Scams are the Germs in Runescape…

Scams, the tricks scammers try to use to get our items and cash, are very closely related to the microscopic bacteria that make us sick. They share many similarities, including the ability to make you “sick” – or at least highly annoyed. That is only one of the similarities, however. There are many more.

Scams and bacteria are similar in that they evolve and adapt to fit new situations and fool ever more vigilant players. If a certain scam, previously unknown, is written about, the scams will change to fool players. For example, there is a scam where one person offers an item (always a cheap one) for an expensive item, and tries to accept the trade before the other person can realize the trade is bad. Now, this scam is widely known and, since players understand item values better, it is now easily avoided. In response to this new “immune system” against the scam, the scam changes to fool players yet again. In this case, two or more people will do the trades. One person trades the cheap item for the expensive one, while the other person(s) offer extremely high prices for the cheap item. This fools players into thinking that they will make a profit. The scam has just evolved into a whole new scam that is even more effective than the first.

Another instance of scams adapting to changes in Runescape occurred when the German Servers were released. Since the names for certain items, such as magic logs, are so different, scammers used these servers to trade cheap logs for large amounts of cash. This was highly effective since the majority of players do not speak German.

Finally, there will always be new scams because, like bacteria, scams are invented everyday. Unfortunately, this is somewhat due to the updates we all know and love. Due to these updates, new ways for scams to be used open up and an intelligent player, unfortunately, decides to exploit the new “weakness” to gain money or items. Soon, a new scam has invaded Runescape, one for which we have no defense against, due to the little knowledge we have of it. Unlike in real life, there are no antibiotics for Runescape, which is an excellent reason to make good use of your “Report Abuse” button.

With so much nasty bacteria in Runescape, we must be on the lookout for new scams, so that they can be reported, not just to Jagex, but posted onto forums or blogs such as mine. Leave a comment here. I’ll happily record the new scam to warn other players of the dangers. In this way, we could effectively build up an “immune system” for Runescape. As Francis Bacon once said, “Knowledge is power.” How true.