Hey just wanted to let you guys know to be on guard for something like this. Just happened to our guild last night although fortunately nobody bought it and we simply kicked the offender.

This sort of "identity theft" isn't terribly uncommon. We've had people tell us they're going to sell or give away their characters, then 2 months later someone claiming to be them demands to be guilded and receive this or that thing. Also we've had people claiming to be bank alts of our GM asking for bank funds.

The simple solution is never to honor requests from anything but main characters. Exceptions made for well known alts, but never for new and different ones.

What exactly is 'new' about this scam?

Social engineering is older than dirt, and it's never going to change.
Here's a good thread on SA: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sho...readid=2431112

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

The only way I can think this could be considered a 'new' scam would be if it was the result of farmers using the Armory to somehow track down inactive characters (e.g. old guildmates whom are still guilded, but don't play anymore). Then they could use that name as a pretense to say they were 'coming back' or re-rolling etc.

Regardless, just asking the person to get on vent and confirming it is them or having them make a post on the guild message boards members section is the right way of handling it.

/ginfo
/ginvite
/ginfo
/gremove

I'm trying to figure out how this could possibly be news. The number of preventive measures that one could take are all pretty much common sense.

Breaking news - dudes on the street will ask you for money for a bus ticket that they're really going to spend on beer.

This random Level 3 Troll Priest in Orgrimmar walked up to me and gave me a [Freshly Picked Flower] for free, so I took it. Then he proceeded to open up a trade and ask me for a "donation" to his orphan-feeding organization, <Kare Hishna>.

Needless to say I was pissed, but I felt obligated to give him 50 silver.

Feels like Pisa all over again..

This reminds me of a beggar in my city. He used to sit on the street with a box for donations and a sign that read "For beers only". Ironically, he seemed to receive much more money than the more miserable looking beggars in the area.

Sure it does. I've had several people pose as an alt of one of our mains. /ginfo #1 and /ginfo #2 should always match up. If they don't, it's a different person. Because exactly who is going to let his/her account lapse, then pay for a new account, then expect his/her guild to hand over a large amount of gold to a character on the new account? No one. Frankly I'm surprised this "scammer" actually made it as far as getting an invite based on the story he was spinning. I'd even go as far to say that this doesn't even deserve to be labeled as a scam. More like it's a 1:3278932342554 shot that you'll actually run across someone stupid enough to fall for it.

Anyway, this is a dumb thread.