because it doesn't end in .com.. but even if it did, how dumb do you have to be to fall for the oldest scam on the internet? If you are falling for that scam then, I'm sorry to say, you deserve what you get.

---

People can be surprisingly naïve, especially children but even adults. There's no instruction in schools about online scams even with the increasing popularity of online instruction.

Put a get rich quick scheme in front of someone's eyes and their greed for easy money kicks in.

Put an outraged message about a terrible thing someone is doing, and people who thrive on drama and having something to get offended about will fall for it.

Do people deserve what they get? Not really. Some account compromises aren't even the owner's fault but rather the fault of other family members who are security lax and let keyloggers onto a shared system.

But people need to accept it is their responsibility to make sure it never happens again instead of trying to push the blame on someone else, like that one post a little ways back.

This isn't SE's fault. They do care or they wouldn't bother restoring player accounts once they're contacted about the account compromise.

Would anybody be interested in learning how I've been messing with the phishing scammers? Something immediately more effective than telling GMs about it and grinds their operation to a halt?

Essentially, I run some Python code on Google Colab that spams their website with tons of fake usernames and passwords. I figure it's working, because as soon as they realize that I'm doing it, they immediately go through the trouble of trying to change the link to the phishing scam. They also try REALLY hard to block me, but since I'm using Google Colab, the code is really running on a Google cloud server, which just means I refresh and do it again.

I have a seperate script that scans their website, searching for a currently operating webpage they're running the scam on, so I don't even have to wait for them to send it to me in-game, although it's faster if they do, or if a friend forwards me the URL they're currently using.

If anybody is familiar with programming, or Python in general, it's a pretty easy project to do, and I'm considering distributing my code so people can do it themselves.

I think the least SE could do is bring more attention to the scams by having it mentioned in the initial list of announcements when you first log in to the game.

Granted, it's not going to help people who don't read, but that's a universal problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jojoya

People can be surprisingly naïve, especially children but even adults. There's no instruction in schools about online scams even with the increasing popularity of online instruction.

Put a get rich quick scheme in front of someone's eyes and their greed for easy money kicks in.

Put an outraged message about a terrible thing someone is doing, and people who thrive on drama and having something to get offended about will fall for it.

Do people deserve what they get? Not really. Some account compromises aren't even the owner's fault but rather the fault of other family members who are security lax and let keyloggers onto a shared system.

---

Maybe "they deserve what they get" is a bit too harsh... but I don't feel the slightest bit bad for people dumb enough to fall for the oldest trick in the book. There are real scams out there, and then there are lazily put together, transparent scams like this, fueled by people's own greed. If you want to take the lazy and greedy way to success then I'm sorry, you get what you get.

It's the people who fall victim to the other scam that I feel bad for. The one where the scammer says Square Enix is ruining the game with some new policy change, and they invite you to a forum to let you voice your opinion on it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KageTokage

I think the least SE could do is bring more attention to the scams by having it mentioned in the initial list of announcements when you first log in to the game.

Granted, it's not going to help people who don't read, but that's a universal problem.

---

Square Enix? Actually lift a finger against scammers and bots? Rofl, I needed that laugh.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Veliaire

how dumb do you have to be to fall for the oldest scam on the internet?

---

41% of Americans believe that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time.
40% of Americans believe the earth is only 6000 to 10,000 years old

Believe me, there are a substantial number of people on this planet under 100IQ.

"I'll give you 80M gil...*but first, you have to...*"

Don't people ever learn...?