- Luring may also refer to the Fishing technique, lure fishing.
Luring is a term most often used to describe a player leading another player to a dangerous place usually the Wilderness, oftentimes through the use of trickery or deception. Since 28 March 2007, it has been considered scamming. Luring is usually done when victims have a sizeable amount of wealth with them so that when they die, they will lose valuable items or money to the lurer, who then proceeds to pick it up. Since the return of the Wilderness, luring has become much more common and highly lucrative and the rules concerning luring have become more ambiguous. Luring, depending on the circumstances, may be punishable as scamming, and could, if a player wishes, be reported as such.
Purportedly, there have been many players who have gained substantial amounts of wealth through luring[source needed]. Players may lure for wealth or for fun.
Anti lures[]
An "Anti Lure" is a common technique used by lurers to trick players into thinking that they can profit from said lures. These are always lures in themselves and should be avoided. Remember the golden rule: never drop items in the wilderness.
Types of lures[]
There are many types of lures; the three main ones being Wilderness Luring, Clan Wars Luring, and Drop Luring.
Wilderness luring[]
Wilderness luring is an old lure style seen in RuneScape. It is when a player (lurer) brings another player (victim) to the Wilderness and immediately kills them; receiving their loot. A lurer usually brings a victim to the Wilderness with a variety of methods; for example: Revenants, faking a drop party, or selling/buying an item for a ridiculously low/high price. The lurer usually creates a reason for trading in the Wilderness, depending on the location. For example, if a lurer is east of the Edgeville bridge, the lurer will usually say that he's power-fletching or woodcutting trees. Another method of luring was using the RuneScape Official Forums, where the victim is buying or selling an expensive item.
The main flaws of Wilderness luring are that it is usually obvious that the lurer will kill the player and the lurer must ensure the item is stacked or cash. To ensure the specific item is dropped, a lurer usually lures players that are selling stacked items or are buying in cash. Stacked items or cash not in the money pouch are lost on death, no matter the circumstance; so this was used to the lurer's advantage. A different method to lure a player is lending an item to the victim, ensuring that their items/cash will be lost; leaving the lurer with the loot, except for the borrowed item in the victim's inventory.
Some players try to lure others into the Wilderness by pretending to team up with them to kill other people. Players should only team up with people that they know and ensure that they don't bring items into the Wilderness that they aren't willing to lose.
In the Wilderness, players often use stun abilities and freeze spells to prevent players escaping. This can make even setting foot in low-level Wilderness potentially dangerous. Lurers may trade players and run into areas that have multi-way combat, forcing players to run after them when accepting. It is common for lurers to act like low-level players asking higher level players to show them where a location such as the Forinthry Dungeon is.
Language Lure[]
This form of luring involves the lurer telling the victim to switch to a German server, or a server with a different language the victim could not understand. The lurer would then teleport the victim to the deep Wilderness without the victim knowing because he or she could not understand that the lurer was teleporting them into the Wilderness. When the victim mistakenly teleported, thinking it was the name of a familiar city or the friendly city the lurer told the victim they were teleporting to, they would then end up in the deep Wilderness where they would be killed by the lurer or a team of lurers, where the player would be killed.
The A Lure[]
The A lure was a unique lure method that made use of the Annakarl teleport on the Ancients spellbook. Victims were required to be on the ancient spell book, and were given a bunch of random items. The lurers would tell the victims to send them a trade request, and then the lurer would make the victim be on the magic tab (before they accepted the trade). So, the victim would have the magic tab up, then the lurer accepts the trade and demands that the victim gives back the items in the same order. When the victim got to the 16th item slot, the lurer would decline the trade. For this lure to work, the player must be clicking the 16th inventory spot as the lurer declines the trade, because once the trade closes, the tab that was just the inventory (during the trade) switches back to the ancients tab. The 16th inventory spot lines up perfectly with the "A" teleport on the ancients tab, so the player would accidentally click it and teleport to the deep wilderness with their expensive items. This method of accidental clicking worked similarly to the Key lure. This lure no longer works.
Chinchompa Lure[]
This lure was discontinued with the release of EoC and the removal of wilderness skulls. However, the lure now works due to the reinstatement of wilderness skulls in the Legacy update. In this lure, a player will walk around the Grand Exchange, asking others if they would like to participate in a player killing video for YouTube. The lurer will then choose a random person (the victim), and his own friend. The victim will think that the lurer's friend is a random person as well. The lurer will wear some relatively expensive items, and ask the other two to do the same; he might even lend an item to the victim (The protect item prayer automatically keeps a lent item first). All three will enter the wilderness with some expensive items. The lurer then trades each player a few Chinchompas, which attack everything within one square of a target. The lurer and his friend will step into one space of victim. Having made sure everyone is wielding chinchompas and has Auto-retaliate on, the lurer will then attack the victim. He will automatically attack back, and the attack will spread to the friend. This counts as attacking a player, and the victim will immediately become skulled. Then, the lurer and his friend will double-team the victim, killing him. Because he is skulled, the player will not keep any of his items.
