TruthScape.com  9  The Truth About RuneScape Account and Password Scamming and “Hacking”       9  Typical Causes of RuneScape In-Game Password and Account Scamming

“Jagex Blocks Your Pass! Look! ********” Staff Impersonation

Just as item scammers will entice you with promises of riches if you give them items—which you will never see again—some password scammers will do the same thing to try to get you to give them your password. The lies and tricks are different, but the idea is always the same: to try to find someone more greedy than smart, who's willing to do something foolish to “get rich”, but instead ends up losing everything.

Here are some of the more widespread “free offer” password scams. Note that in many cases the scammer will also use staff impersonation to try to make the offer seem more legit. This is especially the case with frauds where changes to the account would be needed, like free membership or adding levels:

• Free Membership: The scammer tells you to give him your password and he'll approve your account for a free month/year/whatever of RuneScape membership. There is no such thing, and if there were, you wouldn't get it this way anyhow.
  
  
• Lottery Winners: The scammer tells you that you've “won the RuneScape lottery” and have been awarded gold / great items / free XP / levels advancement / some other lie. There are no lotteries on RuneScape.
  
  
• Player Moderator Selection: “You've been chosen to be a player moderator, I just need your password to upgrade the account.” Sure. Player moderators are selected by Jagex and informed through the RuneScape message interface, not in the game.
  
  
• Stat Upgrades and Other Cheats: Someone tells you he can edit your character to give you whatever items or levels you want, or knows of some other “cheat” he can give you if you tell him your password. None of this is possible; it's always a scam.
  
  
• Secret Code: A variation on the drop scam, but instead of the scammer telling you he can duplicate items or double gold that you drop on the ground, he'll tell you that you can duplicate items in your inventory by saying your password and pressing <Alt>+<F4>. Again, this is the key combo in Microsoft Windows to close the active window. If you say your password and then log out, the scammer, if quick, might be able to change it before you log back in.

Not only do most of these scams pretty much make no sense—why would you need someone's password to give them the proceeds from a lottery?—they are all quite dishonest. If you fall for a “stat upgrade” or “secret code” scam, it's because you are trying to cheat. So be both smart and honest, and just report anyone who tries any of these stunts on you.

And as always, watch out for shills: friends of the scammer who will pretend that the scam actually works, to try to get you to go for the trick. Also, don't confuse fake offers with legitimate trust trades, which will never involve anyone asking you for your password.

“Jagex Blocks Your Pass! Look! ********” Staff Impersonation