TruthScape.com  9  The Truth About Luring in RuneScape       9  Obsolete Lures

Popular Wilderness Luring Spots (OBSOLETE) Drop Parties Near the Wilderness Before the Ditch (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.

I'm going to break with my normal style and begin this topic with an example of what used to be a common scenario on RuneScape:

Joe444 is a new player of RuneScape, level 55, and plays only a few hours a week. He completes a treasure trail and gets a rare item: a Saradomin cloak, which is worth 1 million gold at the time that I write this. Excited, he rushes to the forums to sell it. He gets a message from someone named Nik666 saying he'd like to buy it at Edgeville. Joe thinks that's okay because he's bought and sold there before.

Joe goes to the Edgeville bank, but Nik is not there, so he sends him a PM. Nik replies back: “Yeah I still want to buy the cloak. I'm woodcutting over by the Monastery.” Nik claims that he only needs a few more logs to hit his next level, and his mom is bugging him to get off the computer. Joe hesitates, so Nik continues: “It's only a couple of clicks from Edgeville. Don't worry, it's not in the Wild! Can you do me a favor and meet me here? Hurry! I've only got a couple of minutes left!”

Joe's parents limit his playing time too, so he knows all about that! Sympathetic to Nik's time pressure, he gets his cloak and heads out. Now, as mentioned in my discussion of luring hot spots, the Monastery is near the top of the list—it is indeed not in the Wilderness, like Nik said, but the only quick way of getting there from Edgeville is to cut through the Wild. Joe444 figures it will only take a few seconds to cut through and he'll be alright.

Nik666 is waiting in ambush, and as soon as Joe steps into the Wilderness to take his shortcut, he is attacked. Unknown to Joe, Nik666 has Ancient Magicks - despite being only level 55 himself. He freezes Joe with ice spells until he's dead, then takes the cloak and Joe's other items. As Joe dies, Nik taunts him, saying “ha ha u got lured n00b”. Joe, despondent and angry, logs off.

This scam is what is commonly known as a forum trade lure. It was perhaps the most common of all lures, and was at the heart of the Rule #2 controversy, because Jagex temporarily made this activity legal. That led to a lot of “Nik666”'s engaging in this nasty behavior, until Jagex finally reversed the decision several weeks later. This exact type of lure was then made obsolete by the implementation of the Wilderness ditch; forum trade luring is still possible, but only if you choose to ignore the warnings and cross the ditch yourself.

While the scenario above is representative of how this lure worked, there were many different variations. So in addition to that example, I wanted to explain how the lure worked in more general terms. I broke it down into five general “phases”:

1. The Ad: The scam began with someone buying or selling on the RuneScape forums, or more rarely, a third-party forum. Note that the scam could start either way: by the lurer posting the ad, or via a legitimate ad from a real buyer or seller. If the lurer was the one posting the ad, then it would usually be very attractive—he might have said he was willing to buy an item for significantly more than it was worth to buy, or sell it for much less than expected.
   
   
2. The Hook: If the lurer posted the ad, he would wait until a potential victim contacted him to buy or sell. If the lurer was instead browsing the forums looking to scam, he'd try to find a buyer/seller near his combat level or that of an accomplice. He'd then contact the person who posted the ad and offer to buy/sell the item. He might offer to pay even more than the seller asked, or sell for less than the buyer offered; this was to help “set the hook”. Either way, the lurer would usually ask to meet in a “safe sounding” place initially—usually Edgeville.
   
   
3. The Story: The scammer would now commence the actual lure. He'd contact the victim and tell the person that he was not in Edgeville (or wherever the initial meeting place was), but somewhere close by. He'd make up some sort of story or excuse for this. You can see one of these in my example scenario, but there were many other stories that they made up in order to try to trick you to coming to where they were.
   
   
4. The Decision: The lurer would now wait and hope that the victim decided to fall for the lure. If the prey hesitated, he'd use some combination of sweet talking, pressure tactics and intimidation. Sweet talking would try to make him sound friendly; he might say something like “don't worry, this isn't a lure, I hate lurer scum too”. Pressure tactics were designed to confuse the victim and get him to rush so he made a mistake. Intimidation would take the form of taunting or acting offended if the victim refused to complete the deal because he suspected a lure.
   
   
5. The Kill: If the victim followed through with the deal, he'd likely be killed as soon as he stepped into the Wilderness. Ancient Magicks were the weapon of choice because they do high damage and prevent the victim from running out of the Wild. Sometimes the killer might be by the lurer himself, as in my example above, but often an accomplice was involved. The reason is that since the kill takes place in low-level Wild, the killer had to be close to the level of the victim. The lurers would look up the levels of victims and recruit friends who were the correct level, then split the proceeds.

There are red flags at each stage of this process that should have always tipped you off. First, anyone who offers a deal that seems too good to be true is at least a suspected lurer. Asking to meet at Edgeville was not a problem, but if the person tried to change the meeting place to somewhere other than the bank, it was 99% likely a lure. Being told that the other person was “woodcutting near Edgeville” was also almost certainly a sign of a lure: it's not a good spot for cutting wood. Refusal to cooperate, pressure tactics and abuse were and still are all clear signs of a scammer in action.

Finally, I’ll reiterate a point that is still valid: if someone openly tells you that he wants to trade in the Wilderness, with no lying or misrepresentation involved, and you agree, you're on your own. Since you went into the Wilderness of your own volition, this is not a reportable offense. Be smart—never trade in the Wild!

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.

Popular Wilderness Luring Spots (OBSOLETE) Drop Parties Near the Wilderness Before the Ditch (OBSOLETE)