Abyss Lure[]
This lure makes use of players training in the abyss, and of the one way access to the inner circle. There are many variations of this scam, however, the lurer will commonly offer to pay the victim a large number of coins in exchange for leaving the spot. Both the lurer and the victim enter the inner circle to complete the trade, but the lurer immediately exits out one of the runecrafting portals. The victim will now have to exit the abyss, and then head back to the abyss through the wilderness, where the lurer is waiting to player kill the victim, usually first using teleport block to prevent the victim from escaping, as this spell prevents the Mage of Zamorak from teleporting the player to a (relatively) safe area.
Wilderness Trade Lure/Money Pouch Lure[]
This lure entails luring the victim into deep Wilderness like the Deserted Keep and persuading the victim to purchase a rare for a cheap price. As soon as the victim withdraws his or her money from the money pouch, he or she will be unable to put it back and will subsequently get killed for it.
Clan Wars Luring[]
Red Portal Lure[]
Clan Wars, specifically Red Portal luring, is one of the most popular methods of luring[source needed]. It is a lure having to do with the dangerous portal at Clan Wars. The lure involves a lurer or a talker who persuades the victim to pass the safety line in the red portal usually by dropping a large number of coins. They will instruct the victim to run inside and pick up the cash, but (s)he has the sole intention of attacking and killing them as soon as they run in. Doing so will result in being attacked by another high-level player hidden in the north who uses Ice Barrage or other ice spells followed by various stunning abilities like Impact and Destroy causing the victim to lose all their valuables upon death. Another way of luring is telling the victim to use Telekinetic grab on the coins or high valued items. When using the spell, the character will automatically walk to it, thus passing the safety line.
Purple Portal Lure[]
There is also another type of lure commonly found in the Purple portal section of Clan Wars. In this type of lure, there's always an ancient mage or ranger with some wealth and good gear and most importantly, a low-level lurer. Like the aforementioned Red portal lure, the victim will be befriended and persuaded by this lurer into Clan Wars with the intention of anti-luring, which will turn out to be the lurer's friend in the end. Their so-called friend will challenge the second lurer and send the victim to his or her ultimate doom. The victim will face some high-level mages who use Ice Barrage and/or other freezing spells and stun abilities to quickly kill the victim, with no food or Prayer.
The Peach Lure[]
This lure took place in the since-removed peach portal. The backbone of this lure is relying on the victim believing that they are safe upon entering the peach portal, as once a game starts players have 5 minutes before combat can begin. The victim is told that they are anti luring, and only have to step into the purple portal right at the beginning to show that they have their expensive item(s). Keep in mind that the first 2 minutes are safe, and a player can enter for a few seconds and exit once again via the portal. The victim thinks that they will enter, show their rare items, and then exit and bank them to ensure that they are not lured. However, the victim joins the friends chat of one of the killers. The trick of this lure is that the friend chat of the killer started a game long before, and a team is waiting right at the entrance to kill the player instantly upon entering.
Multi-luring[]
Multi luring was one of the most popular methods of luring before the Evolution of Combat. It was when a person was lured into multi-combat Wilderness or the dangerous red or Purple portals, and was then killed by one or more people using Dragon daggers and other weapons that are capable of quickly doing damage, such as the Dark bow. For example, one square south of the Wilderness wall near the Grand Exchange shortcut was a multi-combat area, so people were often seen in that area with Dragon spears, who would then use the special attack to push an unsuspecting player into multi-combat, where they would then be killed by the person with the player's team.
Monster Luring[]
Monster luring is a type of lure where a player attracts an aggressive monster to another player and kills them. This is most commonly seen in the Dagannoth King lair, a very dangerous place where level 303 Dagannoth Kings lie. Serious Dagannoth King hunters usually bring a Guthans set to extend their time spent on the Dagannoth Kings. Since a player will always lose a Guthan's warspear out of an entire Guthan's set, a successful lure will rake in a large sum of money for the lurer. Although Dagannoth Kings are the most commonly seen, the same principle applies to other high-levelled monsters.
