Angry Pepe Blog GMs, Scams, and Thieves

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A lot of what we call hacking doesnt require fancy computers or lots of technical knowledge. Nothing could be further from the truth. The most useful tool in the hackers bag of tricks is one thats been used for thousands of years good old-fashioned lying. One of the simplest scams is to impersonate an employee of a company in order to get valuable information from those companies customers. Hackers count on their online anonymity to enhance their chances of fooling you. In MapleStory, they will often impersonate a GM and attempt to fool you into giving up your account information.

Hi! Im from Nexon and theres a problem with your account.

GMs in MapleStory have a very specific appearance. They appear in-game wearing a white hat with a W on it and/or a briefcase. They also have a rotating GM sign with wings.

This appearance is deliberately restricted to GMs to make them visually distinct from other characters. If you dont see these elements, the character is not a GM. GMs also have a number of other procedures that they must follow:

GMs will never ask for secure account information such as your PIC or password.
oImportant: Secure account information does not refer to your last name, your birthday, or the answer to your secret question. GMs may ask you this information to make sure youre the owner of the account.

GMs will never contact you through Whispers or speak to you in public chat.

GMs will never threaten to ban you if you do not give them items, mesos, or your secure account information such as your password or PIC.

GMs will never ask you to Buddy with them, join a Party, join a guild or alliance, or agree to marry you.

GMs do not talk or contact players with screen effects that look like the weather system. These effects are only used during public events, never as a way to contact a player or prove theyre a GM.

This basically boils down to one simple rule:

The quickest way to tell that somebody is not a GM is if they violate any of the above rules.

If you dont think somebody is a GM, tell them so. No GM would ever get upset or threatening if you show caution. They may offer you an alternative way to contact them outside the game (usually via a ticket through our Customer Support portal).

But how do I know?

When a GM addresses people, they usually do so in public to everyone. If by some extraordinary circumstance a GM contacts you directly, it will be to invite you into a private chat room. Once in the room, a GM will always identify themselves by saying Greetings, this is GM So-and-so. How are you doing today?

Again, these instances are rare. If a GM must contact you directly through the chat system, refer to the list above. There are absolutely no circumstances where a GM would ask you for personal information. It will never happen. The only reason theyll contact you is to help you. You will never be asked to help them.

Scammers will often use some variation of the problem with your account scam. That is, theyll tell you that its an emergency, that your account might have been hacked, thats theres a problem with your recent NX purchase, or some other issue. Their hope is that you will panic and do something, such as provide secure account information, which you might not do if you were thinking clearly. Naturally, your first reaction may be to immediately give them your account information and password in order to save your account. Dont. GMs will never threaten any aspect of your account.

The best defense against hackers is an alert player. Be wary of impersonators, follow the guidelines listed above, and play smart.

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