How to Counter Scams in MapleStory

Be wary of low-level characters who are looking to trade high-level items. These characters are often "mules" -- alternate characters used for scamming. Since scammers who get caught can get banned, a smart scammer will use a secondary low-level character to try to rip off people.

Watch out for the "tab-tab-space-enter" scam. Some players may tell you that placing your valuable items into a trade window and pressing this key combination will duplicate your items. However, this key combo is actually a shortcut to complete a trade. Using these keys will hand your items over to the other player.

Stay away from "free drop" scams. A common scam is to talk unsuspecting players into dropping their items on the ground in order to trade. This scam is usually conducted in pairs, as the victim drops his items in good faith and another player suddenly appears to steal the goods. A variation to look out for is any player who claims to be quitting the game and drops all of his items.

Check the amount of money being offered before completing a trade. Some players will fool you by typing the number "11,111,111" into the trade window, then pretending that their connection is bad. The scammer will then request to cancel the trade and start over. This will happen again and again until finally the trade goes through. By the last trade attempt, the scammer will have reduced the amount of mesos to "1,111,111," in the hopes that the victim will be too frustrated by the repeat attempts to notice the difference.

Avoid any offers that seem too good to be true. If a rare item is being offered at an exceptionally low price, be smart before purchasing it. While you might get lucky and find a player who truly doesn't know the value of the item he's selling, use common sense when buying cheap items from a player you don't know.