Scams

Scamming is the act of stealing items or accounts from another player through trickery. This is strictly against the RuneScape rules and doing so will typically result in banning of the violator's account. This page is not meant to promote scamming, but rather to prevent players from being scammed.

Membership scams
Sometimes scammers will log into F2p worlds and start offering to buy membership for other players, in return for payment or expensive items. They will usually keep the items given to them and then log off without keeping their end of the deal. However this type of scam is rare nowadays.

A variant of this scam involves asking for your password in order to upgrade your account to membership status only to have them hijack your account and steal all of your items.

There are also websites that claim they can make you a member for free or for a smaller fee than what Jagex charges. Do not trust these sites because they will also attempt to steal your items and/or your account.

Just press "w"
The scammer will ask the player to get full armour set and all his/her's money and trade. The scammer will ask you to accept once and keep pressing the "w" in wealth transfer in the trade window. And if you fall victim to this you will be pressing the "w' as fast as you can and he will press accept if you keep doing this you will press accept a second time thus the scammer presses accept and you lose everything.

Inventory Showing
Players will ask you to show them your best items in the hope that you'll forget they're there, and press 'Accept'. Be wary of anyone asking you to show your inventory and make sure you’re concentrating.

Rushing You to Trade (Lag Trading)
Some players may start closing the trade window and claiming there is lag – trying to rush you into trading quickly by repeatedly closing their trade window, so they can alter the trade without you noticing. Only trade when you have had PLENTY of time to check the trade screens and ensure all is well, or else you could potentially lose lots of money.

Rounding Money
People will offer to round someone's cash stack up to the nearest million coins for someone else. This is one of the 'too good to be true' scams. When you show the scammer your money (let's say it's 850,000 coins) they will put 150,000 coins in the trade window - and the initial impression is that you are indeed getting the difference between your cash and one million - but don't forget you have put 850,000 coins up - if you proceed with the trade you will hand over 850,000 coins and receive 150,000 coins in return, the net effect being a transfer of 700,000 coins from you to the scammer. ALWAYS check what you are losing and what you are gaining - don't be tempted by what is being offered to you without considering what you are also giving away! Always check your trade window to verify what you are giving and in exchange for what. Oftentimes they will also round it down, so they will still make a small profit, and are more likely to fool common users.

Doubling Money
Similar to the 'rounding' scam. The scammer will say they can double your money and offer to 'prove' it. You give them a small amount of money - they give you double the amount back. They will then try to get you to give them a larger amount, but instead of doubling it they'll just keep it. They may even use a friend to help, who will stand next to them saying that the player really does double money, in which they actually don't.

Some players take advantage of great difference of the street price and the GE price. One might say for example: "Doubling 2m in one trade!" You give 2 million gp and one gives an item worth of 4 million gp. You think you made a great deal but then you notice nobody is buying the item worth 4 million gp and the price of it is steadily going down, resulting in a loss. This is currently popular with the Polypore Staff, so don't think you will make lots of money from this.

If you see someone doing this, one trick you can use is to counter-scam them. Say you're willing to double, and that you'll give them a small sum of coins to double, saying that if they do, you'll give them a much larger sum. After the first doubling you don't continue it thus gaining some profit. Since they said "doubling money" you can't be accused for scamming for you have done exactly what they advertised; they doubled your money.

Percent Add
Similar to the 'rounding' and 'doubling money' scams. The scammer will offer 10% of the amount of coins or another percent that they are given(Ex. Offer 100 gp and they'll add 10% or another 10 coins.)

The Trust Game
Players who ask to let them hold on to a valuable item of yours in exchange for payment. This is often a scam where they will not return your item as promised. Even if it is not necessarily a scam, players who offer to play the trust game can be reported for encouraging rule breaking, as trust trades are specifically against the rules.

Do you trust me?
The scammer will tell the victim that he is going to quit runescape and he will give off a huge amount of money. But for a condition, the scammer will give the victim his money in exchange for a valuable item the victim has (for example- a guthix fullhelm.) The scammer will ask "do you trust me or not?" If the victim says yes, the victim must give the scammer the item first before he or she could get the money, as a form of "payment." Once the item is in the scammer's hands, he or she immediately logs off. This type of scam is very unpopular and thanks to the new reporting system, whatever the scammer said can be reported.

Accepting a Teleport - Safety
Make sure you know where the location is before you accept a teleport from another player. The Ice Plateau is in the Wilderness, and there are often a group of Player Killers ready to kill whoever gets teleported.

