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The “Free Account” Scam Trust Games

Now we'll discuss a set of related scams that are somewhat like the “free account” trick, but use your own character rather than someone else's. These all involve offers by another player to perform some sort of task or work on your account for you, either for free or some type of payment. All of these offers are considered cheating and are against RuneScape rules; they are also dangerous.

Most of the time scammers who use this approach are actually after your entire account. Since any work done by another person on your account requires you to give them your password, scammers will usually change the password and either take the account for themselves or sell it. For that reason, I discuss this scam in full detail in a topic in the section on account scamming. However, I mention it here as well, because some scammers may just take items from you without stealing the account itself.

Scammers will try to entice you into giving them the account by offering to do things most players hate or find difficult. For example, they may tell you they will raise a boring skill like woodcutting, or complete a difficult quest, or get you a Barrows item or fire cape (see Figure 97 for some typical examples).

In some cases the person will offer to perform the service for free. In others, they may ask for payment in the form of RuneScape items or gold, or even real world money. They will require you to supply the necessary items for what they are doing—this can range from nearly nothing for a low-level character, to millions worth of equipment and supplies for high-level quests, Barrows or a go at the fire cape.

In every case, you obviously are letting someone onto your account, which means you have to provide the person with your password, immediately putting you at risk of having your items stolen. As usual, the more the offer seems too good to be true, the more likely it is and you are going to get scammed. Consider someone who says he'll get you a fire cape for free, for example. Well, getting the fire cape takes several hours of relatively difficult gameplay—why would someone do that for a stranger for free? More likely, as soon as you hand over the account, the person will just transfer your armor and supplies to one of his characters.

As always, when it comes to dangerous and illegal behavior, the only advice I can give you is: just don't do it.

The “Free Account” Scam Trust Games