Defending myselfFollow

It has come to my attention that a scammer opperating at and through player*auctions.com is claiming to be me. They even link to my alla-k profile in their signature.

Apparently she/he has taken a few people for their stuff.

http://www.player*auctions.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=12501

http://www.player*auctions.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=12631

(remove the * above)

I've spoken to playerauctions and they say I have to register to defend myself. I'm not going to give them my money, for they don't deserve it. They also refuse to make a admin post stating the REAL 'Kiine of Ragnarok' has contacted them. So, *****'em. Thanks for nothing. Its that sort of 'not our fault' stupidity that I won't reward by paying even the single dollar they charge your creditcard.

If you're going to pa.com, that's your call. If you're judging me by what people say there - don't.

This actually explains some random cursing-out tells I got. Handled those the same way I'll handle any future ones - GM Call.

I'm just ANGRY that people may have been leaving me LFP or not inviting me places because of this. I don't think I'm too widely known on Rag, and now it appears any rep I had might be gone.

Thanks for listenning. I guess.

Wow. Don't know who this other person is, but I'll be the first in line to stand up for the real Kiine's integrity. Kiine's been my leveling partner for more than a year in-game, and she's a founding member in our Linkshell. I can't think of a person more deserving of respect than she is, and the fact that someone has been using her name as a way to scam people is the lowest of the low.

I hope that folks have the good sense to delve a little deeper before pinning a bad reputation on her.

I don't know you, but if this is going on then it's pure crap. Forcing someone to pay to defend themselves is pathetic.

You did you the right thing. They apparently aren't interested in doing likewise.

Why should we believe you? cuz you said so? 2nd, how would you find a website like that if you never ever been to it? so you could be the one they are talking about, 3rd why would someone use your name? how could they know your name? opps, you forgot to mention that dont you? friend? family? co-worker? People you hate? I doubt they will know you play FFXI or your char's name.

Because a scammer isn't going to go out of their way to say "don't trust my posts." Kiine has a good name, and she's trying to defend it.

Because, like she said in her post, she's been getting harassing /tells from people. She's a smart girl, so she decided to hunt down the reason for it. Now, you may not have heard of them, but there are places on the internet where you can type in keywords and the website will perform a search and give you a listing of the results.

Don't believe me? Then let's try this little science project. Go to Google.com and type in "player auction kiine ragnarok" and... Hey! Look at what the first result is! It's the very post that Kiine mentioned. And we didn't have to take all that much effort to find it.

Because scammers like an air of credibility. So they go to websites (like this one), choose a relatively well-respected member of the community (by viewing their posts and seeing how they're rated), and use that name. Now, they don't want to use someone who's too well-known. So they grab someone with a moderate number of posts, that are rated well, and... like magic, in the anonymous realm of the internet, they've just given themselves an instant credibility factor.

Anyone wanting to "check their references" will use the previously mentioned search tools and search for Kiine of Ragnarok, and will see fairly good things. Their fears will be eased, they'll go back to the website where they saw Kiine's stolen name, and they will fall victim to the scammer.

The worst thing about this is that the website itself seems unconcerned with helping Kiine stop this person who is scamming. They could care less, unless they're getting money in exchange for it. And, really, that makes them a part of the whole scam.