TruthScape.com  9  The Truth About RuneScape Item Scams       9  RuneScape Con Games - How Scammers Earn Your Trust and Then Betray You

Phony Friends, Lying “Boyfriends” and “Girlfriends”, Sob Stories and “Loans” Item Scams Involving Player Owned Houses

One of the most obnoxious categories of trust scams involves players who pretend to be Jagex staff moderators. They then either convince you to trust them, or bully you with threats to scare you into giving them what they want. This is most often done by people who are trying scam passwords, so I go into full detail in the account/password scamming section, but may be done by item scammers as well.

These twits will usually use accounts with “official sounding” names, like “Jag item chk”. Then they will start sending you messages saying that they work for Jagex, using various gimmicks to convince you to give them your items:

• They may take the friendly approach, saying they are trying to help you by “checking” your items to ensure they are legitimate.
  
  
• They may say you've been chosen to participate in a “RuneScape lottery”, as long as you pay the “entrance fee”.
  
  
• They may bully you, saying that Jagex has determined you may be a scammer, and you need to give them the items so they can be “tested” to ensure they are legitimate. They may threaten to delete all your items or ban you if you don't cooperate.

Of course, this is all lies and nonsense. If you do in fact give these people items or gold, you'll never see any of it ever again. Remember:

1. Real Jagex staff members (moderators) have “Mod” as the first part of their names, and a gold crown that appears next to their names whenever they speak. If you don't see “Mod” and that crown, they aren't Jagex staff, period!
   
   
2. There is no way to “test” an item to see if it's “legitimate”.
   
   
3. Jagex staff will never ask you to give them items for any reason.

If you see someone trying to pull any of these scams, report them immediately using the “Report abuse” button, under Rule #5, which is specifically for Jagex staff impersonation.

Also note that, while rare, it is not unheard of for a Jagex player moderator to engage in scamming. This is sometimes because of a bad choice of moderator by Jagex, and sometimes because an account gets stolen. These are regular players with a few extra abilities; their names appear with a silver crown next to the name (not gold) and they do not work for Jagex. If they try scamming, they be reported like any other player.

Phony Friends, Lying “Boyfriends” and “Girlfriends”, Sob Stories and “Loans” Item Scams Involving Player Owned Houses