Scams

Cheats
The writers of Runescape are well versed in their game control. In just a few years time they learned the ways of their scripts to make it very difficult for the average player of the game to "cheat the code" used in getting anything. There was a time of finding bugs and gaining skill experience and item duplication with the aid of editing the saved script in your computer, to using 3rd party programs that did the work for you. But as mentioned, the writers have friends too. And they have seen and continue to see most all of these programs. The latest is to change the "detectable colour field" of mining ore to less than 10% of the overall rock colour to prevent automining. (Even though the advent of Rock Golems seemed to slow this cheat down quite a bit.)

The days of game cheats are at an end. Most that are advertised on the world wide web usually are for the olde Classic Runescape format and not for RS2. On top of that, those that visit a vast majority of these site are subject to "keyloggers" and hackers that prey on the players that know little enough of the game, let alone the ravages of the web, and have their accounts stolen by giving out their User Names and Passwords or other sensitive data on their computers.

Example: A player macros this advertisement:

"Want to type fast like me? Visit www.somehackingwebsite.com" (The ".com" is usually substituted with something else, due to Jagex's chat censors.)

Those who find "bugs" in the game usually report them now within minutes of any new release in the game. Those exploiting the bugs are found and have their accounts removed only to make a new account and try all over again.

Scamming
"In game" scamming has been going on probably since the game went public. The rephrased phrase of "Scam me once, shame on you... Scam me twice, shame on me." comes to mind. Scams vary and have the same frustrating effect as in all web based games. The extent of damage from a scam is probably more of a threat psychologically, but remember, it's only a game. Scams include but are not limited to the following.

Jagex Impersonation Scam

Unless there is a GOLD Crown in front of their chat screen name, they are NOT JAGeX staff. These people have but one thing in mind: stealing your account.

Example: "Hi. I'm with jagex and I can make one (or all or part of) your levels set high. Just give me your password."

Prevention: EVEN if they do have a crown next to their name, DO NOT give them your password and report it to JAGeX immediately through the "Report Abuse" button.

Trust Scam

Example: "Whoever trades me the highest worth item wins"

Prevention: Do not give him anything and report the scammer.

Password scam

Example: "Look! Jagex won't allow you to type your pass! Mine is *******!".

Status: This scam is declining in populairty, since everyone has heard of it, and almost no one falls for it

Prevention: DO NOT say your password out loud; it DOES NOT get blocked by JAGeX's censor. Instead, report him. If you do say your password out loud, change your password ASAP.

Drop scam

Example: "Follow me, now drop your items and press CTRL-W or ALT-F4 to double them" (it closes the window, leaving them to collect your items)

Prevention: CTRL-W and ALT-F4 tell your computer to close the window. By dropping your items and pressing either combination, you are effectively logging yourself out before you can retrieve your (non-duplicated) item(s). Don't drop your items and report the rotten scammer.

Armour Trimming

Trimmed armour is a reward from Treasure Trails and normal armor cannot be trimmed by anybody ingame, not player nor NPC. Immediately report anyone offering to trim armour, as they are all scammers trying to steal it.

Status: This scam was extremely popular just after trimmed armor came out, but is now rare to see, since now everyone knows about trimmed armor

Prevention: Never fall for this; and report the scammer.

Trust Trades

Trust trades are when you give the supplies required to make an item to a player with the promise that they will give you the final product. For example, a player offering free gem cutting, or offering to make armor for you if you give them bars. While these are not always scams, you should be weary when doing inay sort of trust trade. Often, honest players will recognize this, and instead give you a final product in exchange for the supplies, such as swapping cut gems for uncuts, or armor or weapons for bars.

Prevention: Be weary of any trust trades and always ask for the final product in exchange for your supplies. Also, you can trust high level players more than low level, because items involved in trust trades rarely exceed a few thousand coins, too low of an amount to risk getting their accounts banned to get.

Arbitrage Scam

A two-man scam, this involves one player selling a worthless item at a very high price, while another offering to buy it for an absurdly high price. People eager to make easy money buy the worthless item from the first player, with the intent of selling it to the other for a large profit. After the first player has sold the item, both players immediatly log out. The items are often quest items that are easy to get, but not seen often, such as the Cat-Raising Amulet.

Prevention: Be wary of buyers offering absurd prices, and know the expected prices to beat this.

Account sale Against Jagex rules, and highly risky, as the recovery questions can be used to grab the account back, even if you change the password.

Prevention: Report the account seller.

False RuneScape Website

There are players who copy the runescape webpage and change some details that asking your username and your password.

Prevention: In the real runescape website, they specifically ask for you NEVER to enter your username and password anywhere but at www.runescape.com.

Email scam

Jagex will NEVER send you messages in your email, so so any emails claming to need your password to make your account a moderator, or to confirm that it hasn't been stolen, are frauds

Prevention: Don't give out your password and report the email to Jagex

Cheat program scam

It is quite possible for some of the unofficial clients, macros, tools, etc. to contain password stealing keyloggers. If this should ever happen to you, use anti-spyware tools to detect and rid of them.

Prevention: Run anti-virus programs like Norton AntiVirus or McAfee VirusScan every few days.

Dungeon Death Scam

This scam involves luring you into a dungeon where you need a light source or else you are damaged. They give you a candle and a tinderbox and lead you deep into the dungeon. There, they say that they need a tinderbox (yours). They keep the tinderbox and wait for your candle to go out. When your candle does go out, the dungeon goes dark, making it hard to get out, and you are killed by cave bugs. The scammers take your items.

Prevention: Do not give out your item if you need it to survive in the dungeon.

Trade Scams

Another favourite is the changing of items on the "secondary" or "final" trade screen. One should always refrain from pressure to "Just hit the accept trade" button, and carefully review it first. A large majority of scams occur here. The quantity or value is changed (say, from 200,000 coins to 20,000 coins) just a split second before the final accept screen. They fly through the trade process, and in this haste, people lose quite a bit.

Prevention: Take extra care with noted non-bulk items, move your cursor over the items to view their names, and always check the confirmation screen.

"Rare" items

Many players try to find items that are not commonly seen, yet not at all difficult to obtain. They go to a popular world and try to pass these items off as rare, taking advantage of the fact that not many people know about these items. This was becoming such a problem that Jagex made the Yin-Yang Amulet (purchasable from the Make-Over-Mage just soutwest of Falador for 100 coins) untradable. Jagex figured that since not many people read the Letters from the Hedge page where it was first mentioned, not many people would know about them. Sure enough, players who had not yet realized that the amulets were untradable were seen selling them for 100,000+ coins.

The rare items that players commonly try to pass off rare, but are actually worthless, are: The actual list is much longer, and with each new update, a new one is potentially added. A good rule of thumb is to never buy anything unless you're sure of it's actual value
 * Muddy Keys (only worth around 5,000 coins, used to get a small treasure from the muddy chest in lvl 45 Wilderness)
 * Cooking Apples (used in cooking and quests, not rare)
 * Charcoal (worthless except for some members quests)
 * Sliced Bannana (worthless, heals 1 hp)
 * Spinach Rolls (worthless, heals 2 hp)

Advert Scams

Many Runscape fansites, even the most reputable, face a perpetual battle with their ad-serving companies to weed out often inappropriate adverts, for things which are likely to get your account banned, or worthless "guides" that rehash the material any good fansite or forum gives you free.

Example: