Jagex Battle with Runescape Scammers

Jagex have attempted many things to combat the scammers in runescape and have succeeded to a limited extent with recent changes and planned future changes to the game.

Runescape scams come in various forms and many old scams were initiated by macro users buying up all resources available in the shop and controlling the number of large scale suppliers of resources.

In early october, Jagex redone how shops work and now there is a tabbed window where the shop stock is infinite but more expensive than the player stock. This improvement by Jagex has resulted in making an impact on legitimate merchanters in the game but has also made a much bigger impact on players using macros to buy shop stock that could later be used in trade scams with quick switching of numbers.

The development in october was the first in a series of game developments aimed at limiting the impact of players who try to scam other people. Lootshare helped to prevent so called friends lying about what was dropped in multi-combat zones when fighting larger monsters while the assist system directly helped people protect their items by borrowing the skills of other people... meaning no items were traded which would prevent a scammer from being able to logout after receiving items.

This bodes well to impact how much scammers affect playing runescape, but all players should still be aware of trust scams and never to become a victim of these by lending out highly valued items to so called ingame friends. In addition, players should not download any suspicious files on any runescape fan site as it could lead to a keylogger being installed.

An interesting thread on zybez community forums can shed more light on this type of behaviour:
Zybez Helping the fight against runescape scam sites

Runescape Announcement About Account Security

Jagex have announced to all runescape players to be on extra vigilance regarding a new worm that has been circulating around the internet. The worm affects players computers and is not obtained via the runescape.com website.

Jagex have made this announcement as one version of the worm, known as Bubbles, Ramex, Skipi or Pykspa may be targetted specifically to runescape players with the intention of stealing their runescape password. It is important to ensure that you have the most updated anti-virus definitions installed on your computer and to be extra careful when visiting links posted via things such as msn messenger or yahoo chat etc.

This is another step taken by Jagex to help make players aware of the threats to their account security as well as improving the ingame methods of combatting scams. As most people will be aware, Jagex recently nullified the unid herb scam by altering unidentified herbs to be renamed as grimy herbs. Players can no longer become a victim of the unid herb trade scam and can now get better value for their higher level 'grimy herbs'.

Overall, players should continue to use caution when visiting any links provided to them from unknown or untrusted sources. In addition, players should always have an up to date anti-virus programme to help them catch any potential malicious key loggers that are aimed specifically at runescape accounts.

Runescape Trade Scams

Trade scams in runescape are likely the most frequent method people use to cheat. Jagex have so far not been able to effectively prevent this type of scamming on runescape due to the nature of the way their ingame report abuse feature works.

I made sample video to try and highlight the fact - simply as when I went to world 18 Edgeville bank a scammer by the name of 69Stoner4 tried to scam me by switching the total amount of cash in a trade. I was aware and took my time and checked the 2nd trade screen, many people do not check the 2nd trade screen and fall victim to such scams.



The video serves a purpose to inform people of the importance of being vigilante when dealing in busy trading locations. I didn't capture the scam on video as I was simply starting to record at the time - maybe next video I get the scam in action.

Hopefully Jagex realise the scale of such trade scams in runescape and properly implement a method to report people while the trade window is open. Currently this isn't the case so scammers are easily able to avoid being reported in any busy trading area.

Wilderness Trade Lure Scam

The runescape wilderness has had a ditch added to its edge. Jagex introduced the wilderness ditch to overcome the problem suffered by many players - the wilderness trade lure scam.

The Scam:
Player A would approach Player B in a bank (normally Edgeville bank) or some location relatively close to the wilderness. Player A would trade with Player B and then go into the wilderness. Player B would follow them to trade with them and once Player B entered the wild, they would get attacked and normally lose most of their inventory and items they were wearing.

This runescape scam caused many players to lose large amounts of items of considerable virtual wealth. In some cases it was the final straw for players who have consequently quit runescape. Jagex felt they had to act and the wilderness ditch was their reaction - although it is not known whether it is a permanent fixture yet. Perhaps Jagex are working on a better solution that will be unveiled at a later date.

The scam prevention:
Since the wilderness ditch has now been added to runescape, any player trying to scam another person using the trade lure scam, will find that they can no longer dupe a player into unwillingly entering the wilderness. The ditch causes players to have to manually hop over the ditch to enter the wild and has a safe spot right beside it.

Runescape Players Reaction:
Obviously many runescape players are in favour of this - especially if they have been a victim to this type of scam. However, for the players who love pking, it has become a contentious issue with many people wanting it to revert back to how it used to be.

Jagex will have the final say and all I can add is that it is a step in the right direction. It makes sure people willingly enter into the wilderness and that they can not be duped again.

My Suggestion:
The ditch itself does help prevent this runescape scam from happening, although regular pkers are against it. I would suggest that Jagex keep the ditch but make an auto-hop feature which can be selected by players - similar to the accept aid feature. Players would therefore be able to automatically hop over the ditch (and not interfere with their clue hunting or pking runs) if they had selected the ability to auto-hop.

Meanwhile, any player who had not selected the autohop feature would be safe from this trade lure scam as they would have to manually hop over if they wanted to enter the wilderness. This is a compromise on the solution implemented by Jagex and the deseire of the honest pking players. It retains the ability to prevent this scam but does not hinder the gameplay in any way.

Ever been trade scammed in Runescape?

The question is a simple one. Many thousands of people regularly fall victim to some type of scam on runescape and then hate the game for their own misfortune.

There is no requirement for players to do as they are told or believe everything that they are told about items that they are not familiar with. The very simple rule of thumb to follow is if anything feels too good to be true then it invariably is too good to be true.

Always exercise caution when you feel you are being offered an absolute bargain. It is often the case that the bargain is really an opportunity for a chancer to try and make some quick cash at your expense by quickly changing items in the trade window. ALWAYS double check the second trade window before confirming any ingame trade.

An extra few seconds to confirm the second screen can save you a fortune in the long term and really help improve your overall enjoyment of the game.