The Argent Dawn does not love you
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 8th 2007 at 6:31PM
Specifically, the Argent Dawn does not love you enough to send you a gift-wrapped item via in-game mail. This is an old scam, where an enterprising scumbag will roll a character named "Argentdwn" or something, gift-wrap any old arbitrary item (water, say), and send it via Cash on Delivery to anyone whose name they can get their hands on. Apparently this con has come back in a big way right now (though I haven't seen it on Shadow Council-A), so be on the look-out for it. You should probably not accept any CoD wrapped items, since you never know what's in them; and the Argent Dawn is certainly not going to be sending you any. Just delete the mails, but be sure to report the offending character's name via GM ticket (I write them up for verbal harassment); this'll get these things shut down faster.Fortunately, it looks like we won't have to watch out for this too much longer. Tseric says:
- Coming soon in a patch near you, we will be disabling the ability to send wrapped packages by C.O.D., which should stem this particular trend we've been seeing lately.
Have you had any experiences with this or other scams? What should we be on guard for?
Filed under: Tips, Cheats, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
FadedReality Feb 8th 2007 6:38PM
A few guildies nearly fell for this. The scam that got a lot of people was a guild of scammers running around org and somehow swapping out a Righteous Orb with a pearl of some sort and basically getting people to pay them 80g for a pearl.
isobelle Feb 8th 2007 6:39PM
water can't be wrapped.
Jelement Feb 8th 2007 6:55PM
Me and several of my guildies had this happen on Horde side Azjol-Nerub last week.
The letter was from a random level 1 that didn't even have an Agrnet Dawn-ish name (Qetasd), and the text of the letter said something about being Nicholas of the Argent Dawn and that we had done so much work helping them fight the Scourge they wanted to give us a gift, we would have to pay for this but it would be worth it, and then report to Light's Hope chapel for more information, etc. The funny part was trying to pass it off as official while still using "U" instead of "you" throughout the letter. Package was a gift wrapped bag with a 100g COD. One of my guildies actually didn't have a COD on his because they missed it or something, he opened it up and it was a blacksmith hammer.
I imagine some people fall for these, but it really shows how out of touch with the game environment a lot of the scammers are, I mean, Argent Dawn...seriously.
You'd think they'd at least make it from the Consortium with some letter about how it is our monthly shipment of jewels or something.
Roguerhunter Feb 8th 2007 7:10PM
Hey is that really a verbal harassment if its sent one. I mean I am in law enforcement and by law for example if you give a cashier $10 for a soda and candy bar what ever you may purchase and they give you 20$ worth of change no knowing he over paid ya on the recieving end the cashier ends up having to pay for his mistake. I know theres a huge difference in game and real life but it is verbal harassment if its done to the same person repeatedly.
Jelement Feb 8th 2007 7:25PM
I don't think it's a matter of it being "verbal harassment" so much as the GM ticketing system doesn't have a section for to report scammers, exploiters, etc. This type of behavior should definitely be report though, and Blizz has asked the we as a player base police this kind of activity by giving us the means to report players who attempt to take advantage of others. They just need another category on the GM ticket list to clarify what this stuff should be reported as.
They all end up in the same place anyways it seems like, so it doesn't really matter what category its gets reported under.
StupidPeople Feb 8th 2007 7:28PM
It's not the scammer's fault that people are so stupid to fall for this. If you get suckered, it's your own damn fault!
For those of you, who did get suckered, I have the following for you...
/target [stupid person]
/point
/tell HA HA, YOU'RE TOO STUPID TO LIVE! WELCOME TO MY IGNORE LIST
/ignore
Prauche Feb 8th 2007 7:52PM
Who really cares HOW you report it (verbal harassment, etc) to a GM?!?! Just report it!!
Caraclas Feb 8th 2007 9:02PM
I had a character named vus send me a gift wrapped package for 1008g. I reported him as soon as I got it.
pasta Feb 8th 2007 9:28PM
The first thing I thought of when I read the title was the Not Addicted thread about Franky when he was bored with reputation grinding.
http://www.notaddicted.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310
G Feb 8th 2007 9:35PM
Prauche, I believe Eliah commented on the report category because there is (still) no proper "spam" or "phishing" category on the list. Try and relax. Save the exclamation marks of the world.
Ryan Feb 8th 2007 10:44PM
This happened to me. A blue wrapped package in mail for 88g. LOL 88g?? I was actaully tempted. Then my druid instincts kicked in. You dont use blue wrapping paper in winter. So i didn't except it.
:D
Ugkul Feb 9th 2007 1:43AM
Well people are still falling for the Nigerian e-mail scam. The other scam is of course high buyout prices at the AH, but Blizz has done a good job of fixing that by making them list last.
Mae Feb 9th 2007 2:27PM
I just had this scam tried on me. I copied the letter, deleted the email and reported the offender. I play on the Suramar Realm.
Becca Feb 9th 2007 8:13AM
We had this happen a few weeks ago on the Alliance side of Staghelm, where some guy with a mishmash name would send you some worthless item (I heard it was Linen Cloth or something similar) with a 60 gold COD.
I think a lot of people fell for it because it was shortly after BC came out, and the message was something like "Thanks for visiting Honor Hold, ! Here's a little present for venturing out into the Outlands and helping our cause!"
Kabira-Fenris Feb 9th 2007 5:52PM
I got one of these scamgfits a few weeks ago. I don't remember the name, but the letter was bovious BS and full of spelling and grammar errors, not that Blizz's quest text has perfect spelling but their letters usually do. Plus... whatever the guy wrote got cut off halfway down the mail, and we all know that Blizz gets to write long-winded mails if they want to, they don't put those restrictions on themselves. Which makes me wonder why they put them on us.
Zequel Feb 9th 2007 10:37AM
Haha. I say allow it, if bad/ignorant/n00b players accept it and quit the game as result, more power to all of us. If you have enough gold to pay the COD, you should know not to throw it away for an unknown item.