Scams

"RuneScape is home to millions of people from many countries and walks of life and, like any community, there can be a few bad apples."

- Jagex

Beneath is a list of cheats and scams commonly found in RuneScape. This page is not meant to promote scamming, but rather to prevent players from being scammed. Players must be warned NOT to use any of the below methods as they are against RuneScape Rules and will result in banning of the player's account or even subsequent accounts used by the player.

The removal of Free Trade and the Wilderness put an end to most scamming, as players could no longer scam others for valuable items without paying for them; the most a player could theoretically gain from scamming was 50k. Also, players could no longer lure players to the wilderness and have them killed by a well-organized ambush party.

Unfortunately, the return of both Free Trade and the Wilderness triggered an outbreak of scams, most notably the "Dice Game", "Trust Game", and "Double your Money" scams- being that players could transfer large amounts of wealth. This guide will hopefully ensure you outsmart the returning scammers to RuneScape, and help everyone in the ongoing "War on Scammers". Currently are many scams and variations thereof that a player may fall for. These scams may cause the player to lose their money, items, or even accounts. Scams tend to come and go due to updates. For example, the Gravestone update reduced scamming greatly by preventing players from immediately being able to pick up a player's items after dying. Although Jagex has made an effort to limit scamming as much as possible, it still persists today. A list of antiquated scams can be found here.

All usernames used in the examples are hypothetical, and any resemblance to real usernames are coincidental.

Item Scams
Always remember that IF A DEAL IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT'S PROBABLY A SCAM.

Item trading scam
A player is advertising an item he/she is willing to trade. Another player (the scammer) trades him or her, but offers money or an item thats lots more worth than item the player is willing to sell. The seller is about to click accept as the scammer removes his/her money/item. And after removing, the scammer also accepts. The seller can't believe he/she gets so much profit from a trade that he/she would forget to take time for checking the second and directly clicks accept without looking. And when he/she looks in their empty inventory, he/she would realize that he/she just got scammed. Suggested Action: Really check the second trade window. Also report the player for item scamming.

Money For Information Scam
Player 1 sees a cool item/weapon, wants it, but doesn't know how to get it. Player 2 states he will inform Player 1 on how to obtain the item but logs off upon payment. The scam is most often performed with uncommon or unusual items like a Rune defender or Barrelchest anchor rather than common ones such as a Steel longsword.

Suggested Action: Report the player for item scamming. Ask a more honest player about the item or look it up on a fan site. (Note: If the player actually tells you what the item does after being paid, you CANNOT report him/her though but this is rarely ever the case.)

Claiming an item is rare when it isn't
A scammer may claim an item is very rare, when it is actually very easy to obtain. He or she may offer to sell it for ridiculously large amounts of money, and log out or teleport before the player realizes that he/she has been scammed.

Suggested Actions: Report the offending player for item scamming. This scam is relatively easy to avoid if you double check the guide price on the trade screen. However, if a player were to offer an item for a ridiculous price, it is NOT considered scamming unless the player explicitly states such an item is rare and/or unobtainable, like in the example.

Trust scam
Some players might attempt to trick other players into playing "trust games" where you have to show your "trust" of another person by letting them hold onto a large amount of cash or a valuable item of yours. ''' NEVER PARTICIPATE IN THESE TYPES OF GAMES! ''' "Trust game" scams have now resurfaced as a result of the free trade update.

Beware these types of scams, as there are many possible variants and ways of gaining your trust. For example, the scammer may actually return the given items the first few rounds, making the game actually seem legit until someone offers a sufficiently valuable item or a large amount of coins. In addition, the scammer may also have a friend for the purposes of bringing up the price of the bids, and in the event that the friend's bid is the highest, the scammer may give his friend the promised money to make the scam seem legitimate.

Suggested actions: Immediately after the host provides evidence that he is playing the trust game, the player may report him/her for item scamming in the honour section of the rules.