Another highly common form of monster luring was at the apes on Ape Atoll. Normally this was done on a low-level player who would find it tricky to kill an ape fast. The lurer would tell the player to go up the bamboo ladder because of an "update" there was now an altar up there. When the player went up there and found no altar, the player came back down the ladder and was surrounded by about 4 or 5 apes. Since players could not walk through the apes, and a player could only climb up one side of the ladder, the player was stuck. This form of luring was almost impossible to get reported for since there was no detailed proof that the lurer did anything wrong.
Luring monsters is one method in which players have been known to kill bots.
Other Lures[]
Another place for luring is in the Ranging Guild. The lurer may say that they are buying feathers or raw chicken for large amounts of money and a victim will go out to the chicken farm to get it. The lurer then lures the unsuspecting player into the minigame area and brings them to the high level rangers. All three enemy archers are aggressive and may attack a player at once. The lurer goes by, but not into, the high-level area and tells the victim to trade. When they try to trade, and the victim is in range of the level 64 archers, they can hit in the one hundreds for life points and could kill a player if they aren't suspecting it.
Another lure involves simply placing bait, such as a stack of coins or some valuable item, in low-level Wilderness. When the victim goes for it, the lurer attacks him/her. It is believed that this is not against Jagex's rules because it does not involve lying.[source needed]
Drop Luring[]
Drop luring is the most common lure type today. This involves getting a player to first drop their item, and secondly to remove that player from their item. Although there have been various methods of drop luring, only the most notable are listed below. While this type of scam has its roots in the old House Table Dupe Scam.
Dungeoneering lure[]
This lure involves the use of the wilderness, Daemonheim, and trust. A player (the triple agent) will tell the victim that they are doing an anti-scam, to essentially scam a lurer. The player will tell the victim they are luring the lurer to them. The lurer will have the victim teleport to Daemonheim and bank everything but one or two valuables. Then they will take them to the Daemonheim wilderness gate. The lurer will invite the victim to a Dungeoneering party, the triple agent says this is so they can see the victim drop items. The triple agent will say they have a method of stealing items from the lurer, who will drop them. The lurer will ask the victim to drop the valuables on the safe side, and then they will drop their items in the wild. The triple agent leads the victim to believe that their items are not at risk since they are on the safe side and can be quickly picked up. The trick of the scam is that the lurer has a friend on the safe side. The triple agent will say they are laying in wait to grab the victim's items. When the victim drops his/her items, the lurer's friend starts a dungeon, and the victim is taken to a dungeon, leaving the lurer and triple agent outside the dungeon, and therefore free to pick up his items.
The Key Lure[]
The Key Lure is located at the hill giant hut. The lurer will approach a victim with an item of some wealth and offer it to them for free. They then proceed to take the victim to the hill giant house, to trade them a brass key and a lot of items. The lurer aims to make the target forget about the brass key among the items, makes the victim drop an item of wealth in the house, and offers to buy the items and key back for more value then what they were originally. If successful the lurer buys the brass key and the victim will become locked out of the house, leaving the lurer free to go in and pick up the item the victim just dropped. The Key Lure can easily be anti-Lured by pretending to drop the items of value inside the Hill giant house then quickly walking out and dropping their items outside of the Hill giant house. The lurer will then buy the key off the "victim" for a large sum of money thinking their items are inside the house. Once the lurer handed over the money, the victim simply picks up their items. Another way this lure can be anti-Lured is to simply not drop any items.
The Badge Lure[]
The Badge Lure was a drop lure that made use of spamming an interface to prevent victims from picking up their items. Victims would join a clan, bringing their expensive item to the clan camp. Through various methods of convincing, a victim would drop their item, and a lurer would trade them 28 hunter kits (or 27 hunter kits, and a valuable item such as a noted Santa hat). Once the trade was accepted, one of the lurers involved would spam click 'distribute badge' on the badge item that is provided at clan camp. The resulting badge interface would appear to everyone in the clan, and when spammed it had a high priority over all other actions. So the victim was unable to get rid of the items in his inventory, move, or even log out. After 60 seconds, their item would appear and the lurers would pick it up. This lure has been patched, and the main exploiters were banned.[source needed]
The Candle Lure[]
The Candle lure would take place in the room(s) that contains the boots of lightness. The special properties of this room were that, with a lit candle, a player could enter the whole room and move about freely. However, with an unlit candle, the room is dark and the player can only go a few spaces into it. So, the victim would be convinced that a lurer would try to make them drop the valuables in the back of the lit room. Then, according to the advice from a 'friend', the lurer would tell them to go up the stairs and sell the lurer the candle for a large amount of money. In this fake telling of the scam, the lurer would expect the victim to drop their expensive items in the back of the room, and once they sold their candle, they would not be able to reach the back of the room because of the darkness. So the 'friend' instructs the victim to just drop the items of value right at the steps while in the room, instead of at the back, as the lurer would not be in the room to check where they dropped the goods. The victim plans to drop an item of value close to the stairs, go sell the candle for money, and be able to go down the stairs and loot his/her hats in the dark room. However, the trick to this lure is this: The light version of the room and the dark version are actually two separate rooms. It gives off the illusion that they are the same room, one is just darker, however, they are different spaces in the game. So, once the player dropped their items in the light room, and sold their candle, they would arrive at an entirely different room upon re-entering.
