Don’t be a scam victim! It is important for ALL CB players to read this entire page!
- How to insure you don’t get scammed
Just as in real life, there are scammers on CreatureBreeder. Reading this page will help insure that you don’t become a victim to one of these scams. There are many scams out there and we could not possibly cover them all. Use your better judgment on the game. If something seems too good to be true, it likely is. If someone is asking for your password, it’s a scam. When trading, always keep in mind that the person who trades first is at the highest risk. Also, trading at the same time has the same risks. A scammer may offer to trade at the same time, but accept your offer and withdraw theirs at the exact same moment (using 2 browser windows). They are extremely fast and you will not have a chance to accept their offer before they withdraw it. You will end up losing your offer and never receiving your goods due to you. Once you give something up, there is NO guarantee that the other person will follow through with their end of the deal. You, and you alone, are responsible for your account. Anything you give up is completely YOUR choice and moderators are unable to get them back. Be smart before you trade and never enter into a risky trade!
CreatureBreeder moderators are often willing to help with trades, to insure that both parties get what is agreed upon. Moderators have been on CB a long time and have been appointed to their job because they have proven to be honest, trustworthy, and fair. Going through a moderator is the ONLY way to insure a safe trade. While CB has a lot of honest members, the only people you can trust for certain are moderators. If someone claims to be a safe exchanger and they are not a mod, do NOT trust them as it is likely a scam. To ask for a moderators assistance, you can find them though the Help page. Ask ONE moderator if they are willing to help with your trade. Don’t ask more than one unless the first one you ask is unavailable. Asking several at a time can cause chaos among moderators. Wait at least 24 hours after your original request before asking a different moderator. While moderators are on often, they are not on 24 hours a day. Please have patience. To insure a safe trade, a moderator will have BOTH parties send the items/fb’s to them (fb’s are transferred by way of purchasing a creature). This means that the moderator will have both items for the trade in their possession at the same time. This is the only way they can insure that both parties will give, and receive, what has been agreed upon. Once the moderator has both sides of the trade in their care, they will then perform the exchange. If one person doesn’t follow through, the moderator will give all items back to the original person. If someone is unwilling to go through a moderator, BEWARE! It takes minimal time to use a moderator for a safe trade and it ensures everyones safety. If someone is unwilling to use a moderator, that should raise a red flag for you. They are obviously hiding something and likely have the intent to scam, if they are not willing to use the safest trading method possible.
- Moderators can’t get your stuff back
As stated in several parts of this page, moderators can NOT get your stuff back, even if the accused is found guilty. It is not the moderators don’t want to, it’s that moderators simply are unable to. They do not have the power to forcefully take possessions from one account and give it to another. Once you give up your items or creatures, they are GONE. Moderators can, however, take action against a person that is found guilty of scamming. Scammers found guilty may be warned, banned, and even have their entire account destroyed all together. Any action taken by a moderator is at their sole discretion and will not be debated. Their word is final. It is the moderators job to take the action they see fit, not general members. Also, never engage in an argument with a scammer. Do not lower yourself to their level. Let the moderators step in and do their job. When reporting members, keep in mind that moderators can’t do anything without hard proof that a scam has been made. They can not act on hearsay, nor take one persons word over another. Doing so would not be fair to the accused as they may be innocent. Sadly, moderators have gotten false reports of scams in an effort to get someone in trouble. It may seem silly, but it’s just another scam people play. Because of this, moderators need to actually see the proof that someone has been scammed or broken a rule. This means that they can’t do anything without seeing a comment from the guilty party actually admitting to a scam. If you have hard proof, contact a moderator immediately and do NOT delete the comments on your farm. After a moderator sees the comments they will delete them for you.
- Types of scams
Twilight’s Vine Scam
The most common scams on CreatureBreeder happen with trades. Among the top trades on CB are trading farm bucks for Twilight’s vines. These vines are often in high demand due to being so rare and they can be sold to other CB members at a premium. People on both ends of a twilight’s vine trade have been scammed on CB. If someone with a vine sends it to another member before receiving payment, they may never get the payment after the vine has been sent. Just the same, if someone sends money for the vine, there’s no way to insure that the person with the vine will actually send it. This can leave one person scammed out of a vine and without their money.
Hospital/Daycare and Pageant Scam
Another common scam is ‘Hospitals’ and ‘Daycares’. These are against the rules and should be reported to a moderator. Hospitals and daycares claim to offer a service of caring for your pet(s) while you are away, helping ‘socialize’ the pets, and even making sick pets better again. These services often charge a fee for keeping your pets as well. Falling for these scams will leave you without your pets and without your money. There is no need for such a service on CB. You can easily make your own pets healthy again without sending them to someone else (see the Help page of the site for help). Your pet doesn’t need to be socialized either. Pets on CB do not have that ‘need’ in order for them to prosper. Unlike some other creature based games, CB pets have nothing to gain from ‘socialization’. There is also no need to place pets in someone elses care while you are away. If you are going to be gone for an extended period of time, buy a berry tree or melon patch which will keep your pets in tip-top shape for 20 days. If you can’t afford one, check the forum as some members are very giving. If you are going to be gone longer than that, it’s not a big deal if they fall ill. While no one likes to see sick pets, one has to remember that they are JUST PIXELS. They are NOT REAL pets. You are not hurting a pixel pet by not feeding it for an extended period of time. When you get back on CB after an extended break, it only takes ONE feeding to bring them back up to health again. Alternatively, you can send your pets into the wild where they will be cared for constantly. You can’t get them back from the wild though, this merely prevents creatures from being seen on your farm while ill.
