On Scamming, part 1

One of you wonderful readers out there requested I write about the topic of Scamming, specifically as an educational tool so folks can AVOID being scammed. You will get bad karma if you use this information TO scam others, as this is not its intent.

I tell ya - I so rarely sell to the open market on the Runescape free servers because the percentage of scammers is too high for my personal liking.

Some of the scams or attempted scams I've witnessed include:

Password scamming: This is where a player (generally lvl 3 because it's a character created just for this purpose, and not someone's primary character they could lose through deactivation) says something close to the following: "Jagex/Runescape doesn't let you say your pass out loud. See? ******"

Presumably the *****'s are to represent their password, filtered out like the "bad word list" is filtered. The truth is that they typed in ****'s on their own, the system didn't filter their typing. And when you type your password out loud to test the theory, they've got you.

I haven't tested this, but the scammer could theoretically go to the Runescape website and immediately change your password on you while you're playing and you wouldn't notice you'd been scammed/hacked until you tried to re-login at some point and it didn't work anymore. By the time you get back in, it's likely all your items will be gone.

Armor Trimming Scam - please note that "trimmed" armor isn't the same as regular armor, it's not created the same way, and regular armor cannot be trimmed. Trimmed armor is obtained by following Treasure Trails. So if a player claims they can go to a member's server and "trim your armor" for you, they're scamming you and you'll never see the armor you gave them, ever again.

Quick-switch in trade window scam: This scam depends on you not reading carefully enough or paying close enough attention, or depends on lag (if you're on a laggy server, change servers). This is where you've agreed to trade certain items, but if the traders are quick about removing and re-adding to the trade, they can swap out items that are similarly-named, colored, or shaped and you'll end up with something you didn't expect originally. The only real way to protect against this scam is to pay CLOSE attention to what you're trading, and note that people can still swap items in the second confirmation window.

Any time someone asks you to send them your username and password, it's a scam: Don't let your eagerness for new equipment get the best of you - nobody is going to log in as you and give you equipment, because they could do that in a direct trade. What they're going to do is log in and clean you out, and never contact you with an actual character name on the game, so you have nothing to report abuse on.

Now... Sit for a second and think about the realization you'd been scammed, and pretend it's because someone gave you a good reason and you gave them your equipment or your username and password.

Remember that feeling. I hope you don't have to ever feel it in real life.

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Those are the main scams I've seen so far, but I'm sure there are more and I'll be inspired to write again.

In short, if you can get away with it, don't trade with anyone who appears to be a lvl 3 temporary character. It may be hard to tell, but a little bit of talk may save you a lot of hassle and pain.