Runescape types of scams

I have seen quite a few scams on runescape and have decided to do a list of scams that have been attempted on me or i have witnessed happen.

So here is my list:


Armor Trimming:
This scam involves the scammer claiming to be able to trim normal rune armor into trimmed rune armor which is significantly higher in price than normal rune armor. The scam is pretty simple and straight forward; the player gives the scammer the armor in hopes of it getting trimmed and the scammer runs of.

Item Swapping:
A lot of people have fallen for this scam due to lack of attention to what they're actually buying. The scam works when a scammer swamps an item that is high in value with something that is less valuable but looks very similar. This either be done by putting up the more valuable item and then canceling trade and pretending its an accident and then after trading again put up the less expensive item, quickly swapping the items while the player is putting up the gold or just doing it really quickly, putting up lots of items and changing the item while the player is distracted by the other items. This can be very easily avoided if the player looked at the confirmation screen since it was made specifically for scams like these :).

Drop Scamms:
Some scammers will ask you to drop all your items and claim that they can double their items by pressing alt + F4 , for those of you that don't know what alt + F4 does it closes your game therefore leaving the scammer to pick up all your items.

Trust Games:
At one point these have been incredibly successful and still are leaving the runescape community a lot less trusting along with many other games. The scam works by convincing other players to trust you, this works by getting a group of players in a quiet place and tell them to trust you with their items/gold and whoever trusts you the most will win a large amount of gold. This usually works by players trying to out bid each other by trading the scammer a certain amount of gold and the hacker trades it back and at the right time when the scammer receives a large amount of gold he or she keeps it and logs off. A lot of these kind of scammers work in groups in order to convince all the other players that its legit as the scammers pretend not to know each other.

Doubling scam:
This scam is effective but it can also backfire. The scam works when scammers claim to double another players gold. And when the player trades the scammer the gold in order for it to get doubled the scammer takes the gold and runes off. Although it can backfire when a scammer is trying to gain trust and starts doing small 'test' amounts where the scammer will actually double the players money by adding his own gold to it in order to gain the players trust and hope that the player will give a lot higher next time. The way this backfires is when the player doesn't want to give any more gold and just leaves after the test, if this persists the scammer ends up losing money instead of earning it.

Fake value scam:
This scam requires two scammers. It works when one of the scammers is selling an item at a very over-riced amount of gold and the other scammer is very close to him but not too close buying the same item for an even more over-priced amount. This can of course fool a lot of players into making a quick profit but as soon as the player buys the item both scammers log off.


Price change scam:
This scam involves the scammer changing the amount of gold that he is willing to give for an item for example from 1 million to 100k gold while the player isn't paying attention. Usually they offer a lot more than what the item is worth which gets the player excited and makes him rush without thinking and this ends up with them falling for the scam. Again the trade confirm window is the best way to avoid getting scammed like this.


Duplicating scams:
This scam is very simple, the scammer offers to duplicate a players item and as soon as the player hands over the item the scammer logs off. Probably the most basic scam and the best way to avoid it is not to trust strangers :).