Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Have you ever received an anonymous gift and wondered where it came from? Have you ever questioned whether or not a gift was safe to accept? Want to know how to keep your account free from anonymous gifters?? Read on!

In your account settings, found under My Gaia --& Account Settings --& Preferences, look for a section called, "Receive Gifts from:" In the dropdown menu, you have a choose of No One, Only Friends (No Anonymous), Non-Anonymous Users, and Everyone.

To expand on what these settings mean to you:
No One - No gifts can be sent to you.
Only Friends (No Anonymous) - Friends on your Friends List can send you gifts.
Non-Anonymous Users - Anyone can send a gift IF they specify who they are when sending.
Everyone - Anyone can send gifts, with or without specifying who they are.

If you want to receive gifts, then Only Friends is a great option, unless you accept everyone who sends you a Friend Request on your list. Then, you don't really know who your friends are, right? If that's the case, accept gifts with caution or just don't allow gifts at all and set it to No One just to be safe.

Doing this will allow ultimate control of when you will and will not receive gifts. If a friend you trust tells you they'd like to send you a gift, you can temporarily change your settings and then set them back after you get the gift.

Why all the paranoia about accepting gifts? Sometimes hackers (nefarious punks who steal items from accounts) will dump stolen items into other users' accounts. They do this by anonymously gifting. You think it's cool because you got gifts, but in reality, receiving stolen goods breaks Gaia's ToS and you could get in trouble right along with the hacker and that's not fun. So, do what you can to keep your account safe!

EDIT:
You will not be banned if you receive items from a hacked account (unless it's obvious that you had something to do with the hacking), but you may have your trades disabled and the item(s) removed.