Beware of "Quitting FFXIV Giveaway" messages

[MontecristoSandwich]

Literally everyone has done at least a few stupid things in their life. Even if you'd never fall for a scam, you've probably done some other things in your lifetime that others would shake their head at. Let's not be too judgmental...

I mean, yeah, I fell for a Runescape item scam when I was 11, but even that was significantly less obvious than this, and I was a child. Online scams have been a thing for decades at this point; the only way this FFXIV giveaway scam could be more blatant is if it literally had "this is a scam" in the whisper. Someone falling for something this obvious is concerning, and certainly doesn't need an entire callout thread. This isn't 1995, everyone should know about these kinds of things already.

[Evergrey]

I think it would be good for everyone to get suspicious if you get a whisper from a random about any form of giveaway.
Like, why would any random person send a private message about a giveaway when a giveaway require a lot of people.
No one have the time to send private messages to a lot of people for that reason.

Oh, and don't click links that randoms send you either.

[Petite]

When something seems too good to be true, take it as a guarantee that it's a scam.

[Vimanis]

Yep I'm the dumbest 0 common sense person here confirmed.

Scammers are always finding ways, I just thought I might highlight one of them in case someone else has a moment of stupidity, there's a wide spectrum of people that play this game. Not everyone is on point all the time, people make (stupid) mistakes. I'm certainly not calling anyone out as the person's character that sent the message was probably a victim too.

Thanks for all those who did show genuine concern.

[AngelCheese77]

How people actually fall for this kind of stuff is absolutely beyond me. Like, someone random you've never met just whispered you a link for a free raffle of a "FFXIV Quitting giveaway" that requires a sign-in... and you're not even a little suspicious? It should be a natural, common-sense reaction to ignore/report for anyone even a little familiar with the internet as a whole. This is just the old school "Congratulations, you've won a free iPhone!" translated into FF.

Because the names used are actual player's names whose accounts have been hacked.

I had one of these tells a few months back. I looked up the name on their world, and found it was a player that was in an FC. I was able to contact someone in that FC and let them know their fcmate's account was hacked.

There is a higher chance of a player believing and following a link given by an actual name than a gibberish string of letters.

Don't victim shame though. Scammers and hackers have been upping their game in the past couple of years.

[Maxcrafter]

How people actually fall for this kind of stuff is absolutely beyond me. Like, someone random you've never met just whispered you a link for a free raffle of a "FFXIV Quitting giveaway" that requires a sign-in... and you're not even a little suspicious? It should be a natural, common-sense reaction to ignore/report for anyone even a little familiar with the internet as a whole. This is just the old school "Congratulations, you've won a free iPhone!" translated into FF.

It's easy.. even for the hardened cynic, most of us are decent sort, willing to believe the same of our colleagues, well, before we realize the worst. All it needs is a 'feel good day' and a tiny bit of "ah heck, I'll have a look; it just has to, just has to be ok this time..." I did the same thing Vimanis did, almost to the keystroke. About 10 seconds after I failed their login, again, and again.. it suddenly struck me.. omg go home and FIX THIS FAST. Fortunately the clowns running that scam were overloaded or otherwise occupied - who knows - I was able to change everything, everywhere, before anything blew up. Nowadays I have to get a note from Mom.. yeah, ikr. Shooter

[Velvet_Lunarfang]

First of all how dumb can you be to fall for a tell talking about a raffle. Like really do people not have common sense anymore these days. If you fall for it you just a fool sorry to be blunt lesson learned

[AngelCheese77]

First of all how dumb can you be to fall for a tell talking about a raffle. Like really do people not have common sense anymore these days. If you fall for it you just a fool sorry to be blunt lesson learned

Another victim shamer. See the post I made above. Scams are evolving and we need to keep up.

[LianaThorne]

Wow, someone who fell for it but actually realized what was going on and did a smart thing in response. It's like seeing a unicorn when it comes to these stories.

[MontecristoSandwich]

Scams are evolving and we need to keep up.

This scam has not evolved even a little bit in decades. The only thing that's "changed" is the medium from email to discord messages and in-game chats. Sending random people false links promising rewards if they just give login info is one of the oldest and most well-known scams in the book, which is why it's so baffling that people still fall for this. It'd be one thing if this was some super complex scam that nobody's heard of and was genuinely worthy of a PSA, but it's not; it's an incredibly simple, incredibly common-sense-avoidable scam.