Thief Advice?

[DinoTown]

I opened a dodo code using turnip exchange to let people come to my island and sell my turnips since they are going for a decent price right now.
I wanted to charge a fee (nothing dramatic, 50k per trip).
Someone who used the turnip exchange, however, came, ran through my town, and tried to get away without paying.
If they'd asked, chances are I wouldn't have minded, but they purposefully avoided my character, would not speak and generally went about trying to sell turnips for free in all the wrong ways.

I managed to trap them in my airport in they went inside so I opened up my inventory and had the 'please close the window' going around and around until it forced a 'leave quietly' on them so they wouldn't be trapped. It did a little reset for me, I lost the fee paid by my previous visitor (which isn't that big of a deal, honestly. I'm pretty enough that I'd rather lose 50k than someone else gain loads doing that to me.) Would they have also gotten the reset and not have taken home any of their turnip gains? Since I got the reset, I would assume they did too, right?

On top of that, someone who would do that has got me pretty shaken up. Like I said, if they had just asked to do it for free, I would not have minded in the slightest. But I'm upset that someone would even try and do that, and I feel worried about re-opening my queue in case someone tries it again, which makes me feel bad because I want to keep offering my prices to people (I've got a whole 7 hours of my good price left and want to let as many people as possible take advantage of that) but I feel upset that I've been a target for someone trying to pull the wool over my eyes (this isn't the first time I've had someone do this) - what should I do? Any advice? Have any of you been in a similar situation?

 

[Mosshead]

I'm sorry you had to encounter such a player but AFAIK if someone silently leaves "left quietly" it resets for them also so they would not have been able to profit from the turnips they've sold. Was your turnip.exchange link public too? I've heard that there a lot of scammers on there so it's best to just use turnip.exchange for organization purposes in this forum to avoid situations like that in the future. You can also immediately exit and quit the game, which will also reset the progress to prevent the scammer from getting away with the profit.

 

[Vikaela]

I don't really have any advice other than to be more cautious (which is difficult in this situation), but I'm so sorry this happened to you!
People can be so rude :c

 

[Shyria]

If you feel like spending the time, I've seen people digging holes/putting fences around their airport.
They wait for you to drop the entry fee, go get it, then they fill the middle holes so you can go through.
If you're doing this with several people though, it might get extremely tedious, but it's an option...

 

[raqball]

I opened mine up a few days go and let people come sell Turnips for free.. Everyone was very respectful of my Island and friendly except ONE clown that shook and took all the fruit from my trees...

Even worse was that I had specifically posted to not shake the fruit off my tress or pick my flowers. I offered fruit from my storage for free and all someone needed to do was ask for what they needed...

All I did was leave him negative feedback here in the ratings section..

 

[DinoTown]

I'm sorry you had to encounter such a player but AFAIK if someone silently leaves it resets for them also so they would not have been able to profit from the turnips they've sold. Was your turnip.exchange link public too? I've heard that there a lot of scammers on there so it's best to just use turnip.exchange for organization purposes in this forum to avoid situations like that in the future. You can also immediately exit and quit the game, which will also reset the progress to prevent the scammer from getting away with the profit.

Yes, it was public. I feel a bit better if they won't have made anything off of it, though. I'll try and be more careful in the future!

If you feel like spending the time, I've seen people digging holes/putting fences around their airport.
They wait for you to drop the entry fee, go get it, then they fill the middle holes so you can go through.
If you're doing this with several people though, it might get extremely tedious, but it's an option...

With the way my town is set out, I can actually block off everything and form a path that only allows access to Able's and Nook's in under 20 pieces of fence, so I had this already set up to stop people being able to get near anything else (since the last thief I encountered was after my fruits), but I didn't have the gateway system in place. I'd been okay with letting people pay after they'd sold, since up until that point, only people I knew and trusted had been coming (even tho the code was public) - this was the first stranger.

Post automatically merged: May 1, 2020

I opened mine up a few days go and let people come sell Turnips for free.. Everyone was very respectful of my Island and friendly except ONE clown that shook and took all the fruit from my trees...

All I did was leave him negative feedback here in the ratings section..

I would absolutely leave negative feedback if I knew who they were, but I only know their in-game name. I can't even remember their island name since it was filled with accented letters.

 

[Sloom]

a lot of people on turnip.exchange block the way until they receive payment to prevent scammers, but that is quite a lot of effort. I think scammers/thieves are very common on other sites (this one is much kinder and of course the wifi rating system helps) so you gotta be pretty anal about it if you want to make sure you dont get scammed.

if you ever feel like you're about to be scammed big time please do quit out of the game or put your switch on airplane mode before it's too late. I do a lot of trading on nookazon and 2 people have tried scamming me so far, quitting out of the game works like a charm to stop them in their tracks.

 

[Dormire]

I've had that issue with New Leaf ages ago. I suggest you build a little enclosure with an open area where you can fit and put holes behind you. Only move if they pay the entry fee. I always did that during my earlygame in NH because someone attempted to steal my weeds. Drove me nuts.

 

[DinoTown]

I've had that issue with New Leaf ages ago. I suggest you build a little enclosure with an open area where you can fit and put holes behind you. Only move if they pay the entry fee. I always did that during my earlygame in NH because someone attempted to steal my weeds. Drove me nuts.

Stealing weeds? Goodness, someone must have been really desperate to try and steal weeds

 

[Dormire]

Stealing weeds? Goodness, someone must have been really desperate to try and steal weeds

It's not about the weeds. It's about losing sight from the host and breaking what was agreed on. Like I said, I had bad experiences in New Leaf, I had somebody stole a row of hybrids I painstakingly grown because I was complacent, letting them roam around since I had a nice experience trading in NL until that happened. I was so mad that I hacked my town and put fake and hacked hybrids that only produces regular flowers. Seeing thieves stealing my illegitimate hybrids and selling them back to Reddit really made me feel exhilarated. While I can't put something illegitimate for display to sabotage thieves anymore, I would build a dam where no one can pass through until they pay. It's just a game, sure, but I'm not here to play to be taken advantage of.

 

[Mephala]

I can understand your frustration but sadly, this is bound to happen sometimes with any game in which you can do in-game trades, not just animal crossing! It sucks but in the end, it's just a game and all they really did was sell their virtual turnips. They didn't damage your island or do anything that would really suck to fix. So, not the end of the world, albeit a bit irritating. Try not to let it take away from your enjoyment of the game!

However, I think to make this less likely to happen in future you should only do turnip price exchanges through this forum and refuse to share your dodo code unless the people coming over give their character name and town name! That makes it way easier to keep track of who's who AND be able to give negative feedback if the situation arises. I doubt many people on this forum would want to risk negative feedback if they want to keep being able to easily sell their turnips for good prices.

 

[daisyy]

i'm not sure if i have any tips, but i just wanted to say this is such an awful and invasive experience, and i'm sorry that it happened to you. some people's towns are definitely set up so there are fences around everything from the airport to the nooks, and run like a business - which i think is the way to go if you're letting people you don't know into your town...
i opened up my town yesterday on the forums and had a small but positive response, although threads like this remind me that scammers/ill-mannered visitors are definitely still a possibility. i saw someone only let in forum members with a rating of 10+ and think i'll probably do something similar going forward.

 

[Pickler]

Ah hey, I visited you today. Nice town

 

[JKDOS]

I'm sorry you had to encounter such a player but AFAIK if someone silently leaves it resets for them also

Are you sure about that? Nobody would silently leave otherwise in most cases.

 

[Mosshead]

Are you sure about that? Nobody would silently leave otherwise in most cases.

Ah I was referring to the phrase "Someone left quietly" or something like that which meant that the person disconnected. I've had that happened to me when I was visiting my sister's town and I disconnected, prompting that notification on my sister's switch and we both lost progress from that session. I've edited my post to prevent any misunderstanding.

 

[_Donut_]

While on the subject, I've never had to actually 'remove' someone from my island but in case off...how exactly do I do that? Is there an option "remove visitors" or do you always have to quit your game?

 

[Dormire]

While on the subject, I've never had to actually 'remove' someone from my island but in case off...how exactly do I do that? Is there an option "remove visitors" or do you always have to quit your game?

Sadly, there's no way to kick someone off individually other than kicking everyone off. I suggest you open your menu/pull out your Nook Phone as soon as you hear a chime and use the borrowed time to press home then X. I always have my thumb near my home button if I trade with people outside TBT because y'know. You gotta be always prepared.

 

[_Donut_]

Thanks for the tip!

 

[voltairenism]

I suggest if you are going to make it public in turnips.exchange, take two people at a time. When someone scam you, you go to home and close the game, and kick the scammer from the queue and post a message that you are sorry and ask the person who did pay you and was respetful to come again. And ofc, update the code. I am sorry you went through that!

edit: ofc you can also take one person at a time but it takes longer haha for me 2/3 people at a time is the most optimal way.

 

[Splinter]

I'd have just let him finish, he just wanted to make some profit on his turnips.
I'm not as strict though, I don't mind if someone takes some fruit from the trees etc. (It grows back.)
I did a little social experiment elsewhere, someone was selling turnips and said no entry fee but tips were welcome. I didn't leave a tip and they shut off the trade. It just made me think whats the point in saying no entry fee if there actually really is one, disguised as tips.
In reality I prefer to wait for the prices to spike in my own town before selling.