How to protect your IMVU account from being scammed or stolen!

Modified on Mon, 4 Nov at 12:25 PM

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Suspicious messages from someone pretending to be Staff? Mysterious links to "free credits" cropping up on your chat? People asking for your password? These are just some of the ways your accounts can get taken over. Learn how to protect your account by knowing more about the techniques scammers use!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: One of the most effective ways to protect your account from scammers is by turning on Two-Factor Authentication for your account. Click here to learn more!

COMMON SCAMMER TACTICS

Misspelled Account Names. You might receive messages from avatars with a variation of the words "IMVU", "Official", "Support", "Community", "Staff", etc. Often, these accounts are complete with copied profile photos that look like real staff accounts -- such as photos ripped from IMVU Official., IMVU Offers, Staff members, etc. Real staff accounts are never misspelled, and can be identified by several markings. Click here to see how to identify legit staff accounts.

Links that take you to fake login pages. These can appear in Pulse, in your Inbox, or in Chat. You may be asked to "verify your account", "join a group", "vote for a photo", or the like. Once clicked, these links will take you to a login page that looks exactly like IMVU's -- but it is fake. Click here to know how to identify a real IMVU login page. Also, never put your username and password on any other form outside of the official IMVU login page.

Links to free credits or upgrades (VIP, etc.). Just like links to fake login pages, someone may chat you about links to free or discounted IMVU credits and upgrades. IMVU is the sole source of legitimate credits, and the only real free credits can be obtained by earning them. Scammers may also entice you to use a "hacked" version of the IMVU Classic (IMVU Client) for "added benefits" -- remember that this is easily detectable and punishable by permanent disablement.

Links posted by friends. Sometimes, you might receive these links from your friends. Scammers can use the accounts they took over to try and do the same to those on their friends list. If you receive a suspicious message from a friend, report it using our flagging tools, which are also available on the IMVU Website.

Also, never let your friends log into your account -- account sharing is strictly prohibited as per our Terms of Service. If a friend wants to get an item for you, they can gift it from the catalog or the Store. They can also easily give you credits via Credit transfer. If they are having issues with credit transfers, please refer them to this article.

Scammers pretending to be Customer Support. You might receive false messages from people pretending to be Customer Support. Usually, these people ask you to "verify" your account by asking for sensitive information. IMVU does not do such a verification, and our real CS agents communicate only via a Help Ticket or a Live Chat session. Also, we never ask for your password.

Don'ts

Never share your password with anyone, even with legitimate IMVU staff or Customer Support.
Never attempt to purchase credits or upgrades outside IMVU.
Never click on links offering free stuff.
Never share your account, nor log into another user's account.
Never share your payment information with anyone in-game.

Do's

Enable Two-Factor Authentication for your account.
Always check the address bar of your browser when you are in the login screen. The address should be prefixed by an HTTPS (https://www.imvu.com/next/home/)
Always check the avatar cards and the message box for IMVU Staff watermarks when someone claiming to be staff contacts you.
If you happen to click on a link, always be careful if you are asked to log in again. Check the address bar to make sure you are still on the official IMVU site. Check out this article to find out about phishing sites and how to avoid them.
Always report any unusual or suspicious chats or links you may receive in your Inbox or in chat sessions.
If you have entered your information on what appears to be a scam link, contact us immediately -- see the next section for details.
Be careful when looking for free Credit offers. Check out this post for more info!

What can I do?

If you believe you have been scammed (and if trying to recover your account does not work), go to the Help Center and file a ticket. Under General Support, select Password Issues under Topics. Please make sure to include the following details:

The avatar name for the account that was scammed
The original email address used to set up the account (if your address has been changed and needs to be restored, we will return the email to the original address you used to set up the account up and notify you when this is completed)
The birthdate you used to register the account
Any billing information that has been linked to the account (last 4 digits of credit card, PayPal email address, etc.)
City and Country where the account was first created.
Any information on how this person obtained your password (someone has to have your password to access your account) -- Did they ask you for your password? Did you give your password out? Does anyone else share your computer? etc.

You may use an alternate account to file a case. If you don't have one, you can follow these steps.

If you are still able to access your account and believe that you got scammed or hacked, you also have the option to delete your account temporarily either through the IMVU Classic Website or IMVU Mobile and contact us after to verify!

These same techniques can be used to protect yourself against "doxxing", an online threat where your real-life information can be compromised. To protect yourself against doxxing, check out this article.

REMEMBER -- Your account is your responsibility. As IMVU does its best to weed out scammers and return accounts they have taken over, we rely on you, our loyal users, to protect your accounts as best as you can.