• Home
• Contact Us
• Your Settings
• Site History
• Link to Us
• Our Staff
• Credits

• Commentary
• Forums
• Graphics
• Neoquest 2
• The Nuttery
• Nutty Rainbow
• Walk Through Neopia

• Daily Dare 2010
• All Guides
• Avatars
• Dailies
• Newbie Guide
• Stamps
  
  
• Game Guides
• Game Cheats
• Game Graveyard

• Neopets Tutorials
• Learn HTML
• PSP Tutorials
• Flash Tutorials

Introduction
Welcome to the updated page for account security. We have decided to update our page with new tips because neopets has changed quite a bit over the years. Several of the old rules are still here, but that doesn't mean that the nefarious scammers haven't developed a few more tricks. You can view the old version of the guide here. Protecting your account is of the utmost importance on neopets. Even though neopets is an innocent site, there lie others whose intentions are not so innocent. Therefore, you must have your wits sharp throughout the site.

First off, it's important that you read the rules for the site. Sometimes you may unwittingly break one of those rules and be iced. It will also be referred back to throughout this guide.

"Hackers" is the often used term to describe the person who "hacks" your account. However, the term hacker is a misnomer. There are hackers on neopets and there are ways to protect yourselves from them. However, a majority of the time people are more often scammed by scammers. Scammers are more prevalent and far more trickier. It takes quite a lot more to protect yourself from a scammer. How do you this? Well, that's what you're here for, right? But here's the #1 rule.

Never, never give your password to anyone no matter whom they claim to be.
If you keep that in mind while on neopets, you will most certainly protect yourself. Regardless, to be on the safe side you should continue to read this guide.

---

---

Common Scams
Although there is some innovation in scams, here are a few common ones that you can recognize.



Neopets staff members will never contact you via AIM/MSN/etc. And if they do contact you through other means, they will never ask you for your password. If someone claiming to be a neopets staff member is asking for your password through AIM/MSN/YIM/etc. then it is a scam. Even through other means. If you are contacted through neomail by someone claiming to be a neopets staff member asking for your password then it is also a scam. Do not give your password out under any circumstances. Chances are, if someone does contact you claiming they are a neopets staffer, they are not one. It is against the rules to impersonate a staff member.

Sometimes you may get an email or a neomail sounds relatively official. It can be something along these lines:

This is most certainly a scam. For neomail, TNT will only contact you via "theneopetsteam" username. They will never contact you by other means. You will never be emailed by TNT asking for your password. So do not give your password to anyone, even if they claim to be a neopets staff member. Email senders can be camouflaged by programs, so sometimes even though it may seem that the email is coming from support@neopets.com, it is just an illusion created by a clever program.



This is one of the most common scams. It is often referred to as "Neositting." These people usually offer to "take care of" or "neosit" your account, possibly when you are away on vacation. Sometimes it might even be someone you know in real life, or someone that you have known through neopets for a long time. Even if you trust this person, do not give away your password. Having two users on one account is defined by neopets as sharing accounts and this is illegal. Therefore, regardless of whether this person can be trusted, you are putting your account at risk. If you don't know this person well, then it is almost certainly a scam. Under no circumstances give away your password. They are trying to take away your items and your neopoints, so beware!

Sometimes, the scammer will to get you a tough avatar or a trophy. This may seem tempting, but it is supremely risky to give your password to this person. It is best for you to attempt to get the avatar/trophy yourself. NNoN contains plenty of secure game guides that can help you get an avatar/trophy on your own.

If you are going away or do not have access to your neopets account, you don't have to worry about your neopets. No matter how much you starve them, they cannot and will not die under any circumstances. Therefore, there is no need to have someone else "protect" your account. If you're still not convinced, you can keep your pets in the Neolodge. Here, your pets will be fed well for the duration you keep them there for a small fee. You can view our guide for Neolodge here.



