[Red X]

Red X 226's Guide for Anti-Scam

HEADS UP!
#1: Jagex has now installed a system in the trade screen that will make any items removed, individual or stacked, flash warnings for both trading sides. However, it is still important for you to make sure the trades are fair yourself. Just because Jagex is protecting you from any possible scams does NOT mean that you can loosen your guard against scammers!

#2: Effective on January 1st, 2008, Jagex will restrict the net trade difference (called "wealth transfer") to be no more than 3K worth of value within every 15 minutes. This rule has already imposed itself onto every newly-created account effective on December 10th, 2007. As a result, expect any necessity to drastically change half the context of this Anti-Scam Guide in the near future.

Now continue to our guide...

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Index</span>
To use this index, hit [ctrl + F] to open up search option, then select any phrase below, then hit [search] to jump to the desired section.

A. Common Scams
--1. Double Trade
--2. Money-Swapping
--3. Money-Mirage
--4. Item-Swapping
--5. Rare Items... or are they?
--6. Oops!
--7. Free Gem Cutting
--8. Trust Game
--9. Jagex Impersonation/Free Membership/Free Cash
--10. ********
--11. Web Advertising
--12. Item Duplication
--13. Armor Trimming
--14. Drop Trading
--15. Free Account
--16. Double Crime
--17. Scam of Death
B. Properties of Scammers
C. Ways to Avoid Scams
--1. Double Check
--2. Password Renewing
--3. PIN code
--4. About Jagex Staffs
--5. About Password
--6. Lessons from Scam
--7. Recovery Questions
--8. 1 Million or 10004 gp?
--9. Virus Scanning
--10. Price Check
--11. Fully-Loaded
--12. ALL TRADES ARE FINAL!
D. Ways to Avoid Messing Yourself Up
--1. 1 Minute Only
--2. PM Scam
--3. Money-Offer Check
--4. Misclicking
E. Techniques to Prevent Scam
F. Circumstances for Reporting
--1. Offensive Language
--2. Item Scamming
--3. Password Scamming
--4. Cheating/Bug Abuse
--5. Jagex Staff Impersonation
--6. Account Sharing/Trading
--7. Macroing
--8. Multiple Logging-In
--9. Encouraging Others to Break Rules
--10. Misuse of Customer Support
--11. Advertising/Website
--12. Real World Item Trading
--13. Asking for Personal Details
--14. Misuse of Official Forums
G. Updates
H. Credits

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Common Scams</span>

* = will be affected by the new trading rule on January 1, 2008.

*1. Double Trade
On my own record, it is not as common as any other scams which will be described below, but one should still watch out for this. There are usually two players, one selling a worthless item for a ridiculously high price while another buys for even higher price. People fell into the trap that they thought they can earn huge profit from this double trade, and they found the buying person logging off after they bought the junk for about 50k.

*2. Money-Swapping
This is one of the most common scam in market place. The scammer swaps the money into lower price that looked similar to the original right at the time you and he press "accept".

*3. Money-Mirage
Similar to Money-Swapping, the scammer removes the money instead of changing it.

*4. Item-Swapping
Similar to Money-Swapping, the scammer uses items in note form to obscure the item so the victim(s) would not notice the slight change. Rune-Mithril Swap is one of the more common swap in this category.

*5. Rare Items... or are they?
You may encounter some items you have never seen before. Always check out what the item is in Rune HQ or any other information site before you buy them for a huge price. Ex: Spinach roll, charcoal, wine of Zamorak, muddy key, etc.

*6. Oops!
You see that when the scammer press decline deliberately upon offering a decent trade. Then he proceeds to perform scam #4 when you lost your nerve of repetitive declination. I figured that because in normal situation poeple would only say "soz" or "sorry" on error click on decline.

7. Free Gem Cutting
Not exactly a scam, and not much people would bother scamming on it since they do not worth very much; many of them only wanted to train their crafting skill. However, most gem cutters agree that it is more reasonable to buy uncuts or trade "cut gems for uncuts" for safety and trust issue.
Note: This training method for crafting skill is alternated and reinforced by the new Assist System, which allows the requesting party to borrow the skill levels of another party in exchange of any experience that would be gained.

*8. Trust Game
Its appearance is average, but I personally think that this is one of the most disgraceful and disgusting performance in all scams. The person usually gathers people for a contest to win rare items, and he takes everyone to an isolated location to avoid other anti-scam reporters. Then he asks people to give him the best item they have, and the giver of the best item would win the prize. However, the scammer does not intent to give away his prize all the time. After this he can simply walk away with your items with you getting nothing.

