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Bai: Perfect World Police Spell Out Online Game Fraud
When I logged in to ZX Online earlier this week, I found a notice from the Perfect World (Nasdaq:PWRD) police detailing the ways other gamers are trying to steal my stuff.
The first of which was a rudimentary phishing scam meant to lure people in to giving out their passwords, bank accounts or even monetary deposits in order to “collect a prize.”
Others were craftier and involved a pair of scammers at an online bazaar, the gamers you know and love, and tales of lucrative bugs.
In the bazaar scenario, one half of a duo offers a virtual item at a low selling price, while, nearby, the other half offers an inflated buyer's bid. The purpose: to induce gamers to see the buy-low-sell-high opportunity and purchase the item. Then, once the deal is made, the prospective buyer will conveniently disappear.
When it comes to your friends, it’s just a matter of wishing them onto your screen. Scammers sometimes register a screen name very close to that of one of your friends. Thus, when “Tonn” comes around to borrow some virtual dollars and cents, you will gladly hand it over thinking: “Oh, Tom, down on his luck again.”
Bugs can be rampant in online games and some con artists take advantage of that reality by distributing information about bugs that will post additional credit to gamer accounts. In order to get said credit, all you have to do is enter a special code when topping off your account. That code just happens to be the scammer's account.
Though I saw it spelled out in most detail on the ZX Online game site, these scams are rampant in China’s online game industry. Perhaps even so much so that game companies could match Taobao in their ability to “create jobs” in China.
Note: This blog was created by games analyst Bai Zhongjiang, with wording by Megan Ko.
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