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Forum Trade Luring Before the Wilderness Ditch (OBSOLETE) Former Player Owned House Combat Lures (OBSOLETE)

NOTE: This page contains information about luring that is now obsolete. It is retained on the site for historical information purposes. Please see the current page on this topic for information as it pertains to RuneScape today.

Before Jagex implemented the Wilderness ditch, it was very common for scammers to try to lure people by holding fake drop parties near the boundary of the Wild. They would exploit the fact that it was difficult to tell where the Wild began, and trick people into stepping into the Wild to get dropped items; accomplices would then kill the victim and split his items with the lurer.

Fake drop parties near the Wild are still possible, but only if the lurer tries to do it on the Wilderness side of the ditch. This obviously makes it much less likely that it will succeed, since people know that crossing the ditch is unwise unless you want to go into the Wild. But before the ditch, it wasn’t easy to tell; this is how a common fake drop party scam used to work.

The general trick was to tell someone to come to a luring spot for a drop party, then drop something in the Wilderness and kill the victim when he went to take it. Here, in more detail, is how a common form of this lure worked (also see Figure 125):

1. The lurer would find someone wearing valuable equipment and invite him to the lurer's drop party. Usually they’d say that they were “quitting RuneScape” and dropping their items for that reason. The lurer himself would be wearing expensive armor and equipment, to show that he was rich, and to help the victim feel less worried about being taken into the Wild.
   
   
2. The lurer would tell the victim where to meet. The location of the drop party was always near the border of the Wild, usually one of the customary Wilderness luring spots. Of late, the Jolly Boar Inn, northeast of Varrock, had become a popular choice.
   
   
3. When the victim showed up, he’d find other people there, who were usually accomplices (friends of the lurer.) They were not in the Wilderness, of course. The lurer then would sweet talk the victim, telling him all about the items that he was going to drop.
   
   
4. The lurer would then say that his first drop would be a bunch of cash—say, 1 million gold. The lurer would go a few squares north of where the victim was and drops the gold.
   
   
5. A minute later, the victim would see the cash on the ground. Now, RuneScape has several different graphics for gold, depending on how much it is. The one that is used for large quantities is a “big stack” of gold coins, but the same graphic is used for any amount of gold 10,000 or more. Furthermore, there is no way to use the “Examine” function to see how much is there.
   
   
6. The victim would run over to grab the “free million gold”. As he took the gold, he’d find out that the lurer actually dropped only 10k. He would then be immediately attacked by a friend of the lurer, again usually with Ancient Magicks ice spells. He’d die and the attacker and lurer would split his items.
   

   Figure 125: A View to a Lure (Now Obsolete)

   In this image I simulate how the drop party lure typically worked, by pretending to be the lurer (note that there is nobody else around). I got dressed up in fancy, expensive equipment—this was to “prove” that I am rich and really dropping money. I then went to the Jolly Boar Inn near Varrock, and dropped a pile of coins just over the border in the Wilderness. If I were a real lurer I’d have done this with a victim around, and would have a friend waiting just out of view ready to hit him with Ancient Magicks. This entire lure scenario was obviated by the Wilderness ditch.

   
   

The best, simplest defense against this was the rule I still tell people over and over: never go to drop parties that are held near the Wilderness. They are always potential scams, even with the ditch in place. You should also be wary of anyone who gives you a “personal invite” to a drop party, unless you are already friends. Why would someone do that unless targeting you for a reason?

NOTE: This page contains information about luring that is now obsolete. It is retained on the site for historical information purposes. Please see the current page on this topic for information as it pertains to RuneScape today.

Forum Trade Luring Before the Wilderness Ditch (OBSOLETE) Former Player Owned House Combat Lures (OBSOLETE)