9. Jagex Impersonation/Free Membership/Free Cash (aussiemate99)
This is one of the more complicated scam. The scammer tells you that he is a Jagex Staff/he can offer free membership and asks for your password for security issue/to sign up membership. He may also ask you about your personal information, one to waste 1 minute to cover up any evidence of scamming (See #1 in Ways to Avoid Messing Yourself Up), and another to acquire information for your recovery answers. During this time he is busy changing your password, and perhaps your recovery questions, on another window. When he asks you to log off, this is the last chance for you to realize the entire plot.
Some scammers might want you to give out or change your password so they can send "1 million gp" into your account. Obviously, anything involving in requesting a password other than logging in are scams.

10. ********
Heed this: these are real asterisks, not the blocked password of yours! The scammer claims, usually in the crowd, that Jagex has made a recent update to block your password, and demonstrate it out by typing asterisks.
Note: Well, guess what? Jagex ACTUALLY made an update to block your password, but in a different way. It will simply not show your sent message to public and instead displays a warning to you that you might have been trying to type out your password.

11. Web Advertising
First of all, the scammer has alerady broken the rule of spamming. Second, the website usually contains keylogger/trojan horse which would then slides into your computer without getting your attention. By the next day you might find yourself unable to log into RuneScape, and even if you recover it, you might also find yourself standing in the bank, and all your possessions gone.

12. Item Duplication
This is seen quite often in quiet places like second floor of normal buildings. The scammer teaches you there to drop your item you wish to duplicate, then press a key or key combinations that often results in your quitting RuneScape directly (Alt+F4/Ctrl+W = close window; F5 = refresh your current window). After you left, all he needs to do is to wait for the dropped to appear and loot them up.
Note: Effective on December 10th, in an effort to fight against RWT (Real-World Trading), Jagex has limited the appearance of items to no more than 3K worth of value. Although this scam is virtually dead, it is still advised to pay a few attention to it.

*13. Armor Trimming (dabomb50)
People often rumor about how does one get a typical armor trimmed in resembling colors and/or gold edges. The scammers exploit it by offering free armor trimming, some of who would even show a chisel and maybe some gold bars. However, these armors came in pre-trimmed from trasure trail and it's not one of the features for members whatsoever. If armors are trimmable there would be no normal armors existing, price for all trim/god armors fall down drastically, and there should be an option of trimming listed in crafting section.
That is, if you fell into it, they can just simply log off, walk away, and/or maybe waste another 1 minute on alternative subject to cover up scam.

14. Drop Trading
Even if some items are untradable, scammers often claims that they can use drop trade to make the trade possible. This is NOT the case: if the item is untradable, then it can NEVER be traded to anyone else by all means. By performing the drop trade scam, the scammer can just pick up your money and log off before you know what was going on.
The item can be either tradable or not, and in most cases scammers do not drop the item during drop trade after all.
Note: Effective on December 10th, in an effort to fight against RWT (Real-World Trading), Jagex has limited the appearance of items to no more than 3K worth of value. Although this scam is virtually dead, it is still advised to pay a few attention to it.

15. Free Account
You may either report the person who is offering a free account, or take it for granted. But remember: do NOT put anything valuable into any account that is not created by you. You never know when will the account be "retrieved" by the original owner, and all of your belongings in there would be given as free to the owner.

*16. Double Crime (Extension from Trust Game)
This is very much similar to Trust Game (see #8), except that the scammer pretends to be actually honest and give your items back after trade. The scammer will likely make up a good reason to give away items, such as quitting, and gather crowds for this, and his friend/co-scammer will sneak into the crowd and pretend to be just another player. The process is mostly the same as Trust Game, except that the co-scammer will always have more money than what you offered and get the prize. If they don't, they simply announce you as a winner and start wasting time (1 minute or more) to get away with scammnig.

17. Scam of Death (alkaline388)
Some scammer might tell you that you can get big money by doing certain things. Then he brings you to a place that is never good for new players, such as dark wizard stonehenge and Zamorak Altar, which alkaline388 mentioned. This only results in your death and lose all but 3 most valuable items. Plus, you can NEVER keep the money after your death!!! Just remember that rarely any people will tell you a way to earn big money, and there has NEVER been one. Besides pure luck, you have to do all work (even merchanting) by yourself to earn money.
Note: In dark wizard stonehenge, all dark wizards are auto-aggressive against anyone who is not higher than twice their combat level (7 and 20). For the Zamorak Altar, see alkaline388's post.
Note: Effective on December 10th, in an effort to fight against RWT (Real-World Trading), Jagex has limited the appearance of items to no more than 3K worth of value. This scam is partially ineffective and possibly dead, yet it is still advised to pay a few attention to it.

18. (Under construction, hopefully this is the end...)

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Properties of Scammers</span>

1. They are low-level players. A lvl-3 scammer is seen very often.
2. They do not wear much items. Another reason could also be that they wanted to lower the weight to run around.
3. They offer abnormal prices. That is, the price offered is way out of the current price range.
4. They say "oops" upon decline. See Common Scams #5.
5. Their characters are in default costume. (Bald hair, barbarian moustache, tan shirt, green pants, etc.)
6. They do not specify prices when selling items.
7. Their names contain O's and 0's. This kind of name is for the purpose of scam evasion, for you can hardly figure out whether that oval is an O or a zero.
(alkaline388) NOTE: Jagex has updated the font to distinguish "0's" from "O's", now that the zeroes have a slash in them. This property of scammers is VOIDED.
8. (alkaline388) Their names, if any, contain more than one space in between words. When they were creating new account, they put more than one underscores for spaces. For example, Test_____Scam will come out as Test Scam in game.
9. (Under construction)
NOTE: These properties do not necessarily apply to all scammers in RuneScape. This is only a reference to watch out the person you are trading with.

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Ways to Avoid Scams</span>

1. Double Check
Always check your second trade window carefully. You may proceed to accept the trade only if the trade seems reasonable and reaches your desire. People often fell into the trap due to their impatience and their low value upon the 2nd trade window.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) [full rune]--> <--[200k] (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ****** (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif) [full rune]--> <-- [20k] (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

2. Password Renewing
Change your password periodically. This is not strongly required, only for people who wanted to ensure the extra security. I personally do not change my password as the frequency may confuse me from memorizing my new password.

3. PIN code
Set up your PIN code in bank. This great update by Jagex offers you a second layer of protection for your possessions if your account is hacked. By selecting a unique 4-digit numerical codes, you will have to type out the PIN code everytime you try to access the bank.
NOTE: setting up the PIN code takes 7 days of delay before it is validated, so it is strongly recommended to set it up as soon as possible.

4. About Jagex Staffs
Remember that Jagex rarely logs into RuneScape to play, and they do not tell you blankly that they are Jagex Staff. Also, if they are really Jagex Staff, a crown should appear next to their nickname in the chat screen.

5. About Password
NEVER enter your password anywhere other than logging in. Jagex has articulated this very clearly in forum and account management log-in.

6. Lessons from Scam
Remember the heavy lesson every time you get scammed. You wouldn't want to fall into the same trick again.

7. Recovery Questions
Set up your recovery questions and answers for the future. It is very important for your attempt to recover your hacked account.

*8. 1 Million or 10004 gp?
Note the 2nd trade screen if your opponent is offering 1 million or more money. In a lot of case people swap the last K into 4 as they look relatively alike. However, the 2nd trade screen never falls into this: it deliberately shows Million and K in distinct colors.

9. Virus Scanning
Scan your computer for any keyloggers or trojan virus.

10. Price Check
Always check the current price range. You can do this by spending a little time walking in the crowd to get a grip on current price on specific item(s), or just go to RuneScape forum-->Item Discussion-->1st page "Price Check".

11. Fully-Loaded
This is very effective against item-swapping scam when you are buying a certain item in mass amounts. To do this, simply fill up your inventory with items other than the item(s) you want to buy. Make sure they are at least either of the following:
1) Unstackable (Rune essence is a good example)
2) Cheap items not commonly sold in market (Chef's Hat, Ashes, etc.)
3) Not similar to the item you want to buy (If you want to buy coal don't take out iron ores; they look similar)
With this method, even if you are tricked by the item-swapping scam, the trade will automatically decline since there is no place to fill in the new item.

12. ALL TRADES ARE FINAL!
AVOID FALLING INTO ANY TRADE SCAMS BY ALL MEANS. All trades are specified FINAL and it is unlikely that Jagex will send a messenger to give your lost item back.

