WARNING: A Newly Revised Scam Targeting Runescape Gamers
Subject: RuneScape - Notification of Lawsuit (in accordance with 17 U.S.C. 1306(a)(1), Case No. SANC-V11-nI0UlRZr)
From: Jagex Ltd
Date: Fri, Feb 07, 2014 5:02 pm
Dear Recipient,We have gathered incontestable evidence that you have tried to exchange your game account or digital items for real money.
Such real-world item trading is destroying the economy of RuneScape and is against our rules. Any player that continues to break our rules has no place in RuneScape.
All of your accounts are now on our watch-list and will be constantly monitored for real-world item trading. Regardless of who you are or for how long you've been playing RuneScape, if you continue to real world trade we will have no hesitation in: (1) indisputably banning your account from our community in order to protect RuneScape, and (2) accusing you in a court of law (Jagex versus you), which will be an indictment based on Antitrust law violations that is currently imminent in the United States District Court for the Western District of California (Civ. Proceeding Case SANC-V12-00364-CKJ-nI0UlRZr).
If you ignore this e-mail and instead keep RWTing, we (Jagex LTD) reserve our rights to pursue statutory damages against you for between $200 to $1,500 per act of past, present, and/or future real-world item trading in compliance with 19 U.S.C. 1307(c)(3).
Additionally, we have for a limited time modified your game account's status.
Please complete this identity check to monitor your account's status or to challenge the new infractions you have been punished with:
Please note: Because of some technical problems with our detection systems, some accounts were incorrectly punished. Most of the invalid infractions should have been removed. Please visit the appeal section to challenge any unjustified infractions received due to system errors.
Kind regards,
Mod Mark.
© 2014 All rights reserved by Jagex LTD and RuneScape.
View our Privacy Policy: http://www.jagex.com/corporate/terms.ws.
Saint John's Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB5 1WS, England.
It looks official, right? It even uses some of the legitimate pages from the actual website for Jagex / St. John's. But let us examine all of the elements that are wrong about the email, starting from the top and working our way down:
(1) The Subject Line Part 1 -- 17 USC 1306, otherwise known as the 'Design Notice' in Copyright Law outlines the rules that an IP owner must follow in order to protect their position -- specifically the requirement to include the words "Protected Design" and/or the abbreviation "Prot'd Des." or the letter "D" with a circle, or the symbol "*D*" on the notice.
Obviously that has no application whatsoever to the matter that is being addressed in the body of the email notice.
(2) The Subject Line Part 2 -- 'Case No. SANC-V11-nI0UlRZr' is complete gibberish.
An actual Court Case Number is a code from which specific information about the case is readily identifiable -- for example if we examine the Case Number of a real recently filed federal case such as U.S. Equal Employment vs CVS Pharmacy we will see that it has been assigned Case Number “14-cv-863” which identifies the year that the case is filed, the type of case, and the actual case -- or docket -- number.
The example here breaks down as follows: “14” = 2014, “cv” = Civil Case, and “863” is the actual case number. Of course that only applies to listing at the court of record, which in the case of our example is the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. For all reference and listing activity outside of that specific court the Case Number would be prefaced by a numerical code identifying the court it was filed in.
The format presently in use for the docket calendar for cases filed in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California -- which is the court that this case is supposed to have been filed in -- uses a slightly different structure for its docket.
An example of the sort of Civil Case being referenced in the scam email would appear like this example, the case of CIGS and its suit against Nintendo: “CV 10-2735 PA (VBKx)” Creative Integrated Systems, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., ET AL.
(3) The 'From' Line and originating email address -- while the domain jagex.com does point to the actual website for the studio, the email address is not used by the company for the purposes suggested in the scam email. Even the most simple of searches for the address [email protected] reveals a long list of web pages referencing this and other phishing scams.
(4) The Salutation Line -- While the email purports to be from a member of the Legals Team at Jagex Studios and clearly declares that your game account has been identified as being in violation of the terms of service, and has had limits applied to it as a form of pre-punishment, the sender does not actually know your name? Or even your account login name?
How likely do you suppose that is?
Our dissection continues on the next page...
Tags: Runescape, PC, runescape scams, runescape scam 2014, runescape scam feb 2014
I'm an avid Runescaper connected to the moderator community and also able to get ahold of various JMods. If ever in doubt, feel free to send me a message regarding RuneScape security and I'd be glad to help!