I wrote this years ago but I had to snag a copy before the forums vanished it. It’s a shame this game allowed scams; you could not do this in WoW due to the game design making it not possible, but also because of GMs punishing people if they tried it hard enough that most didn’t even bother. I’d have to see if I still have the screenshots though.
Lineage 2 Common Scams Guide by EllieBelly
Here are a few of the common scams I found today just in Giran within oh, 5 minutes.
Crystal Scam. This one can be done with any of the crystals but I see it on D the most. Notice how they are assuming you don’t notice that the PRICE and AMOUNT are reversed. Works with ancient adena too, anything usually sold in big amounts.
Craft Shop Scam. This is usually done with the lower level crafts, silver mold, VOP, stuff like that. The title will say something like 10a craft, 1-4 crafts, etc. It looks dead obvious but when there’s only one shop in Giran making something you need to craft a weapon you don’t always pay good attention.
Bow shaft scam. The popular one now is for Bow of Peril shafts because everyone wants one, a finished one is around 40 mill, and the shafts are usually 1 mill+ each. And the fact that bow shafts look EXACTLY LIKE STEMS doesn’t help anything. I’ve seen up to 3 shops at once trying to pull this one. Same goes for soul bow shafts.
A-ss, A-sps, B A-sps scam. The noob SS shots look almost exactly like the A grade ones, so people try to sell the no grade ones as a-ss. Here’s a picture of the scam and a shot from a real shop.
Name scam. I’ve had this tried on me 3 times so far but this is my best example. I’m sitting right by Stiltzz, and someone pm’s me with the name Stlltzz. You can see the real Stiltzz talking in ally chat, and I have him targeted. Usually the person doing this says the EXACT SAME THING as in this picture. That should be the first tip off, I mean how many of your friends talk like such a ****** anyway? Usually if you try to target the faker person, they aren’t even in town, but their alt trying to get your weapon is.
Soul Ore/A Crystal Scam. I couldn’t find anyone actually doing this but I know it has been done. I set up shop to show the example. The shop title is A crystals but I’m selling soul ore. I put them side by side, see how very similar they are?
** Adding**
Some other scams are more elaborate.
One involves items that have the same icon, like the BOP shaft and a stem. Someone starts a trade with a BoP shaft, you see it, they cancel the trade. They say oops, do it again, put in a stem instead, and you lose a lot of money. I hate hate hate trade windows and always tell people to make a shop.
Another almost no one does, because it takes too much effort but it’s worked before. You yell that you want say, a DC robe. Scammer1 says they have one but they want you to buy X item for them and you can then trade it for the robe. Scammer2 has X item for 20 mill, you think woot I’ll get a DC robe cheap, you buy it, try to get scammer1 to trade you the robe, only to find out X item is worth like 50 cents. Scammer1 logs out off the face of the earth.
The second one assumes you don’t know what the X item is worth to begin with, and don’t mind running errands for some random person you don’t know. Everytime I think this is the stupidest scam ever, I heard someone falls for it.