You can trust me. I'm just pixels.
Even though in this instance, you are not giving out your password, it is still a precarious situation. You have the potential to lose expensive items or neopoints. Never trade your items through other means other than the trading post. Sometimes a scammer will attempt to trick you into giving them items without the trading post. Never exchange items outside of the Trading Post. It is a scam and it is completely unnecessary to trade items outside the trading post. If the Trading Post is down, simply wait for it to come back up again. It usually doesn't take too long. The Trading Post is a safe and secure method to trading items. Stick to it.


Huh? They look the same!
This isn't a scam that loses you an account; however, it is a scam that can lose you quite a lot of neopoints. Although this isn't necessarily a scam, there is a good chance that it is. It is possible that the item is not actually an unbuyable, but that it is rather a cheap, useless item. The supposed "unbuyable" could even lead you to a fake log-in page. So be careful. Check the URL and make sure the item is an unbuyable before you buy it. Here is a table to help you with some items that are often used for tricking someone:

Unbuyable	Buyable
Earth Faerie Leaves	Golden Ivy Leaves
U-bend of Great Justice	Super U-Bend
Sword of Skardsen	Bendy Sword of Skardsen
Baby Paint Brush	Baby Paint Brush Plushie
Sword of Skardsen	Cloud Paint Brush Plushie
Disco Fever Paint Brush	Disco Paint Brush Plushie
Faerie Paint Brush	Faerie Paint Brush Plushie
Fire, Fire, Your Pants On Fire Paint Brush	Fire Paint Brush Plushie
Ghost Paint Brush	Ghost Paint Brush Plushie
Mystery Island Paint Brush	Island Paint Brush Plushie
Lost Desert Paint Brush	Lost Desert Paint Brush Plushie
Split Paint Brush	Split Paint Brush Plushie
Starry Fever Paint Brush	Starry Paint Brush Plushie
Battle Potato	Raw Potato
Battle Duck	Rubber Duck
Faerie Acorns	Fruity Usul Acorns

This table by no means a complete list. So please continue to have caution even if you have this list memorized.



Never, ever follow links off the neopets site that promise you "free" items and neopoints. Never input your neopets information - your password or your password to your email - outside neopets. These are most certainly scams, and you will not get free items of neopoints. Remember that there is no easy, legal way to earn neopoints or items. You can only earn them through hard work (which ever way that might be - games, restocking, etc.).

Chances are, the more they are trying to convince you, the more likely that they are a scammer. Usually you'll see these types of scams through neomail, shops, or even neoboards. They often attempt to convince you of the legitimacy of their little "endeavor". No off site survey or quiz that requires you to put in password information will earn you neopoints or items. It will simply make you lose them all. Do not input your neopets password anywhere except for the neopets log-in page and your user info/preferences page.



Now, this might not be a scam. But it often is. Sometimes when shopping on neopets in user shops or some other type of activity, you are interrupted by a log in page. Take a deep breath. Before you input any of your data, look at the URL as shown below:


As shown in the image if the URL is: http://www.neopets.com/loginpage.phtml, then you are safe. Feel free to input your data. You can input your data. However if the URL is anything else navigate away from the page immediately. Do not navigate away from the page by clicking another link on the page. Type in "neopets.com" into the URL bar to get away. Then, immediately change your password for both your neopets account and your email, just for safety.


Simply, this is a lie. Your password will show on your pet page, the neoboards, etc. So don't be tricked.

---

---

How to Protect Yourself
Against all these scary threats, there are plenty of ways to protect your account. We explained many of the ways above, but here are other methods. The most basic protection is what I had said before. To emphasize my point, I will repeat it:

Never, never give your password to anyone no matter whom they claim to be.
Is it drilled in yet? No? Okay then!



Even though this may not always protect you from scammers, it is a good way to prevent your account from being hacked. Having simple passwords such as "neopet" or "hello" make it very easy for hackers to hack your account. Difficult to guess passwords are the best protective measure against being hacked. Make sure your password does not contain something that is associated with you such as your name, your dog's name, your email address, your username, etc.