The Bridge Lure[]
The Bridge Lure is a current scam that takes place in the dungeon from the Temple of Ikov quest. It is centred around a bridge that a player can only cross while having a negative weight. A victim is convinced to drop their item(s) at the foot of the bridge, and then they go into a trade screen with a lurer. The victim gets money from the lurer to gain trust in this trade for dropping their items of value. The victim is then asked to run across the bridge once they have dropped their items, then run back across to the starting side to receive their reward. However, since players cannot cross the bridge unless they have a negative weight, clicking across the river will result in the victim falling off to the side and being separated from their item. Lurers don't tend to use this lure as the chance of being anti-lured is big. However, now people tend to use the gnomeball to give the victim a positive weight by clicking Use on them after declining the trade, thus rendering many anti-luring methods impractical, this can still be anti-lured if a player does not drop any items, as dropped items only become visible to other players after 60 seconds.
Lumberyard Lure[]
The Lumberyard Lure occurs northeast of Varrock, at the Sawmill. The aim is to deceive a player to drop his items in an area requiring special circumstances for entrance. These include: level 80 woodcutting, no logs, imp jars, summoning familiars, or planks. The victim is influenced to drop his items behind the east door leading into the sawmill training area. The victim is expecting to exit the area afterwards, and receive a hefty monetary reward, returning to collect his belongings afterwards. However, upon trading with the lurer, inventory is filled with non-permitted items. Any attempts to re-enter the closed area will result into a failure. A possible Anti-Lure to this lure is to quickly drop the items and go into the closed area again.
Bank Vault Lure[]
This lure existed in the early days of Runescape, when many new players knew little about computers or the mechanics of the game. The lurer would convince players to accompany them into the basement of the west bank in Varrock. There they would insist on knowing a way to get into the vault. This typically consisted of having the victim type their password, and then press ALT+F4 or CTRL+W, thereby closing the game window, which would take too long to reopen to prevent the lurer from logging in and stealing the victim's account. Alternately, the lurer might tell the victim that dropping a valuable item, and then either logging out, or using a window closing command, would allow them to enter. Of course, it didn't and the lurer would walk away with the victim's valuables. This lure is not possible in the NXT client, unless a player intentionally disables notifications for closing the client while logged in.
Burthorpe Warriors' Guild Lure[]
This lure is a common to uncommon lure used typically against people wearing expensive items. The lure involves two lurers, with the second lurer only coming into play when retrieving the victim's items. The first lurer will offer the victim a large sum of gold for free, but ask them to show them the contents of their inventory or equipment. The lurer will then ask the victim to bank everything except their valuables (primarily party hats and crackers), and invite them to the Warriors' Guild. The lurer will offer to trade the sum of gold promised before, but ask the mark to drop their party hat inside of the guild. After dropping it, both the lurer and victim go outside. The lurer will ask the victim to consume a stat-lowering potion, effectively removing their ability to re-enter the guild and retrieve their dropped items. The second lurer will then log in and pick up the victim's valuables from the guild.
Controversy[]
There have been many questions as to whether luring is bannable or not. There have been no confirmed cases where players have been banned for luring and there were also many messages from Jagex that said luring was not bannable[source needed]. On 29 March 2007, Rule 2 was updated to make "Luring someone into the wilderness under false pretences" a bannable offence. However with the re-release of the wilderness, this is no longer necessarily true, although there have also been cases in which certain J-Mods claimed luring is a bannable offence[source needed]. In addition, several JMods have stated that luring is "against the spirit of the game"[source needed], and have disallowed threads encouraging it on the forums, but Jagex has never officially listed luring as a bannable offence.
Though several have said that there has been no evidence of lurers being banned; videos do exist of J-Mods directly banning lurers[source needed]; if these videos are really J-Mods, the banks of said lurers will be locked, as the banks of all banned accounts are.