TruthScape.com - The Duel Arena Shield Slot Scam

As mentioned in the general discussion of settings and stakes changes, there are many different options in duels that can be enabled or disabled, which opens up the potential for many types of tricks and scams. Of these, there is one that is particularly infamous for being pulled fairly regularly; it can easily result in someone being scammed out of a large stake. I call it the shield slot scam.

The basis of this swindle is Jagex's dubious decision to link the shield slot in the dueling options screen to the use of two-handed equipment. Specifically, if the shield slot is disabled, this means you cannot use any two-handed swords, Barrows weapons, and most importantly, bows (except crossbows.) If a ranger has a regular bow (including a magic shortbow) equipped and the shield slot is disabled, it will appear on the options screen that the bow will stay equipped, because it doesn't have that “red-line-through-circle” symbol over it. However, since the shield slot is required to be enabled for bows, the bow will be removed when the duel begins. You can see the typical “setup” for this scam in Figure 101, and the second dueling screen in Figure 102.

**Figure 102: *What* Worn Items? And Whom Am I Fighting Anyway?**
The second dueling options window is supposed to allow the combatants to verify the terms of the duel so as to prevent scams. Unfortunately, as you can see here, it is wholly inadequate. The top line says “Some worn items will be taken off” but doesn’t specify which ones, which facilitates last-second option trickery. And the screen doesn’t even tell you whom your opponent is or their level, which only helps scammers pulling player substitutions. (At least it does tell you now if you can’t use two-handed weapons, which was a change made in July 2007.)

Jagex has taken some steps to address this scam, but not enough. You do now (as of July 2007) get a warning in the chat box if you or your opponent disable the shield slot, but it’s very easy to miss if you are in a busy world with lots of duelers chatting. The second trade window also tells you if you cannot use two-handed weapons, where before it did not, but that’s fairly easy to miss.

As is usually the case, a scammer exploiting this “feature” (ahem) will look for a ranger wielding a bow, and try to entice them into a duel by appealing to their greed. For example, they may say they will duel someone despite the victim being far higher level than they are, and offering a substantial stake of 1 million gold or more (or valuable items.) Sometimes, to make it seem more legitimate, they may ask the victim to stake more than they are staking, to compensate for the level difference - of course, this just increases their profit.

Their goal here is the same as with all scammers: to get you thinking about the profit you are going to make off this “easy win”, so you don't pay attention to the options on the dueling setup screen. The scammer will disable the shield slot so the bow won't work, and then when the duel starts, the ranger has a problem. The victim will typically be killed fairly easily because he can't wield his bow.

These scammers may make matters even worse, by disabling melee combat in the dueling options. Since the victim is planning to range with his bow, he won't mind. However, once the bow becomes unequipped, melee being turned off leaves the victim with no way to fight back at all.

On a personal note, I have to say that while I generally am sympathetic to the victims of all scams, in certain cases it is difficult for me to do. That's not because it should be obvious that something doesn't add up—we all make mistakes. Rather, some people get themselves scammed by trying to take advantage of the scammer, whom they perceive as having no chance of beating them. That is not sportsmanlike play itself.

For example, as I was writing this section, I read the story of someone complaining about falling prey to this exact scam. This guy was level 100 and staked a 20 million gold item against an abyssal whip staked by a level 9. He figured it would be an easy kill, but the shield slot scam (with melee off) got him and he lost his item. Now, shouldn't it have been obvious that a level 9 would never stake a whip against a level 100? Where did the level 9 get an abyssal whip from anyway? And even if the level 9 was just being stupid, would it be fair to take advantage of someone 91 levels below you?

Sometimes people really do deserve to get scammed. Make sure you're not one of them—be both cautious and fair in your gameplay.

Finally, there's a way to get back at people who try the shield slot scam: keep some high-level single-hand ranging equipment in your inventory. Imagine the look on the face of the scammer when you equip rune knives and proceed to own him!