Beware. New scams in Runescape

Return of the Wilderness and Free Trade brought scamming and luring back. No news there. But it does feel like there is more of it now than it was in 2007 and before. Maybe it's just me, but somehow I personally never was a target of so many scam attacks.

The last one was especially disturbing, as it came via email and was masqueraded as an official Jagex's email. The fact that it came via email, actually, means that it was originated by somebody who read this blog - which saddens me, I hope to be mistaken in this regard though.

Anyway, the email came from "Jagex Ltd" (noreply@jagex.com) (it beats me how the scammers emulate that, somehow they do...) and its content was the following:

Dear Player,

This is an automated message sent to inform you that your account has been suspended for Real World Trading. Please visit the Appeal section under Account Management to view evidence of your infraction and to appeal any infraction(s) that you feel were unjustified.

To view the evidence please click here: [link removed by me]

Please note: Due to a recent bug in our infraction system, some accounts may have received an void infraction. The majority of void infractions have been removed but we can not ensure that all infractions have been removed. We apologize for this and urge you to visit the appeal section to appeal any unjustified infractions received due to system errors.

Many thanks, Jagex Ltd.

Copyright © 1999 - 2011 Jagex Ltd. Jagex, RuneScape, FunOrb, War of Legends and Stellar Dawn are of Jagex Ltd in the United Kingdom and trademarks used in other countries of the world. By using our service you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

As you can see, it looks quite official. It came from seemingly Jagex's email directly to my email, which not many people are supposed to know. The link which I removed also looked like a real one, but led to a Runescape looking fishing site.

There were more problems with this email though:
1. I don't use my fan-site Runewise's email with my RS account, oops
2. I don't do RWT
3. The statement about "void infractions" does look fishy, doesn't it?
4. I happened to use WOT plugin, which promptly identified the link which I removed from the email as a link to a bad site. BTW, I'd recommend WOT to anyone - it does help to see if a site you are about to enter is a safe one or not (and it does that before you actually enter the site).

So here we go, don't fall for this one.

Also a few links to fellow bloggers talking about recent in-game scam attempts they encountered: from Alex and Steve.

Be safe.

Flower Game

Have you seen people planting flowers near the entrance of the GE? It's been going on for a while, but only now I realized what exactly is happening there. Gambling and Scamming! Mostly gambling, as far as I could observe, but the one which is easily turned into scamming too.

Basically, players ("flower planters") collecting bets on a color of the next flower. There is about 1x7 chance to guess the color right, but the bet-to-prize ratio offered is usually 1x5 (here goes "casino" approach), plus the "flower planters" can always walk away and don't pay the prize if they choose so (that's where the scamming part starts). And flowers add the charm of innocence to the whole affair. Sick.

I doubt Jagex will do anything about it - after all this kind of staff is a natural by-product of the free trade update, but be aware about it and don't fall for this scam. Speaking of which, check out this useful page about RS cheats and scams from RS Wiki and be safe.

Boss Fight and Merchant Clans in Runescape

Two links to the same blog:

• An epic picture of a boss fight. I am still shaking :-)
• Very nice explanation of the way merch clans scam works (even with a chart!). I know, I'm getting repetitive with my "anti-merch-clans" posts, but I am afraid the awareness about it is too low in Runescape community.

More about Merchanting Clans in Runescape

More about Merchanting Clans and the way they operate. Undercover investigation from G :-)

Complain against Jagex. Whoa!

Well, that's a jewel.
The kid buys stuff and services from an RWT site, gets ripped off and hacked (probably by the same RWT company) and then his parents are complaining that Jagex scammed them out of their money. I wonder how many parents are that confused.

Crazy Money Scams

No, not really. This post contains a set of short legitimate money making tutorials for low/middle level F2P and P2P players.

Most Common Runescape Scams

Make sure you read those and know how to recognize and avoid being scammed. Scamming is one of Runescape's plagues - educate yourself how to prevent being hurt by it.