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

Fraudulent “Free Offers” - Lotteries, Free Membership, Being Made a Moderator, etc. Common Ways Players Get “Hacked” Outside the RuneScape Game

You've probably heard of criminals who dress up like the police, get a flashing siren and put it on their car, and then pull people over on the highway. Most honest folks find this sort of crime very disturbing, because it's a violation of our inherent faith that the police are the good guys and can be trusted.

Unfortunately, many scammers on RuneScape take the same sneaky approach, by pretending to be Jagex staff moderators within the game. They will create an account with a name that sounds a bit like it could belong to a Jagex staff member—something like “Jag Custsvc” for example—and then try to convince people in the game to give them their passwords.

Always remember the following facts about real Jagex staff:

• They have “Mod” as the first part of their names;
  
  
• A gold crown appears on the screen next to their names when they type; and
  
  
• They will never ask you for your password under any circumstances.

Staff impersonation is prohibited by Rule #5. Always report any player who pretends to be Jagex staff.

There are three basic approaches that staff impersonators take within the game: first, they may act like they are doing you a favor; second, they may entice you with attractive offers; and third, they might intimidate you by bullying you with threats if you don't cooperate. In every case, the stories they tell and excuses they give always require you to give them your password (unless they are staff impersonating for item scamming instead, which is less common).

Here are examples of some of the lines used by fake staff who act like they are trying to help you, if only you give them your password:

• “I have been authorized by Jagex to return items you have recently lost. Give me your password and PIN and I'll add the items to your bank account.”
  
  
• “A glitch in the game may cause you to lose items. I can prevent this if you type your password and then log out for 30 seconds to let the game reset your account”.
  
  
• “If you tell me your password I can erase black marks from your account”.
  
  
• “Some folks are reporting their accounts being stolen, give me your password and I can protect your account from danger.” (That one's pretty ironic, isn't it?)

The second approach involves the scammer trying to tempt you with bogus “free offers”. These will usually be the same sorts of scams I described in the previous topic—such as lotteries, free membership and so forth—but with the scammer using his claimed status as a Jagex mod to make you more likely to believe him.

Finally, the most obnoxious staff impersonation routines take the form of outright threats and harassment:

• “Your account has been reported for scamming. Unless you cooperate fully, the items reported will be removed from your account.”
  
  
• “You need to answer these questions to prove you are old enough to play RuneScape” (followed by personal questions that break Rule #3 and Rule #13).
  
  
• “Give me your password for authentication or your account will be banned.”

You know the drill by now: report the offender and never give out your password.

One final point: player moderators are not the same as Jagex staff moderators. They are just regular players who have been granted certain capabilities. When they type, their text shows up with a silver crown, not gold, and with no “Mod” prefix. While incidents of scamming by player moderators are rare - since these are hand-picked by Jagex from among the elite of players - it is always a possibility. A player moderator might get his account stolen, for example. Remember: never give out your password in the game for any reason!

Fraudulent “Free Offers” - Lotteries, Free Membership, Being Made a Moderator, etc. Common Ways Players Get “Hacked” Outside the RuneScape Game