13. (Under construction)

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Ways to Avoid Messing Yourself Up</span>

(WHAT?! MESSING MYSELF UP?!?)
Yes, you might get yourself into trouble if you are not careful about some trivial facts.

1. 1 Minute Only
The report for abuse only works in 1 minute period. If the scam time is over 1 minute late and you reported it, Jagex may think that you are abusing the customer support.

2. PM Scam
Reporting scammers in private message, especially those who asks for your password, won't help; The record does not track down any details of private message context.

3. Money-Offer Check
Check your calculator works. Make sure you did not offer the wrong price/the opponent has offered the correct price.

4. Misclicking
Don't misclick the report reason. Take it slow. You have 1 minute which is just more than enough for the 20-second scam event.

5. (Under construction)

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Techniques to Prevent Scam</span>

1. You started a trade with someone. After you both put up items/money to be traded, hands off your mouse and stare at the opponent's offer for about 10 seconds. If it hasn't changed press accept. (If the opponent press accept without altering the current trade, hold still for 5 seconds to make sure, then accept.)
2. If the opponent starts to put up other items, keep your focus on the main item to be traded. Chances are that new items are used to distract you from the primary item/money, and the opponent takes the chance to twist it around.
3. In the second double-check trade screen, hold still to check the trading items THRICE (Yes, 3 times) to make sure you have a fair trade. Then press accept.
Take your time; spending 10 seconds for double-checking won't drive the opponent, if not a scammer, crazy.

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Circumstances for Reporting</span>

1. Offensive Language: "Just fuak off you idiot" "He is a gai (gae)" "Shut up niggz"

2. Item Scamming: See Section A "Common Scams"

3. Password Scamming: See #9 and #10 under Section A "Common Scams"

4. Cheating/Bug Abuse: There was a way to kill Genie with magic spells, and a way to perform unlimited run energy. They have already been fixed by Jagex.

5. Jagex Staff Impersonation: (A user without gold/silver crown next to his name in public chat) "I'm a mod of Jagex Staff, and we need your password for our extra security for all players"

6. Account Sharing/Trading: "Selling this account for 100K" "Giving away this account for free the pass is: ------"

7. Macroing: Auto-miners who deliberately show a specific passage along its course.

8. Multiple Logging-In: (this is harder to find, since two or more accounts from the same address cannot expose proof of rule breaking) drop-trading between two separately logged-in accounts.

9. Encouraging Others to Break Rules: any action that seduces/provokes people to act against rules (before noticing the plot).

10. Misuse of Customer Support: (?) threatening users ("Give me all your money or i will hack you") (?), reporting innocent users.
Note: As I last checked with a mod user (yes, he has a silver crown), threatening does not correspond to this rule. Also I don't have very much examples for this section. Any suggestion for this section is appreciated.

11. Advertising/Website: "Free membership + money go to website: -----------"

12. Real World Item Trading: (Under construction, also any suggestion for this section is appreciated)

13. Asking for Personal Details: "How old are you" "Asl" "Phone number plz?"
Note: this rule is still very new even though it has been there for months. A number of people still do not know this. My option is to let them pass if they offend this rule for the 1st time.

14. Misuse of Official Forums: does not apply within the game; not in Report Abuse as one of the options.

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Updates</span>

12/11/05: Updates section added; Index added; fixed minor typos; added #9, 10, 11 in Ways to Avoid Scams; added #4 in Ways to Avoid Messing Yourself Up; added titles for sub-sections in Ways to Avoid Scams & Ways to Avoid Messing Yourself Up.
12/14/05: Note added in Properties of Scammers; edited Jagex Impersonation/Free Membership under Common Scams; added #14 "Drop Trading" under Common Scams.
12/18/05: Added section E: "Circumstances for Reporting".
12/30/05: Added #15 "Free Account" under Common Scams.
01/01/06: Added section E: "Techniques to Prevent Scam". (Letters for all sections below are moved down one letter alphabetically)
01/21/06: Added #16 "Double Crime" under Common Scams; added #11 "Fully-Loaded" under Ways to Avoid Scams (I prefer to leave ALL TRADES ARE FINAL! at the last to emphasize the accepted trades); added #7 under Properties of Scammers.
03/03/06: Added #17 "Scam of Death" under Common Scams.
03/03/06: Edited Common Scams #7 (now with scammers offering free cash (NOT)).
05/17/06: Edited #7 in Properties of Scammers; added #8 in Properties of Scammers.
12/29/07: Cleaned up various sections to reflect the changes.