The Flower Game


You will be asked to hand over some cash for the bet, then the player will plant a flower seed and ask you to guess which of the nine colors of flower the seed will produce. If you guess correctly, the player will claim to double your money. They may keep to their side of the bargain, but it’s more likely that they will log out and run off with your cash. Players use Mithril Seeds to grow these flowers. It should be noted that not all Flower Game's are scams, but its rare to find a legitimate host.

Armour Trimming
No one can 'trim' your armour - it can't either be 'trimmed' or 'untrimmed'. It is not possible to trim untrimmed armour. Trimmed armour can be gained by completing clue scrolls, or through buying it in the Grand Exchange. It is, however, possible to add a gold trim to dragon armour using an ornamental kit(or). This is currently not possible with any other type of armour, however.

"Rare" Items
Many players will ask inflated prices for items claiming they are rare. If in doubt, please check the current price. This is stated at the bottom of the trade interface or you can use the Grand Exchange or look up the market price on the Grand Exchange Market Watch.

Team Item Scamming
Many players will band together to try to scam you – one will be selling an item for a high price, the other will claim to be buying the same item for a higher price. This will fool some players into thinking that they can make a quick sale and large profit if they buy and sell the items being offered. Don’t be fooled by this!

Alt-F4
Some players will claim that dropping your items and pressing Alt-F4 will double your items. All it will do is close the browser or client, which will log you out, so they can pick up your stuff. (F5 may do the same thing by refreshing your browser page or ctrl + w which will close your tab). This scam has recently lost some popularity as the game shows a message confirming whether the player would like to leave the page or not

"Trade me your item for a minute, I'll give it back!"
Don't believe them, they'll probably run away with your stuff. Instead of trading it to them, use the Item Lending system instead. Often they will say they just want a screenshot with the items in their inventory. T his is essentially the same as the "trust game." Any player who offers to perform a trust trade can be reported for encouraging rule-breaking, even if a scam does not take place.

"Set your password to [insert password here] and log out for free stuff!"
If you do this, they will hack your account (because they now know what your password is) and steal anything valuable. Not possible with players with previous names, unless they were your friend or implanted a virus on you. However, free players are prone to it and there might be programs that detects players logging out nearby and try the passwords. This is also known as Phishing Password Scams.

"Give me your item and I'll duplicate it!"
This is NOT possible. They just simply won't give it back.

Fake Drop Party
Similar to the above, the scammer will claim that he's dropping valuable items and encourage you to drop yours. He or she will not drop items, and simply just take yours. Use the Falador Party Room for safe drop parties.

Random Emote Game
This game may affect several emotes, that have a randomiser in it. Some emotes with this are the Seal of Approval emote, and the Classic cape emote, as well as the Easter Ring emote, where the player turns himself into one of several easter eggs. In the Seal Game, players bet on which number will appear on the back that appears when the host uses the Seal of Approval emote. An alternative version exists where the player's bet is multiplied by the number on the seal's backpack instead. At the Classic cape emote, there are three possible objects in the thinking cloud: a Bar, some Arrows, and an Axe. The player guesses what object will come. If he is right, the owner would probably not get paid and the host would take his money. This game is against the rules to play, even if no scam takes place; since it is considered a trust trade, a player who offers to host the random emote game can be reported for encouraging rule-breaking.

I am quitting runescape.....scam
The scammer would say something like "I am quitting runescape, giving free money/drop party". This is unlikely to be true. The scammer may not be quitting runescape, instead, he or she may try to scam your items away or make fake drop parties to kill the victims. This is similar to the 'Do you Trust me' scam. This scam has since lost popularity due to the new reporting funtion whereby the victim can report the scammer's message and the addition of the Falador Party Room which is designed for 'safe' drop parties.

Information for Cash
A player sees a new item and wants to know more about it. The scammer states he will inform the victim on how to obtain the item for a fee, but when the scammer receives payment, they log off. The scam is most often performed with uncommon or unusual items like a Barrelchest anchor, Ceremonial swords, Katanas or other newly released items.

Similar Item Scam
Some players will look for someone selling a valuable item, they will offer to trade the person offering a Barrows item, e.g. a Barrows - dharok's set the trading player will see the profit he is about to make and press accept, the scammer will then decline say it was an accident and offer to re-trade. in the re-trade the scammer will then offer a similar looking item like a Bronze armour set (lg) and immediately press accept, the trader still excited from the barrows offer instantly accepts loses their valuable item and is left with bronze armour.

This is also the case with Saradomin Swords. Scammers will open a second trade and will ask you to put in money. In actual fact, it is a Steel 2h sword or a White 2h sword. This also implies to the bones, wealthy players will want bones for prayer training thus buying, for an example, 20,000 Dragon bones and the Scammer will put up 20,000 Big bones or Babydragon bones as they cost much less than Dragon bones. So therefore it will trick the player as the bones can look very similar in the noted form thus tricking the player to put up the original cost for 20,000 Dragon bones but for Big bones or Babydragon bones.

