TruthScape.com  9  The Truth About RuneScape Account and Password Scamming and “Hacking”       9  How to Improve Your Account Security

Use a PIN for Your Bank - and Choose a Good One Use a Hardware or Software Firewall

If you fall victim to an account scam—or perhaps, simply forget your password—you will need to contact Jagex to request recovery of your account. In order for Jagex to return it to you, they will need information that proves that you are the rightful owner of the account. This may include asking you for older passwords that have been on the account, billing information used to pay for membership, and other questions that presumably an account thief would not have.

You can also answer a series of recovery questions when you create your account, or at any time thereafter. These serve as extra confirmation to Jagex, in the event that you need to recover your account, that you are the actual owner. They take the form of various personal questions that, in theory, only the owner of the account would know, like your place of birth, the name of your first school or your favorite food.

Providing your recovery question answers can greatly speed up the return of your account, and prevent a scammer from stealing it from you. You are allowed to answer up to five recovery questions, which are taken from a pool of 14 different ones. Elsewhere on TruthScape you can find a complete list of the available questions.

The most important advice I can give you with respect to setting recovery answers is just to make sure you do set some! There isn't much that can trick you up when it comes to recovery questions: it is pretty much just a matter of answering the questions honestly. There is one small gotcha, though, which has actually affected me personally: be sure that you choose recovery questions that you can answer easily and “confidently”. For example, I really have several favorite foods, and one time I set that as a recovery and then later on, couldn't remember which one I had chosen! You are best off to use recovery questions where you are certain of the answer, because it won't do you any good if you can't remember it later on.

As with passwords and bank PINs, make sure you protect your recovery question answers carefully, so you don't reveal them to anyone by accident. Also watch out for people who may try to trick you into revealing your recoveries.

Finally, consider checking and perhaps changing your recovery answers every few months.

Use a PIN for Your Bank - and Choose a Good One Use a Hardware or Software Firewall