In STALCRAFT: X even the most experienced loners sometimes face the need to interact with other players, especially when the chat flows with luring trade offers. Our EXBO Security Department has collected the most common ways of in-game deceit so that you can familiarize yourself with them and secure your virtual property.
We also recommend reading the article on accounts and their security.
Table of Contents
Exchange window manipulation
Quite often you may encounter players who will offer to exchange goods with you for a good price and then add on some extra stuff during the trade, while also removing one last zero from the amount they are supposed to pay.
The same goes for any items (especially artifacts), not only funds.
Imagine yourself buying a rare Shard. A player responds with an offer to sell, after which they insta-replace a Shard of rare quality with an ordinary one. Or they may attempt to sell those Perun boxes in quantities exceeding 100, replacing one of the stacks”.
Do not let the scammer tempt you to rush and accept the offer, as changing even a slight detail of the trade will trace back to the “Offer” phase. Always verify the items and the amount of money in the trade window, and count up the right amount, even if it requires some time.
Scammers often pretend that the exchange window freezes at the last seconds and cancel the transaction several times. This can happen even to an honest player, but you should still be extremely careful at this point. Especially if later on, the player tries to force an exchange via courier or asks you to give the item to them, promising to pay later.
Do not agree to conduct an exchange through the mail if the exchange does not “work”. Do not rush to agree to the exchange until you are sure that everything is working correctly, and you are definitely not being scammed.
If you have problems with the exchange window or other elements of the game, contact our Support team.
Lotteries and giveaways
Players sometimes can present themselves as famous YouTubers or Twitch streamers, offering to participate in an auction lot of a specific valuable item, claiming that he is a public person. Though, usually the scammer tries to steal money out of your pocket pursuing you in transferring funds through the mail, claiming that your bet will be the first and most likely winning one.
Messages containing something along the lines of “Give me 1 mil, I'll give you 2 mil back!” also fall under this category.
The game's auction guarantees maximum security in obtaining the right item above anything else.
Third-party artifact rerolls
It is not always possible for players to obtain a changing serum or reset essence, and as a result, some may resort to this method of artifact rollover.
Typically, the deceiver says that he has made rerolls more than once and can be trustworthy, but all of a sudden he does not have money for a deposit for the artifact. Some players may request that you change their artifact's abilities, and will ask for a deposit equal to the value of the item at auction.
It is possible that the player will be offered a similar item at an inflated price by another character, and an inexperienced player may purchase it without realizing it is a scam.
Selling promo codes
Promo codes are often publicly available and timed to various events, or prepared as compensation for technical difficulties.
Make sure not to fall under a common scammer trying to trade a promocode for in-game currency.
More “profitable” exchanges
More experienced scammers use the best of their deductive abilities to spam messages in the chat, containing “I will exchange my Memento Mori charm for legendary Wolf Tears!”, or similar. An inexperienced player will proceed to the auction, check the price, and see suspiciously favourable lots with less price than the Charm itself.
Once the victim purchases the lot, they will be ignored in further discussions with the scammer. Whereas the scammer, rubbing his hands together, has already entered the alt character to take the money earned on you.
Deal guarantor
Whether trading through a courier or an exchange window, you may be asked to conduct the transaction through a so-called “guarantor”. This is a third party in the transaction that supposedly guarantees security for both buyer and seller. In reality, this is an illusion of security that only works for the fraudster. Especially if a Telegram bot is offered as a guarantor, this is a red flag signalling an attempt to scam.
Purchasing items via courier
In search of a good deal, you may finally come across an offer you like the most. The trader, experiencing some technical problems, claiming they are either in another location, or the money is on another character, which is also in another location. As a result, you receive an offer to make a sale or purchase by mail.
Do not get caught off guard now! As even though you will receive an email containing “Attachment: 9999”, the attachment itself will be written as a separate text message. You will not receive any in-game goods or funds as the scammer tries to confuse you making fake text messages look like certified attachment items.
Account Sharing
It's been a long day of searching for a good offer for your Memento Mori charm and a scammer offers you an account exchange under a diverse variety of benefits: to play in cool gear, participate in clan wars, or “assist with character progression”, deleting all your hard ground progress in one click.
Never, under any circumstances, give access to your personal data!
In any case in which you willingly give access to another person violates the terms of EXBO's licence agreement (c 4.1.2). In case of violating the clause, you will be denied account recovery in case of loss of access to it!
Giveaways on streaming services
Some streamers hold pseudo-giveaways with a participation fee and encourage everyone to spread the link to the stream. Once they have collected fees, either the winnings go to a fake person who shares with the streamer, or the stream ends and the scammer disappears with the collected valuables.
Even if the first few giveaways were true, it is just a bait to collect more valuables on the next one and run away.
Such streams tend to have few viewers and subscribers, but that doesn't mean that streams with a larger audience can't turn out to be scams. Do not participate in such giveaways to avoid being scammed by this scheme.
Checking before joining a clan
When joining a clan, you may be asked to take a cheat check. To do this, you will be asked to download a file or go to a mirror site and follow the instructions of a scammer from the clan. As a result of such actions you may have your account stolen. This should never be done under any circumstances.
In any situation where you are asked to download third-party files or go to the site, you are most likely trying to scam. Even if the resource looks very similar to the official website of a game or company, always check the address carefully. All official EXBO resources will be listed at the end of this article.
Windows Command Prompt
When joining a subdivision, communicating or any other interaction, an intruder may ask you to open the Windows command prompt and enter commands that they tell you to. This should never be done! Otherwise, you risk not only losing your STALCRAFT: X account, but also other personal information
And once again we remind you. Never under any circumstances give access to your account!
Where can I find an official company resources list?
A list of valuable recourses:
Remember that it is firstly your responsibility to ensure the protection of your values, and in most cases, scammers rely on your trust and lack of attention to carry out their schemes.
We hope this article will reach out well and keep you safe from those pesky scammers!
With regard to you,
EXBO Security Department
