Common OSRS Trade Scams and How to Avoid Them

Wherever gold changes hands, scammers follow. The good news is that the same few tricks come up again and again. Once you can recognise them, they're easy to avoid.

The impersonator

A scammer finds out which name a gold site trades from, makes an account with a near-identical name and stands at the same spot. When a seller arrives, they send a trade first.

How to avoid it: compare the name carefully with the one in your chat, and wait for the site to confirm the trade in the chat before accepting.

The fake confirmation

Someone nearby types in public chat or private messages something like "OSRSGoldNow: trade confirmed, safe to accept".

How to avoid it: a confirmation only counts if it appears in the live chat on the website. Nothing said in-game is a confirmation.

The "we'll contact you" scam

After you ask about selling, you get a Discord DM or in-game message from "staff" offering a better rate, or saying there's a problem with your order.

How to avoid it:stay in the site's own chat. We never move a sale to Discord or start one by private message.

Doubling money and "trust trades"

The oldest scam in RuneScape: "give me 10M and I'll give you 20M back". The gold never comes back. The same goes for anyone asking you to hand over gold first to "prove" you're trustworthy.

Wilderness lures

A "buyer" offers a great rate but asks to meet in the Wilderness, then kills you or has a friend do it. Legitimate buyers trade in safe, busy areas.

Phishing links

Fake login pages that look like the official RuneScape site, sent in messages or posted as "giveaways". If you type your details into one, the scammer has your account.

How to avoid it: only log in through the official launcher or by typing the address yourself, and turn on an authenticator.

Payment reversals

When buying or selling privately with another player, some people pay by PayPal, receive the gold, then file a chargeback and take the money back. This is one reason players use an established site rather than strangers.