Make your password something easy to remember such as a few words from a song you like and include some numbers and some symbols as well. A password such as: "athingwith40eyes5867@u." (btw, don't use this example as your password). This is a good way to protect yourself from hackers and a good way to make sure you don't forget it. If you are completely paranoid that a password such as that given in the example is not enough, you can create a far more complicated password with random letters, numbers, and symbols. Just make sure to write it down and hide it safe where no one can have it. However, I suggest the first option.

This is not just limited to your neopets password. Also make sure that the password for your email is very complicated. If the scammer/hacker can access your email, then the scammer/hacker can get into your neopets account.

Make sure your password is different for all sites. Or, if you are concerned solely about your neopets account, make sure that your email password and your neopets account password are different from all your other passwords for other sites.

Another good idea is to change your password often. I suggest every 2 weeks at the very least. If you are extremely paranoid, or if you have very expensive items and/or a lot of neopoints, then change it every day. This can add extra security to your account.



One of the best ways to protect your account is to form a pin number. You can do this by going to this page. A pin number is a great way to protect your account from hackers. Even though it doesn't prevent a hacker or a scammer entering your account, it does prevent them from getting to your valuables (AKA your neopoints and items).

A pin number is basically a 4 digit number. It can be any number. Similar to your password, make it something that you can remember. Possibly the date of a particular historic event that's significant to you. If you are not comfortable with that, make it a random 4 digit number and just write that number over and over on a random piece of paper until you have it memorized. If you want to withdraw your neopoints from the bank, from the stock market, get items from the SDB, etc. then you must put in your PIN number (if you have that option available). It is an optional practice, but I strongly recommend that you use a PIN number.

The options for protecting your account are listed on the pin number page. If you really want to be safe, I suggest you check all of them. However, if you don't to be encumbered by PIN number input wherever you go, just check the options for the locations that are absolutely crucial to you.

Protect this as you would protect your password. Do not give your PIN number out under any circumstances.






I'm not responsible for iced accounts!
Watch the URLs very carefully. If you are on a user shop or a user pet page, make sure, right before you click the item or the link that you quickly glance at the URL to make sure it is a neopets.com URL. I don't care if you are shop wiz sniping and are afraid of losing the item. Even after you click the link, check the URL after the new page reloads just in case. If you have been Wiz Sniping for a long time, or buying items for tons of quests, and haven't looked at the URLs, change your neopets password and your email password immediately. This is the best way to avoid fake log-in pages and pages that contain cookie grabbers.



Even though TNT rarely makes announcements about rapid outbreaks of cookie grabbers, item dupes, etc., websites like Neo Nutters of Neopia will have updates. Usually, during these periods, you should be particularly careful. It would be safest to limit your gameplay to solely neopets games and avoid userlookups/shops/neoboards/etc. You should continue through these measures until the alert has disappeared. If you don't want to sacrifice your gameplay, be extra cautious. Change your password every day as opposed to every week. Be extra vigilant for log-in scams, etc. Remember: CONSTANT VIGILANCE!... Tips to you if you know that reference. ;D

Another thing to keep notice of is the time of year. Usually these scams start to come up around the beginning of summer. This is when the Altador Cup occurs and when many players get off school/college and have more free time to play neopets. Scams tend to occur in larger numbers during this time period. Be extra careful during this time period as well. Also, if there is a large plot going on, be careful during that time period as well. Usually when there is a large influx of people to neopets, the scammers come out.



Keep your wits on your sleeve!
Sometimes it's easy to fall for fake log-in pages or get tricked into an email message from a seeming TNT staffer. Believe me, I almost fell for one of those emails. Make sure to keep your wits about you. Don't trust anyone. I don't care how long you've known them in real life or on neopets. Do not "share" your account with anyone and don't let yourself get tricked into any scam. You have worked way to hard for your items and neopoints to lose it all in a moment of carelessness.

---

---

---

Regardless of what is stated below, all copyrights are extended to, and therefore apply to, all years between the stated beginning year and the present year, 2010.