Wilderness Luring
Wilderness Lure would be when a player would announce that they were doing a Player Killing video and encouraged the victim to bring anywhere between 1 to 3 of their most valuable items, telling them that they would never skull. The victim would be led into 23 or so wilderness where they could not teleport with the scammer and a friend of his to help. The scammer would then trade the victim a chinchompa (item), telling them to wield it and put on auto-retaliate and it would make a "cool explosion." Since chinchompas have an area effect, the explosion would hit the nearby friend and the victim would be skulled. At this point the scammers would team the victim, killing them, and causing them to lose their items. The same thing happens with players luring each other into the unsafe clan wars portal.

Ice Plateau Scam
Ever since the old style Wilderness returned on 1 February 2011, this scam has become quite common. A high leveled player (120+) advertises a drop party often on a crowded world at the Grand Exchange. Many people bring their most valuable items with them and follow the scammer who will lead them to a random location. The scammer will then use Tele Group Ice Plateau to teleport everyone to Ice Plateau and then kill the unprepared players, thus looting everyone's valuable items. Suggested action: It is rather difficult to tell if the player in question is legitimate or not until he/she teleports others. As this is considered a form of luring, it is indeed considered a scam so reporting is the most viable option. To avoid this scam, always check twice before hitting the "Confirm button" so you know where you are being teleported to. You can also just bring nothing and accept the teleport to see whether it is actually a scam or not.

Double Money Scam
A scammer offers to double another player's money. Often, the scammer starts out with low values to earn the player's trust.

Note: This old scam has resurfaced with the re-release of the old wild and free trade. Anyone offering to "double" or "duplicate" your money is simply trying to scam you.

Suggested Action: Report the scammer.

Player House Scam
Some players will try to give you a rare or expensive item for something you might have. In the case of the Player House Scam, the scammer may ask that the player drop his or her items or put them on a table, claiming that they will also put something valuable on the table as well. As soon as the scammer sees their desired item(s), they will kick the victim from the house.

Suggested action: Make sure you report the player.

Trade password for item scam
Some players will claim to give away the password to one of their accounts (including possibly the one they are scamming with) for a certain item they want.

Suggested actions: Simply ignore them and report the player item scamming. Even though they are mentioning their password, they can't be reported for password scamming because they are not scamming for someone else's password, only their items. Also, since they are offering their account (even though they would probably lie about or not even say their password), they can be reported for Account sharing/trading.

Show Inventory for Amount Scam
This scam, like the Ice Plateau scam, is a recent one appearing on 1 February 2011. Some players will say that they are filling other people's inventories with a certain item, such as Amulets of glory or Sharks. They ask people to show what they have in their inventory so that the scammer knows how many items to give. Actually, the scammer ends up trading the item they are giving away for something much more valuable. In excitement of getting something for free the targeted player often forgets to take their items out of the trade and quickly clicks accept.

Suggested action: Pay attention to what you are trading before you hit the accept button. As the number of free inventory spaces is displayed on the trade screen, careful players can easily avoid this scam. The wealth transfer is also displayed. If the questioned player doesn't return his/her victim's items, report him/her for item scamming.

Surrogate Trader Scam
This scam involves a team of scammers, at least two, one of which is on the victims "Friend List". The friend will PM the player, asking them to see if they can find a supposedly rare item at the GE, offering to reimburse their victim after obtaining it. The seller who the player finds with the requested item offers it for sale at a very high price, either in cash or expensive items. As soon as the trade is made, the remote friend ignore lists the player and the trader logs out.

Suggested action: The best way of avoiding this scam is to avoid making the trade. However, the trader might be reportable for item scamming if he/she claimed the item was rare. If you have undeniable evidence that the remote friend was attempting to get you into the scam, the remote friend may also be reported.

Password Scams
Password scamming is a more serious kind of scamming where a player steals another's password.

Miscellaneous
The following are not actually scams and are not reportable, but they are still considered against the spirit of the game.

