TruthScape.com  9  The Truth About Luring in RuneScape       9  Illegal Wilderness Lures and Scams

Forum Trade Luring Drop Parties In or Near the Wilderness

In addition to scanning the forums looking for traders to defraud, there are also plenty of lurers active within the game seeking out potential victims to “trade with”. These people will advertise that they want to buy or sell something within the game, or respond to ads that others type out.

In-game trade luring is much less common than the forum variation, for a simple reason. The forum lure is all based on playing games with the location where the buyer and seller are going to meet, but if they are already next to each other in the game, that's no longer relevant. This means that it's much harder for the lurer to make up a fancy reason for why the two parties should move to conduct the trade somewhere else, so he can get the victim into the Wild. Despite that, some will try, and a few will succeed.

As with forum trade luring, this particular type of lure has been greatly reduced by the creation of the Wilderness ditch. Again, the reason is simple: it’s much harder to get someone to follow you, unwittlingly, into the Wild, when there’s a physical barrier that the potential victims have to click on to jump over. For this reason, this lure is going to be much less common than it was before the ditch, though it is still definitely worth knowing about.

One common game here is for the lurer to make up some excuse for why he can't do the trade right away. For example, he may say he needs to sell something else first to get the money, or that he needs to meet a friend to get the item to sell to you, or that he needs to go to the bank first. Then he will usually try to get you to meet back again later, in a place where he can initiate a lure similar to the ones described in the previous section, such as Edgeville.

Another version involves scammers who will convince you to follow them. They may use a similar reason as above, saying they need to go to the bank first, and asking you to come with. Then they will try to lead you close to the Wilderness, or even walk you right into it.

Sometimes scammers will make up other excuses to get you to follow them. They'll say that it is “too busy” where you are and they want to go somewhere more quiet - this is often used on the trading server, World 2. Or they may not even bother with trading, trying to use other excuses to get you to follow so they can lead you to the Wild—for example, they might lie, saying they are going to give away items or play a trust game or have a drop party. See Figure 120 for a typical example of this setup, and Figure 98 to get an idea of what often happens as a result of these “follow” invitations.

As always, you need to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior. If someone wants to trade with you but can't do it immediately, that's not always the sign of a lure, but it often is. If you want to do the trade later, there is no problem: just pick a bank and tell the person to meet you there. If they won't meet you in a bank, it's a lure, so trade with someone else.

Similarly, never follow people you don't know, for any reason, especially near the Wilderness. There's simply no reason for it. If someone wants to take you to a “special place”, ask them where it is and meet them there. Alternately, follow behind them without using the “follow” feature; then you can choose to stop when you want to. And never, under any circumstances, cross the Wilderness ditch unless you actually want to go into the Wild. Certainly don’t do it just because you are following someone else who does!

Forum Trade Luring Drop Parties In or Near the Wilderness