Bought first UC - advice on keeping it safe?

[Greco951]

I bought my first UC about 2 weeks ago and I want to make sure I'm doing everything properly. So far I've only logged into the account twice from a computer at a public library (I don't want to use a proxy because I know at some point I'll forget to connect to the proxy before logging in). The account was last used a long, long time ago so I didn't want to just log in once, transfer the pet, and never use the account again because that might look suspicious to TNT.
I'm planning on logging into the account a couple more times, maybe playing some games on it and customizing the pets to look legit, then transferring the pet after a couple weeks or so. If it would make things look more legit I can transfer it for a trading fodder pet.
Am I doing everything right?
I know a proxy would save me trouble but I just don't trust myself to set it up properly.

[j03]

Stay away from the NeoBoards. Anything you do or say can be used against you (reported).

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Enjoy your pet!

[Bowsette]

Yeah listen to Joe. Never, and I mean never go to the boards lol

[Raylu]

yup... i only can say it's safe to post on the boards after having that pet for a LONG time on a legit-looking account - at least that was the case when people still checked google cache so idk about now. but i've not had a problem with that yet personally. either way if you just got it, definitely wait it out.

[Greco951]

No worries guys! I never go on the boards and I'm not planning on trading this pet or any others I might buy.

[Bowsette]

yup... i only can say it's safe to post on the boards after having that pet for a LONG time on a legit-looking account - at least that was the case when people still checked google cache so idk about now. but i've not had a problem with that yet personally. either way if you just got it, definitely wait it out.

Even then it's very iffy unfortunately. Because most UCs are watched nowadays, and showing up on new accounts or inactives sets off red flags. And you can't depend on cache anymore so

[champloo]

Congratulations, you bought a status symbol you can never actually show off.

More importantly, Jumpstart randomly bans everyone for anything at all times nowadays because they actively work to be as bad of a company as possible. So nothing you do will ever be safe.

[Foxglove]

Given that you're being patient and you've been periodically logging into the account the UC's on over a decent period of time: If you're not planning to show off your pet anywhere, and you're not planning to partake in any site activities that might cause another user (especially your friends) to look at your userlookup and notice that you own a valuable pet, then you can just transfer the pet directly over to the account you want it on.
If you want to be extra safe, you can do a fake trade or fake a private adoption process, but from my experience, I don't think it's necessary if you're going to lie low.

If you ever plan to go public with the UC, at the bare minimum, make sure all of your pets look loved once the UC's on your main account. Customize it nicely (lots of NP options these days so you don't necessarily need to spend money on NC), give it a pet lookup and a brief description (doesn't need to be extravagant, a premade petlookup will suffice), and make sure your account looks lived in (has a nice userlookup, reasonable stats in shop size, gallery size, Neodeck card count, stamp count, trophy count - both site events and games, games played, avatar count, site themes, etc).


Even when you do everything "right", there's still a risk that you'll lose the pet and/or your account. Heck, even if you don't cheat at all and you just play on Neopets like a normal legit person, you're still at risk of getting your account iced even if you did nothing wrong (Do you remember when someone produced a really popular petpage guide to making fast NP and they suggested trade/shop sniping? Yeah, legit trade/shop sniping can be dangerous because it can look like you're trying to cover up the fact that you're "buying" from illegit sites lol, speaking from personal experience here, sadly)

On the flip side, even if you decide to go onto the PC with a VWN UC that you moved off an inactive account (in some cases, even if it was done only recently), your account may still live, I think it really depends a lot on execution as well as the nature of the inactive account that the UC used to live on. I've introduced so many UCs ranging from Tier 4 to Tier 9 to the PC, and several of them are still around and kicking after maybe 3-5 years. Other pets survived for several months years before finally getting iced (these pets were traded away and in the hands of others at this point and my own account(s) were left untouched), so I can't really say what was the exact cause of the freezing (may have been completely unrelated to being "bought"). Of course this isn't something I would suggest that people do because it's considerably riskier than just quietly moving an UC, but I just wanted to point out that moving and introducing UCs can potentially be very successful. From my perspective, getting frozen for moving an UC is just really bad luck.

[Clair]

My number one piece of advice is: Time is your friend. I usually would let the pet sit on my account for a year before I even went near the boards or let anyone see it. And then months introducing it. I have spent years introducing my high level UCs, but it was worth it because now they are safe.
The more time you take between each thing you do is better. No such thing as too much waiting when it comes to securing a UC. Takes a lot of patience but it's worth it in the end, imo. Some people don't care enough to take the time haha depends on how attached to the pet you are I guess. The thing about the time thing, is you still have a good chance to be frozen if you go on the PC (tnt tends to freeze first, ask questions later these days and PCers are the scum that spam report), but if you take years to secure them you will probably get the account back anyway cause when it's been so long.

[sighcoe]

Here's what I did from trial and error. From my experience:
Is the account with the pet a "shell?" If so... don't play any games/get avatars/ or do anything on it. It's best to leave it alone and log into the account a couple times a week for about two weeks. Then transfer it to a main account, not your main, but another account that is reputable. Again, log onto this main a couple times a week. I would then have the main account (with the pet) talk to each other through neomail. And make the trade. This way I found that your main will be safe no matter what, I have yet to be frozen for this.

Notes: The reason for logging into the shell and the middleman account a couple times a week is that I found myself getting frozen whenever I would trade pets/np/items the day of or even a week out. But ever since I've waited 2 weeks, I've never been caught or frozen. 8 UCs/500m in items/ 1.7b in nps. Are the things I've moved around to make very prominent accounts. I'm a safety junkie xD