Password for Item
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. Due to an update, you can no-longer say your account's password, but there are many ways to evade this censor.

Player-Owned House
Some players will try to give you a rare or expensive item for something you might have. In the case of the Player-Owned 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 and lock the portal so they can't come back.

Popup/Auto Center Clicking
The victim will be told to put in valuables in trade menu and to click accept till final menu. Then the scammer sends the victim a auto virus program via (skype, email) and tells them to open it and that the items will double in front of them in final menu. The reailty is that when they open the program the mouse auto centers to the final trade accept button and clicks accept. The victim wont have control of mouse for at least 5–6 seconds.

Goody Bag
In this scam, the scammer will offer a chance at getting a rare/high value, supposedly drawn out of a goody bag, in exchange for a lower value stake. For example a victim gives 200,000 coins to the scammer. They then are told either to pick a number (e.g. 1-5) and the goody bag item is chosen this way. The scammer will likely offer and show several high-value items to a victim, along with several low value ones in order to seem legitimate. Once a victim has paid and chosen a number, they will offer up the lowest value item, earning in the process, giving a good reward to lure you to continue or simply log-out without giving anything. A variation is a player simply claiming they have a real "goody bag" tool in their inventory and as such, they cannot guess what item will emerge from it once loading it with 'prizes'. This is false, no such item exists.

One-Trade Money Doubling
In this scam, the scammer is saying "Doubling in one trade", and then people trade him because one-trade doublers are most of the time legit. He'll say to put your money in the trade, and clicking accept once. He will not accept, but will say to click the text which says "number of coins being transfererd". He'll ask you to say when you're doing it. Then, when you're doing it, he'll click on accept twice, and you're still clicking, and then you realise you've clicked accept twice, too, losing your money.

Real World Trading
Real world trading sites are a scam. What the site runners do is they will ask for the payment, the player pays them in real money, then they ask for your email to email you when the order is done, then after the order is done they email you, then they will use that email to attempt recovery questions to hijack the gp back this is a scam. Even if this is not a scam it is against the Rules of RuneScape and you should not trade real life wealth for RuneScape items.

Fake dicing and horse games
A lot of people still do not know that dicing has been removed from the game, and toy horseys now only have one possible outcome, and there are hosts who take advantage of this fact. The hosts will ask for bets and simply log out upon receiving these bets.

Silent Scamming
This scam is some what slow at times and would rarely be seen but, this scam is fairly new to some players as to how they abuse the new reporting system to their own adavantage.

Simply in this new report system, players can only report another player by finding them on any of the chats. As so, players may go to a highly populated world and try to find players who would want their money doubled. The scammer will trade them and take their money and log out without saying a single word, making the scammer unreportable.

Money or item doubling as a whole is another form of scamming and should, of course, be avoided.

Soul wars Zeal
This scam involves people spamming that you can earn extra Zeal, which you can't. Pay no attention to this. They all require you to go to a youtube page and then to another website which will give you a virus. You can only get 3 zeal for victory, 2 for draw and 1 for loss. The only exception to this was the Bot-Busting celebrations when you could get extra Zeal in game.

Inventory lending scam
A scam usually involving someone saying that they want to trade you their item if you lend them yours until logout. Then they cancel the trade in the last window making it look exactly as if the trade was completed. If you didn't pay close attention, you wouldn't notice that the lend was canceled. As a result the item you were going to lend would go back to your inventory and when he asks for you to trade 'his' item back, you would in fact be trading YOUR item back to him. The trick to catching this scam is to watch for the TRADE DECLINED warning. If you don't, you will fall for this scam. And this results in no evidence for reporting the player, and your item gone. Common with rares. In response to this, on 4 January 2012, Jagex has made the trade declined notification much easier to see, making this scam relatively easy to foil.

"Buy me items in the GE" scam
This scam involves someone, the scammer, asking people to buy them some items in the GE for a certain price, usually because they don't have cash (just items), or because they have bought the max amount. The scammer usually says they will pay extra to you if you buy them the goods. The scam is that they are trying to sell what they ask you to buy, thus selling the victim a lot of a goods for a higher-than-equilibrium price. Instead of paying the person who bought the items, they log out or leave.