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Credits</span>

Even though I typed out everything above without checking any other anti-scam guides (yes, this guide is not error-proof), I still want to give most of the credits to Rune HQ as I learned most of the scams 1st time in there. I also appreciate the RuneScape Million Guides pointing out various scams people often performed.

[dabomb50]

You forgot the armour trimming scam.

[Red X]

Added. Thanks for correction.

[Fire_nick]

nice dude!!!!!

how much time did it take you to do it?

[Red X]

Thanks for compliment. First edition is about half an hour of typing and brainstorming.

[salvatera]

i must say,its a good guide,i think you forgot about the "mith or rune?"scam,where they say "selling rune plate,20k",they show the rune plate and the other person shows 20k,the person offering 20k accepts,but the prson offering the rune pl8 declines and then says,"oops,soz"they trade again and they do the same procedure,except this time,instead of offering a rune plate,he shows a mith plate,the other person gets carried away and doesn't check if its rune and accepts and therefor gets scammed

[Red X]

6. Oops!
You see that when the scammer press decline deliberately upon offering a decent trade. Then he proceeds to perform scam #4 when you lost your nerve of repetitive declination. I figured that because in normal situation poeple would only say "soz" or "sorry" on error click on decline.

Read it again and follow to #4. I had it there.

[salvatera]

oh soz,i must have missed cos of lag

[alkaline388]

You should add the wine of zamorak scam. It's not very common but here's what happens. A person says something like "Hey, wanna grow levels quick?" or "Want a rare item?". The person says ok and then follows the scammer to a zamorak altar. The scammer tells the person to take the wine. Zamorak and the monks will attack the person while the scammer closes the doors while he cannot get out. The person dies and the scammer takes his stuff.

P.S. I didn't know if gravedigging is allowed on this topic so I'm sorry if I did.

[Red X]

This guide is pinned so I don't suppose gravedigging is applied in here, and I don't mind at all as long as there is any good comment for my guide.

Going to add that. Thx alkaline.

[aussiemate99]

add this...
the scammer claims that you can get lots of money changing your password to (something). the scammer then takes the account.
o, btw nice guide (IMG:http://rune-forum.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Red X]

Thanks for the idea. I think I would merge it with Jagex impersonation/free membership ones since they all use the similar technique.

[alkaline388]

I was just looking over properties of scammers, you should mention that a new update change the 0's to have slashs in them. Also mention that scammers often have more than one space between words in their username.

[Red X]

Good idea. Thanks for info.

[Shadow_ninja]

i have no idea if this is gravedigging but it's for the own good.. *sorry if gravedgging*
2 scams to watch out for

scam number one : Let's say that you are selling a d helm and the scammer offers 1000k, the scammer changes the 1000k to 10004, the 4 looks like the k..and you will be ending up with 10.4k crying alone in the dark without your long lost d med

* i forgot the 2nd one while i was typing (IMG:http://rune-forum.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) let me remember it soon (IMG:http://rune-forum.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

[Omega]

that was kinda mentioned but thanks for the reminder

[Red X]

scam number one : Let's say that you are selling a d helm and the scammer offers 1000k, the scammer changes the 1000k to 10004, the 4 looks like the k..and you will be ending up with 10.4k crying alone in the dark without your long lost d med

That's basically the #4 common scam, but I'll add more details in that later.

[Extraevil]

my Avatar...Im changing lol... this guide helped me when I was beginning to play RS with my second account, my new main...

[Shadow_ninja]

i remember now!
it's called
'it's not love baby, it's using'
the scammer dresses as a girl or a boy then, trys to look 'hot' walk around..and trys to find people to date them. Then they ask or get stuff.
This is a DISGUSTING scam.
and i discoverd a new scam i think it's new..
theres a scammer and a co scammer he shows you alot of good items or good enough and wants to trade it for somthing cheap like blue dye.
then the co scammer comes up and asks for somthing like your d med or somthing for the blue dye. Then , *if you are stupid enough to trade your d med and fall for this scam* the scammer will refuse to do the trade.

[alkaline388]

Here's one:

A guy says he wants to get a video of you. He tells you to bring a whip and nothing else. He also says he'll pay you. So he'll start attacking, getting you down to low health, and then he'll pay you in items. Once you accept the items, he'll finish you off. Since the other items are worth more than the whip, youll lose your whip worth 2.6m and be left with like 300k.