In ROBLOX, a scam typically refers to an operation in which one or more ROBLOX players maliciously attempt to defraud others out of their virtual currency, items, or even accounts by promising things such as other items, free Builder's Club, or other various benefits, possibly in an attempt to gather information to use against the player.
This type of scam is a simple, harmless, type of scam in which a player starts a chain of messages with a message containing the promise of some sort of benefit in exchange for copying and pasting the message on a certain number of other pages. Variations may apply, including the types of pages which can be posted on, and the amount of pages to be posted on. An example would be:
I found a way to get 500 ROBUX! Simply copy this message and paste it on 10 hats, then press f5!
Password scams
This type of scam is a derivative of the "chainmail" scam in which a player will ask another player for their username and password in exchange for the promise of various benefits, usually resulting in having the scammer taking control of the other player's account and stealing their tickets, robux, gear, hats, and places. An example message would look like so:
builderman left a bug while testing the ROBLOX Currency system! You see, the ROBLOX moderators had a special email that they would send their username and password to, so that they could get free money! So if you want to get free money, send your username and password to freerobux@yahoo.com!
Portrait Scams
An example of an advertisement used by a proven scammer. Note that these are often not at all related to ROBLOX characters; and are merely artwork stolen from other artists.
Portrait scamming is yet another relatively common scam in which one user, generally advertising their services, promises to draw another user for a fixed fee of either ROBUX or Tickets. Often, these users will simply find high quality artwork or artwork of other ROBLOX users and claim it as their own, especially if they can find a ROBLOX user whose character's appearance is similar to it. After being paid the specified amount of ROBUX or Tickets, they will refuse to draw the victim's character, thus resulting in the loss of ROBUX or Tickets. However, self portraits are not always scams.
Administrative/'VIP' Shirt Scams
Administrative shirt scams are arguably a practice that has been ongoing since items have first been sold. Administrative scams tend to be disguised as 'official shirts' stating that 'The owner of [ game ] allowed me to do this. This shirt gives you balefire, invincibility, and more!' to lure a user into buying them. Before you buy an admin/VIP shirt, you should check with the owner of the cited game so as to not accidentally by a "fake" shirt which has no effect in the actual game.
An example of a game creator agreeing that the VIP shirt is a scam.
Survey Scams
Quite a few users throughout ROBLOX's history have created fake "surveys" in which they will slowly but surely scam a player out of their account information, for example through offering a survey on the forum which is promised to give the victim 10 ROBUX at the end, and perhaps, through the survey, harvesting information from the user such as the user's username and password. Many scams of this type involve survey sites which send the survey information back to the scammer's email, possibly leading to the loss of the account by the victim.
Donation Scams
Some users post things where other players donate to them, and that they will promise to give back the money to the donator, but they don't.
A donation scam.
A warning banner telling players about the Survey Scam.
Game Scams
These scams usually have titles and pictures usually completely different than what the player is expecting, such as an obstacle course being advertised an Angry Birds game.
A game with a person who has BC will usually have pictures in the bar of pictures and videos from TV shows, videos, and pictures made from free models, or ROBLOX studio
Uncommon Scams
Lower-Trade Scams
In this kind of scam, a user offers an amount of money for a certain item worth more than the amount of money given. Please note, however, that this type of scam is uncommon, and if used, almost never works. It is generally impossible to even put a Limited Item up on sale for something lower than the Average Price.
Example: I will trade you 500 ROBUX in exchange for your Sparkle Time Fedora.
Application Scams
A somewhat uncommon form of scam due to the effort required and sometimes small payout, these scams tend to promise to be 'hack programs', and initially ask for your username or password in startup. In reality, these use a particularily popular piece of code which send your information to an e-mail address of choice, where your account will be in the hands of a scammer.
Ditching
An uncommon scam due to the need of a special or rare item, these scams start out as a t-shirt - scammers post a link to the t-shirt everywhere along with a message telling the victim that the scammer will give a special item to them if they buy the t-shirt. These t-shirts usually sell for 100-10,000 TIX. After the PMing the scammer won't post a reply, and of course, will not give the victim the item.
Rare Scams
Porn scams
A rare type of scamming, in which the user would put in a link that looks like a ROBLOX link, but instead of going to the desired destination, leads the user to a porn site, often filled to the brim with viruses or other malicious content. This type of scam is extremely popular on the "Let's Make A Deal" forums, and is usually performed by alternate accounts. Abusing this scam may cause termination of the scammer's accont.
'Free Cash' Scam
The scam consists of a bunch of people in a game acting like they got a large amount of money by sitting there, but by doing so it only gets the game to the front page.
This is the report of peaspod "Free Admin" scam. Do what the black text above the title of the t-shirt says.
Avoiding Scams
When buying shirts, make sure that the shirt that you are purchasing isn't deleted. If it is, it has generally been deleted due to its purpose and intent being of a malicious nature.
If nobody has purchased such a shirt, and you believe that this shirt may be real, wait until a few users purchase it, and give it some time to see if they have reported it or not.
While buying a VIP shirt, check to see if the creator of the place has actually condoned the selling of this shirt.
If the place comments are not disabled, such usually being a sign of a scam, read them to see if any other users say the place not legitimate. Note, though, that the scammer may have made alternative accounts to promote said scam, so check for accounts that do not seem new. This goes the same for shirts.
If the user is scamming others out of self-drawn pictures, you can check their decals to see if they have any stolen work uploaded to help promote said scam. These comments are usually not disabled.File:Scammer warning.png
An alternate account trying to tell people someone is a scammer.
Some scammers have their names listed on alternative accounts' descriptions stating they are scammers. While this is not always the case, if there are a large amount of these accounts, this is something to be wary of.
Avoid shortened URLs (TinyURL; bit.ly; etc) if you notice that they send you to a copy of ROBLOX; especially a log-in page. If it does, check the URL at the top to see if it is ROBLOX or not.
Avoid obscure programs on YouTube that require your username and password. Their demonstrations are almost always fake.
Avoid external links (links leading to sites out of ROBLOX) unless they are from someone that you trust and know in real life.
If a Shirt,Place or anything else has comments disabled,its probally a scam so the scammer can prevent the victim from knowing its a scam.
If the item you want to buy is expensive, then don't buy it. There is a high chance the seller of the item is trying to scam you out of your precious money.
Recovering From Scams
Recovering from a scamming is rather difficult to do, yet do able depending on what happened. There is instances where you can email info@roblox.com for help recovering. Yet you must show thingws, like the date and picture for evidence.
