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

Drop Parties In or Near the Wilderness Dragging Victims into the Wild

Now I will describe a Wilderness lure that is somewhat unique for two reasons. First, it doesn't involve a location on the boundary of the Wild, but rather one deep within it. Second, it can only be done by a few lurers, because it requires the casting of a fairly high-level magic spell obtained after a difficult quest. It's also rather new, so many people don't know about it, which makes it particularly dangerous.

Upon completing the Lunar Diplomacy quest, players gain access to an alternate spellbook called Lunar Magicks. Among these spells are a unique set of teleports that work on groups of players, called tele group spells; one of these is even more unique in that it teleports players to a location in the Wilderness. This spell, Tele Group Ice Plateau, has the dubious distinction of being the only one in the game that allows a mage to teleport someone else into the Wild.

Naturally, it took little time before dishonest people starting using this spell to scam the unsuspecting. Most players don't know much (if anything) about Lunar Magicks or tele group spells. To make matters worse, “Ice Plateau” is a place deep in the Wild that most people have not heard of, and it sounds like “Ice Mountain”, which is a safe place familiar to most low-level players.

With this information, you can probably figure out for yourself how the scam works. All variations of course require a lurer with Lunar Magicks activated who offers to teleport people to Ice Plateau, though the justification for the lure may vary. For example, one scam involves the lurer lying outright about the location of Ice Plateau or pretending it is just a different name for Ice Mountain. In some cases scammers will claim that they are having a house party or drop party, and tell victims that the spell will send them quickly to the caster's house.

Other variations involve the lurer just going around a crowded area offering to teleport people to Ice Plateau. Many lower-level players really enjoy being teleported to different locations, since it is “fun” and saves them from walking or using up runes, so it doesn't take long for someone to accept.

Whatever the lie, the victim is teleported, along with the lurer, to level 50+ Wilderness. There the victim will be promptly slaughtered; since the lurer is on Lunar Magicks, the killer will sometimes be a friend on Ancients using ice spells. To make matters worse, there is no way to easily run out of the Wild from that level, and teleporting won't work either. See Figure 121 for an animation showing the sequence of screens you see when someone tries this spell on you.

If the lurer lies about the nature of the teleport or the location of Ice Plateau, this is a straight luring scam and is reportable under Rule #2. If someone just offers to send you there, and you accept freely, there has been no deception, so technically it shouldn't be reportable. However, this is one of those “gray areas” where I am really not sure of legality.

Avoiding this scam is as simple as using common sense: don't let someone teleport you anywhere unless you are absolutely sure of the destination. I believe that a warning does come up when this spell is cast telling the recipient that the destination is in the Wilderness—that should be enough to get any smart person to decline the teleport.

Finally, note that turning off “Accept Aid” disables tele group spells from working on you (and tele other spells as well). To do this, click the “wrench” icon at the bottom right of the RuneScape interface, then click the button featuring the white medical bag with the red cross on it, until the button is not highlighted red.

Drop Parties In or Near the Wilderness Dragging Victims into the Wild