Also in Canada, who only get the iPhone in July, you can buy it unlocked. Whether it is a change in Apple’s strategy or whether it is due to local conditions in those countries is not clear. France has always could buy unlocked iPhones, but it is new that can be the same in England and Canada.

Prices in England is £ 499 for 16GB and £ 599 for 32GB, equivalent to 4.470 and 5.360 kr DKK In France it costs € 629 and € 739, equivalent to 4.680 and 5.500 kr DKK They become, in other words not entirely cheap, but in return you are indeed totally free in relation to subscription. It is certainly super positive that we now have the option to buy with or without subscription. One should indeed take note that it does not prevent telco monkeys in offering iPhone inc. subscription. Yes indeed, it’s the iPhone 4 pris.

Now we can just wait until Apple comes with Danish prices.

If an e-mail is found in the list of red flags, it means the scamming has been proved. If the e-mail is found in the list of yellow flags, it means the e-mail (and the person behind it) is in some way associated with scamming. You should refrain from trading with people found in BOTH the yellow flag list and the red flag list.

Head over to the list here: List of known World of Warcraft scammers.

The basic Auction House scam that many people utilize is completely within the game rules set by Blizzard. The scam is innocent enough in that it only involves manipulating the in-game economy a bit. This basic variant is pretty easily detectable. All you need to do is keep track of prices and values in the Auction Houses across different realms. By having a general overview and impression of what an item costs, you’ll easily be able to single out prices which seem incongruous or out of place.

The scam can be broken into a few steps. The first step is in the gray area of what can be defined as scamming, contrary to later steps.

Scammers often use rare items as an items bait efficiency rises exponentially with rarity. Let’s use Silk Cloth as an example. The scammer purchases all Silk Cloth on the Auction House (perhaps 4-5 stacks). This is to ensure he or she is the only one selling Silk Cloth. With this power the scammer is efficiently capable of setting the price of Silk Cloth to whatever he or she pleases. Keep in mind, this is not what I would describe as an actual malicious scam. I would rather define it as creative use of an in-game mechanism.

After the scammer has gained full control of the market, there is a series of scams available to make sure the items are sold quickly and at the asked price. One scam is to hotlink an item that they do not have in the trade channel. The item could be an epic or blue weapon or similar. The scammer then offers to trade the epic weapon for a random number of Silk Cloth.

Hopefully this will send atleast one player rushing to the Auction House to buy the requested amount of Silk Cloth. When the buyer then whispers the scammer, he or she simply states that the item has already been traded.

This post will be updated regularly as new variants emerge.

This scam is probably the oldest one in the book and it happens almost every day. With 11,5 million monthly subscribers, the economy related to buying, selling and trading World of Warcraft accounts is huge. I am very pleased to see the authorities dealing with the losses inflicted by these scammers in such a serious manner.

The thing about Western Union is that payments are in no way traceable or accountable. The underlying system behind Western Union was crafted so people could send money to friends, relatives and trusted recipients ONLY. This is a well documented fact and Western Union even have it written on their website: “The service a great way to send money to someone you know and trust but if you need to send money to someone you don’t know well you may be putting yourself at risk of fraud.” In my opinion this sums up exactly why you shouldn’t be using Western Union as a means of expediting funds to someone you’ve never met.

Accepting a Wester Union payment requires no proof of identity but solely relies on a ‘pre-established code’. This code is what proves your right to the funds. So in essence, anyone who has this code in their possession is entitled to the funds connected to it. Anyone with the requisite recipient information can claim the funds as cash and vanish! This is the exact reason why so many scammers use Western Union as their payment method of choice. To my knowledge, the only known means of checking the identity of the person drawing the funds is to contact Western Union to see whether the branch had a CCTV record which could be passed to your local police department. This would require you to file a complaint first, and as the amounts are usually small, a lot of people simply don’t bother. It’s always worth it though, perhaps not to your own personal case but it could build up a picture of the scammer, if he pulls the same stunt on a lot of different people.

A Western Union transfer as I’ve described it sounds like a pretty horrible thing, but it isn’t. It’s great for the purpose which it has always been intended to serve. Worth noting however is that you should never, never, never use Western Union to send money to someone you’ve never met and isn’t directly related to.

Power leveling is a service like so many others in the same category, such as arena boosting, raid boosting and plain, simple gold and/or item grinding. It’s a service that requires you to invest a lot of confidence in your counterpart, as the service can’t be performed without handing over your account information.
So-called anti-scam experts claim the easiest way is to simply avoid buying boosting services in the first place. This is sound advice because it is logically correct. Crossing a red light is generally a bad idea too, but let’s stick to reality. People do buy boosting services and people do cross red lights even though they know it may prove unwise.

I recommend you always stick to professional boosting service suppliers. The reason for this is simple. You’ll have the entire process on record: Your order, your agreement with the supplier and your payment. At the same time, paying by credit card ensures you the rights and amenities associated with online purchases of this nature. Another plus of using a professional supplier is that the agreement is clear-cut.’
When browsing the market for a power leveling service, or any other boosting service, my post on using Google in your research is relevant. Chances are other people have had experiences with the company you’re considering, so why not use the information?

The YouTube scam is in most cases so poorly executed that anyone with above average intelligence will see right through them. The spelling is horrible, the story is predictable and the suggested methods often make no sense at all.

