RuneScape scams were all the rage back in the 2000s, but it turns out that they never really went away. According to Old School RuneScape fans, scammers are targeting newer players, trying to trick them into giving them access to their PCs.
In a detailed thread, Reddit user no_Puzzles_x3 explains how scammers gain the trust of less experienced players, offering to help them download a plugin that will make raids easier. However, it is believed that this download would actually give the scammer access to the victim's PC, letting them see their private information and data.
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The Reddit user became suspicious that a scam was rolling out when a max-level player kept insisting on running a raid with them whenever they logged in. To test the theory that he was trying to bait new players, no_Puzzles_x3 finally agreed to team up with the powerful account, planning to complete the Tombs of Amascut raid.
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When no_Puzzles_x3 said they didn't have any plugins installed to help with Tombs of Amascut, the other player told them they should jump on a Discord call. Then, as the user explains: "After a couple minutes of chit chat he gets down to business: the necessary plugins for running 350s. One was a Runelite plugin, the other was through 'Runelite externals'."
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The user seemingly realised that these downloads would not be coming from the official Runelite site, and would instead likely be malware. They confronted the player on this, and he "immediately kills the discord call, unfriends me on Discord and RS."
"I've been doing some digging on the subject and it seems like this is a fairly popular scam," says the user. "I wanted to share this experience and hope to help anyone avoid it in the future."
Indeed, others in the subreddit had previously questioned if these offers of "help" were actually scam attempts. The general consensus is that yes, anyone who asks you to download a plugin from a site pretending to be the original is likely trying to scam you, and you shouldn't install anything that a RuneScape player you encounter asks you to. This is especially true for new players, who the scammers will likely target the most.