"Are you a trustworthy person?"
This scam involves someone, the scammer, to ask if the victim if they are trustworthy. If they 'pass the test', than they will be rewarded. It usually starts out as the scammer asks the victim if they want like a free whip. So what happens is they take the victim to a rural area and make them 'take the test'. The test consists of the victim having the same item as the scammer. The scammer will supposedly give the person their item, and borrow the victim's till logout. Then have the victim give theirs back for a reward. So during the first trade before the scammer is about to give the victim their item they decline. If the victim deosn't look at the text bar they're toast. Then the scammer asks for their item back, causing the victim to give them theirs and not return the scammers.

"Redemption" scam
This scam involves the victim getting skulled in the wilderness or going into dangerous clan wars. The scammer commonly says they are making a video and will ask that you bring one valuble item (either a discontinued item, or sometimes just a whip) and put on the Protect Item prayer to make you feel safe. Then they will ask that you put on the Redemption prayer which will heal you, draining your prayer to 0 at the same time, thereby making you lose your now unprotected item.

Gnomeball Scam/Lure
Due to the Item's kept on death update, this scam no longer works as you keep the highest valued item by the Grand Exchange guide price. The scammer would get a victim who has a rare discontinued item, a partyhat, halloween mask or santa hat.

The scammer would get the victim to be skulled (or simply just in the Dangerous PvP area in the red portal in Clan Wars as you only keep one item if Protect item is activated).Then he/she would say put the Protect item prayer on, which made the victim feel safe because its the only item they have. Next they could ask them to either do an emote at low hp, or say he is making a video etc. Once they have a few lifepoints left, the player would throw them a gnomeball which works even when accept aid is OFF, and it would go into the weapons slot, as long as the player has nothing equipped, making it hard to drop before you are killed by the lurer/scammer.

Since almost every item protects over a discontinued rare item, the victim would usually just bring just that one item. The scammer would quickly use special attacks on them to finish them off, the gnomeball would protect over the rare item and the scammer getting what the victim had lost.

This scam was extremely rare to find in action, and only a very small amount of players knew about it. Most widely used before the Free Trade was removed in 2006, it made a comeback in February 2011 with the re-release of free trade. It was then negated by an update which made you keep the most valuable item(s) according to the Grand Exchange guide prices.

The Dice Game
In the Dice Game, a Dice Bag is used to roll dice (usually percentile dice), with the resulting number being broadcasted to the host's friends chat. If the number rolled is over a set number, the player wins; if it's below, the host wins. The player is generally rewarded with 2x their money for a winning roll. This game requires you to join a groups' friends chat in order to play. It may be advisable to only play this game with a high ranked member of the group's friends chat, as ranks are often earned through proof of large amounts of coins. Even when playing with a highly-ranked member of an established dicing chat, the odds will be skewed in the house's favour, giving you as little as a 2 in 5 chance to win, so over time it is expected to lose more often than win. The ability to roll dice was removed on 15 November 2011, making this scam defunct.

Dice Switching
In this scam, the host "switches dice" before rolling. For example, if a scammer dice host is saying "55x2", then it means if you get more than fifty five on the percentile dice, he will double your money. This is sometimes legit, but not always. Before rolling, the host/scammer would change their dice to any other dice from the bag, say 20-sided dice; thus making the maximum roll number 20, and resulting in the host always winning. Be alert for these scams, as they require attention to notice. They can be noticed by looking in the friends chat, as it says the type of dice they rolled along with the number they rolled. The ability to roll dice was removed on 15 November 2011, making this scam defunct.

Dice Bet Scamming
In this scam, the host tells some other scammers or other people to gather around him, and start saying things like, "He is legit!", or "He is a awesome dicer, I earned a lot of money from him!". Be wary of a scammer asking you to do this. On seeing these "legit" messages from others, people think the scammer is legit, and end up giving a large amount of money to him. The host never rolls the dice for the bet and usually logs out, stealing the money. The ability to roll dice was removed on 15 November 2011, making this scam defunct.

Fake Horse Games
Just like dicing, the host would advertise their "horsey game" with text such as, HNC game!!! X3!!!!

HNC stands for the beginning of the letters of the possible outcomes while playing with the horsey. The victim would place a bet, then chose a letter deciding which phrase he/she would go for. Once the host has a bet place, he/she would play with the horsey, after it will showing the host playing with the horsey then saying one of three phrases:

"Come on Dobbin, we can win the race", "Hi-ho Silver, and away!", or "Neaahhhyyy! Giddy-up horsey!"

Then if the first letter or any of the phrases matches the letter you picked, you get x3 your cash, and if it doesn't match the host gets to keep the bet.

Often host would log out after playing with the horsey since the stakes are very high for the host (x3), thus scamming the better out of whatever he/she had bet.

"Just say neigh to gambling!" becomes the only outcome when playing with Toy horseys after 13 January, making this scam defunct.