MAPLESTORY SINGAPORE SCAM — Chye Jie He, 28, did not transfer game credits to victims after receiving payment from them.
A 28-year-old unemployed man was sentenced to three months’ jail on Friday (April 3) for scamming 11 gamers on MapleStory Singapore, a popular multi-player online role-playing game, of more than S$1,300 by promising them game credits.
Chye Jie He will start serving his sentence on May 28, a day after he is set to register his marriage with his fiancée who is currently pregnant with his child.
On Friday, he pleaded guilty to three charges of deceiving others into believing that he would be sending them “mesos” — MapleStory Singapore in-game currency — after receiving payment from them.
The court heard that between January and July last year he would contact his victims and offer to sell them mesos.
Victims would send him payment through PayNow but he would not transfer the mesos as promised.
One such incident on Jan 11 last year, a male victim paid him S$560.
Investigations revealed that the phone number that Chye had provided the victim on Telegram belonged to his friend. Chye had borrowed the friend’s phone for a short while and linked the number to his own bank account for three days, in the hope of escaping detection and identification.
Another victim fell for the MapleStory Singapore scam on April 20 last year when Chye was already facing police investigations, the court heard.
MAPLESTORY SINGAPORE SCAM – TRIED TO SHIFT THE BLAME
Chye’s MapleStory Singapore scam grew more sophisticated by July last year. He involved an innocent party and hoped for the blame to be shifted to that person, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jotham Tay said.
On July 9, Chye approached an innocent party named Mr Ng who was offering to sell mesos on Facebook and asked to buy three billion mesos for S$185.
Mr Ng provided his mobile number thinking that Chye would pay him S$185 via PayNow.
Later that same day, Chye approached a victim on Telegram who was looking to buy mesos and offered to sell her four billion mesos for S$185 and gave her Mr Ng’s number to facilitate the transaction.
After the victim sent Mr Ng S$185, Chye lied to Mr Ng that he had transferred the money.
However, just a few minutes later, Chye told Mr Ng that he did not wish to buy the mesos anymore and would like S$180 back, telling Mr Ng to keep S$5 for himself.
The ruse was discovered after the second victim went to Mr Ng thinking that he had scammed her and demanded to get her S$185 back, failing which she would make a police report.
Police investigations later found that Chye was behind the MapleStory Singapore scam.
For each charge of cheating, Chye could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined.
Common MapleStory Singapore Scams and How to Avoid Them
Here is a list of common scams, and how to avoid them.
MapleStory Singapore Scam 1: Drop Game
The idea of this is someone tells you to go somewhere of their choosing, and tells you to drop your best items while they drop some of theirs. They usually go through a few rounds, rewarding you for playing. Once they see something they want, they will either vac (Use hacks) your drops to them or have someone come out of hiding and swipe your precious items before you can pick them up again. This usually occurs at the Henesys hair salon.
Prevention – NEVER drop anything you are not willing to lose. In fact, just don’t drop anything, that’s why trades exist.
MapleStory Singapore Scam 2: Duplicating Items
A person will tell you to put your best items up for cloning. There are various ways they do this so I will not explain each. They will then tell you to click trade but do not click accept. Once that comes up, they will tell you to type “Copy.” Now the “y” in copy causes it to act as a yes and they have just received all of your items in trade. Many users will also offer to clone or duplicate an item for you, they tellyou to put it up in a trade box with them, and hit tab+tab+space+enter. This will make you complete a trade with them.
Prevention – Knowledge is power! No really, it is. Now that you know, you can spot these kind of scams the moment they happen. Simply report the users and inform others around of their doings. As well, never hit tab+tab+space+enter.
MapleStory Singapore Scam 3: Buying/Selling
This usually occurs in the Free Market entrance. Someone will say “B> itemX 10mil” while another person is shouting “S>itemX 6m” The problem is, itemX is only worth 2m and once you buy it from the person selling for 10mil, usually both the seller and the one who is buying for alot both log off after having scammed you of your mesos.
Prevention – Be weary, there is not really any fast cash from this method. If someone is B> and S> the same items in the FM, they would have traded each other already.
MapleStory Singapore Scam 4: I’ll Give you NX/ I want to try your character
Many players will pretend to be your friends in order to gain access to your account. They will either tell you they are going to charge NX for you, or wish to play on your character to try it out. NEVER let them. Most likely you will never see it back.
Prevention – NEVER give out your account information to anyone.
MapleStory Singapore Scam 5: Pay to join a guild
Most guilds are free to join, those requesting mesos to join are an iffy situation. Not all are scams, some may need the money for expanding. Though in many cases, they will invite you, have you pay your “membership” fees and boot you from the guild almost immediately after.?
Prevention – Try to join a guild of a friend or ask to pay at a later date, after you are established in the guild.
MapleStory Singapore Scam 6: Fake GM’s
Usually someone will chat request you with an IGN that sounds like it has a relation to Nexon. They will tell you that your account has been reported for hacking and they need to scan your account. They will then ask for your login information. They will then log off, and as soon as you log off, they will have your account. Alternatively they may ask you for your email or attempt to send you a file. These are usually keylogged.
Prevention – Just ignore these people. Unless they are carrying an actual Wizet briefcase, or hat. A GM will never ask for your user information.
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