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| out of respect for the guild, guild's name was concealed |
Despite the frequent warning from Cupid of Wonderland Online (WLO) that selling of accounts is against their Terms of Service (TOS), A lot of players never heed to this rules and continue to sell accounts all across Taurus community. One such case was JenQ. I am acquainted with the owner of JenQ for a good 5 years and he knew how I frowned upon players selling their accounts.
Sometime during the middle of February, JenQ announced his desire to sell one of his high level character (Jinquezz). Queen mailed him expressing her interest to buy the account for a whooping 15K points. 15K points is equivalent to US$825.00. That was probably the highest offer I ever heard of in my 5 years existence of playing WLO.
JenQ was high up in the heaven when he told me of his joy that he will be able to get 15K points. I grind him with incessant questions about the buyer. He didn't divulged the buyer's name to me initially. Having heard of many horrible stories of accounts getting hacked or scammed, I was concerned with the nature of the buyer. After all, US$825.00 isn't a peanut money.
I advised JenQ to clarify the issue with WLO Live Support (LS) instead. His visit to the LS confirmed my suspicion. Queen swindled him of his Jinquezz account as well as putting him deeper on the risk of losing his other account (JenQ), and the obligation to pay an outstanding balance of US$2145.00.
When confronted, Queen didn't say a word. She neither admit nor deny what she did. She insisted everything wasn't done purposely. We lay all the facts and evidences on her face and yet she was adamant it wasn't intentional. JenQ lost counts on how many times the girl promised to resolve the matter and pay back the US$2145.00. Everytime the money was brought up, she kept making excuses.
On March 1, Queen credited 10K IM points to JenQ's account. For the next 3 days, JenQ used up 500 points out of the 10K points he got. The bleeding began on March 4 when JenQ discovered he can't access to his account. It was at this point that he revealed the buyer's name. The buyer goes by the name of Queen / EmoPhai / Novi / MysMay.
It was my first time to come across the character's name. One look at her Facebook page, I reprimanded JenQ that the buyer is too young to be able to use Paypal much less even afford to buy that much points. When I began to dig around for more information about the girl, I came across several unpleasant facts. I am not going to divulge on what I gathered about her personal life but at WLO, she is known to be someone who seems to have an infinite money ready at all times.
When JenQ addressed the issue to Queen, her reply came out as a disturbing one to me. She claimed she couldn't remember the Paypal accounts she used to buy points. I was told that the queen bought a lot of points 3 days ago. 10K points to JenQ, 10K points to Jinquezz and roughly 20K points to Queen. Queen even went on a feeding frenzy of opening a stack of the 2013 packs and gave away the new male and female day suits to her friends.
I advised JenQ to clarify the issue with WLO Live Support (LS) instead. His visit to the LS confirmed my suspicion. Queen swindled him of his Jinquezz account as well as putting him deeper on the risk of losing his other account (JenQ), and the obligation to pay an outstanding balance of US$2145.00.
According to LS, a dispute was filed by the buyer through Paypal claiming that the US$2145.00 was an unauthorized transaction. For all concerned, Paypal gave its users the option to file a resolution or dispute in the event that an unwarranted transaction took place. If I'm not mistaken, any resolution filed is tantamount to putting a company/person on the Paypal's blacklist.
Queen asserted she didn't do anything wrong. We were baffled to discover that she actually used her grandmother's credit card, spent US$2145.00, all without her grandmother's consent. Her grandmother, on the other hand, thought that someone hacked her Paypal account and therefore immediately filed a dispute to IGG. Upon checking, Paypal found the favor in her grandmother's claim and thus money was refunded.
After several attempts to clear his side, there were some things that puzzled us. No one could comprehend why the good office of IGG insisted JenQ should pay US$2145.00 when only 10K points (US$550.00) was credited to the above mentioned account. Despite the demand to investigate further on JenQ's past transaction history, IGG wasn't able to give us a better understanding on what really transpired.
Another thing that bugged us to no end was witnessing how Jinquezz and Queen was able to walk freely around WLO when both account was supposed to be ban too. Everyone was under the assumption, then, that Queen used another account to buy points and credited them to JenQ and Jinquezz.
Queen claimed she talked with LS several times already. She maintained she had no idea why IGG was putting the pressure on JenQ. Despite several letter of protest to IGG, no one could explain why the burden of paying the full US$2145.00 fell on JenQ's account.
Fortunately, JenQ contacted someone who knew the girl from way back. He revealed that this wasn't the first time Queen scammed someone. She did this same method of scamming to a certain "MysMay" account. Several conjecture passed, JenQ was able to figure out the bottom line of all this mess. Queen used JenQ's account to buy points. In short, she hacked JenQ.
When confronted, Queen didn't say a word. She neither admit nor deny what she did. She insisted everything wasn't done purposely. We lay all the facts and evidences on her face and yet she was adamant it wasn't intentional. JenQ lost counts on how many times the girl promised to resolve the matter and pay back the US$2145.00. Everytime the money was brought up, she kept making excuses.
She wanted to be sure her grandmother is not present so she can *steal* again or use her grandmother's credit card. I told JenQ I feel bad about the whole situation. It stinked from the start. We have come to the conclusion that she doesn't have money of her own but using other people's money. In her case, she is splurging on her grandmother's money.
No matter how we try to hype up the pressure on her, she will always resort to using her grandmother's money. I empathize with her grandmother in this regards. I decided to drop a mail to the girl and demanded that she return Jinquezz. She was a good girl when she returned the account to its rightful owner.
I know the girl had some personal issues of her own. She is 14 years old if I'm not mistaken. From the way she talks, it was quite obvious she doesn't know what she was doing. She doesn't realize she was extorting money and think money flows in the family like water. She was too young to understand the consequences she will face. My fervent wish is that she better learn how to avoid dragging other people into her mess. For all I know, that grandmother's story was a fake. Something she concocted to cover her guilt.
She used money to buy IM points so she can lured players to her side. A lot of players were fooled by the countless IM stuff she have or the endless points in her accounts. I wish I could have said things in a better way as not to offend her sensibilities. But looking at the bigger picture, she was guilty of causing havoc to JenQ's account.
Some of the players may throw in the usual cliche "this is just a game," however, what Queen did was something beyond my comprehension. JenQ had make it plain things became personal as real money was involved. As I am sure anyone on JenQ's current situation will feel bad too. It isn't cool at all.
At the moment, JenQ didn't know to salvage his account. I bluntly told him he may not be able to recover it anymore not unless he will pay back to IGG. As for JenQ, I hope this will serve as a lesson to stay on guard when dealing with other players. We can go a bit easier when dealing with in-game gold or trade but where real money is concerned, it is a different ball game.
For now, I'd say sayonara to JenQ. You will be missed. :/
* Real names are not disclosed. I used their in-game usernames instead. All screenshots usernames were heavily edited as well *