Fake Skillcapes
Fake Skillcapes are non-existent items which some users use to scam others. For example, the cow skillcape was allegedly given to a player that killed 10,000 cows (some players additionally lied that the skillcape would come with a cow costume and an emote). This was actually a scam, to waste a player's time. Some scammers would also secretly record gullible players killing cows for upload to YouTube.

Fake Friends
A player with a username very similar to a friend of the victim messages him/her saying they need money because they've been scammed. This however is fairly ineffective because the username is not the same and only unattentive people would fall for this one.

Item Lending Trick
Some players who want an item for a long period of time and not paying the correct amount of coins may try to offer the incorrect amount of coins.

For example, a player may ask if they can borrow an item for a few hours. After the victim puts up their item, the player will then put up the correct amount of money for that time, make a few quick switches, and then end with the correct amount of money for one hour.

Jagex doesn't regard this as a scam because you are not losing any items, and the scammer can give a very good excuse if they are banned.

Flower Game
"The Flower Game" is a player-made game on Runescape which involves gambling. The player hosting the game will determine how much a winning bet will be multiplied.

Because this game can be used as a method of scamming, players should be wary of any deals that seem too good to be true, and must understand that they are playing the game at their own risk, as is the case with any gambling game. If a so-called "dealer" is legitimate, ask him / her to trust you (exactly the same way he / she is asking you to trust him / her) and take your bet after the winner is determined, much the same way that he / she is asking you to trust him / her to give you your winnings after the flower grows. For example, if the dealer is asking for 500k, ask to trade 500k and offer your own 500k, to make sure he has 500k. Also ask him to show you the prize. Now, you both have 500k. If you win, trade back his 500k for the prize. If you lose, do nothing. If he / she is unwilling to do this, it is a more likely to be a scam. Don't be fooled - avoid being scammed.

A common occurance is for the scammer to give you pay for first several bets to win trust. Then when you pay out good, they say follow. They usually then approach another scammer and pretend they have the money you are owed. Neither ever pay you back. Its been witnessed that even after this they go straight back to taking bets.

How the game is played:

The gambling player will trade the host any number of coins and bet on which color flower the host will plant. If they guess correctly, the host will award them with a prize (usually 3 or 4 times higher than the original bet).

Sometimes hosts will claim that they are offering extremely high priced prizes with a low gambling price. Many of these are scams, so it is important to play at one's own risk. They may also deploy a friend to pretend to win the game and trick others into playing.

The chances of winning a game are roughly 1/7. See flowers for more information.

Dice Game
The so-called "Dice Game" is simply another form of scamming along the same lines as the "Flower Game". The player will ask you to give him / her cash, and he / she will claim to pay you your "winnings" if the correct number comes up when he / she rolls the dice in his / her clan chat. This is simply a new "twist" on the old "trust game" scam that has resurfaced as a result of the return of the free trade. If a player wants to play the "Dice Game" with you, simply tell that player that you will pay him / her your bet after the dice roll - after all, it's the same thing as paying them first and trusting them to pay you your "winnings" after the dice are rolled. Even if the player offering the dice game is an honest player, offering a fair game, they may not agree to trading your money after the roll, fearing that they will lose out on the bet if the betting player loses. Keep in mind that although this is sometimes a scam where they will not pay out for a winning roll, some players are hosting legitimate games of chance.

If someone is offering a dice game, they shouldn't be reported until it becomes evident that this is a scam.

Rounding money scam
This scam is similar to doubling your money. It seems more legitimate as the scam takes place over one trade instead of two. The scammer will claim to round your money up to say the nearst million coins and ask you to place your money in the trade window so they know how much to give you. They will then put up the requried money and click accept. The scam only works if the target forgets that they have offered money. A scenario where this scam is used is where a target has 3.1 mill and places all of it up in a trade. The scammer then offers 900k and clicks accept. The target player forgets that they have the 3.1m in the trade and accept it they will find themselves 2.2m down.

Antiquated Scams
Many other scams existed other than these, but a lot of them have been rendered obsolete or are very rare.