TruthScape.com  9  The Truth About RuneScape Item Scams       9  RuneScape Item Scams Using the Trade Window

Barrows Set Scams Foreign Language Trade Scams

Scams involving removing items and changing quantities, as outlined in the previous topics of this subsection, are what I call “simple” scams - the scammer is making a simple change in a single trade, and hoping you won't notice it. The more sophisticated scammers use more clever tricks that involve multiple items or trades. The goal is to confuse you by overloading you with information, so you'll be less likely to notice the scam.

Here are some variations on these multiple item/trade confusion scams.

Usually performed by a seller, the gimmick here is that the scammer tosses in extra “free” items during the trade. You see these extras and get excited about them, and while looking at the “freebies”, fail to notice that the scammer has changed the quantity of the main item or done an item swap. Usually the freebies are related to the item being sold, so it seems like the scammer is just trying to “free up a bank slot” or being nice.

For example, suppose you are buying 2,000 addy ore from someone for 2 million:

1. The scammer puts up 2,000 addy ore.
   
   
2. You put up 2,000,000 gold.
   
   
3. The scammer then slowly adds to the trade 10 extra “bonus” addy ores that he says he “happened to have on hand unnoted”. But what you don't notice, as you look at these “free” addy ores, is that while offering them he also removed 1,800 noted addy ores, so now there are only 200 instead of 2,000.
   
   
4. You each hit “Accept” and he hopes you don't look at the second trade window.

Again here, changes to the trade interface make this easier to catch, since the addy ore will have the flashing exclamation point warning and the window will say “Trade modified”. But it can still be confusing, so beware of anyone you don't know who wants to give you something for free. And as always, you guessed it, check the second trade screen.

In this one, a scammer puts up the correct type and number of items in the first trade, “accidentally” hits “Decline” on the trade, then repeats the trade but changes something and hopes you won't notice.

As an example, suppose you are buying 1,000 coal for 200k gold:

1. The scammer puts up 1,000 noted coal.
   
   
2. You put up 200k gold.
   
   
3. The scammer “accidentally” hits “Decline”. He then says “oops, sorry about that!” and starts the trade over.
   
   
4. This time, the scammer puts up 1,000 iron ore instead of coal, and tries to complete the trade.

Obviously most of the time when people hit “Decline” it really is an accident, but watch out for this one.

In this clever scam, the swindler will complete an honest trade, which will probably make you trust him a bit more than someone you had never traded with before. He will then ask you if you want to buy something else, and scam you on the second trade.

Sometimes the scammer will say he has “more in the bank” of whatever you are buying, or he'll try to sell you a related item. For example, if you buy 1,000 iron ore, he may ask you if you need coal. He'll go to the bank, pretend to withdraw coal, and then offer to sell it to you. However, he will change the quantity or really sell you iron ore instead of the coal.

You may also find scammers who do this while buying items. The scammer may buy 10 super restore potions from you for 85k. Then he'll say, “wait, I actually need 20 more”, and trade you. When you put up the 20 extra potions, he'll try to cheat you by changing the 170k he should be paying into 17k.

This is a relatively new scam that showed up “in the wild” in the summer of 2007. The scammer walks around saying something like “Free sharks, show your inventory!”, claiming that he is just curious to see what people have. So you trade him and put in the trade screen your inventory items. He puts up the “free sharks” to give to you, and hits “Accept”. He is hoping you will also hit “Accept”—to get the “free sharks” that he has offered—and you’ll forget that you had offered the contents of your inventory at the same time. If you proceed, then you get the sharks, and he gets everything else you were carrying that you put in the trade window!

Not falling for this is a simple matter of common sense. Don’t trust strangers who want to give you things for free if they are also asking something of you in return, and never hit “Accept” on a trade unless you are 100% sure that you want to do it.

Barrows Set Scams Foreign Language Trade Scams