Hey guys, I’m an old player coming back after a pretty long break and I have some questions about some difficulties I’ve been experiencing. It looks like some things have changed.
Just to preface, I loved this game as a kid. Played for hours every day for years back in the day. I spent most of my time in Varrock and Falador, making money the old-fashioned way: scamming people. Armor trimming, password scams, doubling money, you name it. It was a simpler time, and frankly I was pretty good at it.
Anyhoo, I wanted to see if I still had what it takes, but I’m finding that none of my old methods seem to work anymore.
For example, I used to tell people I could trim their rune armor if they gave me their password. This was a great way to dump entire bank accounts, and it was pretty funny to boot. I’d give them the old “hit alt+f4” and watch them disappear. Very amusing. Tried this the other day, though and the kid was like “I don’t even know my password. The launcher logs me in automatically.” What?! Another guy basically just laughed at me. Apparently people don’t even know their own login details anymore. He started talking about two-factor authentication and told me I was probably old enough to be his grandpa. What happened to the good old days when people would just hand you their login details?
I also tried the classic free gem cutting scam. Told this guy to trade me his diamonds and I’d cut them for free. He said he couldn’t trade because he’s an “Ironman” and then just started emoting until I left. Apparently people now deliberately create accounts that can’t trade other players. Why would you even play like that? Who am I supposed to scam?
Finally I tried going after some fresh accounts in Lumbridge. Back in the day, these were my bread and butter. I’d offer to double their GP, get them excited, and take their cash and run. Except now the game apparently has trading restrictions for new accounts. One guy told me you need like 20 hours of playtime before you can freely trade. I didn’t even know what to say. How am I even supposed to do business under these conditions? Who approved these changes?
Maybe it’s me, but has scamming become significantly harder over the years? Are there any old methods that still work, or has the community collectively developed some kind of immunity?
I don’t want to have to play for real just because Jagex decided to make scamming inconvenient.
Thanks in advance.