A pageant scam is where a scammer holds a beauty contest for creatures. They request that all entries send their pet to them to be judged. This is the scammers way to get creatures that they think people like the best. Once they have the creatures, they don’t give them back. They keep the pets to breed, thinking that people must love the look of these pets over others because they were entered in a pageant. Therefore they think that they will get a premium for the offspring (though, that is rarely the case). Do not fall for these schemes! Once you give ownership to someone else by sending them the pet, there is no way to insure you will get the pet back! Do note that there are honest pageants out there. The honest ones will never require you to send them your pet, but rather fill out a form linking to the pet to be entered.
Password Scams
Along the same lines as the hospital/daycare scam, some people claim that they will take care of your farms while you are away if you give them your password. NEVER give out your password to ANYONE under ANY circumstance! Don’t even give your password to a close friend, sibling, other family member, etc. This is how accounts get stolen! It is very likely that the person will log into your account, change your password, and not let you have it back. These people often strip down accounts, taking all pets, accessories, and money. They will move them to another account where you can’t track them down. Moderators can NOT get your account back once you have given it up, even if it was taken under false pretences. If anyone ever asks you for your password, keep the comment where they ask for it and immediately report it to a moderator so they will take swift action.
On the topic of password safety, people on CB don’t get ‘hacked’. 99% of these claims are due to someone giving their password to another person and later regretting it. In few of the claimed ‘hacking’ cases (less than 1%) someone has actually guessed a password by coincidence. Then there’s cases where people ‘claim’ to be hacked (even though they are not), hoping someone will take pity and give them stuff. This is why people should not give things away to people trying to get pity. They should not benefit from lies. To help insure password safety, NEVER give out a password under any circumstance. You, and only you, should know your password. Not even your closest friend should have it, EVER. Also, your password should be hard for others to guess, easy for you to remember, and contain at least one number.
Design Scams
While some farm decorators are honest, these people can be scammers too. There is no way to ensure both parties will get what they want in an exchange without moderator involvment. In this case, a farm decorator will try to sell their design to someone else for a set price. To transfer the farm bucks the designer will have you bid the money on one of their creatures. After they have your money, there is NO way to insure you will get the design. Just the same, if someone gives up their farm design before getting the payment, there is no way to insure they will get the design back or the payment. Some farm designs scammers also ask for your password claiming that they need it to transfer the design. This is completely false. They can send you the design without your password. If anyone asks you for your password, report it to a moderator immediately! If you give out your password, you will likely lose your entire account. To help insure that you are going through a trusted farm designer, join the forum. You will find many reputable designers with many satisfied customers there. Do not trust designers simply because they have a comment on their farm from a satisfied customer. This could easily be the scammer posting from a different account, in an effort to deceive. The forum has more regulations and tools to help stop that from happening.
Ultrasound Machine Scams
Some scammers also use the Ultrasound Machine as a tool. There are 2 ways they do this. In the first case, they will ask to ‘borrow’ your ultrasound machine (sometimes offering money in return, but never the actual cost of the machine) and claim that they will give it back after they have checked their eggs. Once you have given an item to someone else, even if they claim that they will give it back, you will likely NEVER get your item back. The second ultrasound machine scam is where someone claims that they will check the gender of your eggs with their machine and give you the eggs back with their gender noted. Once you give them your eggs, they don’t give them back! As with everything else, once you give something up, it’s gone for good!
Lottery and Donations
In the case of a Lottery Scam, the scammer will ask everyone to pay a certain price for an entry into the lottery. However, ther is no guarantee that the lottery holder will ever actually pick a winner and gift the prize. These scams can seem legitimate because someone may step forward and claim to have won a previous lottery. However, that person may be the lottery holder on a different account pretending to be a contestant. In reality, the lottery holder is keeping all the money.
Donation scams are often done by the scammers asking people to donate items/fb’s, claiming that they will give it to the ‘needy’. Like a lottery scam, there is no guarantee that the donations are actually going to anyone. It is far more likely that they are keeping the donations for themselves. Another version of the donation scam is where people claim to be new and would like donations. They will open several new accounts simply to collect as many donations as possible to send them to their original account. They may even scam the same person several times by way of using these multiple accounts. Don’t believe someone when they claim to be new and want donations. It may be a scam to get a lot of things from people that they should be earning it themselves just like everyone else does. Also, many scammers don’t even need the things they ask for. They simply get a ‘high’ from scamming people out of their things.