That being said, I’m writing this post on them anyway, just so you’re covered in all aspects of scamming. YouTube scams mostly offer solutions in the following categories: Hacking other people’s WoW accounts; receiving or generating free game cards; receiving or generating codes for rare pets and mounts (spectral tiger being one the most popular ones) and receiving some sort of attractive gear/item for free. Of course, it’s all non-sense. Blizzard has stated on several occasions that they only use their official channel for promotional purposes.

To my knowledge there exists no programs that are able to artificially create items, mounts, gold or game cards. No is there any method to hack other people’s WoW accounts, unless you the information is handed over by (or phished out of) the user.

Below is a prime example of how far the scammers are willing to go, to scam you of your account.

Basically every single video in this list on YouTube is fake. They serve no other purpose than to lure you into sending your account name and password to them.

So where do the scammers come up with these methods? is a prime location. Although the site has officially gone white hat – or legal in layman’s terms – the members are still the same scammers they were before. The people “helping out” on MMOwned are the exact same people who’ve been orchestrating scams ever since World of Warcraft was released.

where a user describes the GameCard Generator scam in detail.

Here’s another thread describing how you can manipulate the views your YouTube scam video gets, to get a higher rank in the search results.

Scamming people online is easier than scamming people in real life, because the scammer typically never comes face-to-face with the victim. While online, the scammer is also able to distance himself from his wrongdoings. By adopting various aliases, as in the case of kwaidan, the scammer is able to unlink his real self from his criminal alter ego.

If you are interested in learning more about social engineering , I suggest buying my book.

According to the Wikipedia definition, social engineering is broken loosely into the following categories:

1. Pretexting
2. Phishing
3. Baiting
4. Quid pro quo

I will try to explain how the different categories are related to the way most scammers go about conning people into giving out sensitive account information. I will mostly concentrate on those methods I have found to be particularly common in relation to online scamming.

Pretexting: Pretexting is defined as the act of creating and using an invented scenario to persuade a targeted victim to release information or perform an action. From a scammers point of view, pretexting is about shaping the way a victim views, understands and interprets the scammer’s actions. If I tell you I am an authority on something, you are more likely to believe what I am saying to be true. If I tell you I have done this many times before without ever encountering any problems, you are more likely to accept my future proposals. Why wouldn’t you? It has obviously worked for a lot of people before.

Pretexting is also used by scammers to shape a certain character. I’ve heard of cases in which the scammer took on the role of a father with kids. The scammer pulled it off so convincingly that most of his victims had no worries handing over their account information. The scammer seemed so trustworthy and honest. The defninition continues: “Pretexting can also be used to impersonate co-workers, police, bank, tax authorities, or insurance investigators — or any other individual who could have perceived authority or right-to-know in the mind of the targeted victim. The pretexter must simply prepare answers to questions that might be asked by the victim. In some cases all that is needed is a voice that sounds authoritative, an earnest tone, and an ability to think on one’s feet.”

Phishing: We’ve been over this one before. Phishing is a technique of fraudulently obtaining private information. Typically, the phisher sends an e-mail that appears to come from a legitimate business—a bank, or credit card company—requesting “verification” of information and warning of some severe consequences if it is not provided.

Quid pro quo: Something for something. This is often a method used by middle men. The scammer will help you solve a problem and in return demand some sort of information. In relation to account trading, the middle men often acts as a secure link between a buyer and a seller. However, as witnessed so many times, the middle man often succumbs to temptation and abuses the trust confided in him. In other reported cases, the middle man will try to black mail one side of the trade – typically once he has secured valuable information.

You can read much more about social engineering here. It will definitely open your eyes to the devious ways of a scammer. Through education we can hopefully bring down the number of victims dramatically.

Another clear sign of success is the amount of e-mails I’ve received from scammers threatening me to close down the site using all means necessary. The threats have proved futile and I am proud to say YourAccountSeller.com is here to stay.

The said culprit is Kwaidan alias Claus Arne Houmann Skjødt. This guy has a long track record of scamming people online and was convicted in absentia last year in Danish court of justice. In the beginning of his malicious career he made a living conning people by selling electronics, namely iPhones and computer equipment, to unsuspecting online shoppers. He accepted the money in advance and promised to send the item, but never did. A simple Google search reveals his criminal past. Some time has passed since his last conviction and it was only recently he resurfaced.

This time he scammed an unsuspecting American, alias Holyavenger, for over $1,200.

Claus Arne Houmann Skjødt alias Kwaidan represents a rare breed in scammers. He scams people using his real name, real address and real phone number. He solely relies on two factors: A lack of evidence and the fact that people seem to think the Police are uninterested in solving these online crimes. This is far from true. The Police do care and what it ultimately comes down to is the number of complaints. Once the Police do get involved, crimes related to online scams are very easily solved. People like Kwaidan leave a massive trail of easily obtainable evidence because they are so motivated by greed.

You can now experience first hand how YourAccountSeller.com helped bring Claus Arne Houmann Skjødt to his knees, by completely devastating his defenses and ridiculously naive excuses. His criminal past was largely exposed using the techniques described here.

With this in mind, here are some particularly useful posts for you – handpicked by yours truly:

http://youraccountseller.com/2009/10/21/7-surefire-ways-to-avoid-scammers

http://youraccountseller.com/2009/10/28/google-has-great-memory/