A few days ago we talked about how Star Wars: The Old Republic is signing up beta testers for the soft opening of their massive multiplayer world based on the Star Wars of 1000 years ago. The game is already got 1.5 million interested. But anytime there is huge demand and limited space, the scammers see an opportunity, one that Emperor Palpatine would no doubt approve of.
People always try to make money by selling some intangible object that is not real and is filled with false promises. In this case, a typical ad will try to sell a beta tester invite (or beta key) to an unsuspecting, but eager game player. But like the magic beans, these “tickets” aren’t real. But once you purchase them, you have nothing, but they have your credit card and your personal information. They can then use this to purchase more stuff on your VISA or to steal your identity. There are no tickets for sale by Bioware to beta test their game. So if they are trying to sell you something, it’s a scam.
There is only one way to get to be a beta tester and that is on their site, according to Bioware’s Allison Berryman. She is senior coordinator for the community aspect of the game. That way ishat is to go to the official website at swtor.com.
Beta testers cannot sell their accounts according to Bioware’s terms of service for the beta program. Doing so will suspend the account. Of course, this won’t stop people from trying and so there may actually wind up being offers that aren’t identity thieves, but are still not going to be valid in the long run. And thus a waste of money. Try to remember that during the beta phase, the system is being watched very closely to see what issues arise, but not only that, but to make sure that the security is properly working. In other words, they’ll be on the lookout for betas that change IP’s, etc, and ban them from the game.
While Bioware will send an invite by email to be a beta tester, there are things you should look for to make sure that you are not being sent to a fake site. For one, the From field in the email will be from no-reply@bioware.swtor.com and the link will go to http://www.swtor.com/testing. Clicking it will take you to a page to continue the signing up/in process. It is important to make sure that the link shown is also the actual link. You can do this by hovering over the link and looking at the bottom at the status bar, where it should show you the real link. If you suspect you are being scammed or aren’t sure whether the request is real or not, you can forward the email to bwacommunitysupport@bioware.com for help.
